The Second Songs: a medieval army for all games

[PineyPhantom]

The conception of the Second Songs began when I saw a fellow forum member's (Knight-Captain Tyr) army in an interview for Kings of War armies. A friend had encouraged me to get into the game as well as Warlords of Erehwon and Warhammer historicals and I had enjoyed the practice games played for each, but the idea of making three more armies was daunting. Seeing the Black Order changed my hobby life. The color scheme was strong and unified and complemented by the basing. The models were almost wholly kit-bashed into existence. Every unit had a name and a backstory. Layers upon layers of everything I ever wanted to do with a wargaming army. I knew what I had to do. Thus, the Second Songs were born:



The army itself was a bit of a story as well. I started planning it shortly after my son was born. The army began as a force of bandits who called themselves "The Protagonists". Bandits are a rather fun idea from fantasy that no one ever seems to want to play, but I enjoy playing the bad guy in a wargame narrative so I thought, "Why not". I looked at Fable and the Duke of Dog's men from Thronebreaker (my footguard may look familiar to any Lyrians or Rivians out there). I also knew I wanted every model to be kitbashed into existence. I was tired of seeing armies of GW minis that all looked the same. I wanted an army the world would look at and say, "That's Piney's army and no mistake."





 I had a massive amount of dental work done days before Christmas and the discomfort was extreme. I couldn't sleep, so used my long hours awake at night to paint roughly seventy minis in three days. The results delighted me. But my brain kept going back to knights. I LOVED For Honor when it came out, and the imagery of the Iron Legion. I recently read the Traitor Son Cycle, which might be the best medieval war series I've ever read, and knew I had to make my bandits into a more disciplined military force of professional lances. An archer, squire, and page for each knight, and so forth. Now I've got two more hordes coming, mounted knights and foot guard, while I wait for footsore minis of Sir William Marshall and Co. to act as The Captain and start a baggage train.



I'll post individual units and their backstories as the days go on, but for now, this is one of the two army leaders, Ranald Coppercloak, "The Fox".

[robh]

Good start to a great looking army. Will be interested to see the backstory of the bearded guys in the pointy red hats. 

[PineyPhantom]

Those are the Red Caps! You don't survive long in a fairy forest filled with Imps and boggles long without making friends with some of the bigger dogs on the block to help keep the trolls at bay!



The Songs recruited this particular pack of Caps in the tumbledown ruins of Brightbeech Tower, where they were preying on peasant refugees from the war. They looked nasty enough and it didn't take much beyond the promise of blood to bring them to Coppercloak's banner!

[Seal]

Love the gnomish Red Caps

[PineyPhantom]

Battle report time!

[Ogrob]

Lovely looking army! Kitbashing is very enjoyable, and it is quite easy to build custom armies that work for lots of different games as many games are flexible on bases.  Would love to see close ups of more of the units.

What minis are the red caps?

[PineyPhantom]

Lovely looking army! Kitbashing is very enjoyable, and it is quite easy to build custom armies that work for lots of different games as many games are flexible on bases.  Would love to see close ups of more of the units.

What minis are the red caps?

A 3D print made by a local gentleman that my FLGS sells that I saw and was like, "I have to have that!"

[Knight-Captain Tyr]

I had no idea you had a whole log going! Excuse me for not seeing earlier. You've done an outstanding job with the Second Songs, and you certainly achieved your self-stated goal of making 'your guys'. Great work on the battle report. It's such a rewarding thing to make your own 'world' with its own characters, stories and events. And if I may, a lost game sometimes makes for more interesting narrative developments than a victory does - so I look forward to seeing how the Second Songs come back from their temporary defeat.

Keep it up fella!

[PineyPhantom]

I had no idea you had a whole log going! Excuse me for not seeing earlier. You've done an outstanding job with the Second Songs, and you certainly achieved your self-stated goal of making 'your guys'. Great work on the battle report. It's such a rewarding thing to make your own 'world' with its own characters, stories and events. And if I may, a lost game sometimes makes for more interesting narrative developments than a victory does - so I look forward to seeing how the Second Songs come back from their temporary defeat.

Keep it up fella!

This is the highest praise indeed! I do love worldbuilding with my army. I don't mind losing games a bit, as long as I acquitted myself well . And who knows, maybe the Black Order and the Second Songs will share a battlefield one day (conjunction of the spheres?)

In the meantime, here's another unit, the Duke's Dogs.



"Before the armies of Wissenworm toppled the kingdom, Duke Azure had sent a band of knights into the wood to hunt down Ranald, but when the duke rose against the invaders, his estate was destroyed. Now masterless, the newly dubbed, 'Duke’s Dogs' serve a new lord: Ranald. The peasants speak of knightly honor betrayed but Dogs hold that the pay is better than their former master's acclaim. They are led by the Protagonists’ bannerman Ambrose Pilton and Sir Albinus Lazar."

[robh]

This is great, each post draws you further into the world and it's people. Very well done.

[PineyPhantom]

Unrecoverable post: sorry!

[Gibby]

This is an excellent thread, and your army is brilliant. I love narrative wargaming, and seeing project logs that seem to make a priority of that is always inspiring. The good Knight Captain Tyr's own threads are top tier inspiration, and your thread sits deservedly alongside those as being something anyone should like to emulate. I look forward to seeing more.

The color scheme was strong and unified and complemented by the basing. The models were almost wholly kit-bashed into existence. Every unit had a name and a backstory.

This is something I have thought about a lot recently, with my return to a slower sort of hobby after a few years of batch/speed painting armies. I am rather tempted to do something of my own with this spirit in mind.

[PineyPhantom]

This is an excellent thread, and your army is brilliant. I love narrative wargaming, and seeing project logs that seem to make a priority of that is always inspiring. The good Knight Captain Tyr's own threads are top tier inspiration, and your thread sits deservedly alongside those as being something anyone should like to emulate. I look forward to seeing more.

This is something I have thought about a lot recently, with my return to a slower sort of hobby after a few years of batch/speed painting armies. I am rather tempted to do something of my own with this spirit in mind.

This is the highest of praise, my friend, thank you! I fell in love with wargaming for the narrative and spectacle so getting to finally tell my dude's stories is scratching all of the itches I had. This forum has been amazing for giving my ideas on how to kitbash more effectively or use pieces to make scenery (some of which I will hopefully post soon). What kind of slow-burn hobby army are you thinking of doing?

[Gibby]

What kind of slow-burn hobby army are you thinking of doing?

Once I have worked out the answer to that question, I shall begin

[PineyPhantom]

Here's a two for one, the hammer and anvil of the Company's assault forces. First are the strays, a mangy lot of camp followers the Captain and Ranald managed to whip into something resembling a military unit:







The second is a feudal levy who are also victims of war, but with the intent of vengeance not plunder. Every good company needs a professional backbone to stiffen the line and these men are it.