A little earlier than my target but I reckon close enough for the 'unfashionable' peasantry.
I found these old Minifigs scattered amongst various boxes. The 'armoured' types were used for an earlier (6thEd) Ghaznavid army, whereas the 'arabs' were serving in a Western Sudanese force.
So what are they and what should they look like? A little voice told me to look in the Minifigs catalogue. Lo and behold they were there: Z340 - Russian/Polish Peasant Infantry, Fur Cap, Axe
Consulting the veteran WRG publication - "Armies of Feudal Europe & Crusades 1066-1300 ad"....
Fig 101 Polish Peasant Infantryman (p96) shows the combination of bow, shield and throwing axe.
Fig 104 11th-12thC Polish Heavy Infantryman - this is an elder who could afford better equipment.
Fig 113b Russian Peasant Infantryman (p101) illustrates the fur cap. The text says "Lower-class Russian infantrymen were practically identical to their Polish counterparts.
Clearly the Minifigs casting is an amalgam of all 3 references.
Online there is precious little in the way of illustrations for anything except the knights of this period but the Osprey book 445 - "Medieval Polish Armies 966-1500" by David Nichols - can offer a bit more.
Plate E has a couple of peasants - light (dull) blue tunic with contrast colour at hem and cuff, darker cloak, dull green leggings, strappy shoes - light or darker brown.
The text may offer more but I do not have the book.
So what am I going to use these figures for? Consulting the DBA 3.0 army lists I found:
3.63a - Polish 960-1200 - By using 16 of these warriors I can manage the 4 x 4Sp.
3.63b - Polish 1201-1335 - Only needs 12 castings (3 x 4Sp).
4.66 Later Polish - I can already 'fudge' this from my existing collection (mainly Russians).
I have a few unpainted Russian Cv so making a dedicated general's element is a distinct possibility. Other troops can come from other existing DBA armies.
Looks like some simple painting and I will have two more DBA armies to add to my collection.
Using this as inspiration I am moving on to Eastern Europe - starting with the Turkomans.
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