Horve City Guard

A Cleric leads a patrol into the woods.

In the heavily wooded valley of Oakenshire lies the city Horve. In it both dwarves and humans live together, the men plowing the fields outside its walls, and the dwarves working the forges and mines underneath. The valley is ruled by the human count and the dwarven council, to ensure that the interests of both people are honoured.
Horve is protected by the staunch City Guard. A diverse fighting force tasked with keeping the valley safe. Thus, they patrol far and wide, being more of a small military force. There are small garrisons spread out across the valley, so the villages and hamlets can be aided, should they come under attack. 

I've managed to "finish" something for once! I feel very proud. Above is the Horve City Guard, in all of its glory.
The origin of this force is my love for the Fantasy Warriors line of Fighting Men, which I at some point want ALL of. But most of all, the superb foot knights.

Image taken from www.forlornhopegames.com

Granted, two of these are on the wrong bases. I might have to paint another copy of those.

These are some great and characterful sculpts, decked out as they are in late medieval plate armour. Great fun to paint. Now theres of course the question of all of the plate armoured characters in that line . . . I'll get to that :P

Leading the force, for now, is a Battle Cleric.

Most units of the City Guard have one, to heal those who are wounded in battle, and quiet the souls of those who give their lives.

The miniature is from Privateer Press' Iron Kingdoms line of miniatures, a "Cleric of Morrow". Very nice and clean sculpt. The mace did break instantly when I got the miniature, so I had to replace the rod with a piece of brass. Had a lot of fun painting it: I went for a crusader-aesthethic, with the cross and tabard, which I think turned out very nicely.  

This was the last of the Foot Knights that I painted. I spend a bit longer detailing the armour of this guy, doing some sublte shading with a green-grey to add a bit of richness to the miniature, the end result of which I am very pleased with.

Now, the sharp eyed amongst you might have noticed that the force has a certain lack of ... anything that isn't a knight.
Yeah.
I have this problem where I keep buying and painting knights, because they are fast to finish and look cool, but very rarely paint any miniatures to support them. Well, I have a few things I'd like to add to the unit.

No rest of for the wicked - Still got plenty of unpainted lead and plastic to go.

Apart from the un-finished miniatures I have, rounding out the dwarven unit and adding a small unit of spearmen, I need a banner and a hero to lead the force. And some ranged support.
The plan is to slowly work towards a playable force for Lion Rampant and similar games, as that is a system I've been very enthusiastic about since trying it out at Horisont last year.
Until then, the force will of course serve in the various skirmish systems I like: Open Combat, Song of Blades and Heroes, possibly Brink of Battle.

That is all for now! Thanks for reading - I hope you enjoyed the showcase and ramble.