Forlorn Hopes for the English Civil War

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My ECW armies are based on one figure = twenty men i.e. a foot battalia of about 500 men is represented by 24 figures plus three command figures. That allows me to show the difference between a standard battalia, a pike-heavy battalia, an all-pike battalia, and a commanded shot battalia just by varying the ratio of musketeers to pikemen.

Similarly, a horse regiment of about 200 men is represented by nine figures plus two command figures, with the difference between Swedish, Dutch and Cuirassier formations being shown by the way the figures are placed on the base: one line for Swedish horse, two lines for Dutch horse, with Cuirassiers being a smaller unit altogether.

How then to represent a Forlorn Hope: a much smaller foot unit of around only 150 men?

I have settled on using just eight figures, plus two command figures, which makes one of my big bases look very empty indeed:

For certain Forlorn Hope units, if only for variety, I am going to do a little diorama. Here’s a very simple one involving just mounting the figures behind a couple of sticks:

Looks good!

ECW Horse

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Here’s another unit for my growing English Civil War contingent. Regular readers will know that I am basing each individual unit on a single base with a 12cm frontage: proper elements!

This unit is a regiment of so-called Swedish Horse. Not that they actually hail from the land of IKEA: it’s all to do with their fighting formation and technique.

These are Peter Pig figures in 15mm painted with GW Contrast paints. A single line of nine figures plus two command figures forward.

Another ECW Battalion Added

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As this year’s Painting Challenge draws to a close, I am frantically trying to hit my target of 2,000 points. I’m currently on 1,947 so, as I paint in 15mm, have four days to paint 53 figures or nine vehicles. That’s quite a tough prospect, but I can’t get this close only to fall at the final hurdle!

Here’s another English Civil War battalion to help me on my way:

The figures are all 15mm Peter Pig, painted with GW Contrast Paints.

A New Project

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Regular visitors will know that I enjoy gaming the Ancients period with To The Strongest.

That rule set has a companion set covering the English Civil War (1642 - 1651) called For King & Parliament. A month or so ago, I invested in a copy and started thinking how I would create forces for both the Royalists and Parliamentarians.

To match my grid-ed gaming mat, I need units that are about 12cms wide, which means that a double-ranked unit would be about 24 foot strong, assuming 1cm frontage for each figure. This worked with the numbers given in the rulebook, so 24 men per regiment it was.

In FK&P, foot regiments are of different types: standard (2 musketeers for every 1 pikeman); pike-heavy; shot-heavy; all pike; all shot and smaller units for Forlorn Hopes, dismounted dragoons etc.

What I initially thought of doing was to have separately based blocks of musketeers and blocks of pikemen, a combination of which would allow me to build the different types of regiment that I needed for a game. After a lot of experimenting with paper and pen, however, I realised that this wouldn’t work: it would be fine for a standard, all pike or all shot units, but wouldn’t work for the -heavy units and their 3:1 ratios.

Good luck against the tank in the background, lads!

After a lot more thought, and more pen and paper, I realised that the easiest thing to do would be just to mount an entire regiment of up to 24 figures (plus 3 command, so 27) on a single big base. In effect, I was doing what many 6mm gamers do, but in 15mm.

A quick trip to the Warbases website to discover that they actually do a suitable base as a standard product. It’s called a Vehicle Base, and is 12cms wide by about 5cms deep. It’s the one marked as 110x40mm, which is the rectangular area in the centre of the base, surrounded by curvy bits that give it its 12cms width.

Okay, so it’s all feasible…but rather than cough up huge amounts of cash for a whole army that might not work, let’s try one unit first. Easiest place to buy figures so specifically is Peter Pig, so a quick trip to their website to discover a very nice and comprehensive ECW range. I bought four packets only: one pike, two muskets (one firing, one reloading) and a command pack.

The results you see in the pictures, above. I rather like them, and I really like the big base effect. I did have a little problem with warping, which surprised me given this was a 3mm deep “hard” base, but I could use the lip to flatten the base for a couple of hours and problem solved.

So that’s one unit done and more ordered!