May 30th, 2008 by Missy

I have been trying to think about designs for my Bretonnian standards for several days now, and I have sadly come to the conclusion that I really just don’t have the skills needed to paint a border that would be up to my standards. In exploring other ideas, I have decided that I would like to use embroidered (cross-stitched, whatever you prefer to call it) banners. Not only do they seem suitably Bretonnian, but I also feel like they will add a feminine touch to my army. My army doesn’t have to scream “I belong to a woman”, I don’t need pink painted knights or anything, but I do like to advertise my femininity in at least some small margin. An embroidered banner seems a very classy way to do so, to me. My only problem, now, is settling on the design that I would like to use. Each unit will, of course, receive it’s own standard so I will eventually be using several designs but I do have to start with one.. and, of course, it may turn out that I absolutely suck at embroidery, or that I don’t like how the cloth banners end up looking with the plastic models. In either case, it would make it a complete waste of money to have purchased the materials to create several banners when I end up not using them at all.

Therefore, I am searching for opinions on which banner to use (as my starting piece). I am including all of the ones that I have selected as possibilities in this post in the hopes that I will get some opinions. I am very torn about the banner for a few reasons. Firstly, I feel that all of the ones that I have selected are excellent candidates, but for different reasons. The men on horses are,
quite obviously, good choices because they are warlike and encompass the equine nature of the Bretonnian forces.

Bretonnian lore, however, is very romanticized and as they are loosely based off of French forces, one could assume that Bretonnian men are very passionate and would easily be led to war with thoughts of a woman occupying their minds. For that reason, I can easily see Bretonnian forces displaying great courage and being inspired by the presence of a beautiful woman on their battle standard. Anyway, any opinions on this matter would be very much appreciated.