November Release: the Imperial Stables!

Year 531 of the first millenium

City of Lunnenburg,

Greetings Sun Emperor,

A long time has passed since the last great battle fought on horseback in the lands of the Empire of Sun. Great are the deeds of ancient knights brandishing their spears against dozens of enemies; Brave were the cavalry charges breaking through the lines of dark armies, and magnificent were the shining armour worn by the horsemen.

So great were these feats that the bravest knights decided to unite in brotherhood, forming a new kingdom based on the laws of Knights, the Kingdom of Gallia. Much was lost then ... the best horse breeds and the best masters left the lands of the Empire in search of this new paradise.

Until today. Fearless Imperial merchants were able to pass through the small Gallia’s borders foals from those lands, which raised on the fertile plains of Esperia, have grown large and strong, giving rise to the Empire's first breed of pure horses.

Now, our prayers have been answered, and in the year 531 of the first millennium we can proudly exclaim that the capital of our glorious Empire of Sun, Lunnenburg, will be the cradle of new feats of chivalry that will amaze every man, woman and child in every land upon this world. The creation of the Imperial Stables will allow us to reinforce our army with magnificent units of heavy cavalry, equipped with strong armour and long spears to pierce the hearts of our enemies.

And among all these horsemen, only the bravest will gather enough courage to be called to the ‘Orders of Chivalry’ of the Empire of Sun, elite groups settled in each of the cities of our land whose existence is governed by a single purpose: to defend the emperor’s children to their last breath.

May the glory of the Sun Emperor be with us,

Great Council of the Empire of Sun.

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Good evening, guys! ⚔️

The Imperial Stables are finally here for this November Release! But first things first, what exactly is coming on this November Release?!

Well, the November 2021 Release in Highlands Miniatures will be composed of:

• Sunland Knights on horse, with core unit (5) and command group (3)
• Sunland Knights on foot, with core unit (5) and command group (3)
• Knights of the Rising Sun on young griffins (3)
• Patreon Exclusive: The Baroness of Lunnenburg on horse (1)

In this post you can see the preview of the very first miniature of the Sunland Knights on horse. After the huge October Release we have created, we only have had time to finish one of the November miniatures for the preview, but the rest of the core unit is almost finished, so the next week we will have the full preview of the Sunland Knights on horse!

The goal for the Sunland Knights is to have heads and weapon-hands modulars, so you will be able to add different weapons to them, like lances, swords, hammers… and choose between the fifteen basic helmets (without feathers, with feathers and with feathers and other details) that will be available for them. Also, we want to keep a very clean design to be able to use these miniatures as a base for the future ‘Orders of Chivalry’, which we will talk about another day. ☀️

To design this unit, we have followed the very classic but great approach of the French Gendarmes of the Compagnies d’Ordonnance around the 16thcentury, but that can be also found in most of the heavy cavalry soldiers around that date. 

📚 If you want to learn more about heavy calvary, check this post from the Met Museum with some cool references: https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/hors/hd_hors.htm

📚 And if you want to check the rivalry between knights and griffins, check this one from the British Library: https://blogs.bl.uk/digitisedmanuscripts/2019/12/knight-v-griffin.html

We are super anxious to finish these units and see how they look printed and painted!

Hope you like it guys and have a great weekend! ❤️