What is your favorite faction ?

[lemon_squeezer2]

One thing that has always annoyed me about lego factions is that they have different versions of their coats of arms. The Crusaders have as their main emblem a golden lion on a blue field, but they also have a blue lion on a golden field, and the apparently related crossed axes. In my personal armies, I seperate these into 3 different factions:

The gold lions on blue field are the main Royal faction.

The blue lions on a golden field (wearing scale armour, as there is no surcoat motif for them) are like the King's brother's faction, allied (usually), but seperate and theoretically independent.

The crossed axes are their own faction of mercenaries, who often attach themselves to other factions (presently in the pay of King Leo, as his halberdiers). And they carry no shields.

I alwas viewed it as
Black Falcon Blue: Those spearmen with the "viking helmets"
Black Falcon Yellow: Knights

Lion Yellow: Knights
Crossed Axe shirt: Archers
Lion Blue: Any others

[Jojo]

Hello!

Crossed Axe shirt: Archers

Hehe, those crossed axes seem to be an indicator for them NOT to be bowmen though...

For me the archers are sort of the most respectable men in the King's army as they wield the most powerful weapon. For this reason I always let them wear the tunics with the golden Lion. Less respectable branches of service are wearing the axe here.


Bye
Jojo

[jeff_o_rama]

Hello!

Crossed Axe shirt: Archers

Hehe, those crossed axes seem to be an indicator for them NOT to be bowmen though...

For me the archers are sort of the most respectable men in the King's army as they wield the most powerful weapon. For this reason I always let them wear the tunics with the golden Lion. Less respectable branches of service are wearing the axe here.


Bye
Jojo

I'm pretty sure that archers in the Middle Ages were considered the lesser soldier. They fought their enemy from afar, not bravely hand to hand.

But in your own kingdom, it is by far your right to give your archers the status you think they deserve.

-Jeff

[David Girard]

I think that the difference between the torso in the same faction is difference between noble families. In Lions you find crossed axes and lions. The lions are surely the royal family, and the crossed axes are another important and noble family of this kingdom.

The difference between the shield is another thing. In Lions again...there is 2 different shield that are almost similar but only the colors are differents. The similarity is explain by the fact that both armoury are from the same family, but from a different branch. The Blue with yellow border one is the royal branch family, because the king in King Castle has a Blue Shield with yellow border. The Yellow with Blue border is from the same ancestor than Blue with Yellow border, but not from the royal branch.

Did you understand what I'm trying to say ? (it's difficult to explain in a not natural language for me)

So you can apply the same thing to Black Falcons. There is 2 shields. The Blue Border, and The Yellow border. The Black Falcon Duke have the Blue Border, and the other knights have the Yellow border. So Blue border are from duke branch family, and yellow come from the same ancestor, but are from a lesser branch.

In Black Knight there is only one shield and only one type torso. So that's only royal branch family.

I don't know if archer were well consider in middle ages. I think the were considered the same as other one from the army. They were very important too.

[lemon_squeezer2]

When I read your descriptions the whole thing makes alot mre sense to me. It's just that in my first set, the guarded inn, my favorite person was that little archer....

[Jojo]

Hello!

I'm pretty sure that archers in the Middle Ages were considered the lesser soldier. They fought their enemy from afar, not bravely hand to hand.

I'm not so sure about that. You can give every peasant a spear and he will fight. He still is just "cannon food". Whereas an archer needs a special training, he needs a specialised weapon (making a bow isn't that easy), he's a specialist who lives in the castle and needs shelter and food. Either of that is expensive for the lord. So the archers are precious while the spearmen just have to shield the rows of bowmen by their lives. There are always enough boors to make up for the lost ones...

But in your own kingdom, it is by far your right to give your archers the status you think they deserve. :)

That for sure :-)


Bye
Jojo

[TheMightyTwoAxe]

The Black Knights were the coolest faction ever.

(Magnus wrote) One thing that has always annoyed me about lego factions is that they have different versions of their coats of arms. The Crusaders have as their main emblem a golden lion on a blue field, but they also have a blue lion on a golden field, and the apparently related crossed axes.

I always thought of the two different kinds of lion crests (blue field with gold lion and gold field with blue lion) as two different orders of knights serving the same cause (Like the knights hospitaller and templar during the crusades). I only ever got a few crossed axe guys though so I only used them as executioners/dungeon gaurds.

[Kev]

My main issue with the Lego factions is that there aren't enough of them! I look at something like Playmobile that has something like a dozen in production at any one time, or at the 4 different ones which came with 375, and I really wish that when Lego returns to proper castle they do the same! More variety makes for more army building, and more stories which would have to help sales. So many people are making their own, i know there is a demand for variety, let's hope that Lego picks up on this and follows suit.

[David Girard]

I always thought of the two different kinds of lion crests (blue field with gold lion and gold field with blue lion) as two different orders of knights serving the same cause (Like the knights hospitaller and templar during the crusades)

I don't think we can apply this example to Lions. The Crest is too much similar. Only the family links can make it possible. Blue-Yellow, Yellow-Blue with the same Crest. That's almost the same.

I studied a bit in heraldry in french royal Capetian family (987-1328). The Crest of France, is obviously the lys flower(most of the time yellow or white lys on blue field). So each members of this family has it's own variation of the same crest. Sometime it was a change in color, sometime it was an addition, sometime it was a motif change. Not only France do that. Subsequent dynasty too.

[Jojo]

Hallo!

My main issue with the Lego factions is that there aren't enough of them!

There are lots of possible factions. However, you are right that there are just few at the same time.

We, being in the convenient situation to be AFOLs with not just the limited amount of parts and figs at our command that kids usually get from the shelves, we can make several factions using all kinds of crests that have been produced over the years.


Those are the crests that I'm aware of: LEGO crests (not Castle only)

Unfortunatelly especially the old shields are quite rare, even rarer than the respective figs. For this purpose the Good God of LEGO Castle has invented the Round Shield™ :-)

This is also a possibility (unfortunatelly too expensive for building larger armies):

I look at something like Playmobil

Hehe, the name "Playmobil" is mentioned here quite often. Maybe they (Playmobil) do better than LEGO (as for Castle), and TLC should take a deep look at Playmobil's concept...


Bye
Jojo

[medib]

I just wanted to comment that you didn't mention
the "Royal Knights".

Yes, they had Lion crests on their armor but IMO they
weren't the same as the Lion faction (kings castle, etc)
or Knights Kingdom (blue Lions).

I chose Lion because I like the Royal Knights faction.

[jeff_o_rama]

Hello!

I'm pretty sure that archers in the Middle Ages were considered the lesser soldier. They fought their enemy from afar, not bravely hand to hand.

I'm not so sure about that. You can give every peasant a spear and he will fight. He still is just "cannon food". Whereas an archer needs a special training, he needs a specialised weapon (making a bow isn't that easy), he's a specialist who lives in the castle and needs shelter and food. Either of that is expensive for the lord. So the archers are precious while the spearmen just have to shield the rows of bowmen by their lives. There are always enough boors to make up for the lost ones...

But in your own kingdom, it is by far your right to give your archers the status you think they deserve.

That for sure


Bye
Jojo

Jojo,

Your explanation is a good one. I think I remember watching that show, "Conquest," on the History Channel and hearing the host say that archers weren't as popular. But everyone sure used them back then! Personally, archers are my favorite because they are just so cool! It takes a lot of skill to shoot an arrow acurately.

-Jeff

[JPinoy]

I like the Black Knights/Black Monarchs the most.

[wlister]

Definitly Black Falcons, the release of the BFF was about the Best thing that could happen to my collection. Now we need a 6103 release and I can really start building up my two favorite factions.

WL

[wlister]

Oops, I already gave my 2 cents on this one.