Medieval Portuguese

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Historical Overview Section

At the end of the 11th century, the Burgundian knight Henry became count of Portugal and defended his independence, merging the County of Portucale and the County of Coimbra. Henry declared independence for Portugal while a civil war raged between León and Castile. Henry died without achieving his aims. His son, Afonso Henriques, took control of the country. The city of Braga, the unofficial Catholic centre of the Iberian Peninsula, faced new competition from other regions. The lords of the cities of Coimbra and Porto (then Portucale) with the Braga's clergy demanded the independence of the renewed county.

Portugal traces its national origin to 24 June 1128 with the Battle of São Mamede. Afonso proclaimed himself first Prince of Portugal and in 1139 the first King of Portugal. By 1143, with the assistance of a representative of the Holy See at the conference of Zamora, Portugal was formally recognized as independent, with the prince recognized as Dux Portucalensis. In 1179, Afonso I was declared, by the Pope, as king. After the Battle of São Mamede, the first capital of Portugal was Guimarães from which the first king ruled. Later, when Portugal was already officially independent, he ruled from Coimbra. From 1249 to 1250, the Algarve, the southernmost region, was finally re-conquered by Portugal from the Moors. In 1255, the capital shifted to Lisbon.

Tactical Tips - Using the Army in FoG

• If you like Knights, go big and have lots. Take only the minimum formed foot and use them to guard the camp, and then attack in a wall of knights across the table supported by lots of LH and LF units to bulk out the army size.
• If you have a mix of BGs of drilled and Undrilled knights, only the end BGs need to be drilled – the undrilled can march forward and fight anything in their path.
• BGs of 6 knights are probably too wide to use effectively
• Average Knights are the wrong choice in 99 out of 100 possible situations – even if they are the only drilled ones you can get.
• The English Longbow and Men at Arms units look to be mandatory if you are doing anything cleverer than having lots of Kn and lots of LF.
• A deployment that alternates Knights and Bows/Crossbows may not be a bad choice against enemy LH/Cv. It lets you deploy knights with some ranks in reserve with the gaps filled with Xbows to help chase away (or at least make life challenging) skirmishing enemy
• You barely get enough Spears to be useful - and Defensive spears struggle to push forwards against most things - only take them if their role is going to be to hold up the enemy.
• The Bow and Crossbow can usually be LF - this is much better than MF
• MF Crossbow units generally are troops which do not win battles, and neither do MF bow units. They cannot stand up in the open to any decent troops, and do not lay down sufficient firepower to offset the advantages LF have by being able to skirmish.
• Crossbows can cause heavily armoured and armoured knights pause for thought and are pretty good against cavalry but generally unless you expect to face off against lots of knights, or cynically plan to use them as a unit of 6 in column to support your 16 spearmen from behind you may be better spending points elsewhere on game winning units like knights.

Allied Contingents

• Castilian, Medieval : 1474 to 1476 Storm of Arrows 79 Knights, Jinetes, Crossbows all compulsary, and some optional spears make this a bit too big to be bothered with for most medieval armies

Tourney Results

10 / 12 Medieval Portugese Leeds Doubles 2008 (SoA)
4 / 27 Medieval Portuguese Britcon 2007 15mm (open)
13 / 41 Medieval Portuguese BHGS Challenge 2008 (open)
13 / 13 Medieval Portuguese IWF 2008 15mm (open)

Useful Links

User-contributed links about this army:

• Fanaticus banner download page with some banners that can be used for this army
• put the link text readers will see in here write some more detail about the link here
• put the link text readers will see in here write some more detail about the link here

15mm Manufacturers supplying figures suitable for Late Medieval Armies

You can see some of the figures in the Ancients Photo Gallery also on this site

• Essex Miniatures - vast range of generic medieval figures
• Donnington C15 Europe Range, 36-strong WOTR range,
• Museum Miniatures 100YW & WOTR ranges with nice generic mounted and dismounted knights
• Gladiator Miniatures by Fighting 15's (Previously Black Hat) 40+ Medievals, 18 WOTR, plus Feudal/Crusade ranges
• Corvus Belli 30 or so figures in a well-regarded 100YW range
• Old Glory 15's, large number of medieval figures
• Minifigs 2 large and separate 100YW Crecy & Agincourt ranges, plus large WOTR selection
• Irregular Miniatures 60 medievals in a range spanning East/West Europe from Late Feudal to C15
• Lancashire Games Around 30 generic & English medievals
• QRF Models 20 WOTR figure codes in the Feudal Castings range, plus maybe a few of the Earky renaissance (LA) range.
• Tin Soldier 40 C14 & C15 medievals, including Swiss and equipment
• Battle Line Miniatures (NZ) 60 generic Medievals, some noted for WOTR
• Vexilia Extensive Mirliton & Venexia Italian/Burgundian Wars ranges for C15 armies
• Isarus - sold by 15mm.co.uk 70 codes in their C11-C15 Medus ranges
• AlainTouller Figurines A dedicated Spanish/Almughavar late medieval range
• Gallia 21 Late Medievals (a little small)

Army Lists

Sample army lists for this army

• 1 Jinetes 4 Protected Average Light Horse, Javelin
• 2 Bowmen 8 Protected Average Bowmen
• 3 Pedestrians 6 Unprotected Average Javelin Skirmishers
• 4 Mounted Crossbowmen 4 Protected Average Light Horse Crossbow
• 5 Spear armed foot 6 Protected Average Defensive Spearmen
• 6 Spear armed foot 6 Protected Average Defensive Spearmen
• 7 English Longbowmen 4 Drilled Average Protected Longbow, Sword
• 8 Dismounted Knights 4 Superior Undrilled Heavily Armoured Heavy Weapon Men at Arms
• 9 Dismounted Knights 4 Superior Undrilled Heavily Armoured Heavy Weapon Men at Arms
• 10 English Longbowmen 4 Drilled Average Protected Longbow, Sword
• 11 Knights 4 Knights, Heavily Armoured Superior Undrilled Lance & Sword
• 12 Knights 4 Knights, Heavily Armoured Superior Undrilled Lance & Sword
• 13 Knights 4 Knights, Heavily Armoured Superior Undrilled Lance & Sword

Used at Britcon 2007

Name of Army / Date

• Using asterisks inthe edit mode creates a bulleted list in the actual site
• This is a lot easier to do than easier than setting up tables
• For FoG I suggest listing your army in order or march
• with troop desctiptions on each line, for example
• 4 HF Armoured Average Drilled Impact Foot Swordsmen
• 8 LG Undrilled Unarmoured Poor Bowen
• Dont forget to include your Generals !!!

Include any notes you want here, including comments on how to use - or play against - the army.

Remember to leave a line before you copy the above section as a template for your own list

eBay Listings

UK Bookstore

You can make the bookstore show only the books for the army you are setting up the page for. You need to change the line above where it says "node=0"by replacing the number "0" with the right code. You can find that by going to the Bookshop page, navigating to the right page, and holding your mouse over link to that army on the right hand menu. The node number you need to replace "0" with will show up in the bar at the bottom of your screen! Don't worry if you can't find it - I'll get round to sorting it out eventually