Azincourt!

I'm quite excited, something I have been waiting with anxious anticipation for quite some time has finally been released (for pre-order anyway). Last year, when I attended Claymore, I purchased the Hundred Years War variant for Test of Resolve and after vacillating on what figures to use, I  learned that Wargames Atlantic announced they would be releasing box sets for the Hundred Years War battle Azincourt (which I always spelled Agincourt, but nevermind that..). 

I felt like I was checking in on updates regarding the Azincourt releases for about a year or so. In the interim, I purchased a box set of the Wargames Atlantic Fantasy Battle Orcs and began painting them up as practice run for speed-painting (well, no painting is "speedy" for me) the Azincourt armies. When the Azincourt armies finally appeared for pre-order, I took the plunge and purchased a Christmas gift for myself (if you can't love yourself, who can you love?). I added in a box set of the Fantasy Battle Dwarves (need an opponent for my Orcs) and also a box of Bone Blades (aka undead skeletons).

Box art for the English pictured above. The set includes: 

• 246 English knights/men-at-arms on foot
• 362 longbowmen (with both bows and melee weapons)
• 105 wooden stakes (in plastic)
• Casualty figures

Box art for the French pictured above. The set includes: 

• 351 French knights/men-at-arms on foot
• 108 knights mounted
• 246 Genoese crossbowmen with pavise
• Casualty figures to include horses

A picture from Wargames Atlantic above of the painted English knights/men-at-arms.

That is quite alot of figures...and not every battle of the HYW had similar orders of battle like Azincourt. I probably don't need all 108 mounted knights to be French and I think some could be painted up as English. Perhaps some of those English longbowmen can be painted as French archers and some of the longbowmen with melee weapons can be painted up as French rabble.

The box sets also include very nice plastic bases 40mm x 20mm in dimension. While nice, I doubt I will use them. In Test of Resolve, melee units are comprised of two bases stacked behind each other while missile units are two bases side by side. I am thinking of perhaps 60mm x 20mm or 60mm x 30mm...or even 80mm frontages. I'd like to have melee units deployed as either squares or perhaps a bit wider than they are deep. 

I have quite a few painting projects milling about so who knows when I will be able to put paint to plastic on these little fellas but I look forward to everything about this project.