Charlie's 15th century - Some long-overdue Burgundians! (Feb 28)

[Winston]

Looking fabulous, and inspiring! I need more horses....

[SirGromit1879]

Fantastic work Charlie, I love reading through this thread. Would be great to see a shot of the whole army together! =)

[Charlie_]

Would be great to see a shot of the whole army together! =)

I've been meaning to do that.... but I've not had much luck with getting good photos of big army setups. Oh well, here's it all roughly thrown together in one photo!



4 units of infantry / halberdiers
1 unit of pikemen
3 units of crossbows / handgunners
1 small unit infantry / halberdiers
3 units of heavy cavalry
2 small units of light cavalry
4 cannons
1 organ gun

What's not included are my longbowmen - I've been puzzling over what to do with them, and have a few ideas, but for now they are being packed away.

Also, I just finished another house / farmstead using the Hudson & Allen buildings.










And here it is with the earlier one - the start of a small village, and enough to add interest to the tabletop already.







So what's the plan for 2019?

Pikemen and mounted crossbowmen. I need to up the pike ratio - all future infantry units will be pikemen. I've just started the next unit.

As for mounted crossbowmen, I've decided to model them using the metal Perry horses - there are a number of useful walking/standing ones that come with the command packs, and the WOTR light cavalry metals have some good galloping ones. This is instead of using the regular plastic ones. My view of mounted crossbowmen is that they wouldn't really be seen in large numbers in pitched battles (where they would dismount to fight as infantry), so would be more likely to see action on horseback in scouting, raiding, skirmishing scenarios. They'd also ride smaller horses, not the big warhorses of 'real' cavalry, so conveniently the metal Perry horses I just mentioned are somewhat smaller than the plastics. It also means more variety in terms of poses and horse tack.
As for the riders themselves, I'm not just going to use the plastic light cavalry (which only gives you two crossbow arm options), but the excellent metal Italian mounted crossbowmen (most of which take headswaps really well), and converting the WOTR light cavalry from lancers to crossbowmen.
This does all mean I'll have to get the greenstuff out to rebuild the saddles - the plastic cavalry (the Italian metals are supposed to go on the plastic horses) and the earlier metals have different saddle configurations. I'm also planning to steal some horse from the metal Agincourt light cavalry just for more variety of poses (they scale well with the WOTR metals), but they have yet ANOTHER saddle configuration which will be even more awkward to rebuild. On the plus side, I won't be doing masses of these guys.

Here's some pics of what I've built so far - the first four are metal Italian xbows on metal WOTR light cav horses, the next three are metal WOTR light cavalry with plastic crossbows, on metal WOTR command horses. Confusing, but I think the end result should be good!







I also plan to have lots more games in 2019 - I only had one this year!
The first of which should be happening tomorrow.

As the collection grows, the games should get better.

[SirGromit1879]

Wow that army shot looks great, that is certainly a lot of figures!! It is crazy you have been able to paint up so many in such a short space of time in such high quality, my hat off to you!.

Very interested to see how your mounted crossbowmen come along. I am hoping to put on a wargames display possibly based on a group of Burgundian mounted crossbowmen who end up trying to defend a farmhouse from Swiss assualts. It was a real battle I believe though cannot remember where I read it now.

Still brainstorming figures at the moment, thinking of having quite a few dismounted dynamic action poses, but unfortunately that means lots of conversions =(.

Love your farmsteads too, the way everything is placed looks perfect, inspired me to finally pick up the Perry cottage. What did you use for your base?

[Captain Blood]

Great spread Charlie, and the buildings work a treat.

[DintheDin]

This is quite a review! 
Unbelievable job in quality and numbers! Congrats!
And the buildings are a treat!
Eager to see all this stuff in action in your battle reports!
May all of us have a healthy and prosperous New Year!

[Charlie_]

I am hoping to put on a wargames display possibly based on a group of Burgundian mounted crossbowmen who end up trying to defend a farmhouse from Swiss assualts. It was a real battle I believe though cannot remember where I read it now.

Still brainstorming figures at the moment, thinking of having quite a few dismounted dynamic action poses, but unfortunately that means lots of conversions =(.

Love your farmsteads too, the way everything is placed looks perfect, inspired me to finally pick up the Perry cottage. What did you use for your base?

That sounds like a really cool idea, I'd love to see it!

A word of warning on the Perry plastic cottage - if you can get hold of these Hudson & Allen buildings instead, do it. They are far superior. I got the plastic cottage and found it a nightmare to assemble properly, in terms of getting it all square and seamless, and have given up on it. Also plastic isn't the best material for this sort of thing in terms of texture for walls and thatch.... I did use the little lean-to / animal shelter from the Perry set in my farmstead posted above. Compare the thatch on it's roof with the thatch on the building and the cottage if you can. No contest!

The base is 3mm hardboard.
I was debating for a long time what thickness to use for the building bases - thinner bases means less noticeable 'step', but potentially more danger of warping. I couldn't actually find MDF thinner than 6mm... but did find 3mm hardboard. In the end I went for it, and am glad I did. The base on the first house I did was warped a bit, but I easily reversed it by painting PVA on the underside. This one hasn't significantly warped to merit the same treatment. So 3mm all the way!

[Winston]

Fantastic thread and an inspiring collection Charlie. Can't wait to see more.

[SirGromit1879]

Thanks Charlie I have held off on the plastic cottage for now, the Hudson and Allen ones do look special. I can't really put in a big order to America at the moment so will see what comes of that chap who is importing them to the UK, hopefully won't have long to wait.

I just dug out my  2mm platicard and looking at it, it seems quite rigid but will get some 3mm to make sure.

[Breazer]

I think ive asked you twice now to show your entire collection and it does not dissapoint. Very cool to see. The farms also look really nice. Great job my friend. I hope you will be able to add at least half as much in 2019.

[Charlie_]

I can't really put in a big order to America at the moment so will see what comes of that chap who is importing them to the UK, hopefully won't have long to wait.

Yeah I hope something comes of that, it will definitely encourage me to buy a second batch!

I hope you will be able to add at least half as much in 2019.

That is the plan!

Here's some nice shots of a game I had last Sunday. A bit blurry without the proper lighting, but I think they make for good compositions.









This one's not actually from the game, I just set it up while I had everything out...





Every game leaves me with lots of things to think about, tweaks to the rules, thoughts on how the battle 'felt' and if I'm going in direction. Sometimes it can lead to 'post-game depression', do any of you ever get that? A combo of something not quite being 'right' with the game which you haven't yet put your finger on, and having everything out on the table and not really feeling up to packing it away, not helped if the game ended a bit inconclusively...

Anyway this one went well, I definitely identified a few things to think about, but in a positive way. The game was very close and could have gone either way. It had a main showdown in the middle, preceded by a fun cavalry battle off the the side  - one of my cavalry units entered the game and dramatically charged one of Shaun's infantry units, breaking them instantly and punching a hole through his lines... but then he brought on his own full strength cavalry from reserve who took mine on, after a fierce melee my guys were chased back to where they came from. Though when our infantry met, his army was a bit broken up whilst my battleline was still intact, so I was able to get a fairly solid win by the end (perhaps helped by the fact that his victorious cavalry had chased mine off the board, and failed to return!).

This game was a chance to have two evenly matched forces taking part, both of them being balanced 'mixed arms' affairs, with infantry, cavalry, and missile troops.
However on reflection, I think having the armies too balanced can make the game somewhat 'bitty', with multiple small elements rather than just big meaty divisions. So in future games, I'll be more likely to design the armies based around one thing each - all the cavalry in one army for example, rather than split up across the table. Big units look better.

So going forward, I definitely need to focus on BIG UNITS. So more infantry in big, neat blocks. There can never be enough infantry (I have enough heavy cavalry... for now at least!!). It also means when the troops are thinned out by missile fire, they are still in strong, imposing looking units, rather than being eviscerated and a bit sad-looking by the time they reach combat. Also I think I should lower the ratio of missile troops in future games for the same reason, and perhaps try some games where one side has no crossbowmen, perhaps just artillery, or no missile troops at all - it will keep the big blocks still looking big and strong throughout the game! The open order crossbow units can also make the table look a bit messy when they are too numerous.....

[OSHIROmodels]

Excellent 

[Breazer]

I've only once tried to create my own game before and the feeling you describe as post game depression I remember well. I also have it a little because I don't have very many people to lay historic games with. This often means I have to build and paint two armies in order to play. I remember the days where I went to a hobby store every weekend and just had a blast playing against all kinds of friendly folk.

It does look like you have quite a lot of miniatures to also play games that are already out there though!

[Bloggard]

fantastic collection of figures and buildings.

[Charlie_]

Been a while, but I've just finished a big pike block which I have been working on since Christmas. This is my second pike unit, the first one being back on page 7.  This one is bigger - 48 men, 4 ranks of 12, my biggest unit yet.

They are supposed to be a company of Swiss mercenaries, but could just as easily be used as Germans, or just generic pikemen. I added a few more distinctive Swiss touches (feathers, turbans, a horn-blower) but didn't go overboard.

I designed a flag for them - a black boar on a yellow field, with a red cross. I think it has echoes of the Swiss canton flags which works nicely, but being my own design it marks them out as an independent mercenary company.



The figures are mostly the Perry metals (with lots of headswaps), like the first pike unit. There's also several Steel Fist armoured swiss, and a couple of Perry plastics with Steel Fist arms. I also mixed in some of the Foundry Swiss. Now for a long time I was considering mixing in these Foundry sculpts, but held back as I wasn't sure if they would blend in so well with the Perrys (they are shorter but with much bigger hands, and are in different sorts of poses), and they are generally a bit cartoony, with oversized heads and hideous expressions. I decided to do it though, and they do blend in perfectly well - the height difference is no issue, the big hands aren't noticeable... and the worst offending heads I have managed to hack off and replace! I've kept a few of the more 'normal-looking' ones, and the ones with deep sallets aren't a problem at all.












Here's some closeups...












And some individual models from the rear ranks...






And here they are with the earlier pike unit, with matching flags.