The Archduchy of Aguiéne

Instead of flooding the monthly showcase with a million WIP pictures, I thought I would be nice to have specific place to drop the progress on my first army.

I’m building a Green Lady list - you can find it in the army list section if you care to -centered around the Archduchy of Aguiéne, nestled on an upland plain in the Dragon Teeth mountains. Whilst traditionally very prosperous, the Archduchy is falling upon hard times: its ancient feudal organisation coming under more and more tension from within and without even as it’s economy is overtaken by the more modern trading-based cities to the south. The disastrous wars around the Abyss have made their cost felt even as far west as Aguiéne, and the peasants grumble at the cost in lives and coin of the noble lord’s fondness for far. One day, soon, the Archduchy will have to join modernity or be ground under its foot.

Still, the knights of Aguiéne ride tirelessly, fighting the Archduchy’s neighbours for plunder, chivalrous deeds, and the joy of battle. If the end of their path in life is coming, one way or another, at least they will make a beautiful exit.

The inspiration for this army is partially my fondness for the Late Middle Ages, partially the romance and drama of Huizinga’s Autum of the Middle Ages, partially the sheer coolness of Procer in A Practical Guide to Evil, and partially my enjoyment of Brettonian lore and play in TW:Warhammer - even though I never played tabletop.

So, without further ado, here’s four of the five heroes who will lead Aguiéne’s army to many a glorious defeat:

Aleide, archduchess of Aguiéne:

She’s a Perry mounted man-at-arms with a Frostgrave female soldier’s head. Her griffon is on it’s way, but apparently the high elf rider is molded directly onto the GW Island of Blood griffon, and he’s a bloody pain to get off. Thus, she’s here depicted riding a cannon annex pencil sharpener that I had lying around…

Adhémar, Archduke-consort of Aguiéne:

Just a straight up Perry man at arms, with similar griffon-related issues to his wife.

Anne de Montmorency, Count of Talence, Connétable of Aguiéne:

A Perry man at arms with a War of the Roses infantry command head

And finally, Ermenchilde, Chief Priestess of the Fields

Another man at arms, with a Frostgrave, head, cloak, and torch. This is going to be my first ever attempt at OSL - wish me luck

I’m not going to paint them all at once, but probably space them through the sixty retainers and twenty cavalrymen I still need for the rest of the army. I just wanted them assembled first, so I wouldn’t end up lacking the parts I wanted for them because I used them all on a random peasant.

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Looking good - the perry stuff is always nice.

Yeah, the rider on the gw elf griffon is attached. It may, from what I remember, be easier to cut the whole model/saddle off and rebuild, rather than trying to simply remove the rider?

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That stinks. What about the reaper alternative? This is the beast with a few WIP photos:

I already bought two of the Island of Blood ones…

It took me a day, buying new tools, and relearning basic Milliput, but they’re on there now.

This is basically what I ended up doing; I’m going to have some beautiful enscorcerelled elf armour objective markers at some point…

Nolzurs d&d range also has a flying griffin that will fit a perry rider (there was a standing one in an earlier range that was nice, but couldn’t have a rider - unless surfing style!)

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So I gave up on waiting for decent daylight: here’s the Archduchess and her consort, mounted on their griffons, in glorious black-and-white underpaint:

I haven’t put them back on their bases yet, as that would only make painting harder, I think, so please excuse the fingers… and the bad lighting… and lack of details…

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And to get some variation from all the big monster work, a regiment of retainers - Frostgrave female soldiers and Perry Men at Arms in various configurations.

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WIP on the retainers (sorry, the light in my home is crap and probably going to stay that way until may at the earliest…)

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And here’s the finished retainers, complete with some backstory:

The retainers are the town’s contribution to the Archduchy’s defense: every walled town must maintain and pay a company of militia to contribute in times of war. These troops are not armed or armoured according to any regulation, but equipped as the towns funding them see fit. They often keep day jobs besides the weekly day of compulsory military exercise, but when the Archduchess calls, they drop everything to flock to her banners. There, they are combined into large blocks of heavy infantry, who provide a solid centre for the knights and griffons to work with. Though they do not live for battle and blood, as some other races, nor hope for glorious deeds as the nobility do, they are hardy men and women, trained, equipped, and not to be underestimated.

It lives!

I finished painting Anne de Montmorency, Count of Talence and Connétable of Aguiéne. The Count of Talence is in many ways symbolic for the Archduchy as a whole. In his youth, he fought in the Ordre des Marches (more on the Knightly Orders in a later post) and built a high reputation for gallantry and inspirational leadership. Upon the ascencion of the present Archduchess, this reputation won him the coveted position of Connétable, personal champion of the Archduchess and commander of her forces in her absense. At the battle of Talence, his raiding force was isolated from the main army and surrounded, but he lead a decisive charge into the enemy ranks, and carved a way out, saving many. For this victory, he was named Count of Talence even though members of the Ordre des Marches normally do not hold lands. Since then, he has lead the forces of Aguiéne through many victories and many defeats both. A man grown old in his armour, he has not lost either his courage or his skill with the years - but for how long can courage and dedication preserve him from the dangers of the battlefield?

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Right, so this died a pretty slow and painless death…

The army’s kinda-sorta finished right now (already dreaming about more druids, more knights, more pegasi, but I’ve painted every model I actually own for it now…); pictures of everything are scattered through the monthly painting threads exactly like I promised not to do at the start of this thread. I’m probably going to centralise them here, starting with my latest addition and the reason for this revival, three units of Franc-Archers (Naiad Heartpiercers). The Franc-Archers are the only organised military unit directly under the command of the Archduchess (apart from her personal guard). They are tasked with guarding Aguinéne’s borders against raids from neighbouring powers - which are mainly undertaken in reprisal for Aguinéne’s own attacks in search of glory and plunder. As such, they often fight delaying actions, waiting for an army to be assembled, and have grown skilled in the use of ambushes and their powerful bows; but they will not stand up to a determined melée charge.

Regiment 1:





Regiment 2:





Regiment 3:





Yes, they are spectacularly under MMC, but the goal of that is to prevent bases from looking sparse, and I think there are fine, really? The GW models are really quite excessively large.

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Here’s another unit, painted last march/april/something along those lines: the Ordre des Pairs (Order of the Brotherhood with Brew of Strength and the Banner of the Green Lady).

The Ordre des Pairs is the personal bodyguard of the Archduchess. To serve in the Order is considered the greatest social and military achievement a knight of the Archduchy can achieve. Consequently, nominations to the order are often highly constrained by political considerations; the most powerful nobles consider a place on the Order their birthright, and their influence must in turn be mitigated by the nomination of crown loyalists. Striking this delicate balance means the knights of the Order are not usually more skilled fighters than the average knight. However, as the expectation is that the Archduchess and her bodyguards will fight wherever the opposition is fiercest, they are armed with large, armour-piercing warhammers, which allow them to drive a strike home through even the heaviest armour.




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