15mm Guards

If it's one thing I've learned over the years of playing fantasy tabletop RPG's, it's that you can never have enough guards. In game I find guards give player's limitations and challenges to over come if they so choose. Guards also give the player's actions consequences: "No you can't steal that gold necklace from the shop, the town guard is watching." Guards can force roleplay and creative thinking. However, on the tabletop however, guards often end up being more then your mighty miniature collection can handle.

The problem is that you can never have enough, with just the right spread of equipment. For higher level players or larger parties, an encounter with 12 guards is not unreasonable. But if you are using 28mm minis it is prohibitively expensive. That is where 15mm minis and Splintered Light Miniatures come in. These guys are from their 15mm Dark Age Historic Line under the Normans.

The Nomran troops cost $9 for 12 figures with spears and swords. Which is about 1/6th what you would pay for the same number of 25/28mm figures. that means large encounters with lots of guards become possible, allowing you to truly set the scene.

I gave these guys Yellow sleeves so that they would stand from rest of the party. Not many of my players use yellow in their character concepts, and being our "generic town guards" means that they will also likely see a lot of use on the table, and I wanted them to be noteworthy.

I hope to have 4 matching spearmen and 4 matching crossbowmen by Friday, as I assume they will be featured heavily in my upcoming Hymns of a Vagabond game. Fingers crossed that I can get that done.


Written by: Andrew Gregory