Giveing Lions Rampart a try

[commissarmoody]

I decided to give Lions Rampart a try.
Having bought the rules and seeing every one else's projects have been a bit of an inspiration. Also an excuse to finally put together and paint the figures I have.

Now just need to wait for the foot men-at-arms in the mail.

[Jeff965]

Well that's a good start, now get painting 

[commissarmoody]

A little more assembly will be required first but I will be getting on that soon. 

Now I am thinking of what colors to use for the livery. I am turn between blue and white or Black and White.
Also while looking up the family name and history I found this to be the earliest coat found.



Or this being a clearer picture.



A little bit more info on my blog.
http://commissarmoody.blogspot.com/2014/10/family-arms.html
I have also found versions with out the Lancaster Red Rose but If I am doing the WOTR period might as well pick a side.
As for a patch or badge I am thinking using the Trefoil. For those that are not house hold or fully armored.
Thoughts? Suggestions or ideas?

[Arlequín]

The hands and roses bit is very 16th Century, so I would consider not including that, although you could keep a plain blue band instead maybe. However the badge could be the scimitar, which appears on the crest. From the first picture red and white seems a cinch for the livery colours... or indeed the red and green of the arms holding the scimitars.

[commissarmoody]

I am a fan of the Red and Green myself. And maybe a white or black Scimitar. Need to see if I can get a print out of scimitars or and at least one of a flag with full arms on it, clovers and all.

Correct me if I am wrong but this seems a lot more elaborate then most coat of arms I have seen. I mean it just looks pretty busy is all.

[Mad Doc Morris]

I am a fan of the Red and Green myself. And maybe a white or black Scimitar. Need to see if I can get a print out of scimitars or and at least one of a flag with full arms on it, clovers and all.

Correct me if I am wrong but this seems a lot more elaborate then most coat of arms I have seen. I mean it just looks pretty busy is all.

That coat of arms you've shown was granted by letter, so it could or had to be 'built from scratch'. More items means less risk to confuse it with other designs.
That's in contrast to born nobles who would only "enhance" their coat of arms if they gained a certain title connected to the ownership of land, office or social rank. Simple designs were preferable since they wouldn't appear as artificial as the one shown above. In earlier times nobles also adopted colours and patterns as used by their particular lord or by related nobles in order to show their allegiance or claim some kind of tradition. Here's an example from my home area – admittedly German, but rules were the same.

The first lords around here carried this one:



Another family claimed their territories and 'coincidentally' chose this pattern:



And, in turn, the latter had lesser nobles in their retinue, who adopted this design:



Anyway, I'd rather go for historical options than following a random blazon very loosely based on your surname (I guess there were many more Moodies around, likely most of them not of noble birth). Failing that I'd invent my own design based on an actual coat of arms.

[Pappa Midnight]

Those Perry minis were my second choice after Fireforge. Looking forward to seeing your project progress.

PM

[commissarmoody]

I will probably make a few later medieval groups, and maybe even a  13th and 14th war bands with slightly different patterns. I have had my eye on the Claymore Casting Scottish Wars and early hundred year's war. And I am thinking of doing the Bruce invasion of Ireland at a later date. But want to finish one group at a time.

Or else I will never get any thing done! 

And thanks for you input Morris, I know that my family are like 3rd sons of 3rd sons. So by the 1640s their just seemed to be more opportunities in the Americas. And my family moved to the Carolinas and did pretty good for are self's. 

[Mad Doc Morris]

In case that sounded offensive: most of us have no noble ancestry, me neither. And maybe for the better of it. At least we're free to take any (perhaps historically plausible) option instead of being limited to one family design.

[Captain Blood]

At last - commissarmoody begins to build!

Liking the sound of red and green livery

[commissarmoody]

No problem MDM, takes a lot more then that to offended me. 
Its all for fun. And as I said, I hold no illusions about my families "Noble" past.

And yep CB about time.
Need to get to it before my Gamer ADHD kicks in.

[dijit]

Regarding heraldry, there's something called the Rule of Tincture, which governs what colours may go where. So you may not put 'metals' (white and yellow) on each other or next to each and likewise with colours (red, blue, green, black). Though they may be in different fields. Heraldry is quite a complicated thing and might be worth reading up on; it is actually quite interesting. Though I'm not sure when the rules of heraldry arise, but they seem to have been pretty solid by the 12th century. Just some stuff for after thought.

[guitarheroandy]

I had my first game tonight! Played with a force that was meant to represent the Stephen and Matilda era and I used the more 'Norman' looking models from my Perry El Cid WAB army. I was facing a similar force.

I enjoyed the game. Although I will say that one does have to suspend a bit of disbelief sometimes (it's harder to activate knights to move than it is the foot troops unless charging is the order of the day!! Also, throwing 12 attack dice until you hit 1/2 strength then going down to 6 is weird, but kinda works...)

It is easy to pick up and multiple units of mounted knights do get into a right pickle with all the wild charges, which gives a 'swirling melee' effect over multiple turns.

I'll definitely play again and I think the scenarios will be where it'll come into its own. I think multiplayer games would be a hoot and it could easily be adapted for LOTR forces if Fantasy is one's bag!

I'll blog about it later this week if I have time...

[Gibby]

Yeah, the attack dice thing is where I sometimes struggle. I think there ought to be more than two degrees of unit effectiveness, but I've only played one game so more are required before tweaking!

[Elbows]

I think a very simple fix would be..1 dice per figure, 2 per mounted.  However the "armour" value of a unit doesn't change as it decreases, so if you started rolling markedly less dice --- the entire game mechanic could break.

After re-reading Lions Rampant I think I'll be holding off on painting stuff for it.  I'll wait for some hosted test games.