More DBA Painting

An army I picked up at the local gaming store (Game Kastle) has something of a Holiday theme, or did once I got done with it:

Early Slav - Bohemians (III/1b)

 

 The holiday theme comes from this being the army of Svatý Václav, aka Good King Wenceslaus.

I was kind of forced into this rather fanciful vision of the 10th century Bohemian duke by the fact that Essex chose to make the command stand a group of knights. The stand is supposed to be cavalry. As a result, I went with the iconography of St. Wenceslaus, giving him a shield bearing the Premysl arms (heraldry being about one hundred years later than the real Wenceslaus), a similar banner on his lance (the real Wenceslaus probably used spear and sword), and a dagger and crown (the real Wenceslaus was a duke, and only made a king postumously). It does make for a nice stand, though, and obviously, the snow was almost essential.

Spear, spear, and more spear

Bow or Psiloi for some variety

 Eight spear make up the bulk of this whole army, supported by two stands of bow or psiloi. If the shields are a little more colorful than they probably would have been in real life, well, it's Christmasy that way.

 The remaining cavalry consists of either some traditional Bohemian cavalry (well, Essex provided early Russian cavalry, but in a pinch it will do), or else Swabian knights.