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| Imperialist Foot and Horse |
Feeling a little jaded, and rather inclined to procrastinate upon the narrative of my latest
Sengoku action (the pics have been uploaded, and even the notes noted, but finger to keyboard is the sticking point) I suddenly bethought myself to the unfinished portion of my Thirty Years' War (30YW) armies (Sweden/Severeia vs Imperialist/Austereia). The Imperialists are about done, apart from the artillery, but the Swedes have a long way to go.
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| Imperialist Horse |
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| Swedish foot - designed for DBR |
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| The semi- and unfinished bits |
H'mmm - rather more to get done than I imagined. When I began, I had a particular organisation in mind, with my own rule set, and bought all I needed to realise the project. This was near-on 30 years ago. Most of the finished stuff you see here, has been that way all this time. But having a clear-cut end point, the thing ought to have been finished long ago.
Then came
De Bellis Renationis:
DBR. It seemed to achieve a considerable popularity in this town, so, after a long thought (and much hesitation), I decided to go with it. BIG mistake. It was like magic: the moment I made the decision and reorganised the armies, the bottom fell out of local interest in
DBR. I just
knew that would happen! There were two reasons for this, I think: one reasonable, one not so much. The reasonable reason was that
DBR was (and remains) in my view wanting in development. The unreasonable: the whole game system will ill geared towards the 'competition' mindset that chooses to attach itself to the
DB* game systems.
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| Some Imperialist 'commanded shot'... |
So I was stuck with a half finished project and a game system that didn't fill me with enthusiasm, and which anyway ill-accorded with my inventory of figures. And I couldn't really go back! At any rate, here we are, having to sort through the whole thing and build up for either
Portable Wargames or Free Table action.
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| Artillery |
The artillery is Revell, but I have added a number of battalion guns for the Swedish army. These are simply Airfix Napoleonic French gun carriages mounting ESCI Napoleonic RHA gun barrels. I reckon they make fine battalion guns.
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| Some lighter horse which probably will go into the Swedish Army |
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| More... |
We finish with a picture of the one
Portable Pike and Shot game I've tried out. The thing was played out last year. This experimented especially with tercio and battalia formations on my hex-board. As the original rule set seem to be designed for square grid cells, I propose at some point to outline my own modifications for my own hex-grid playing surface. The gimlet-eyed reader will observe considerable differences from the earlier formations.
C.f.: This picture taken many years ago...
To be continued...
Lovely looking armies!
ReplyDeleteIt's always a challenge picking up a half finished project; the memory always tells you it won't take much to finish it......
Neil
Yers... My memory was sadly at fault, there. I must have at least 70 cavalry to base and paint up, and I don't know how many infantry. I have some kneeling guys with short firearms that I will 'do' as dragoons. I do wish Revell had done at least one standing horse, as they would have been fine on a dragoon stand. I haven't counted the foot to be done. I have 4 'finished' Swedish battalia/ brigades, one half done, and there must be at least 3 more to sort out at 8 pikes and 12 shot to the unit (as shown in that last picture above). Unfortunately, though the battalia and tercio units I have suggested for PP&SW look good (to me), the pike and shot ratios are all up the pole. It would take a major reworking to get them right - a job I'm not prepared to do.
DeleteThe Revell figures really are very nice. But to eke out the slender numbers of pikemen, I used the dudes waving muskets about as pikemen (the firearms replaced with wire 'pikes') and added the command figures into the pike blocks. So that redgement above, has 12 shot, 6 pikes and 2 command figures that count as pikes.
Cheers,
Ion
Nice figures there and plenty for you still to do on this project! I always find trying to get the pike/shot ratio that looks decent a real problem, which is probably why I have 2 ECW projects in the stalled category. Rules are another conundrum for this period. The Revell figures are rather nice I must admit, not ones I have seen very much of. I will be following your project with great interest!!
ReplyDeleteWell, you've put me on the spot there, Donnie! But today I undercoated almost all the unpainted horse. Now working through what figures go where.
DeleteThere's a rule set 'Victory Without Quarter' that might interest you. I have a copy, but have yet to try it out. A reading suggested it would be worth a look.
I will be examining further the possibilities of adapting PP&SW to my hex table, along with getting the shot and pike ratios more in keeping. One possibility is to lose one of the pike elements from the battalia; the other to ADD two shot elements.
Cheers,
Ion
Looking forward to seeing how this develops. I started with 1/72 plastic figures and they remain my favorite. I have many of the same sets, but not in those quantities. They are great looking armies.
ReplyDeleteMark -
DeleteOne of the reasons for my hesitating to go with DBR (apart from the moral certainty that interest would evaporate like ice in the sun the moment I made the switch) was that I was going to be left with surplus inventory. Muggins. This was one project that I began with exactly the numbers I had calculated I would require, and even had a rule set (Old School, but NOT WRG Old School). Paul Jackson and I played a few games with it, one being a refight of Nordlingen. I think from memory that my Imperialists were to have something like 188 infantry and 120-odd horse. The Swedish were to have been smaller in both arms (don't recall the numbers), have fewer heavy artillery, but would have a lot of battalion guns.
I bitterly regret making the change, as this project never recovered.
Cheers,
Ion
I like the look of those two hex Tercios units, a very clever idea. Funny thing about old projects, I was inspired by watching Netflexs "Alexander the Great" into ordering a load of Persian stuff to paint. Then discovered in the loft great piles of unpainted Persians, as well as an entire unpainted Macedonian army (I already have Macedonians? Wtf?). I suspect this lot was left over when I ran out of steam painting endless hordes of Gallic barbarians.
ReplyDeleteMartin -
DeleteIt is not often I forget altogether what I have in terms of 'do I have any of those'. But sometimes I forget where they are, which can lead to over- or under-estimating the size of the inventory. Making do can cause that.
For several DBR games (classed as 25mm) my guys stood in for ECW armies, usually Parliamentarian (a wrench, but my Imperialists looked more Roundhead than Cavalier). It was during the course of those games I came to the conclusion that the DBR rule set was, somehow, 'unfinished'.
But then, having a useable army out of just half the pile, the rest just became neglected. Sad, eh?
Thinking back to the two-hex tercio, I'm staring to think about a THREE-hex tercio. This would work only if the unit were facing hex-corners instead of hex-sides. The battalia might be adaptable in a similar manner... This I just have to think about. It would mean reorienting the battlefield - fighting the actions lengthways instead of across.
Cheers,
Ion
Archduke Piccolo,
ReplyDeleteI don't know how you do it! Yet another stunning project using a vast collection of figures that you have amassed over the years. I though that I had a lot of stuff, but my collections are small compared to yours!
All the best,
Bob
Bob -
DeleteYour comments are, as usual, very kind, though this particular collection is pretty modest compared with most of the stuff I have kicking around (ACW, WW2, Napoleonic, 18th C Horse and Musket...) If ever I find myself having to shed inventory, though, methinks I'll have an embarras de richesses! Actually, that is one of the reasons for my looking to 'finishing' these armies - a sort of PFS - preparing for sale. Not that that is the primary objective!
Cheers,
Ion
Fascinating to see all the photos of your plastic armies. They will look really impressive when completed.
ReplyDeletePeter - I do rather like these 30YW armies. The Revell figures paint up pretty well. My only all-metal armies are the 15mm Byzantines and friends; though my Napoleonics are mostly metal.
DeleteThese days, whether one wants to go the 28mm route or the 20mm, one is spoilt for choice with the high quality and variety available. And I am not overfond of resisting temptation...
Cheers,
Ion