Dan Becker's Baueda Carolingian 15mm DBA Army Figures

This article describes 15 mm historical figures from Baueda Wargames. The figures represent the Carolingian Frankish army of 639 AD through 888 AD, who were located in the region of Francia (between the Loire and Rhein rivers). The name comes from Charles (Latin: Carolus) who was King of the Franks, the Lombards, and Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. When he became Emperor, he took the name Charles the Great (French: Charlemagne, Latin: Carolus Magnus) and thus his family name gives us the Carolingians.

Baueda has created this collection of 15mm miniatures for use with the De Bellis Antiquitatus miniature game, also known as DBA. DBA is popular because there are hundreds of armies in the rules lists, and each one has exactly 12 units. In other words, a game with many options tightly bound into 12 unit framework. This Carolingian army is from DBA version 3.0 (released 2014), the third book of armies (spanning the Dark Ages to early Medieval period), and is the 28th army of the book. Hence this Carolingian Frankish army is also known as DBA3 III/28.

This article has two sections. The first has descriptions and photographs of individual units. The second has a photo carousel which allows you to spin the army around and view it from each side. Click on the photos for a gallery of larger images.

Baueda Carolingian Army

This photo shows the entire Baueda Carolingian Army miniature set.

Baueda has been quite generous with the figure count for this army. First of all, you get mounted and unmounted versions of Charlemagne. You also get a total of 21 mounted units. I created a light horse unit with just two models, that let me create a single cavalry figure blowing a horn. You also get enough spearmen to make 5 units of 4 spearmen each. And you also get 13 lesser soldiers to make bows, psiloi, and a two base horde.

Finally you get a 2 camp figures, a tent, and a kitchen supply area. I made two camps from these models

Here is a photo of the Carolingian army from the left.

The DBA rules give each opponent 12 units and a camp or baggage area for the battle on the table. However, each army has variants in the units, and part of the game strategy is to select the right variants to put on the table.

In DBA game terms, the units available to the Carolingians are knights (Kn), cavalry (Cv), blades (Bd), spears (Sp), archers (Bw), psiloi (Ps - loose formation harassing troops), and hordes (Hd - masses of lesser levies and untrained rabble.)

Option	Amount	Description	Type
	1	General	3Kn
	2	Caballarii	3Kn
	2	Swabian/Bavarian Caballarii	3Kn 4Bd
or	1	Basque/Gascon javelinmen	Ps
and	1	Basque/Gascon javelin light horse	LH
	1	Caballari/Thuringians	3Kn Cv
	4	Select levies	4Bd Sp
	1	Archers	Bw Ps
	1	Archers/Lantwer lesser levies	Ps 7Hd

In the terse language of author Phil Barker that unit list is "1x3Kn(Gen),2x3Kn,2x3Kn//4Bd or 1xPs+1xLH,4x4Bd|Sp,1xPs|7Hd".

The Carolingian army has quite a number of mounted units as its core and the option for a strong center or more ranged weapons on the flanks.

The Carolingian army from the right.

For playing DBA with 15mm figures, each unit has a base width of 40mm. The base depth can be 20mm (close order infantry), 30mm (mounted), or 40mm (camps). The number of figures on a base help determine whether the unit is a fast or solid unit.

This photo shows the Carolingian leader units.

As mentioned, the horn bearing cavalry was mounted as a single figure. This has no meaning in the DBA game, but is often useful to have around for other rules.

The center unit is a 3 knight unit (abbreviated 3Kn). Knights normally have long lances and have additonal shock rules in DBA. The center figure is Charlemagne who has painted royally in red and purple.

The right hand unit is a 4 blade unit (4Bd) and has a dismounted Charlemagne in the center.

Carolingian leaders from the left.

The Baueda miniatures are truly 15mm from the head to the feet and are similar in scale to Essex miniatures. They might look smaller next to some "heroic" 15mm figures such as Old Glory and Corvus Belli.

Carolingian leaders from the right.

My painting recipe for these 15mm minis is to prime them with black paint. I then used Vallejo Model Color acrylics thinned down to block in the major colors. Details such as armor and weapons and horse harnesses are painted in. The shields are hand painted. Finally the figures get a little bit of ArmyPainter light tone shade to help with the shading. The knight banners are done with some shield design prints that are folded into quarters as the Carolingians often did.

This photo shows Carolingian knights with a cavalry unit in the center. I tried to distinguish kinghts with long lances and a banner and cavalry with shorter spears and no banner,

Carolingian knights with cav from the left.

Carolingian knights with cav from the right

This photo shows two Carolingian knight units with a light horse (LH) bow unit in the center.

The bases are thin plywood from Litko on the top and thin sheet metal from Wargame Accessories on the bottom. The reason for two bases are the wood on top makes it easier to paint and apply basing material. The metal on the bottom provides weight, prevents tipping, and is magnetic. The storage boxes and trays for these figures have vinyl magnetic sheets which grab the units safely during transport and storage.

Carolingian knights with horse bow from the left.

The basing material is adhered with simple white PVA glue. Then I sprinkle some fine stones on and shoot some short 2mm grass flock from a squeezy bottle so the grass tends to stand up.

Carolingian knights with horse bow from the right.

This photo shows the Carolingian spear warriors.

The DBA Carolingian army has the option for 4 units of Spear (Sp). Baueda has supplied 20 figures enough for 4 units of the solid spear variant (4Sp). The other option would be 7 units of fast spear (3 Sp).

The shields are hand painted. I think they look rather nice all lined up. That is one advantage of smaller scales. For the same money, you tend to get more figures which look great from table top distance to your eyes.

Carolingian spear from the left

Carolingian spear from the right

Here are Carolingian bows, psiloi, and horde also known as the lesser levy (unskilled conscripts). I like how the sculptor made the lesser levy all armed with farm tools.

Carolingian bows, psiloi, horde from the left.

For this scale, at this magnification, you will notice the figures are painted rather crudely. There are no eyes or lips painted, and just rudimentary clothing and kit. Nevertheless, they look good from table top distance.

Carolingian bows, psiloi, horde from the right

Here are the camps for the Carolingian army. On the left are two figures with several cooking, supply, and storage models. On the right is a fabric tent model, likely common for the Carolingians.

Carolingian camps from the left.

Carolingian camps from the right.

That ends the description and photos of all the Baueda Carolingian 15mm models.

Baueda Carolingian Army Photo Carousel

Carolingian army circle — Carolingian army carousel

This section of the article has not much discussion, but it does have a carousel of photos that you can use to view the army from 12 angles.

Click on the Carolingian army photo and click the buttons to spin the army to the right and the left. See the army fronts, sides, and backs.

I hope you enjoyed seeing the details of these figures and the photographs.

Building a DBA army is enjoyable because there are many armies to choose from in the DBA rules. The army lists are based on much historical research, and you can be sure the army has an appropriate mix of historical unit types. The game is popular and there are many manufacturers, scales, fan pages, and tournaments to choose from.

I have built several other DBA armies (Romans, Ancient Brits, Teutonic Order, Rus, etc.), and they are listed on my DBA Armies web article. Other miniatures I have built are available on my Miniatures Page or the complete index of builds on the Mini Data Page.

Thanks for reading about my latest miniature figures.