project-image

The Barons' War 4 - Outremer (The Crusader States)

Created by Andy Hobday & Paul Hicks

New, highly-detailed, 28mm medieval miniatures, terrain and retinue lists taking the award-winning The Barons' War to a new setting.

Latest Updates from Our Project:

January is fulfilment month....time to get things started!
about 1 year ago – Sun, Jan 08, 2023 at 01:19:05 AM

An exciting update today! As it's finally January, happy new year, its time to start talking about the fulfilment of all Outremer pledges. It's time for picking, packing and shipping pledges out!


Outremer Book

This week we received the Outremer book back from the printers. The book was the last item we were waiting for, and now it has arrived, despatching the 792 pledges can begin!

I am delighted to say the book looks terrific. Once again laid out and made to look the business by Steve Beckett. Its purpose is to relocate The Barons' War rules over-the-sea. Weighing in at 145 pages, I believe there is plenty of content to achieve that aim. The wraparound cover art is by Peter Dennis, and it looks incredible.

As a reminder, everyone who has completed their pledge will also receive a full digital copy of the supplement. I'm planning on sending the PDF out this month. You should receive it in your inbox before your physical pledge arrives.


Shipping the Outremer Pledges

With the Outremer Book landing this week, Footsore Miniatures & Games is getting ready to pick pledges.  

With a significant increase in the number of backers for this project, extra prep work has occurred. Every single pack you pledged for is already stock, and a special Outremer pickface full of this stock has been set up at Footsore HQ. The plan is to start with all the far-flung pledges, meaning first the Rest of the World, followed by the US, then EU orders shipped via IOSS and finally the UK pledges as they have the shortest distance to travel. Doing it in this order should mean everything arrives around the same time.

With this being the fourth time Footsore Miniatures & Games has done this for us, I am very confident everything will leave this month as planned.

Things to note:

1. Using IOSS into the EU means there should be no extra fees accrued when they land. Be aware that your pledge may arrive in more than one separate shipment if the combined total is over £150.

2. If you have pledged for a Physical Fort and were not one of the initial 25 to pledge, your fort will be arriving separately AFTER everything else. If your pledge level was Fortified Hospital (physical terrain) 2, it will be despatched by the end of May 2023. If it was Fortified Hospital (physical terrain) 3 or you included it in your pledge as an Add-on, it will be despatched by the end of September 2023.


Fulfilment Emails!!

You should have received an email (like the one shown below) from Footsore's fulfilment system. It was sent to tell you that your pledge has changed status, meaning it is ready to be picked & dispatched. 

This email will say your pledge is now in the queue to be fulfilled on the picking and shipping system. You do not need to do anything about it as it's just the final step in the process and is done so the chaps at Footsore Miniatures & Games can print, pack and despatch everything for you.

When your pledge ships, you will also receive a shipping notification from the same system via email. It may take a while to receive this, so please be patient. If you don't receive one for what seems like a long time, your pledge has not been shipped yet. Shipping emails will most likely land towards the end of January 2023. Once shipped, we also update the pledge manager.

So in closing, exciting times ahead this month. I will update you as progress is made. Please message me (Andy) if you have any questions. I will always do my best to answer you as promptly as I can.

Stay safe, everyone!

Andy & Paul (Hobday & Hicks)

Why not join The Barons' War Facebook Group and checkout the WARHOST website the home for The Barons' War game.

Download the Fortified Hospital STL files and an Outremer Book update
over 1 year ago – Sat, Dec 24, 2022 at 07:50:39 AM

Fortified Hospital STL Files

If you backed for the STLs for the Fortified Hospital you will be pleased to hear they are now available for you to access. To help double check this means you, they are now available for:

1. Everyone who backed the Fortified Hospital Digital Files (STLs) pledge,

2. Everyone who backed any of the Fortified Hospital (physical terrain) pledges,

3. Anyone who included the Fort STL files as an Add-on to their pledge.

To start downloading, all you need to do is go to www.warhost.online, which is the support website for The Barons' War and either login to your account, if you have one, or create one.  In either case you must use the same email address you used for your kickstarter pledge.  That is the important bit.

Once you have accessed your account, under your name in the top right-hand corner of the screen, open the menu and click "my purchases". You do need to go to "my purchases" under your account name to see the Fortified Hospital.

The fort will be a purchased product in your account

On the product there's a little drop down menu that makes each of the 6 parts available. Download each part individually to gain access to all the STL files for the full Fort. As long as you have your account on the www.warhost.online website you should always have access to your files.  

For your convenience, if you backed for the Wimentum Village STLs as part of this Kickstarter, they will shortly be joining the Fort in your account.

Printed Outremer Book

We have received the delivery date yesterday for the Outremer book, which is the only thing we are waiting for to start fulfilment. It lands at Footsore Miniatures HQ on the 5th of January 2023, and they plan to start packing pledges once it arrives.

An Outremer book graphic showing actual pages from the finished book

So what actually made it into our jammed packed 145 page supplement? 

A history section kicks us off aimed at transporting us to our new home, and a kingdom carved out after the first crusade, which endured from 1098 to 1291. Compiled and written exclusively by Benedict Coffin, it provides valuable insight into the region's historical background and the protagonists involved. Its goal is to help set The Barons' War game against this very different backdrop. 

The real meat of the book comes next, the Faction lists, Traits and Abilities. The Armies of Outremer collectively offer retinues of Crusaders, Settled Franks and the Military Orders synonymous with the region. The cultured Forces of Islam introduce us to a mixture of lethal warriors from all over the Fertile Crescent. Bandits & Bedouin provide something different and enable you to create truly interesting retinues by recruiting different combinations of local troops. New characters from history are included, labelled as Dramatis Personae. There's also a new Character Creator to design your own Commanders, both historical and not. 

The scenario Commanders painted by HVM workbench

Peril on the Pilgrim Road is a linked six-scenario campaign designed to help you start gaming in Outremer. Play your way through each scenario in turn, pitting Lorenzo di Firenze of the Knights Hospitaller, the garrison's Commander at the fortified hospital, against Nizar ibn Malik and his retinue of Ayyubid raiders. Or simply choose to play any of the six scenarios as a stand-alone game with any retinue. 

The Holy Relic painted by HVM workbench

Finally, there are new rules introducing the local terrain, playing with combined & allied retinues, siege rules for assaulting the fort, including holy relics in your retinue, new equipment (Arms & Armour) and Exhaustion. It is fair to say it was brutal fighting in such a harsh environment.  With the PDF being made available next month to all backers who pledged for at least one pack, January 2023 isn't too long to wait to get started.

The only thing left to say is we both hope you have a very Merry Christmas and wish you all the best for the New Year. As always if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to get in touch.

~Andy & Paul (Hobday & Hicks)

Why not join The Barons' War Facebook Group and checkout the WARHOST website the home for The Barons' War game.

November (almost December) is here what have we been up to?
over 1 year ago – Tue, Nov 29, 2022 at 06:27:22 PM

Hello, we thought it was time for another update to let you know what has been happening behind the scenes. We have news on the Outremer book, the fort STL files and pledge fulfilment.

The Outremer book for The Barons' War 

A mock-up of what the Outremer will look like when we have finished

After sharing the earlier preview mock-up of the book, this month we are able to show you actual pages taken from Andy's screen. Steve Beckett has been working dilligently on the layout while we provide feedback, our focus is to finish off and get the book to the printer early next month (December 2022) as scheduled.  

The book so far is shaping up to be a cracker. It brings new rules, characters and a set of linked scenarios to let you recreate warfare in Outremer using The Barons’ War rules. 

Players will find their existing models from western Europe are ideal as visiting crusaders.  They can be supplemented by local Christian troops to represent the mixed population and hybrid culture of the settled crusader states.  Those who prefer smaller elite forces will want to try the military orders – the Templars, Hospitallers and their less numerous brethren, the Teutonic knights and even the leper-knights of St Lazarus. 

Conversely, the armies of the cultured Islamic world offer a diverse range of options.  Just like contemporary Muslim emirs, players can tailor their forces to their preferred style of play, drawing on the distinctive military traditions of the Fertile Crescent. 

The history of Outremer was shaped by many notable leaders.  We have included a small selection within the book.  Some of the names will be familiar to you, particularly those associated with the Third Crusade. If we haven't included the named character you want to add to your retinue you will be able to create them via the character creator.

As it currently stands we have gone way over our page count allocation. Once trimmed down we will have lots of extra content for blog articles to share on our Warhost website. 

The world of Outremer offers immense potential for playing games of The Barons' War, and we hope you will enjoy it as much as us!


Hospitaller Fort STLs

Different views of the printed and painted fort in all its glory (painted by George Asling)

By the end of this month we will have the fort STL files ready for download.  Those of you who pledged for the files, or for the physical fort, will have access to them in the next 7-10 days.  Please bear with us for an additional few days while we decided on the best way to make the files available. You will receive an email notification from us when we they are ready to go.

If you have backed for the physical fort, we thought you might like to see pictures of production progress. We are well on track to have the first batch of forts ready for January 2023.


Getting ready to pick pledges

Each box contains 100 packs of Outremer figures - which means we are almost ready!

We are planning to lock pledge addresses in early December in preparation for fulfilment. This is your last chance to check and ensure we have your correct address. We will be sending an email warning when this happens to give you a few days to make any necessary changes.

The next step will be moving your pledge information onto the fulfilment system, which will manage all aspects of pick, pack & despatch. During December, you will receive an email notifying you when your pledge has been moved on and is ready for the chaps at Footsore Miniatures & Games to fulfil. The positive news is we are still on track to ship all pledges by the end of January 2023.

That's all for now, but if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to get in touch. Have a great week, and stay safe!

~Andy & Paul (Hobday & Hicks)

Why not join The Barons' War Facebook Group and checkout the WARHOST website the home for The Barons' War game.

Mounted Turcopoles covering the flanks of the heavy armoured knights

October is here what have we been up to?
over 1 year ago – Thu, Oct 06, 2022 at 06:32:35 AM



Hello, we thought it was time for an update to let you know what has been happening behind the scenes. Now we have locked pledges, we can get to work on delivering the BW4: Outremer Kickstarter.


The Outremer Retinue Lists

A mock-up to provide an idea of how the Outremer book will look

The first draft of all the warrior profiles is now with Steve Beckett being laid out. This new (and largest) section of the book has entries for Settled Franks, Crusading Franks, Military Orders, the Forces of Islam and Bedouin & Bandits. These pages provide all the rules needed to include the warriors of Outremer in your games of The Barons' War. We also have tentative rules for the Mongols, but we are not sure if we can fit them in. Each new faction will be accompanied by artwork from Peter Dennis alongside lots of pictures of lovely painted miniatures by HVM workbench, Ben MacIntyre (Brush Demon) and Steve Beckett.


Production and Packing

Footsore Miniatures and Games have been cracking on with pledge production. Plenty of casting of white metal miniatures is taking place. The metal mountain weighing in at over a tonne which arrived on site last month, is being used up at a fast rate of knots!


Cast the miniatures--> Pack the individual blister codes--> Box in quantities of 100--> Store as stock ready

Rumour has it that Paul Hicks will be making his way up to Footsore Miniatures HQ in the not-too-distant future to spend a couple of days helping to build stock. We will bring you lots of photos of him working hard in a future update.

Sarissa Precision has produced the Outremer Action Tokens, full colour printed MDF and they look splendid! The new artwork helps to place games in the realms of Outremer. They include new exhausted tokens, the knight on his knees under the hot sun, for a new rule to replicate fighting in an unforgiving climate.


All new Outremer tokens designed by Steve Beckett & produced by Sarissa Precision

Alongside this new exhaustion rule, other additions include new weapons, new mounts, holy relics, sieges and new terrain rules, all of which help to set the scene of fighting in the deserts of the east. Let's hope we can squeeze it all into the new book.


The Order of Saint Lazarus of Jerusalem, also known as the Leper Brothers of Jerusalem

Everything is looking to be on schedule for pledges to leave Footsore by the end of January 2023. You will be the first to know if this changes for any reason. 

That's all for now, but if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to get in touch. Have a great week, and stay safe!

~Andy & Paul (Hobday & Hicks)

Why not join The Barons' War Facebook Group and checkout the WARHOST website the home for The Barons' War game.


2 Days to go before we Lock Pledges!!
over 1 year ago – Tue, Aug 30, 2022 at 11:14:19 PM

This update is a massive friendly reminder we have only two days before we lock completed pledges on the 1st of September 2022. Please make sure your pledge is completed by midnight on the 31st of August 2022, enabling us to dispatch it to you by the end of January 2023.

We can not guarantee your pledge will be despatched at the end of January 2023 if completed after the 1st of September 2023 deadline. If you have any questions or need help, please get in touch with me ASAP.

Once locked, I will be adding all the freebies to completed pledges that are eligible next week!

Have a great week, and stay safe!

~Andy & Paul (Hobday & Hicks)

Why not join The Barons' War Facebook Group and checkout the WARHOST website the home for The Barons' War game.