Wednesday 1 March 2023

Tudor Men at Arms


One of my current projects is building up sufficient forces to game Henry VIII's and Protector Somerset's 1540s campaigns in Scotland. To bolster this part of the collection here are a dozen men at arms for the mid 16th century, all from The Assault Group. These are great figures and the only tweaks have been to replace the swords that some of them were carrying with lances. In these pictures they are shown with other English cavalry from the 1540s, demilances and border horse, which are also TAG figures but with more conversion work. The flag the men at arms are carrying is from Pete's excellent range of flags and is based on one that a group of men at arms, possibly Gentleman Pensioners, are carrying in one of the Cowdray House Murals showing Henry VIII's 1544 invasion of France.

Whilst they may be carrying a Tudor flag in these photos the standard is swappable and I have not painted any of the men at arms in a way that would mean they can only be Tudor horsemen. As such this unit would be suitable for lots of mid 16th century armies, I just simply need to change the flag. The photos below show some closer shots of the men at arms and then all of the English 1540s cavalry.

Tudor men at arms by The Assault Group.

Tudor men at arms for the 1540s.

Mid 16th century men at arms.

An English cavalry force from the 1540s.

The flag is from Pete's Flags and is based on the one in the image below - the copy of the Cowdray House Mural.

Detail from a copy of the Cowdray House Mural showing Henry VIII's 1544 invasion of France. The Lion flag carried by the men at arms can be seen in the centre, flying above the lances of the horsemen.

An English mid 16th century force comprised of men at arms, demilances and border horse.

10 comments:

  1. Beautiful work and a clever idea with the swappable flag! TAG really are very nice figures, I have a bunch of them in my Border Reivers collection

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    1. Thank you rross, the Border Reivers are great figures and headswap really with with the Atlantic Games Conquistadors.

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  2. Lovely figures and super paint job, Oli. Swapable flags make units very multipurpose in these earlier eras!

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    1. Thank you Peter - yes the interchangeable flags are a game changer for wargaming the 16th century, its an idea I pinched off James Roach: http://olicanalad.blogspot.com/2010/07/top-tip-flags.html

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    2. Yes I am very familiar with James' work; he borrowed the idea from still other before him! :-)

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  3. Excellent men at arms! They look great!
    Best Iain

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    1. Cheers Iain, hopefully I will get them on the table for some games soon.

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