The Catalan Company

A former Templar and pirate, Roger de Flor found the Catalan Grand Company, in 1302. They had been fighting against the Angevins in Sicily and were hired by the Byzantines to fight the Turks. The company initially consisted of around 1,500 horse and 4,000 Almughavar infantry. They defeated the Turks in Anatolia and were recalled to the Balkans to defeat the Bulgarians.

After they were reinforced from Spain, the Emperor became concerned about their power, and he arranged for Roger de Flor to be assassinated. The Byzantines attacked the remaining troops, but the Catalans regrouped and defeated them at Apros in 1305. The company then devastated Thrace and Macedonia in what became known as the Catalan Vengeance. Next, they were hired by the Duchy of Athens who failed to pay them, so they attacked and defeated the Duchy at Kephissos in 1311. They held and expanded the Duchy of Athens until defeated by the Florentines in 1388.

They built the army around a core of Almughavars. Originally Aragonese hillmen from the Pyrenees, by this period they would have included veterans from many different peoples across Spain and the Balkans. They were particularly effective at utilising difficult terrain - supported by knights, allied light horse and Greek archers.

Almughavars are particularly difficult to classify in wargame armies. In the To the Strongest army list I wrote, we agreed on Javelinmen with a special rule replacing one javelin with a shock missile to give them more punch. In Lion Rampant, I went for the Warrior classification, which allows them to fight in rough terrain and be effective in combat. The problem is the lack of armour, which, as you can see from the models they certainly had, and no shooting with javelins. ADLG goes for Medium spearmen impact, which is another compromise. The essential problem is that they had a variety of capabilities, which is difficult to pigeonhole in one classification.

Catalan knights are pretty much like any other of the period. However, Lion Rampant has a useful upgrade called Motivated, which allows easier standard moves on the basis that the unit has less of a snooty attitude to the grunt-work of small-scale battles. Mercenaries don’t generally do snooty! The lighter cavalry has a similar problem to the Almughavars. They were javelin armed, but were quite happy to get stuck into hand-to-hand combat. This reminds me of Numidians that are also difficult to classify for the same reason.
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The Almughavar models come from Fireforge. They offer a box of 24 plastic figures with a large range of optional heads and weapons. I am not a big fan of having to assemble figures, but these fit together well with plastic glue.

Further Reading:
The Catalan Vengeance by Alfonso Lowe.

Charging Varangians in Byzantine service