Classic-Castle.com

I have a question for anyone who is willing to offer some advice. When using mercenary groups in one of your armies, but you have no room in your army's castle, where do you put your mercenary groups? Do they really need some place (as small as it may be) to call their own? What do most of you do with your small groups of mercenary soldiers?

Build them some tents like the ones Jojo designed, they can camp outside the fort before the battle.

This should be in MOCS by the way!

Build a Mercenary Post outside the castle walls...

Thet're mercenaries: their very nature calls for mobility. Tents, or at the most, wooden palisades (or something like that) would be my recommendation.

[True, they might want a base to call home between jobs, but what do they do when they get one? I mean, who guards the homestead? Other mercenaries?]

I had always envisioned mercenaries living in wagons and tents with their women folk. These wagons would follow at a distance as they raided or warred and once they days festivities were done, the mercs would return to their wagons and tents. Wagons have a few advantages, they are very mobile, you can abandon them quickly and there are many traveling people from which you can steal the wagons.

Most hired mercenaries if it was a large army lived under their cloaks like any other soldier. Tents were for the nobility in times of large scale warfare.

Will

Aviah102 wrote:...where do you put your mercenary groups?

The forefront of battle. Always. You don't have to pay dead mercenaries.

Oh...I'm editing your question for cheap laughs? Busted.

Okay, hopefully I'd have them looting the opposition's turf and let them sleep in what house they don't feel like burning down.

I might have to try a mecenary camp creation. Sounds like an interesting project. Though right now the BrickTower is taking up all my space, and then some...

Steve

Yes, I was thinking of tents and pavilions also. I imagined them as living in forests, but since they are defending a castle, it wouldn't be too covinient.

Sir Terrance wrote:Yes, I was thinking of tents and pavilions also. I imagined them as living in forests, but since they are defending a castle, it wouldn't be too covinient.

That is wrong Sir Terrance, it cowld be well for a ambush wen is time.

Hi Aviah,

Welcome to Classic-Castle

I want to let you know that the LEGO Castle forum is for official LEGO Castle sets discussions. Questions about armies would belong in MOC or perhaps stories. So I will move this topic there. Thanks!

Ben E.
Sets Admin

Will, you made an interesting statement when you replied to my topic. Is it a true or believed historic fact that mercenaries "lived under their cloaks?" If so this would help out a lot because i spent most of my lego resources on building a castle and have no real barracks or area for troops or mercenaries. As creative and cool as Jojo's tents are, i unfortunately do not have the lego's to build such elaborate dwellings for my soldiers, thanks for the inspiring tip, lol,

Brian

It is a true/historic fact that many armies during Medieval times were poorly equipped especially conscripts and mercenaries. Sleeping under your cloak was quite common. Only nobles could affor the fancy tents Jojo built.

The only real time mercenaries would have spent in tents during a times of war would have been with female camp followers and the like.

Regular professional soldiers like the Royal British and French armies would likely have had tents for all their mounted soldiers and men of rank.

Probably the only mercenaries with tents would have been their battle leaders or whatever tents their women folk made for them. Keep in mind tents sodden with rain would have been hard for infantry to carry with them. Armor, weapons and food would likely have been the priority, that and something to hunt and make fire with.

If your castle is under seige, you can start with men under their own cloaks and then progress to more and more tents as time progresses. Many seiges lasted weeks or months while the seige forces waited to starve out the defenders. TTK or others may give you better info about that.

Will

The middle of the castle, between the walls
If it gets really bad they can't just run off, they will be trapped in the middle of the castle and will have to fight