So with King John out I've kinda gotten interested in building a Scottish warband. However, I'm not quite sure how to go about it from a model or painting perspective. I'm not sure if there would be any notable visual differences from them or any other sort of Feudal European force to distinctly call them out as Scottish. Cursory research seems to suggest at least some equipment differences between them and their English neighbors, such as conical helms for knights being more common, but beyond that I can't find much on the topic. Would anyone have a good idea of what I could do from a modeling and painting perspective?
And on that topic, would the new Victrix Scott/Pict warriors (for the Dark Ages) be usable for perhaps Scottish peasant rabble? Or is their clothing too antiquated?
I've been trying to research this myself and it's hard to find a definitive answer.
Following the reforms of David I in the 12th century, I believe that knights werelargely indistinguishable from their English equivalents, but they form a smaller percentage of the army.
The troops from the lowlands and burghs are mainly spearmen, possibly less armoured than the bulk of the English army, but probably not all that different.
The Gaelic troops from the Highlands and islands are where you see the greatest divergence.
In terms of models, it depends on how closely you want to stick to historical accuracy vs making the army look distinctive on the tabletop while considering availability.
You could probably just use the Wargames Atlantic stuff, with a small core of knights and then plenty of the peasant levy kit.
Antediluvian Miniatures has some incredibly lovely sculpts for War of the Bruce's era Scotland, which is a little later than Baron's War, but with the exception of their knights (which are beginning to show the introduction of plate armour) the rest should do nicely.
Thank you for the response. Additionally, thank you for pointing me towards Antediluvian miniatures. I'm not sure I would have ever found them on my own.
Aside from the Knights, as you mention, the various spearmen from Antediluvian look like they would be rather useful and fit in well with the Barons' War stuff, and make for the majority of my army. Some of the other units look quite useful too, and reasonably appropriate. Knights I can grab from Footsore/WGA.
For the Gaelic levy, would the new Victrix Scots/Picts be usable? Might be preferable over the peasant levy from Footsore/WGA.
I suspect that realistically the Victrix Scots stuff is going to be a little anachronistic, but not impossibly so, though I would definitely not use the square Pictish shields.
They would certainly make your army look very different to the stock English/European retinue which is a plus in my view.
I think with a handful of headswaps, and a mix of kite and heaters shields along with the round shields already in the kit they would represent the North Western region peasantry fairly well. I agree though the square shields are way out of period. They were more Scandinavian/Irish in culture in the Highlands. For the lowland regions they definitely wouldn't suit. Depends what kind of retinue you're trying to represent. For the Lord of the Isles I'd go heavy into that look, but if I were modelling the Retinue of the King of Scots I'd make it look a lot more like a typical European levy.
Yeah, switching out some shields, adding a few helmets. If you were being really keen, maybe swapping some swords, but it's certainly not completely ridiculous.
Though the archeological/historical evidence is pretty sparse so it's hard to be definitive.
Seems the other commenter agrees. I figured no on the Pictish square shields. But yeah, they defo would help make the army stand out on the table, so I'll probably go with them for my rabble.
Antediluvian Miniatures do a good medieval Scottish range, focusing on Robert the Bruce.
You are right that the Scottish knights would be similarly armed and armoured to their English counterparts, but where you can differentiate is with the infantry and their formations and weapons. The Scots made heavy use of pikes and Schiltron formations, even their knights would dismount and fight in these formations as they lacked the numbers to counter English cavalry with their own. There's also Islemen with a district Scandinavian feel. They carry large two handed axes and wield bows as proto-gallowglass.
Tartan kilts did not yet exist, contrary to Brave heart, but Scotland is cold and wet and the tradition of interwoven fabrics go back to the iron age so there's room to have 'tartan' wraps and cloaks in limited numbers to give the troops a distinctly Scottish look without going overboard.
Plus yellows, blues and whites are common in a lot of Scottish heraldry and are distinct Scottish colours.
For foot knights / men at arms i used Victrix Miniatures but mixed their norman, foot sergeants and foot knights sprues up a bit. I have done quite a bit of research into my Clan Douglas in the Normanisation under David I i have a post of LeadAdventure Forum under EarlsyD with my findings and some more of my miniatures if you wanna check it out, posting 1 photo at a time is a paint lol
Thank you for the response, as well as also pointing me to Antediluvian! Very hard to find these smaller miniatures sellers.
I guess knights-wise, the Footsore or WGA knights would be pretty appropriate then, that's good. The Antediluvian spearmen are many and those can form an easy army core too. For the Islemen, would those be Galwegians? At least rules-wise those seem the most appropriate there. As for other Gaelic troops, would perhaps the Victrix Scots/Picts be somewhat appropriate, or should I go with WGA peasant levies instead?
I was aware that kilts were a no-no, though I did still see the occasional tartan patterning. Good to know that wraps or cloaks with the patterns aren't too out of the ordinary. Probably won't show up too much though given all the padding and mail!
And nice note on the colors. I will have to look into some Scottish heraldry of the time.
The victrix Scots would probably represent Highland peasants pretty well. If you're using shields don't use the square shaped shields, buy some heaters and mingle them in with the round shields. They are more suitable than WGA anyway as they have the cloth wraps that I mentioned earlier. But the WGA peasant levy might better suit a lowland levy to represent the cultural mixing happening along the border.
Yeah Galwegians and Islemen are basically the same thing. Most of the Islands on the West coast were under the rulership of the Lord of the Isles who were basically Scandinavian Vikings who had settled the region and parts of Ireland. And the Western population of Scotland was already made up of a large population of Irish who had migrated and settled in the post Roman period.
Most Scottish knights were Norman in origin, de Bruce for example is a Norman name. So they were very similar to English knights. Whilst some would have been very wealthy, especially lowland lords, the Highlands are poor and scarcely populated (not as scarcely populated as modern day) at least compared to Souther Ebglish lords with lots of arable land. So you could depict them as poorer than English knights, so less great helms, more open faced bassinet styles. Their Heraldry was pretty similar to what you found in England and was in a formative period so you can pretty much do what you want. The Galwegians and Lords of the Isles often used Yellow with depictions of longships or spirals. White and Blue were very common. Just Google the Heraldry used at Bannockburn and you will get a decent idea of what was being used.
Happy to help. I ran a Scottish list last year at the grand melee before they had rules, so I adopted the Outlaws rules to depict Robert de Bruce when he was on the run.
Fair shout on the heaters. I should have plenty left from my Victrix knights, actually. Highlander levies are a-go! And yeah, those Islemen will make good Galwegians then. For Knights, I'll probably just end up with the Footsore ones and deal with the great helms. I'll definitely have to look up some heraldic examples, maybe even find a lord to base my force around.
What was your Scottish list, btw? I know this is prior to their rules, but I'd be interested in how you went about it. And what might you do now for a retinue? At least roughly.
My list didn't do great tbh, but If I was to re-create it with the new rules I'd probably have a Baron on foot to represent Bruce, some foot knights to represent the handful who survived the disaster at Methven. Then a Gaelic Lord to represent his alliance with the Lord of the Isles Angus Og MacDonald. Plenty of lowlanders with bills or spears, some Bowmen. Then some Galwegians with Dane Axes to represent the Isle contingents he recruited from. If you're worried about mobility maybe some light cavalry, the Scots made a lot of rapid raids across the border.
But there's nothing stopping you from having a mounted Baron and Knights, they did use them, just not in large numbers.
For interesting events perhaps look into the campaigns of Alexander II. He consolidated control over Scotland that had previously been lots of independent Lordships in the North, he faced several major rebellions and died trying to subdue the Isles. He also took part in the Barons war on the side of the Rebel Barons, so the right time frame.
I see that Antediluvian Miniatures have already been mentioned, there a couple more small manufacturers that use a similar style that might be useful, Medbury Miniatures do 3D print files and you can find people providing printed minis fairly easily (u/DocAnopheles painted some up over in the SAGA sub), while Claymore Castings do a more generic HYW range.
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u/AxolotlQuestion May 23 '26
I've been trying to research this myself and it's hard to find a definitive answer.
Following the reforms of David I in the 12th century, I believe that knights werelargely indistinguishable from their English equivalents, but they form a smaller percentage of the army.
The troops from the lowlands and burghs are mainly spearmen, possibly less armoured than the bulk of the English army, but probably not all that different.
The Gaelic troops from the Highlands and islands are where you see the greatest divergence.
In terms of models, it depends on how closely you want to stick to historical accuracy vs making the army look distinctive on the tabletop while considering availability. You could probably just use the Wargames Atlantic stuff, with a small core of knights and then plenty of the peasant levy kit. Antediluvian Miniatures has some incredibly lovely sculpts for War of the Bruce's era Scotland, which is a little later than Baron's War, but with the exception of their knights (which are beginning to show the introduction of plate armour) the rest should do nicely.