And the march of the plastic Tercio er marches on. After a couple of gluing sessions the armies now stand at (in Spanish/Very Civile Action terms):
Troop = 3 figures
The Spanish
2 Troops of pike
2 troops of shot
2 horsemen
A Captain on foot
The Imperialists
1 troop each of pike & shot with a Captain
The French
2 troops of pike
2 troops of shot
2 horsemen
2 Captains
Sweden
2 troops of shot, 3 if I slot in a drummer
1 troop of pike
Taggart's Mercenary Company
1 Captain Taggart
1 troop pike
2 troops shot
Kleist's Mercenaries
1 Kleist
1 troop shot
I am now using the dreaded "pike at charge" arms - lets face it, they are going to be a complete sod to use given the pikes extend about 3" to the front. I am also running low on the plastic pikes (the metal ones are really nice but our cat once charged a brick of 28mm SAS figures, so pointy headed - frankly REAL 28mm pikes, fail on H&S grounds. As I have three whole boxes (Imperial, Swede and firelock), I have torsos to spare, its bases (I am using the small individual bases) and pikes I running low on.
Once Kleist has a troop of pike, its ho for the horse. 3 or 2 figs per troop? Either way, with 2 cav boxes to play with, most will have a cornet - so the horse will look nice.
Then, its over to rules. TPCs Spanish Actions/VCA looks like the favourite; I just need to cross reference ECW units to TYW/Mantuan War types. And of course, give it that "Flashing Blade" feel as well. In that context, the Swedes are chrome but once you are onto the Spanish Road, well it's hard to get off. On to Casale!
Showing posts with label Flashing Blade. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Flashing Blade. Show all posts
Monday, 21 March 2011
Monday, 14 March 2011
Plastics lead the way
So, I have been pottering with my TYW Warlord plastics - but first some more history.
I think I was 11 when I bought my first Minifigs - 3 from the Mythical Earth range, from a stamp shop in Cowes, IoW. My mum sent for the catalogue shortly after; then in a Model Shop in what seemed to be a front room of a house in Pontypridd, I bought a couple of Landsknechts, TYW halberdiers and Roundead foot with swords. Then I found some Renaissance Spanish in a model shop in Torquay. I identified them from the catalogue and thats where it all went wrong, because I got confused over the Renaissance period; my only reference was that France & Spain were at war then and I got that from....er, the Flashing Blade. So, the French wore floppy hats (yes, very English Civil War) and the Spanish wore Morions. Now, those Minifig Spanish - they wore Morions! So, although they were really C16th Spanish, I didnt know any better. I just presumed the Spanish wore padded hose and breastplate, that Landsknechts wore slashed multi coloured shirts and the Cavaliers, floppy hats and that this all happened more or less at the same time.....some 35 years on and that idea has had a massive hangover, every time I look at say 1620's Spanish, I expect them to look a bit more 1580's.
This means my default was to think "Renaissance" not "TYW" or "ECW" and to visualise Landsknechts bashing the heck out of say Royalists. I'm over that now but it means that for nostalgia purposes, my historical references are all over the place.
Now onto Warlord. All my WL plastics have been bought from Jet Models in Caerphilly - a small local shop and the kind of place that is a joy to find, not a big discounted player but a local guy selling models to wargamers, train modellers and Airfix fans who live around the area. Apart from single figures or heads I am ordering from WL through Jet. Why? Because we use or lose shops like this; WL get their price anyway, its a question of who gets the markup. The guy in Jet or a player who gets a cut of Malifaux, Warmachine, FOW etc etc?
A bit of a push has led to a big increase in my figs - about a dozen spanish and similar french. I now have figures who look like the spanish infantry in Flashing Blade - morions and advancing musket at hip. Take a marching musketeer from the main TYW/ECW sprue and add a musket arm piece from the FIRELOCK box, add morion and OLE! A Spanish musketeer! I didnt add a musket rest as no one in FB uses them - heck, no one even reloads, they just recock the musket!
As to numbers, I have not a clue how these will work out in the end - though I'm aiming for Spanish Actions by Perfect Captain, so big volumes are not needed. And so, On Tp Casale!
I think I was 11 when I bought my first Minifigs - 3 from the Mythical Earth range, from a stamp shop in Cowes, IoW. My mum sent for the catalogue shortly after; then in a Model Shop in what seemed to be a front room of a house in Pontypridd, I bought a couple of Landsknechts, TYW halberdiers and Roundead foot with swords. Then I found some Renaissance Spanish in a model shop in Torquay. I identified them from the catalogue and thats where it all went wrong, because I got confused over the Renaissance period; my only reference was that France & Spain were at war then and I got that from....er, the Flashing Blade. So, the French wore floppy hats (yes, very English Civil War) and the Spanish wore Morions. Now, those Minifig Spanish - they wore Morions! So, although they were really C16th Spanish, I didnt know any better. I just presumed the Spanish wore padded hose and breastplate, that Landsknechts wore slashed multi coloured shirts and the Cavaliers, floppy hats and that this all happened more or less at the same time.....some 35 years on and that idea has had a massive hangover, every time I look at say 1620's Spanish, I expect them to look a bit more 1580's.
This means my default was to think "Renaissance" not "TYW" or "ECW" and to visualise Landsknechts bashing the heck out of say Royalists. I'm over that now but it means that for nostalgia purposes, my historical references are all over the place.
Now onto Warlord. All my WL plastics have been bought from Jet Models in Caerphilly - a small local shop and the kind of place that is a joy to find, not a big discounted player but a local guy selling models to wargamers, train modellers and Airfix fans who live around the area. Apart from single figures or heads I am ordering from WL through Jet. Why? Because we use or lose shops like this; WL get their price anyway, its a question of who gets the markup. The guy in Jet or a player who gets a cut of Malifaux, Warmachine, FOW etc etc?
A bit of a push has led to a big increase in my figs - about a dozen spanish and similar french. I now have figures who look like the spanish infantry in Flashing Blade - morions and advancing musket at hip. Take a marching musketeer from the main TYW/ECW sprue and add a musket arm piece from the FIRELOCK box, add morion and OLE! A Spanish musketeer! I didnt add a musket rest as no one in FB uses them - heck, no one even reloads, they just recock the musket!
As to numbers, I have not a clue how these will work out in the end - though I'm aiming for Spanish Actions by Perfect Captain, so big volumes are not needed. And so, On Tp Casale!
Thursday, 30 December 2010
New Year, Old Minifigs
That is a misleading title really. About 35 years ago I received a small package from Minifigs of Southampton; I had bought about 12 assorted spanish, swiss, landsknechts from their 25mm renaissance range and then decided, with the simple optimism of a 12 year old that another 12 ECW figures and a copy of Gush's renaissance rules, I was set to go. Needless to say, I wasnt but still spent hours drooling over the cannon, the ECW cavalry, all stuff I wanted but simply couldnt afford. I then found D&D and discovered that you needed much less figures - which meant that the ones you had went further....
Anyway, this year, I had a suprise present - a pack of Warlord 28mm TYW Imperialists, bought (at Jet Models, Caerphilly) because my wife knew I liked the period and because she thought it was best value in terms of figs / £. This ignited all kinds of ideas....
Like many 40 something gamers, I have fond memories of "The Flashing Blade" which seemed to run on a loop over the summer holidays, I dont think I managed ever to watch the entire series but bought it on DVD a year or so ago; M de Rechy, Don Alonso and the assorted morion wearing heavies were, for me anyway, the 17th century. Apparently there was a siege of Casale in the Mantuan War and Thoiras earned a marshall's baton there. Thats what Defoe wrote in "Memoirs of a cavalier", so it must be true. Add in "The Last Valley" and it is safe to say that the whole 1620-1640's period has always been lurking in my mental wargaming outfield.
So, with 47 plastic/metal Imperialst / Spanish / French in the bag, the question was - what to do with them. As in most wargamers minds, my answer was simple. Buy more - a box of swedish foot and a box of royalist (nominally) horse - giving me dutch / swede options plus - for the spanish, another 6 morions, a vital element of that "Flashing Blade" look. Ospreys are out of the window at this stage, obviously.
At this point, reality implodes upom the scene. What am I really going to do with it all? There are a few options:
1 Dive in and build large FOGR or similar armies. This is not an option as I really dont want to paint that many! My gaming space is also limited.
2 Mordheim! Casale! Small bands of figures hacking it out over the schnapps wagon. Maybe.
3 What I really want to do is revert back, to create the army I wanted as a 12 year old. It may not be authentic but it should be fun - especially if I can use some kind of Featherstone, D6 based, basic set of rules. Units of 6-8 figs (ie all I could afford then and al I can be bothered to paint now) each led by a heroic looking figure. And of course, a hulking great cannon!
For the record, "File Leader" and "Once Upon a Time in The West Country" could be useful here....
So far I have glued up:
2 spanish musketeers, a spanish sgt and a spanish officer (all in morions, as Don Alonso as possible), a french officer, musket and pike, (floppy hats and a cabaset) and a rather serious looking ex drummer (drum hacked off) with pistol - probably a german merc like Kleist - and a tough swedish drummer, also pistol armed. Most of the plastic command are used and I dont yet have any ensigns - but how many do I need? And that metal swedish ensign is in a tabard which looks far too Three Musketeers for him to be used as a swede.
And for now, that's as far as I have got
Anyway, this year, I had a suprise present - a pack of Warlord 28mm TYW Imperialists, bought (at Jet Models, Caerphilly) because my wife knew I liked the period and because she thought it was best value in terms of figs / £. This ignited all kinds of ideas....
Like many 40 something gamers, I have fond memories of "The Flashing Blade" which seemed to run on a loop over the summer holidays, I dont think I managed ever to watch the entire series but bought it on DVD a year or so ago; M de Rechy, Don Alonso and the assorted morion wearing heavies were, for me anyway, the 17th century. Apparently there was a siege of Casale in the Mantuan War and Thoiras earned a marshall's baton there. Thats what Defoe wrote in "Memoirs of a cavalier", so it must be true. Add in "The Last Valley" and it is safe to say that the whole 1620-1640's period has always been lurking in my mental wargaming outfield.
So, with 47 plastic/metal Imperialst / Spanish / French in the bag, the question was - what to do with them. As in most wargamers minds, my answer was simple. Buy more - a box of swedish foot and a box of royalist (nominally) horse - giving me dutch / swede options plus - for the spanish, another 6 morions, a vital element of that "Flashing Blade" look. Ospreys are out of the window at this stage, obviously.
At this point, reality implodes upom the scene. What am I really going to do with it all? There are a few options:
1 Dive in and build large FOGR or similar armies. This is not an option as I really dont want to paint that many! My gaming space is also limited.
2 Mordheim! Casale! Small bands of figures hacking it out over the schnapps wagon. Maybe.
3 What I really want to do is revert back, to create the army I wanted as a 12 year old. It may not be authentic but it should be fun - especially if I can use some kind of Featherstone, D6 based, basic set of rules. Units of 6-8 figs (ie all I could afford then and al I can be bothered to paint now) each led by a heroic looking figure. And of course, a hulking great cannon!
For the record, "File Leader" and "Once Upon a Time in The West Country" could be useful here....
So far I have glued up:
2 spanish musketeers, a spanish sgt and a spanish officer (all in morions, as Don Alonso as possible), a french officer, musket and pike, (floppy hats and a cabaset) and a rather serious looking ex drummer (drum hacked off) with pistol - probably a german merc like Kleist - and a tough swedish drummer, also pistol armed. Most of the plastic command are used and I dont yet have any ensigns - but how many do I need? And that metal swedish ensign is in a tabard which looks far too Three Musketeers for him to be used as a swede.
And for now, that's as far as I have got
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