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The year of our Lord 1139.

The Empress Matilda, claimant to the throne of England as trueborn daughter of the deceased King Henry- God rest his soul- has invaded lands of her rival claimant, Stephen of Blois, the King's nephew.
With neither side wishing to risk the carnage of an open battle, a period of attrition ensues; raiding parties and sieges become the norm in this bloody civil war.

Here, knights and footmen loyal to Maud spring a trap, ambushing a waggon of supplies destined for Stephen's army. By cutting off their supply lines, Maud's forces hope to leave Stephen's soldiers stranded afield, and thus more vulnerable to further attack.


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First off, apologies for the atrocious photography. I built this over the last week or so of winter break, starting with the cart, and finishing at 4 or 5 AM the night before (morning of...) the day I moved back in. I took the photos literally minutes before getting in the car.

Anyway, I've been getting more and more into the actual history and research of the middle ages for a while now, and ended up delving into the 12th century for this, especially the period called the Anarchy- a civil war between cousins vying for the English throne. Warfare of the time tended to be attritional, with less focus on running at each other in a field and dying, and more hitting targets like castles and supply trains and local villages.
I thought a raid on a supply wagon would make a pretty cool MOC, but I wanted to do it properly, so I ended up researching not only the warfare and soldiers' garb of the time, but also carts (although, lacking sources, I had to resort to 13th century designs from the Maciejowski Bible with a 12th century horse team; it's a pretty simple design though so I doubt that much changed) and even native flora (spot the gooseberries and name those trees)!

I also wanted to do something different as a MOC, so I used a lot of sand green, nougat, and dark tan. Thank god for parts drafts. I still ran out of sand green and nougat.

Anyway, this is probably the only thing I'll build until the summer, so I hope you enjoy it.

tl;dr I built a research paper.

The colorscheme is perfect.

Awesome build. Great posing of the figs for the action. Couldn´t agree more on the colorscheme, it is perfect
More of this

The realism is refreshing.

Thanks, all. Much appreciated.

The wagon and trees are my favorite. I like the layout of the scene as well. Tall objects in the back, a big center piece and lowered terrain upfront make every detail visible. Nice work.

great moc, love everything about it. That wagon is gorgeous.

Good job! Interesting idea with the light grey/bley trees. I may be a little jealous of your sand collection...