Burgundian archers

A long overdue unit - some archers for my Burgundians.

Like my French archer units, these are mostly Perry WOTR plastics, but with the bow hands replaced by the superior ones from the Perry Hundred Years War range. Some of them have also had tall riding boots added with green stuff. There are also some metal conversions in here, most notably some archers from Crusader Miniatures with Perry head and hand swaps.

These can represent archers of the compagnies d'ordonnance which were raised by Mary the Rich and her new husband Maximilian of Hapsburg after the disastrous campaigns of Charles the Bold, which had led to the ruin of his army and his own death in 1477. No doubt they would have been made up of the same soldiers who has served under Charles (or at least those who had survived his wars), re-organised into new companies. Maximilian followed the French model of organisation, with each 'lance' of a company consisting of a man-at-arms, a coustillier and two mounted archers (whereas under Charles the Bold each lance had also featured several infantrymen). There are no records (to the best of my knowledge) of liveries and flags of these new companies, so I've designed my own which I think seem plausible.

I've gone for a blue and red livery with a white St Andrews cross. As for the flag, I had a go at hand-painting one of my own designs, and think it's turned out great. It's a 'cornette', a long narrow flag which seems to have been used by units of archers. It's inspired by those of Charles the Bold's ordonnance companies, though admittedly much simpler in design - leaving off his personal motto, but keeping some appropriate Burgundian symbols - a St Andrews cross formed by two arrows, and the ubiquitous 'flint and sparks'.

I painted it in large scale, then scanned it in and downsized it (as well as adding my usual digital ripple effect), as can be seen in this picture (I printed off three different sizes, and chose the smallest one). I had some doubts about my painting, but once scaled down like this any dodgy brushstrokes become invisible.

This unit shares the blue and red livery of an earlier unit of Burgundian heavy infantry. They are supposed to be go together, representing both archers and men-at-arms (plus coustilliers) dismounted for battle. They can be used as separate units, or the bases can be combined into one larger 'bill & bow' formation in various ways.