Obudshaer

[Yeyinde]

After playing a Medieval campaign (being Danes, of course), I started wondering about the Obudshaer. I googled them, and the only things I found was Medieval Total War forums. Wiki's got nothing on then, either.

I've never read about them either, and I couldn't make anything of it by translating it (I know we probably spoke another language back then, but it should at least be a little like modern danish, yes?). Haer or hær means army, and bud mean something like bid or messenger, or perhaps a message (han sendte bud efter hjælp = he asked for help)
So that would make it something like a reserve army, or a unit requisitioned to people who need them, but that doesn't make much sense.

So, anyone know if the Obudshaer are purely made up, or do they have any actual history?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Tangent]

Knowing CA, i would be very, very surprised if the obudshaer was a real medieval soldier...

However, others will probably be able to answer your question with more certainty.

If they did exist then they were almost certainly not as depicted in Total War.

 

[Yeyinde]

Hm. We'll have to wait and see, if Damien or Eogan or such nerds answer, we'll know.

 

[Endre Fodstad]

As so many other weird things in the TW games, this particular gem comes from old tabletop games; DBM, to be particular. I doubt it is out on the net, but in the "late scandinavian medieval army" you could play around with a militia unit of the same name.

Late medieval Denmark is not my field of expertise, but I think some of the original inspiration might have come from the Paul Dolnstein drawings (c.1502) of swedish peasant levies:

Yes, it looks like he is stabbing him in the nuts. It is not likely it actually was the intention of Dolnstein to depict it, though - the images just overlap.

That doesn't mean that the word (or something similar) could have been used on danish levies in the late middle ages, but I have not read any references to it (my focus tends to be rather narrow when we get into details like this). And the TW unit doesn't really resemble Dolnstein's drawings either, although the DMB figure sure did.

 

[Yeyinde]

Hm. That sucks. I'd have hoped we danes had some hardcore plate-armored mean mother****ers with halberds running around, punishing the enemies of the kingdom.

But since you're not sure, I'll wait 'till one of the hardcore nerds answer

 

[Æsir]

I have found some stuff by looking into Fyrd and leiðangr (Old Norsk). i don't speak danish and only speak about 70% norsk none of which is slang so its a little hard to find info.

 

[Endre Fodstad]

None of the levy laws, neither the Gulatings, Eidsivatings, Frostatings or later Landslaw mention the name (I have the first and last in the original and norwegian translation and the second and third are fragmentary). The danish and swedish levy laws are copies of the norwegian one, and I cannot recall the name from there either.

 

[italiano]

Semi-related, I need to improve the Nord troops currently in my mod. I'm looking for troop types, how they were equipped etc.

From c1200-1300 the troops wore armour similar to the Norman style, with the great helm worn by some nobility, and the infantry wearing kettle hats with narrow brims. Crossbows were introduced in large numbers. Knights now wear personal heraldry. Nobility wear 'coats of plates' and have some plate additions e.g. greaves.

Apart from the usual knights available to European armies of the period, the Danes often used 'Obudshaer' forces. These were were good quality infantry with polearms. In emergencies they could call up a general levy, the 'Landevaernet', which was of dubious quality but available in large numbers.

The Swedish armies of this period differed quite a lot from most other European forces. Royal power was weak and there were always very few knights and other mounted troops. Instead the armies were dominated by the Allmoge troops, who were surprisingly effective.

Google doesn't give me a much of an answer, but I get the impression it was mostly peasant/freeman infantry with some knights and a decent amount of crossbows. I'm not looking for a specific Scandinavian example, but more just creating a reasonable troop tree that is technologically consistent with the other factions.

 

[Destichado]

As a side note, look at the polearm depicted in those drawings, the straight-bladed weapon with the elongated S-hilt.  That's a weapon peculiar to the Scandinavian countries, and it's quite literally a sword on a stick.  Old or broken swords were hilted into a spear shaft (making them tanged weapons, to my knowledge virtually unique among european weapons of the time), and fitted with the large hilt.  I've seen examples, they can be quite fearsome and imposing weapons.

 

[Endre Fodstad]

As a second sidenote, look at the man wielding the S-hilted polearm. He appears quite indifferent to being stabbed in the balls with a halberd.

Yes, it looks like he is stabbing him in the nuts. It is not likely it actually was the intention of Dolnstein to depict it, though - the images just overlap.

Already covered.

 

[Walker]

This may be a misspelling, or a short form of a different term.

Obudshær

Opp buds hær              - Litteral trans. Call-up army.
Up - message/call - army (very rough trans.

Now I'm using Norwegian to interpret here, not Danish, but it should be close in this case.

Now a quick google search only turned up this:  http://www.federatio.org/mi_bibl/VinceSulyok_UngarnsHistorie.pdf - which is a history of Hungary translated into Norwegian.
In that document it  would seem to refer to a call up or levy force consisting of nobles. 
My suspicion would be that the TW people used a generic type word to give the appropriately balanced troop a 'unique' name.  If the troop type is based on reality it'll be some kind of feudal levy, that can be called on short notice.  But that is just an educated guess based on the Hungarian references and not anything I've found about Danish troops.

In any case I would need access to historical journals to figure out if there is anything else around.  Obviously searching the original term gives you all the TW sites, and being completely unfamiliar with that game I can't get any wheat out of that chaff.

 

[Æsir]

same problem I was haveing no matter how I phrased it. I even did some history searchs but all I came up with is what I said earlier in the post.

 

[quiet420]

While it doesn't mention that name, and doesn't have alot in the way of specifics, maybe this article will help the research a little?

Danish Halbardiers

1571-1763

http://en.drabantgarden.dk/about/history.aspx

 

[quiet420]

yeah, I know that particular mention is out of period, just trying to help, sort of figured that there would probably be some kind of justification that the king had for them being halbardiers rather than swordsmen, spearmen, or axemen, if someone with time on their hands were to research the circumstances in which he made the decision, working backward, they may find historical accounts of various halbardiers in prior service which could help with fleshing out more details on the troop types that were similiar to mtw's obudshaers