One for the military historians out there. p39 of Empire refers to a unit called 'Free Company Militia'. My question, is it valid to define free companies as militia troops or vice verca? I had always thought of them as somewhat different.
One for the military historians out there. p39 of Empire refers to a unit called 'Free Company Militia'. My question, is it valid to define free companies as militia troops or vice verca? I had always thought of them as somewhat different.
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It comes down to "what do you think militia means?"....Originally Posted by Craze_b0i
I had always thought of them as somewhat different.
They are militia in the meaning of irregular military unit, but to a lot of people the term "militia" carries another meaning, often of something like a low quality peasant horde pressed into service, which they are not.
i've never heard that definition of militia.
only definition of the word i've ever heard was citizen soldiers raised from the local populace to respond to a threat to their homes. (ie. the minute men of the american revolution.)
European Militia would have tended to have structure and officers but would not have been professional soldiers. They would be trained to an extent but have held other jobs and would have defended the local area as and when required. Free Companies as bands of sellswords and bandits fit this profile quite well.
Okay but looking it at the other way around, would you define regular militia as 'free company militia'?
As other people have alluded I myself always thought of free companies as being professional mercenaries, guys like John Hawkwood and so on.
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I suppose they could be, although then they would be towards the very cheap end of the scale. "Proper" professional mercenaries are much more likely to be represented by some of the other troop types in the army, the more regimented ones.
Free Company seems much more like groups of men without too much military training. They might very well have weapons training, but that's quite different from being trained to fit in open combat. So bandits, police forces, villagers, that kind of thing.
I always considered a militia to be part-time or emergency soldiers with day jobs. Ideally they'd have some military training, but wouldn't be professional soldiers. At a basic level, the fyrd of Anglo-Saxon England; at a higher level of training, the modern UK Territorial Army.
Devoid of other context, I'd consider a free company to be a group of soldiers, whether professional or otherwise, who aren't normally subject to a normal chain of command (higher than their commanding officer). By definition these would normally be professional mercenaries.
Obviously in Warhammer Empire armies the two terms are used interchangeably, but I think that's happenstance, probably resulting from a need to justify using the Mordheim sprues to represent free companies when the unit choice was introduced for 6th edition. I suppose it would be possible for the two to overlap in a situation where a local town was attacked and a militia was raised without reference to or permission from a higher authority. Normally, though, I'd think of them as separate concepts.
Free company can be many things. Pirates captured and put to work by a count. Peasantry or other locals (a true militia) taking up arms to protect their homes. Mercenaries and other ruffians beeing put to "official" work as theyre otherwise robbing inns and killing people.
No wonder theyre generaly considered expandable
I think the difference is that militia trained as you say exists in countries that does conscription rather than countries that does professional armies. as soon as you have a professional army the quality of the non professional troops drop drastically. The empire has a professional army so their militia wont be very good. and also its gw they're going to exaggerate every aspect of a real life unit copied into warhammer. Much for the reason that milita as they actually are would just be cheaper state troops.
Apparantly these drunken, villagers and bandits get equal training as State Troops unlike professional trained men-at-arms who are full time soldiers and get a lower Weaponskill rating then those militia troops.
Not holding a grudge...
Bretonnians ARE NOT a pure Knightly army.
Half the army choices consist out of Peasants and Damsels.
'Pride cometh before a choppa in the face'
I think that the militia part just means they are not part of the regular army.
Militia are troops conscripted or hired as needed.
So militia could be peasant conscripts or hardened mercenaries.
The Free Company part indicates that the company owes no allegiance to anyone i.e. they are mercenaries.
In older armybooks crossbowmen were also militia. Men of the Empire didn't like using crossbows, so they hired tilean mercenaries to use them.
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