I’ll get this out at the front: this is not about real world logistics. If you’ve somehow stumbled onto this with key words like “Portuguese medieval logistics” I’m sorry to say you probably need to go look at primary language resources, as I’ve repeatedly discovered in my exploration of the medieval Portuguese.

No, this is an article about heraldry and how I’m planning on painting my medieval Portuguese army to go up against my generic Islamic army I just wrapped up.

These guys.

I had to cancel a game event this weekend and used the time to build out my full force for a medieval army to use for SAGA, Midgard, Lion Rampant, or With Shield and Courage. I’ve wanted to build both this Arab and this Portuguese medieval army for a long time. Honestly, regardless of having a game system or not, I just want to do this. It’s entirely possible neither army sees tabletop for a long time to come.

Anyway! Let’s talk about painting. Most of this is simple: I’ve tried my best to look at primary sources and found that the Portuguese, like every medieval army, wore red, blue, yellow, and green (for one military order). They had a preference for blue or red (based on limited primary resources) but all the colors appeared. As this army is not meant to represent a specific period, I have the luxury of casting a wide net when seeking color patterns. During my research I’ve found the Portuguese actually had several holy orders, including the Knights Templar, the Order of Avis, the Order of St James of the Sword, and the Military Order of Christ. Here’s an example of the Order of St James of the Sword:

Note the symbol on his shield I’ll never be able to freehand.

The Portuguese soldiers themselves were graciously quite straightforward:

Straightforward… if you ignore the ridiculous bardings on those horses. I won’t even try–though I have to admit it’s a shame that I won’t. We’ll get back to that. The plan for soldiers is easy: set them into multiple groups with differing primary colors. Metal is metallic, clothing is the primary color. Simple. I’ll probably do a split of 40% blue, 40% red, 20% yellow or green. Where a corresponding color is needed (like on tights) I’ll vary my choice as I go. Now… the shields. Let’s start by looking at the Portuguese Coat of Arms over time:

Okay. Okay. So that first one? Easy. There’s 30% of my shields right there. The rest…? Ow. That’ll be hard to free hand. Yet… I feel like I almost need to. Or at least I need to get a flag bearer somewhere. Why? Well, there’s a reason I keep looking at the reconquista against the Moors. It’s because it’s a defining moment in Portuguese history. It’s the whole reason I want to do this project and… it’s what those shields represent for most of Portuguese history.

The red border represents defeating the Moors. The five blue shields represent the five Moorish kings defeated by Afonso I, the first king of Portugal. The yellow castles represent the Moorish fortresses captured by the Portuguese in battle. The green fleur-de-lis represented the Order of Avis–simply put, consider this a nod to the importance of Christian military orders in Portuguese history. There’s more behind it but that note is important for this army.

I’d like to find a way of representing these concepts–honestly, again, I’ll probably get a flag bearer somewhere in there. The issue becomes the rest of the potential shields. I went digging for medieval Portuguese shields and found the following:

Yeah… most of that isn’t happening by freehand. Even the simple yellow and red cross has Christ in the middle if you look closely. I’m going to settle for a representative method: various crosses and half-and-half shields in the colors seen here. I figure 20% of the army should feature red and yellow patters, with another 20% or so featuring blue and yellow patterns. That leaves 30%–the military orders.

In green we have the Order of Avis and in red here we have the Order of St. James of the Sword, known at the time as the Order of Santiago. I don’t believe I can easily recreate these symbols by hand but I’m going to look into decal paper and printing them myself. I figure these can readily be placed upon white backgrounds and work just fine with some minor effort. There’s the remaining 30% of the army.

My initial force will be composed of mounted military orders backed up by Portuguese foot soldiers mixed between military orders and more local recruits. This isn’t exactly historically right or wrong–perfect for a generic force meant to span multiple centuries. I’m starting off with two boxes of Wargames Atlantic Foot Knights, a box of Fireforge Templar Knights, and some Medieval Archers from Conquest Games. To be fair I really need crossbowmen–but I’ll get back to them down the line when I augment the army with kits coming out next year.

Hope you’ve enjoyed this bit of army planning. These poor troops won’t see the painted light of day for a few weeks but with a plan in hand I can streamline the painting process and may just be able to get them done by Christmas. I’m excited–this is an army I’ve wanted to paint for years and now I’m finally upon it. Game or no game, there’s something satisfying about knocking these two forces out. Maybe I can keep this momentum going and knock out my 6mm Napoleonics!

Oh… oh no…