By Konstantine Trtiambelas
This will be an army report on the Early Imperialists, my first completed Western European medieval army which also accompanied me on my trip to Greece and fought everything from the Han Chinese to Later Hoplite Greek to Persian to Moorish.
[Ed. Note: Tracing its origins to Charlesmagne's Frankish empire, the Holy Roman Empire established by Otto I and the Pope in 962 AD was described by Voltaire as "neither holy, nor Roman, nor an Empire." This list covers the armies of the Holy Roman Empire from the beginning of the reign of Heinrich (Henry) V in 1106 AD into the reign of Frederick III ending in 1450 AD (which is often taken to be the end of the "medieval" age). It includes the reign of Frederick I (Barbarossa) the famous crusader king who ruled from 1152 to 1190 AD. Frederick Barbarossa's reign represents perhaps the peak of this Germanic empire's power.]
Early Hungarian(#119), Early Polish (#122), Communal Italian (#123), Papal Italian (#126), Early and Later Medieval Scandinavian (#131a,b), Sicilian (#135), Feudal French (#137), Later Polish (#149), and Low Countries (#163).
I personally think that the Early Imperialists should also fight themselves; there were extended periods of civil strife in Germany during this period and there's no other army in DBA to account for this.
| 4 x 4Kn/4Bd | These knights would be the core of the army. German Emperors of the time were facing chronic shortages in troops thanks to the insubordination of the nobles who were independent rulers of their own Duchies with very little will to leave Germany in order to fight abroad. Most of the Emperor's knights would come from church lands which were under direct Imperial control. |
| 4 x 4Sp | These troops would probably be town militias or mercenaries from the Low Countries. Large tracts of land in Germany remained allodial, that means under no lord. The peasants who tended them were free men obliged to military service under the Folgepflicht, the call to arms for the maintenance of public peace and defense of the land which exempted only women, clerics, and shepherds. German cities developed more or less along the lines of their counterparts in Northern Italy but without the martial spirit or military successes of the later; many times a city would fight another city in which case both knights and additional infantry and/or crossbows would get hired by the townsmen. |
| 1 x 4Cb | Crossbows were widely used in German cities for defense and in Hanse towns shooting guilds were formed as early as the late 1200's. A lot of crossbowmen came from the Low Countries which seem to have developed a tradition in hired "guns", much like the English longbowmen did a few generations later. |
| 2 x 2LH or 4Cb | I haven't found any reference to the use of LH in German armies of the period which makes it sound like something used extraordinarily, perhaps to counteract the large LH contingent of Hungarian armies or for scouting and foraging when on campaign in the East. It seems highly unlikely to me that a German army would include any LH when on campaign in N. Italy, prior to the conquest of Sicily; Henry VI, however, conquered Sicily in 1194 and was quick to put local troops to use, a large portion of which was Moslem, both foot and cavalry. Frederick II' bodyguard is well known to have included Saracens,including Tunisian Berbers, while he used Saracen archers to soften up the ranks of the Lombard League's army at the battle of Cortenuova in 1237. My Essex figures for the LH depict Western-style lightly armed cavalrymen which is probably wrong; they should look like Moslem LH, perhaps from the Berber or Ayyubid armies of the same period (I use a couple of my Seljuk LH, lets not be too picky..). |
| 1 x 2 Ps | Oh, gosh, who knows..perhaps freemen or serfs not rich enough to afford anything better than a sling and a stick. |
For a medieval army, this is a versatile one. You can have an all-infantry formation full of Blades and Spear (did anyone say Polybian Roman?) with the added bonus of missile fire or trust your mounted knights to ride eveything down.
The LH option adds much-needed mobility, but I generally use the Cb whose concentrated fire could be devastating; it is good, though, to be able to choose.
There aren't enough light troops to contest bad goings, but where the going gets tough, the knights can always dismount and fight with a +3.
I own two of the Germans' historical opponents, the Early Hungarians and the Papal Italians while I'm going to add the Sicilians who should already be on their way from Wargames, Inc. in PA. So far, the Imperialists seem to have an easy time against the Hungarians whom they've beaten 3-0. If the Hungarian LH doesn't get shot to pieces by the Cb, the German knights will save the day while the Hungarian Cav will get pinned down by the German infantry, or some other doomsday (for the Hungarians) scenario will take place.
In the most successful Hungarian performance, the LH took the German camp but were unable to inflict further loses and finally they lost 4 elements against the German 2 (from the sacking of the camp). Historically, the German Emperors failed in their repeated invasions of Hungary but that was due to scorched earth tactics on the part of the Hungarians and not pitched battles which they would've probably lost. This would make an interesting variant rule, by the way; how do I simulate scorched-earth tactics on the tabletop? Hmmmmm....
Against the Papals, things come to a 2-2 draw. Here the armies are very similar (Kn, Sp, Cb) and who will deploy first is of utmost importance. Every time I fight these two I ask someone else to deploy one of the armies behind a screen, just to even out the odds. Victory is not quaranteed for either opponent, not to mention that I've been playing Cb vs. Kn wrong this whole time; the German Cb doubled and destroyed the Papal General Kn FROM A DISTANCE. Obviously, I have to replay this one....
The Zurich Roll of Arms for dozens of armorial bearings mostly of towns, but some bishoprics are included.
Encyclopaedia.Com's History of the Holy Roman Empire.
The German History and Politics website has a page of links on German Medieval History.
List of the Holy Roman Emperors.
I'm not a big fan of ahistorical battles but I visited home (Greece, that is) recently and took the Germans with. My friends are mostly into ancients, with the only Medieval armies being the Mongols and Late Samurai. I'm glad to say that my Germans met most challenges with Wermacht-like resilience, all these knights are tough to beat after all, regardless of era.
The toughest opponent? Alexander's Macedonians (what can I say, I'd never encountered pikes before that, I think I'm switching geographically and after the Sicilians I'm going for Scots Common..). The easiest? Moorish and Late Achaemenid Persian. It was a blood-fest and I thoroughly enjoyed all the slaying (of the opponent).
No Roman armies were present (Greek snobbery perhaps?) to match blades against blades but I think I would gladly participate in a tournament with the Early Imperialists as my army. Lots of punch, versatility, and long-range shooting.
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My thanks to Konstantine Trtiambelas. Comments, questions or suggested additions can be sent to Chris Brantley at brant@erols.com.
Last Updated: Nov. 15, 1998