Slitherine

Hey All,

I'm busy painting up some "Northern Crusade" Knights for my "Post Viking Scandanavians".

I've got to say, I'm enjoying painting up knights, but I'm never very good at 'do it yourself heraldry'. I started painting up one knight and half way through I thought 'he'd be a fantastic "Knight of St John" or "Teutonic Knight"'. So, I got to thinking. Would any military order knight fight as a mercenary? Would it be beyond the realm of possibility for part of a BG (one base and/or one figure on a base) to be from a military order?

I don't know enough about the period to know. To me, it sounds a bit like 'you wouldn't ever see a USMC soldier fighting as part of a British Army unit'. Even if attached, he would be an observer, not 'in the thick of the fighting'. Any opinions would be appreciated.

Lastly - I always go by the 'never let the truth get in the way of a good paintjob' but I'd kinda like to know the truth too

That BG of 4 bases potentially represents several distinct "units" fighting together under a common mid-level commander, so from that point of view there's no problem with mixing and matching.

In the specific case of the military orders, who were not really noted for their willingness to co-operate and co-ordinate sensibly with others on the battlefield it perhaps wouldn't feel right. But really, that's your call - it is your army after all!

Don't forget that the military orders did not have copyrights on their heraldry. It was not uncommon in Germany, Poland and other places for the same heraldry to be in use by several different families.

Military order troops were stationed all over Europe, These units or commanderies as they were called were stationed in Outremer, Spain, Balkans, England, France ect. . Each Order would have the modern day equivelant of an embasy in most major cities. The Templers were well known for it, but making money was a major influence. The Wealth and size of each order would determine how many brothers were taken on and where they would serve. The Templers rotated their men around Europe on a fairly regular basis. These groups were quite small, perhaps just 300 full brothers when at full strength. They would have support from junior brothers and local allies. These groups always fought as a seperate entity and answered only to themselves. There is every chance they would have fought for the country they were stationed in but as an indipendant ally and not individual mercaneries. Brothers didn't figtht for pay so were never hired as individuals while serving, but the senior commander or Master could have recieved contributions to the order in exchange for his units help. Making money was a major pastime for the orders.

Having a Templar contingent in Northern Europe would be quite valid but it would be small. You could be looking at as few as 50 men, just enough to guarentee the safety of their money making interests. They would fight together as a small unit. How you want to represent them is up to you. You could have a 4 base unit on their own but it would be out of scale figure to man ratio. If you want them mixed in with other contingents in the same unit i can't see why you couldn't do that. One base representing the templers the other bases representing other contingents.

Thanks for your replies all.

I'll put the figure in the unit somewhere. The BG will be "Undrilled" and of course he'll be the only Drilled guy in the BG. That means that whenever I try to do something complicated that manages to be pulled off, I'll blame the Military Order dude for telling secrets to the rest of my BG. If I fail complicated manouvers I'll have justification in not having Drilled Knights, as they are bloody useless - they never pass a test (as can be seen by that particular figure)