Will's 6mm Pike & Shot Era Project

[WillPhillips]

Hey everybody!

I'm returning to tabletop miniature gaming for the first time since high school. This go-round, I'm back as a guy in his thirties whose become fascinated by history - and the "military revolution" of the pike and shot era of the late fifteenth through mid seventeenth centuries in particular.

For the past few years I've been dabbling with my own homebrew ruleset to recreate the spirit of the big battles of the era - and to do so with streamlined rules that can be completed in around two hours. My regular gaming friends and I are not the avid, all-the-time gamers we were once. We sneak in games a few times a year and need rules we can remember and don't have a whole day to spend on a large scale game.

But... we still want the experience of the large scale game!

I've gotten to the point with the rules that I *finally* feel comfortable buying minis and basing materials.

I'll keep a log of the project here, but also at my project blog:

http://tabletop.willphillips.org/category/6mm-pike-and-shot/

[WillPhillips]

I'm going with 6mm scale using Microworld and Baccus minis, as I think they are a relatively close enough size and proportion match to combine without it looking distracting at tabletop distances.

My first set of orders have all made it in:

http://tabletop.willphillips.org/2020/01/28/first-6mm-orders-have-arrived/

Microworld Games
From Their Renaissance Line:

1x Spanish Arquebusiers
1x Landsknecht Arquebusier
1x Spanish Pikemen
1x Gendarmes Sidearm
1x Reiter Cavalry

Baccus 6mm
From Their Wars of the European Crisis (ECW and TYW) Line:

1 x WEC01 – Armoured Pikemen, Advance (CP)
1 x WEC08 – Musketeers, Shoulder, Helmet
1 x WEC12 – Musketeers, Firing, Helmet
1 x WEC18 – Cuirassiers
1 x WEC20 – Battalion Guns and crew
1 x WEC21 – WEC21 – WEC Saker and Crew
1 x WEC22 – Siege Guns and crew
1 x WEC23 – Mortars and crew

Perfect Six
From Their Battlefield Scenics Line:

3x Black powder civilians
1x cannonball stacks
2x Barricade 20mm
2x Barricade 30mm
2x Gabions
2x Log Barricades

All that ends up looking like this:



The minis will be going on one of three base sizes: 100x100mm, 100x50mm, or 50x50mm.

They are relatively big bases, but I've seen what other gamers and modelers have done with larger sizes bases in creating a diorama-style base, and I'd like to learn to do that, myself.

[jambo1]

Cracking start to your project.

[fred]

Welcome.

And welcome back to gaming!

Good to see a new project with all be bags of figures, the MDF bases and the tests paints. All looks very promising. Good to see you going with nice big bases, always looks good.

[rampantlion]

Great start!  I love the small scales but I can't get anyone in my group excited about them.  Keep up the good work.

[DoctorPete]

This is a great scale for that mass of troops look.  Have fun!   

[WillPhillips]

Have had a chance to get my first two units painted and based over the past two nights.

Exciting to finally have some real deal proofs of concept to look at as I circle back to the rules I'm working on.

http://tabletop.willphillips.org/2020/02/05/first-units-painted-based/



I only made a crude guess with priming and painting my first batch of figures. Turns out I didn't have enough musketeers! So this first regiment is a little light on the shot department, but I've learned my lesson - count first! 







More pics on my project blog:

http://tabletop.willphillips.org/2020/02/05/first-units-painted-based/

[Frostie]

Great start

[FlyXwire]

You painted these up great!

Any way you could offer an alternative to the square grid board system pictured on your blog, perhaps an increment ranging/moving system? 

[WillPhillips]

Any way you could offer an alternative to the square grid board system pictured on your blog, perhaps an increment ranging/moving system?

I know the grids are a controversial choice, but it's one my local context has grown to like for how it speeds up play and reducing the minutea of base-contact movements and flanks and such.

At the same time, you're right - grids (especially these smaller ones) are going to be an impediment for getting most people to check out the game.

I'm open to options and am considering a much larger grid system ala To The Strongest / For King & Parliment or even a more abstract system like the Perfect Captain's new Pikes Level rules which are playtesting right now...

[FlyXwire]

Personally, I'm not turned off by gridded maps, but many gamers don't care for them.

I've textured or adapted a number of areas-style maps that mimic a hex grid but look more like open field terrain - to get the efficiency of grid-based systems onto our local tables as miniatures games.  Still, I've had only two fellow gamers adopt these area movement maps, and probably because they're specialized just to the rules adapted to use them.



For versatility and ease of accessibility, I fear gridded surfaces are just a hurdle to get players into trying a new set of rules.

[FierceKitty]

When I did 1:300s - quite a few decades ago - I was very pleased with Heroics and Ros' European pike and shot stuff (except for the limitations in geography: I love my far east early gunpowder battles). Irregular Miniatures have their uses too (especially sturdy 6mm pikes).

But 10mm for mine now. I never could do an acceptable tartan in 6mm.

[tabletopwargamer]

Lovely figures and great ideas. But grids are not popular, offer an alternative if you can.

[WillPhillips]

Latest Update: http://tabletop.willphillips.org/2020/09/15/6mm-cuirassiers-and-pioneers-completed/

I put my 6mm scale historical wargaming protect on the shelf at the beginning of the year after becoming daunted by the prospect of assembling two large armies (given the rabble rousing I was giving the project among my gaming friends) and discouraged by a general lack of interest.

After spending time assembling and priming my Frostgrave warbands, I’m realizing I still like the idea of it big pike and shot armies in 6mm.

However, it’s such a niche subject and scale, that I’m walking back any ambition of a publicly released set of wargame rules for it. No, this is probably just going to be a personal passion project.

The upside?

If this is just going to be a random project of mine, I don’t have to be in a hurry!

Here's the two units I finished this weekend:









More pics and notes on my Tabletop blog:

http://tabletop.willphillips.org/2020/09/15/6mm-cuirassiers-and-pioneers-completed/

[FlyXwire]

Will, you're doing your 6's with a lot more effort than many put into their larger scale figures or bases - great stuff!

I can relate to keeping your project here "local" - the upside is you can tweak the rules till you're satisfied.....or you just get tired of tweaking. 

On the downsides - your chums and any of their feedback (or lack thereof) can disproportionately affect your efforts and enthusiasm.

Some of the best rules and game systems likely remain unpublished - as at the heart of them,  they're more passion projects than created to be commercial products.

EDIT - Wanted to link this ECW-style mat, that could function well as a gridded system possibly for your project (hope the link works - if it doesn't, the mat is available from Tiny Wargames, and listed as the English Civil War mat on their website) - 

https://www.tinywargames.co.uk/online-store/English-Civil-War-6x4-6mm-marston-moor-p216256669

(the gridded artwork could even be used for a WW2 Normandy game system also - I was thinking)