Composition of a generic European Mid Feudal Army

[pops]

Hi,

I am putting together a medieval
army. I am trying to determine a good mix
for a generic middle medieval period army.

How many of units of Heavy Cav, Light Cav,
Heavy Infantry, light infantry, missile troops.

Any and all opinions greatly appreciated.

Am trying to create basic units of 12 man infantry and 6 man cavalry.

Thanks,

Frank

[Iain R]

Generic of where? Geography can be a big decider. Also, medieval armies weren't neatly dilineated into nice units the way that suits wargamers, so might help to know what system you're looking at playing. From the figure composition I'm guessing Lion Rampant?

To be veeerrrry broad brush, eurocentric, I'd go for a couple of units of lightly equipped spearmen*, think padded armour and a tin hat, led by one or two units of heavy horse (heavily equipped knights on barded horses, could be either elite or heavy cavalry in LR). Missile wise, crossbows were the predominant weapon of professionals most places in the feudal period, even in Britain; the trope of longbow superiority doesn't really come to the fore until the mid 14th century. I'd keep bows in your skirmish units for most places and have your "formed" missile units as crossbowmen. A couple of units of lesser riders backing up the knights as "mounted sergeants" would fit in most armies, too.

* the spear remained the predominant infantry weapon throughout the period, and mediaeval commanders/arrayers didn't really sort their units into nicely differentiated units of "spearmen", "halberdiers", "flailmen" as most game systems do; if you were a common man with a sharp bit of metal on a pole, you fought together. So a unit of men predominantly armed with spears with the odd bill, glaive or whatever mixed in will be pretty much right.

[Dice Roller]

What do you mean by 'Mid Feudal'?
Give it a date.
To my mind that would be 12th/13th Century. Is that the period you are looking at.
Same goes for 'European'.
What part of Europe?
An east European army would have a different composition to a north European army.
It's hard to help without something more precise.
There's no such thing as a generic European Mid Feudal army if we don't know what part of Europe or what you mean by Mid Feudal.
Not being awkward, just trying to help.

[AWu]

From previous post you can see there is no such thing as generic middle ages Europe..

Its like asking for suggestion for generic European army best for the around 1500 -2000AD

Judging by the numbers look at Lion Rampant suggested armies for starting point on generalisation but even such super abstract outlook wont give you numbers and proportions you are asking for. No medieval armies were the same.

[pops]

Thanks for the replies.  Much appreciated.

[pops]

Iain,

Thank you for your reply.  It was exactly what
I was hoping for.  It will be a good guide for my start.

All the best,
Frank

[Atheling]

For Western European:

Heavy Cavalry

Heavy Infantry

Missile Troops

That's it really. Battles were as much about leadership/heroism (or to be seen to be) as they were army composition.

[pops]

Thanks for the input Atheling!  Much appreciated.

[Moriarty]

Have you considered looking at DBM army lists for inspiration? Book 4 covers the Medieval period:
https://war-history.narod.ru/Pravila/DBM/DBMArmyBook4-1071AD-1500AD.pdf

[pops]

Thank you Moriarty for that info - it is a gold mine!

[Sheikdjerboutiy]

I presume you mean a High-Medieval Western European one?
As others have said, there wasn't really one, it was a matter of what was avaliable. The usual pattern was a number of knights and their squires, backed up by professional serjeants (sometimes mounted as light cavalry). Then urban militias and rural levies when avaliable, plus mercenaries if needed. These would include some archers-almost always crossbows, but were in large part infantry.
The mounted knights were the heart of the army, the infantry would provide a supporting mass, and the archers would open the battle with skirmishing as well as harass over the course of the battle. The English change the pattern of warfare under Edward I and start heavily favouring large numbers of longbowmen backed up by dismounted men-at-arms and a few serjeants on well prepared ground-with the entire army being mostly professional and riding to battle. The Italians favour the crossbow a lot, often being hired as mercenaries on land as well as sea e.g. Genoese. The flemings, brabacons, scots, swiss, and italians used a lot of pikemen, and could be found in those roles as mercenaries or allies.

[pops]

Thank you Sheik.

[Battle Brush Sigur]

Have you considered looking at DBM army lists for inspiration? Book 4 covers the Medieval period:
https://war-history.narod.ru/Pravila/DBM/DBMArmyBook4-1071AD-1500AD.pdf

I came to this thread for the title got me intrigued what would happen in here. What I found was actually useful information. That's not a bad idea at all to use DBx army lists as a basis. Very clever.

[Moriarty]

I live to serve :-)