"Medieval foot: All same weapon or mixed weapons?" Topic

I'm putting together figures for Lion Rampant (based singly) and large scale battles (Hail Caesar, To the Strongest, etc.) circa late 13th century.

I've got the Fireforge foot sergeants, and it looks like there are enough spears to build the entire box as spear armed, but would such a thing have been likely?

In skirmishes I figure you'd have a mix of weapons, but would that carry across to large "units" brought to battle by a noble? Wouldn't it make more sense to have all your spears working together and all of your hand weapons working together, rather than mixing them up?

Thanks for any help, I realize I've got a lot to learn!

Spear was most common and cheap weapon of the period. Many feudal regulations stepulated that feudal levies should bring spears. Hand weapons were at extra expense and was up to individual warrior. Wealthy warriors like Knights and mercenaries had to be better armored and armed and, of course, many had to be mounted.

In my games I lke to have mix of spears and hand weapons.
A unit would look more natural that way as spears can brake and almost all warriors had knifes, axes or swords as a back up. They may still count as spearmen unit for game purpose.

There is nothing wrong with modeling ALL wariors in a unit with spears. If you planing to use them in skirmish games also, then mix of weapons is more prudent as it may matter in a game.

Mix!

I've made a spear unit and a unit with assorted hand weapons from the figures for my Lion Rampant armies.

You can have some falchions instead of swords.
A falchion in the Morgan Crusader Bible of Louis IX or Maciejowski Bible, mid 13th Century
A falchion in the Cantigas de Santa Maria of Alfonso X, c.1284

Druzhina
13th Century Illustrations of Costume & Soldiers

There were specialist spear units in mediaeval forces, but Imo the typical unit contains a mix of weapons and the soldiers operate in teams to deploy each weapon effectively. On the Courtrai chest you can clearly see this in action, with the front ranks levelling spears to hold off the knights, the next ranks with the two handed spiked club goedendag and beyond that chaps with Falchions and bucklers. The tactics would work thus, Charging knights are either deterred aor spitted on the levelled spears, those that break in are knocked from their horses by the two handed clubs and then despatched by the sword and buckler men. The unit also has attached crossbowmen who range out front at first shooting long distance and retiring into the formation when the knights advance.
On their side, at Courtrai, the French knights have attached Basque light infantry who combine with them to take out the front spear ranks by slipping between the knights horses. A man holding off a knight with a two handed spear is easy meat for a light arme d opponent who slips between the spears, gets beyond the points and can use javelin or sword on the now defenceless spearman. Maybe the Flemish falchion and buckler men were meant to counter this tactic?
What is most likely is that the infantry formations were a lot more sophisticated than we might think.
So go ahead mix weapons in your infantry uinits, but most likely front rank spear and shield, back rank two handed weapons and the occasional sword and buckler.

A sword would be quite rare in the 13th century apart from the expense, it is a weapon you need to be proficient with to use. The spear would be the most common weapon use by the men at arms.

A short sword in the 13th century was a lot of money considering a labourers yearly wages was 2 pounds, a men at arms was 1 pence a week rising to 1 pence a day at the beginning of 100 years war. A very basic weapon, like a mass produced sword was around 6d, in 1340.

A gamberson in the 13th century was around 5d in 1285.

Standards of Living in the Later Middle Ages, Christopher Dyer,
Cambridge University

English Weapons & Warfare, 449-1660, A. V. B. Norman and Don
Pottinger, Barnes & Noble, 1992 (orig. 1966)

Proficiency is the perhaps the key issue. Bluewillow, I think you may have mis-read Dyer? A man-at-arms would be 12d (1 shilling) per day or 24d if he was a knight, but that was no longer adequate by the 1340s and a payment of 'regard' in addition was n't uncommon. Unskilled labour by 1300 was largely around 3d or 4d per day but generally there be food as well, so 6d was n't a huge amount.

gone for the mix on mine…

Wonderful photos! Here is my take. Like you Jsears I am building units for Lion Rampant using those fantastic Fireforge plastics. I think you could get by with mixing; however, for ease of identifying units in the game I have chosen to field units of Foot Sergeants has having spears especially since they have the Schiltron special rule. Although I have done a bit of lite converstion work with the leader figure having a pole ax. I did this by cutting off the spear head and then cutting an ax head off a battle ax arm and attaching the ax to the end of the spear. Such a weapon would not have been uncommon during the time period.

I am assembling a unit of "Expert" Foot Sergeants by having all the unit armed with shields and hand weapons. Which is one of the two ways the author suggests showing Expert Foot Sergeants. The other way for Expert Foot Sergeants to be shown is having all pole weapons. Regardless tossing in a few figures with hand weapon and shield should not be an issue.

The Courtrai example is most important to emphasize. "Feudal" the Flemish were not. They had an organized militia of mixed arms. Feudal levies would produce a wide variety of arms and armor. That's why King Henry II adopted the expedient of decreeing uniform weapons by economic status. Usually there were "either or" options, but the net effect would have been more uniformity than the old feudal levy system. Spears predominated until pole arms took over much later. Swords as side arms were, as already noted, rare among the non noble troops. But a falchion is not an expensive sword. Short swords or really big daggers were not expensive. Yeomen used whatever they had or preferred. MAAs likewise. But of course mounted they had the option of going in with the lance or with swords drawn. Some would opt instead for a different single-hand weapon, but they always had a broadsword at their belt. It was a status symbol. Remember that dismounted the lance became a spear formation. Sometimes these were cut shorter to make them more handy in a melee. If shortened this way, it appears that all the MAAs shortened theirs. It wasn't optional on an individual basis.

In my medieval armies the weapons tend toward uniform in the more professional units and mixed in the "scrappy" ones. Spears are by far the most common weapon….

Mixed weapons is the way that I am going with my forces too. If necessary, put a label on them indicating what they are armed with.

The Flemish militia in Battle on the Courtrai Chest. Falchions can be seen in 'The sortie of the French garrison of Courtrai'.
Drawings of the lost Leugemeete Fresco indicate some of the Flemish Guild militia were uniformed, but with mixed weapons.

Druzhina
14th Century Illustrations of Costume & Soldiers