[Preview] Kingdom of England

[Polycarpe]

Introduction to the faction

Having ruled the Kingdom of England for almost 30 years, Henry III Plantagenet finds himself embroiled in conflict. To the north, the troublesome Scots once again threaten war as the borders roil with tension, while the French on the continent remain restless and imposing despite the intentions of their king, Louis IX, to soon depart on a crusade. And inside the kingdom, barons led by Simon de Montfort continue to push for further governmental reforms and less monarchial powers, threatening the stability of Henry’s reign. The situation is dire, yet the English are no strangers to the difficulties of medieval politics.

Perhaps not since 1066, when William the Conqueror himself first led the Norman armies across the Channel to defeat Harold II of England has the realm been so close to conflict on multiple fronts. Following William’s death in 1087, England and Normandy were split in internecine dispute, not to be reunited until Henry I’s ascension in 1100. Henry’s reign was peaceful and prosperous, a stark contrast to the civil wars that followed from 1135-1154 between Stephen of Blois and his cousin the Empress Matilda. Finally, the civil war came to a close as Henry II, of the house Plantagenet, ascended to the throne. Through his father’s lands in Anjou, his wife’s lands in Aquitaine, and his own domains in England and Normandy, Henry II created what would in fact be known as the Angevin Empire, creating the largest domain and most powerful position an English monarch had ever claimed. He also made inroads into Scotland and Ireland, a tradition of conquest which would continue throughout the rule of the House Plantagenet. Though a brilliant ruler, he proved inept when it came to succession, attempting to divide his realm between ambitious children, which caused only more civil war. Eventually, his son Richard prevailed, a man whose epithet “Coeur-de-Lion” lives on as one of the most celebrated heroes in English history, despite the fact he spent very little time in his Kingdom. His success in the Third Crusade, while admirable, nevertheless could not save him from a French arrow upon his return home, and so his inept and weak-kneed brother John took the throne, only to lose Normandy to France, resulting in the collapse of the Angevin Empire. In addition, the barons force John to sign a humiliating treaty known as the Magna Carta, which required the king to proclaim various liberties, weakening the authority and legitimacy of the English crown. His death came on campaign against rebel barons aided by the King of France himself, a rebellion which would be quashed as supporters of his son, the current king Henry, ended the resistance.

Henry and his wife Eleanor of Provence have a small but strong (and growing) family, with a young son and two baby daughters, all of whom have avoided the horrors of infantile sickness. Henry also has one surviving brother, Richard, who has been crusading and whose merely nominal claims on Angevin lands has led him to pursue glory and fame elsewhere, as well as a sister, Eleanor, whose marriage to Simon de Montfort has been the source of much of the trouble between Henry and Simon. Though Henry consented to his sister’s marriage, he has since retracted his approval amid information that Eleanor swore a vow of chastity after the death of her last husband, which she has obviously now broken. The future of their marriage, it seems, also holds a glimpse into the future of the Kingdom.

Henry’s army is neither standing nor professional, but he does possess the ability to call forth thousands of able-bodied men should the need arise, including men skilled in the use of the famed English (or Welsh) longbow, a deadly weapon which has become the bane of English enemies. His knights are, of course, well-armored and able to access the best in English weaponry, as well as strong and sturdy horses to make up Henry’s cavalry. Though they cannot be relied on too much, the local levies will nevertheless fight if conscripted and fed, and could prove useful as skirmishers, light infantry, or even fodder.

Though the Kingdom is indeed in a precarious position, if Henry can consolidate his influence among the barons and unite them against a common, foreign enemy, Henry might be able to win himself enough glory and stability to avoid another full-scale civil war, an internal conflict which has become only too common in England the past century.

A special thanks to Knin for providing this text.

The Characters

We have completely reworked the standard characters of the faction and we will do the same drastic change for the other factions. We have aimed for historical accuracy in character design. Not only that, we will have unique models for two English heroes.

We've also created a brand new set of floating battle banners:

In addition, we've implemented in-game bannermen with their own flag meshes:

England's Army

Here is the big piece of the birthday cake, the unit models of the English unit rosters. The following models are based on the English roster of 1245 to 1320. Some additional comments about the roster

We have designed units to make them varied and historically accurate. Every unit will now have a varied weapon arsenal per unit. So you may have one man using a mace, another a sword, etc. This idea is to follow up the soldier's preference along destroying the myth of the uniformity of Middle Ages and what the game has given us.

As you can see there's no similar units, we have designed 8 possible variations of each soldier (10 for some); new faces, new coat of arms, new weapons, you name it! Not only that, we have totally removed the units that wore the royal coat of arms as the original models had in vanilla M2TW, the reasons is simple, a common militia will never wear a such high coat of arms, they will wore what they can't find and again, army's uniformization wasn't establish until late period.

For the army's composition, we have researched in many books such as Osprey, WRG references and plenty of websites in order to give each unit appropriate coat of arms and accurate unit names. It may be not perfect but our goal is to be accurate as within the limit of our research.

Now onto the units, each picture will have their unit description and name. Enjoy!



Familiers

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Familiers are the bodyguards of important royal and noble English figures. Loyal until death, these men proudly wear the royal coat of arms and are heavily equipped. These men are also mounted on heavy war horses, enabling them to protect their lord from any threats and repel any attackers.

Chevalers

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Base (c. 1250)

Base Dismounted - "Deschivache"

Upgrade (c. 1300)

Upgrade Dismounted - "Deschivache"

Chevalers (knights) are members of the warrior class in the European Middle Ages who have come from the aristocracy of England. Each knight has made a vow of servitude to their lord or to their sovereign and has become a vassal of this lord. These knights formed the core of heavy cavalry in most European kingdoms until military reforms that created national standing armies were made in the late Middle Ages. They have access to the best and latest equipment for their era. Their main role is to charge through enemy ranks.

Serjeants

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Dismounted - "Deschivache"

Coming from minor landowners and nobility, Serjeant men-at-arms are trained cavalry and/or infantry units. Equipped as a knight but in lesser quality, this troops were often used in conjunction with longbowmen. King Edward II used his archers to soften the enemy from afar and his Serjeants to finish the disjointed formation - this proved to be a remarkably effective tactic.

Archers Yomen

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Drawn from English freeholders and required by the king to be trained in warfare with the application of the Archery Law in 1272, Yeoman Archers are highly skilled ranged troops. Lightly armoured and equipped with a longbow for ranged combat. Yeomen Archers are able to lay defensive wooden stakes to help keep enemies at bay.

Hobilars

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

It is thought the term 'Hobilars' comes from the Norman name 'hobby' for the small horses that Gaelic troops rode in Scotland and Ireland. In medieval warfare Hobilars were the lighter cavalry who supported the knights. They shouldn't be relied on to engage in a prolonged melee, but can be valuable for chasing down fleeing enemies.

Geldons

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Geldons (spear militia) are commoners and peasants who have been levied into local militias to defend towns, roads and bolster armies. Given some training and equipped with a spear, though little armour, these units are useful in defence, but cannot be expected to endure for long on an open battlefield.

Archers

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Archers are militia units who are proficient with the longbow. The English Archery Law of the 13th century ensured that English men would become experts in the use of the bow. In 1252 the “Assize of Arms” ensured that all Englishmen between the ages of 15 to 60 years old were ordered, by law, to equip themselves with a bow. The Plantagenet King Edward III took this further and decreed the Archery Law in 1363 which commanded the obligatory practice of archery on Sundays and holidays.

Archers Corvee

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Archers Corvee (levied archers) are units conscripted to take up arms for a military campaign or for defending settlements. Often summoned in an emergency, levies aren’t reliable; they aren't trained for warfare and see little combat experience as they are disbanded during the harvest season. Still, they can provide decent ranged power due to several imposed English archery laws.

Paisants Corvee

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Paisants Corvee (peasant levies) are units conscripted to take up arms for a military campaign or for defending settlements. Often summoned in an emergency, levies aren’t reliable; they aren't trained for warfare and see little combat experience as they are disbanded during the harvest season.

The Spotlight Section

I really want to thanks all my team for contributing to this once little project and you guys can congrats their work by repping them; they will appreciate it.

Lord Hamilton: Unit Modeler, Unit Texturer, 2D Eye Candies, Signatures.[Click here to Rep]

St. Polycarpe: Preview and Team Management, integration.[Click here to Rep]

SonofPeverel: Map template, research.[Click here to Rep]

Ancient Aliens: Content Writer, text correction, faction description.[Click here to Rep]

Kjertesvein: Team management, feature ideas. [Click here to rep]

ADDITIONAL CREDITS:
Marka Modding Team - Ruischi Total War
Dejawolf - M&B Open Source
Narf of Picklestink - M&B Open Source
Yamabusi - M&B Open Source
Shredzorz - M&B Open Source

[HTVfanatic]

Looks awesome! Thanks for sharing that, can't wait

[Bagatyr]

great rep +

[Cyprian2]

This is the best unit roster I've seen for England, by far. Both graphics and research are absolutely tops! I especially like the men-at-arms (which, I assume, will have later armour upgrades?). Also, the strat-map characters look fantastic!

You have a new fan.

[Duke of Lancaster]

Holy cow, those're some of the best units I've seen! I'm in love with how historically accurate they are, they look so raw, and the fact that you're mixing it up with the units having multiple weapons in one battalion is fantastic, it's so authentic. Great job!

I really want to see this mod go far. This might be considered a "noob" question to ask, but how far along is this mod, generally speaking?

[CReSTo]

Look awesome!

+rep

[Polycarpe]

Holy cow, those're some of the best units I've seen! I'm in love with how historically accurate they are, they look so raw, and the fact that you're mixing it up with the units having multiple weapons in one battalion is fantastic, it's so authentic. Great job!

I really want to see this mod go far. This might be considered a "noob" question to ask, but how far along is this mod, generally speaking?

It's going well, our second faction roster is nearly half finished, we take our time to make sure the units are the most detailed and accurate as possible.

[Duke of Lancaster]

Good answer.

[TaronQuinn]

I said it in the main thread when this was just a WIP and without its own forum, so I'll say it here too: WOW! So many other factions have gotten overhauled with mod teams devoting time to the Russians, Byzantines, Islamic factions, Hungarians, Poles, Lithuanians, and even Norse...so it is gratifying to see a team create such superb examples of English troops from the High Middle Ages period, and I cannot wait to shoot down some Scots and Frenchmen with those Yeomen Archers (no offense to either of those two nationalities, especially since we've yet to see what the team will create for them as well.)

TQ

[Polycarpe]

I said it in the main thread when this was just a WIP and without its own forum, so I'll say it here too: WOW! So many other factions have gotten overhauled with mod teams devoting time to the Russians, Byzantines, Islamic factions, Hungarians, Poles, Lithuanians, and even Norse...so it is gratifying to see a team create such superb examples of English troops from the High Middle Ages period, and I cannot wait to shoot down some Scots and Frenchmen with those Yeomen Archers (no offense to either of those two nationalities, especially since we've yet to see what the team will create for them as well.)

TQ

Thank you, I think the biggest change would be Scotland, try to imaginate an accurate roster without Braveheart style or kilts but using real Scots

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[morfeasnikos]

Amazing work...bravo

[Aguirre]

incredible units!

[General Brewster]

Very nice.

[Baerke Hinn Gauzki]

I must say that I'm impressed here team

[2Shy]

Amazing! +rep

[The Uruk]

Awesome work!
Units are amazing!

[Captain Zoran]

As Ive stated before, I think that these units are increadibly well done and grounded in reality, which I truly admire. I only have one wondering though. Historically, militias were mostly used for regional (or in times of great need) national defence. They were never really used for territorial expansion as far as my knowledge reaches me. So if you should play it historically, which I tend to do, the only units you would bring into conquest would be the upper tier units, from Men-at-arms and Yeomen (possibly levied longbowmen in shorter campaigns) and up, which leaves out those really awesome looking Town militiamen. In fact, it leaves out any spearwielding infantryunits, which are the natural first line of defence. Is this intended, or otherwise you could perhaps add another Yeomen unit whom wield spears w/wo shields or shorter pikes? I stress that I do not want to put any more pressure on your increadibly skilled unitmoddeler, and I can certainly cope without such an unit, I will definetly play this mod nonetheless. But in my point of view, it would be a nice addition. What do you think?

[Polycarpe]

As Ive stated before, I think that these units are increadibly well done and grounded in reality, which I truly admire. I only have one wondering though. Historically, militias were mostly used for regional (or in times of great need) national defence. They were never really used for territorial expansion as far as my knowledge reaches me. So if you should play it historically, which I tend to do, the only units you would bring into conquest would be the upper tier units, from Men-at-arms and Yeomen (possibly levied longbowmen in shorter campaigns) and up, which leaves out those really awesome looking Town militiamen. In fact, it leaves out any spearwielding infantryunits, which are the natural first line of defence. Is this intended, or otherwise you could perhaps add another Yeomen unit whom wield spears w/wo shields or shorter pikes? I stress that I do not want to put any more pressure on your increadibly skilled unitmoddeler, and I can certainly cope without such an unit, I will definetly play this mod nonetheless. But in my point of view, it would be a nice addition. What do you think?

We might alter slightly certain units but we will have another recruitment and building system (when i'll get time, I'll write those new features). About militia, their main task were to defend settlements and bolster armies during military campaign but they were the units the commander will based on, generally, they will retreat if they start to have casualties and at that period, the militia were equipped with what they could afford, a spear, the oldest weapon, was very cheap to produce and was still efficient until the advent of the heavy plates. The militia will also be balanced for their main use, using hem in an army will really make them expensive and a waste of men since most of them weren't trained well. However we will consider your suggestion.

[Spitfire -WONDERBOLT!]

Very nice, although I HATE that checkered blue-yellow pattern. :/

[Radboud]

I love how brownish red was used for most of the units instead of bright red, awesome stuff. +rep to the creator.