Historical Overview Section
Catalonia from 988, and Aragon until 1336
A Catalan culture started to develop in the Middle Ages in and amongst the many petty kingdoms throughout northern Catalonia. At this time the counts of Barcelona were Frankish vassals nominated by the then the king of France, to whom they were feudatories (801–987). In 987 the count of Barcelona refused to recognize the newly crowned Early Medieval French king Hugh Capet and his new dynasty, taking Catalonia independent - against the wishes of the French of course. Then, in 1137, Ramon Berenguer IV, Count of Barcelona married Queen Petronila of Aragon establishing the dynastic union of the County of Barcelona with the Kingdom of Aragon which was to create the Crown of Aragon. It was not until 1258, by means of the Treaty of Corbeil, that the Feudal French King formally relinquished his feudal lordship over the counties of the Principality of Catalonia to the king of Aragon James I, descendant of Ramon Berenguer IV. This Treaty transformed the region's de facto independence into a de jure direct transition from French to Aragonese rule. As part of the Crown of Aragon, Catalonia became a maritime power, helping expand the Crown by trade and conquest into the Kingdom of Valencia, the Balearic Islands, and even Sardinia, Sicily, Corsica, Naples, Athens, Canary Islands and America.
At the height of its power by the 14th and 15th centuries, the Crown of Aragon was a thalassocracy controlling a large portion of the present-day eastern Spain, Southwestern France, as well as some of the major islands and mainland possessions stretching across the Mediterranean Sea as far as Greece. In their expansion the clashed repeatedly with the Taifa Andalusian kingdoms and the Feudal Navarrese and Aragonese in Spain, and the later Sicilians and others across the Mediterranean.
Using the army in FoG
- This is one of the main armies to give you Almughavars, so why not use loads of them - otherwise its a fairly generic medieval army. Using them also gets you off the minima for spearmen, and puts you firmly in the Superior Knights period of post 1150AD.
- There is a train of thought to say take them as unprotected and cover them with a skirmish screen - but this may be risky as their best opponents in period could well be protected spearmen so being unprotected will hurt in melee.
- If you are taking spearmen, the Military Order armoured ones make a strong addition to a defensive formation - but remember that combining defensive and offensive spearmen is hard to do as you have troop types who either charge without orders, or who will lose their POAs against most enemies if they charge.
- This is one of the few armies where the (limited numbers of) LH may well be worth taking with at least 1 or 2 lots of 6.
UK Tournament Results with this army
Useful Links
User-contributed links about this army:
- Fanaticus banner download page with some banners that can be used for this army
- Confraternity of the Knights of Santiago Scans of a historic book with (contemporary) colour drawings of knights from 400 years of Spanish chivalry and heraldry
- put the link text readers will see in here write some more detail about the link here
Allies
Put information on allied contingents here - including recommendations on which to use, and why.
Painting and Collecting the Army
- Paint schemes, insignia, shield designs? Put it here.
15mm Manufacturers supplying Catalan Almughavars and similar:
You can see some of the figures in the Ancients Photo Gallery also on this site. Look at some of the generic medieval listings on the Medieval Crown of Aragon page for later figures.
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- Essex Miniatures - small Catalan range
- AlainTouller Figurines - AT, famously, have a range of Catalan Almughavars
- Eureka Now selling a new Almughavar range with over 800 variants (well, 15)
- QRF models Figures from the MK range would be useable, the lighter cavalry particularly.
Catalans were widely travelled and widely recruited mercenaries, so many fairly generic medieval troops could be chosen and added in to give you more variety.
Army Lists
Sample army lists for this army
Name of Army / Date
Feudal Catalan, etc. / 1300
- 6 LF UnP/Avg/UnD/Bow 30
- 6 LF UnP/Avg/UnD/Xbow 30
- 6 LF UnP/Avg/UnD/Sling 24
- 6 LF UnP/Avg/UnD/J-LS 24
- 8 LF UnP/Avg/UnD/Xbow 40
- 4 LH Pr/Avg/UnD/J-LS 32
- 4 LH Pr/Avg/UnD/Xbow 32
- 4 LH UnP/Avg/UnD/J-LS 28
- 4 Kn HA/Sup/UnD/L-Sw 92
- 4 Kn HA/Sup/UnD/L-Sw 92
- 8 MF UnP/Sup/UnD/OffSp 56
- 8 MF UnP/Sup/UnD/OffSp 56
- 8 MF UnP/Sup/UnD/OffSp 56
- 8 MF UnP/Sup/UnD/OffSp 56
CinC IC 80
2 Sub TC 70
798 AP, 14 BG, +3 PBI
This may be too many skirmishers, but they are cheap and fill the army out to 14 battle groups, a total otherwise impossible when taking all the almughavars and some knights. Enemy that the almughavars don't want to fight should be refused by the skirmish screen, or attacked by the knights.
- 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