A 16thC Distraction

A while back, a loonngg while back, I picked up some Foundry Elizabethan, Swashbuckler and Conquistador figures from sales, eBay and the Lead Adventure Forum. These have languished in a box on the lead pile since then. I was interested in doing something based around the Marian civil war and the Gordon-Forbes Feud, both of which rumbled around in this part of Scotland during the 1560's and 70's. Information is a bit scarce on either and finding a ruleset which covered the skirmishes and small affairs from a few dozen to a few hundred men aside in the late Renaissance wasn't easy either. So in their box they stayed.

Then along came Pikemans Lament. Interest was rekindled. It smouldered a bit.

Next came lockdown and an unplanned career break. Great timing. Thanks.

So, I plundered the lead mountain and up they came. I found a few articles and a mention here and there on forums and I thought why not make this a wee project. So I painted them up.

A unit of pike led by their laird and accompanied by his belligerent priest.

Hackbutters.

Some mounted gentry.

At the moment these have a continental look to them, but they would cover the period from the 1540's to the 1570's without too much issue. I have more pike, command and shot on the way and when I have those painted up I will take a look at TAG, Timeline and Foundry/Castingroom. I shall also need some highland caterans and a few gallowglass types. I have some from Sheltrum which may do. A tower house may also be required, which might be a fun built whilst I'm otherwise unengaged!

From my landsknecht game I thought that pike to shot ratios needed some adjustment so I intend having a ratio of two shot units per pike unit max. The shot will be smaller 6 fig units units and cost 6pts and will not have salvo fire. Now PL is a skirmish game so exact ratios need not matter in a raid. But the Osprey on Scottish Renaissance Armies, and that on the Spanish Tercios which I have handy suggest there were at least twice as much pike to shot. A typical PL company could be 2 pike (8pts), 2 shot (12pts) and a unit of Trotters (4pts), which feels and looks right to me.

It's also easy to put together in terms of both figures and time to paint. I'm most of the way through my first company. 😁

Spanish Dragoons and Militia

For my next project (and book), I need some Spanish dragoons and Militia.

These figures represent the Edimburgo Dragoons which were stationed on Cuba and took part in the defence of Havana. Their yellow coats and blue facings really contrast with the plain white of Spanish line infantry and are the reverse of the Havana garrison uniform so make a flash of bright colour on the field.

(The regimental name is correct, in English they would be the Edinburgh Dragoons).

The infantry figure is a test paint for the Havana Blancos, a local militia unit. The Havana militias were all reorganised when city was returned to Spain after the SYW and all the illustrations, including the one this figure is based on, date from that later period. Prior to that it's not clear exactly what was worn and what was carried. It's likely that only officers and some men wore uniform and carried full equipment as large numbers had to be equipped with pikes and were not committed to any offensive action against the British. However I've chosen to paint a few spare figures which I have in the later uniform.

There were three militia units, the Blancos, Pardos and Morenos. 

The Blancos were European citizens whilst the Pardos were men of mixed parentage. The Morenos (lit. "moors") were freed slaves. Again this information is post siege so in reality there may have just been a "Militia" which free men could join. This being greatly expanded when the English arrived and then reorganised into these distinct and more formal units later.

Below is a illustration of a soldier from the Havana Morenos wearing his post siege uniform. Hopefully castings of these will see the light of day at some point.

Encounter with the Maroons - Scenario

Here is a copy of the scenario I used for the Encounter with the Maroons.

Link - An Encounter With The Maroons Scenario

Please feel free to download it and share. Use any rule set which you prefer. I used Rebels and Patriots because I like them. Muskets and Tomahawks, Sharp Practice or any other skirmish set should suit.

There is a list of suitable Crann Tara figures included too.

Copies of the scenario book and guide to the battles on Martinique and Guadeloupe - "Wargaming the Sugar Islands Campaign" are still available. You can pick it up at shows or when ordering from Crann Tara or directly from me. Please use the contact box on the right hand side of the blog to drop me a line for details.

Sugar Islands - An Encounter with The Maroons

On Guadeloupe the British and French patrols have bumped into each other and between them lies a Maroon village.  As each side advances to engage the enemy, the question is what will the Maroons do?

The British. 

The French.

The Maroons.

The British moved off quickest, with the Highlanders leading the way. Two units moved to to the right, to flank the village. The French Marines and the Swiss of Rgt Hallwyl advanced directly whilst the militia moved round the village to engage the flanking British. 

However it was the Highlanders who got to the Maroons first. Quite what a man from Assynt, Skye or even Ulster thousands of miles away, with had little or no English, had to say to the man from West Africa equally far off  and equally linguistically challenged is sadly lost, but whatever was discussed the Maroons decided the British were more friendly and joined them opening up on the Swiss and Marines as they moved up. 

Not everything went the British way though. The seasoned men of the 38th didn't like the odds and recoiled, their wheezy Officer needing a tot of rum before he ordered his men forward. The Scots too seemed reluctant to move off and several turns were wasted before they were able to engage.  However the volleys of the British, supplemented by the sniping Maroons began to slow the French down. First the militia on the flank were halted and took heavy casualties from the 38th and 63rd.  Then the marines were also hit hard and had to retire. 

Hallwyl was now on the outskirts of the Maroon village and the latter decided the enough was enough, fleeing through the scrub, back through British lines. The Redcoats let them pass, they sensed victory was at hand. 

Another crashing volley on the flank scattered the worn militia and the Highlanders began skirmishing with the Swiss in the village. The Marines were now down to half numbers and the 64th were fresh and advancing with bayonets fixed. It was time to head back to Fort St Pierre.

This was a great game to play solo. I diced to see who got to move first and after a few fits and starts it was the Brits who got to the Maroons first. After dicing to see their reaction the joined them, but it could have gone the other way or they could had made a fighting retreat for the opposite corner of the table. This Highlanders didn't do much, the 38th nearly ran off the table when I rolled a double 1, and the militia advanced and then as quickly recoiled and broke. The effect of the Maroons was to take a couple of casualties off one militia unit and the marines and to hold up the Swiss. But the small skirmishing Maroon unit's quickly wore down and fled. All in all I was quite pleased with how it worked out and equally pleased it fitted on the kitchen table and as a solo game.....handy given the circumstances where most Wargamers are away from big tables at the moment. 

I will proof read the scenario and make it available to download or mail out on Monday. Get in touch if you want a copy using the contact box at the top right of the Blog.

Sugar Islands - Against the Maroons

This weekends game will be a test of a special scenario I have written for the Sugar Islands inspired by Crann Tara's excellent Maroon figures.

The scenario will be available as a download once I have tested it.

I finally managed to get round to painting the ones I have, and the huts I bought so now can try something that's been kicking about for a few months.

The Maroons were escaped slaves who took to isolated locations and set up their own villages and camps, raiding and living off the land and eventually establishing their own culture. There were several Maroon uprisings across the Caribbean too.

The figures are the typical clean Crann Tara sculpts, open handed to receive various weapons. I have equipped mine with machetes and other plantation tools and some traditional weapons such as bows and spears as well as a smattering of firearms - the latter gleaned from Marlburian and AWI plastic sprues from Warlord games. A simple paint job, mahogany, with plain coloured clothing and a soft tone wash finishes the figures off.




The huts are an eBay purchase.

For previous games I have used Jim Purky's excellent F&I skirmish rules from Fife and Drum. However this scale of game is much smaller than the usual few battalions, so instead I'll be using Rebels and Patriots which I really like. However Sharp Practice, Muskets and Tomahawks, or any other skirmish set would work well too.

Lockdown Landsknechts

On Sunday my son and I had a kitchen table game of Pikemans Lament using some old GW Empire figures which I had started to roughly convert a few years ago.

On a whim I'd started painting them up again and supplementing my units with a few choices of EBay. Anyone interested in painting true landsknechts and neat converters of figures should look away now 🤣.

For a start these are great sculpts. To be sure advances have been made in plastics and the clothing and poses are basic and other ranges exist now, but when you have to guts of two small armies kicking around in various tubs in the loft and can't go out anywhere why not put them to use.

I adopted a very simple style for painting them and stuck to basic colours for the pike units.  The pike themselves were at first thin plastic rod, but this broke too easily. Then I tried a pin and some thin tubing but this didn't work either. So in the end (look away now if squeamish) I inserted a hot metal wire pike into the figures hand! On the table this looks perfect as you cannot see the join but up close it's a little ugly. Well never mind I was going for overall effect not individual masterpieces. Supporting handgunners had a bit more variety. I added some pistoliers, riding huge fat-ar**d horses and some cannon which are lovely pieces. I looked around for matching figures and tried some Casting Room pike and some Warlord Dopplesoldners. The latter look a little weedy but as an independent unit they do fine. Ebay supplementary GW figures finished things off

The bases for the moment I have left as is. I have yet to decide to use the 3-2-1 style of basing or keep them on square individual bases. I had some sabots which I was going to use for a version of the Ancient Rules which a friend and I play so to try out PL I thought I would use them.

Why PL and not Lion Rampant? I have both but I thought that the former suited the 1500's better than the more medieval focused LR. I imagine these figures as raiders and plunderers engaged in "Bad War" somewhere in southern Germany during the Peasants War, not as pike blocks at Pavia or similar.

I threw down some terrain and drew up two forces. One lead by a bit of a ladies man with a fine moustache but of limited experience. He was accompanied by a large band of average troops, pike, handguns and pistoliers and a regimental gun. Facing him was a different fellow entirely - A rather belligerent lion of a fellow leading an experienced but smaller band of veteran pike and aggressive forlorn hope. My son picked the larger company and I took the veterans.

As this was a test of the rules as much as anything being only the second time I have played them I was just interested in seeing if they felt right for the period and getting a game in. We paid little attention to terrain placement or scenario and just got fired into some across the table action. 

Lew's cavalry scampered round my flank, so I sent the forlorn hope to hold them off, using them as skirmishers. They took some fire from the caracoling pistoliers but caught them and chopped them up a bit and forced them back again and again due to some poor activation roles, eventually they were cut down and the remaining dopplesoldners looked around to see if they could swing into Lew's flank. 

On the opposite side of the table, Lew managed to move his handgunners into a farm complex and took advantage of the cover it provided to shoot up my flanking shot. These two units traded fire for much of the battle without much effect. 

In the centre my veterans, the black band,  advanced while my leaders unit closed formation, and took fire from Lew's cannon. This whittled the, down and they really didn't get a chance to close as they suffered from some poor morale throws and were forced back. That just left the black band and the forlorn hope who were by now in amongst Lew's second unit of shot, having seen off the gun. 

Pike are very strong defensively but I thought my veterans would have the upper hand. They didn't and came off worse in the melee. They took a volley from the handgunners too and reeled back. The forlorn hope had caused some casualties but they'd now been whittled away and so effectively the game was over. It was good fun though and looked and felt right and we both enjoyed it, all the right ingredients for a game.

What would I change. Smaller units of shot. I checked my few reference books and online and figured that I would have much less handgunners or more pike. So I will fiddle with the troop type and costs to come up with right ratio, probably units of 6 shot rather than 12.. Cannon might look good but the Warlord handbusch is a better model for   this size of game and actually none of these fit with the raiding and looting concept so these won't be reappearing except as part of fixed positions. Some light horse might be worth getting. Gringo 40's make conquistadore cavalry and their figs are big and horses large too so 6 of these wouldn't go amis. 

More landsknechts in the future. But it will be back to the Sugar Islands for the next game with some newly painted Maroons.