Plastic Fury!

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!

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