Lead Adventure Forum
Miniatures Adventure => Old West => Topic started by: Christian on 08 December 2009, 12:22:44 PM
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http://www.wargamesfoundry.com/collections/OW/7/index.asp
So... Mountain Men.
They don't look as clear cut as your typical outlaws/lawmen/Indians collections... but they do look great! What's going on with these figures? Are they more like your northern frontiersmen? Are some of the figures supposed to be mixed races?
Also, how come some of the guns looked like they're wrapped up?
Lastly, could I use these with Legends of the Old West? I haven't seen the book yet :/ But, I imagine it would be pretty flexible (like High Seas).
I'm really interested in these figures! Can anyone help?
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I'm no expert, so I'll leave the specific details to other on the forum, but you've got it about right with the frontiersmen bit - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mountain_man
They aren't in the core LOTOW book, but there is a specific mountain-man posse in the Alamo book
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Just spent half my lunch break replying, then got thrown off t'internet lol
I wrote a 3 part series in WI about the Mountain Men when they first came out, can't remember the dates/issue numbers offhand.
They were chiefly fur trappers/traders employed by the fur companies or independantly in the c1820-1840 period, working on the northern plains but most significantly in the rockies, although they ventured into the south west to Santa Fe etc. The boom in beaver pelts for making beaver hats from the felted fur to supply the worlds fashionable milliners gave them a very lucrative income until the fashion changed to silk hats and the bottom dropped out of the beaver market.
They associated or fought with most Indians, Crows were particularly co-operative, Blackfoot (until their numbers were dramatically reduced by smallpox, the most powerful nation on the northern plains) were particularly aggressively opposed to them, and to the Crows.
They were something of a mixed bunch, but contained a lot of British, American born and French/metis, as well as, as you say, mixed race - the famous Jim Beckwourth being a classic example.
After the beaver boom, some remained eking out a living trapping, others went on to pastures new, a good numbere became scouts for the armies, or for the immigrant trains that were starting to cross the continent to the gold fields in California or to settle Oregon. Some crop up decades later in accounts of all sorts of events.
Watch any of the following movies for a bit of background atmosphere:
Jeremiah Johnson (Robert Redford)
The Mountain Men (Charlton Heston)
Across the Wide Missouri (Clark Gable)
Man in the Wilderness (Richard Harris)
There are more, of course....
Some of the guns are carried in decorated buckskin scabbards simply to protect them for when needed, in which case they were easily slipped out.
They are very good representations of the subject, superbly sculpted by Mike Owen of Artizan etc when he worked for Foundry, the only possible detraction (if you're a bit of an anorak like me ;D) is the over-generic, over-clumsy muskets many of them carry, other than that they're excellent.
The above will probably suggest several uses for them, in groups falling out with Blackfoot down to Comanche and even in at least one instance with digger i9ndians, with Mexican Presidials (see the excellent Boot Hill Miniatures range), and later as individuals or small groups as scouts, early buffalo hunters, indian fighters or even later as ornery vicious old varmints lol
Can't remember whether they appear in Lotow, but they should be easy enough to create something suitable - I'll be amazed if no-one's done that yet.
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Hunters, trappers, explorers, often took Native wives, came from the tribes, or were of other ethnicities looking to make a living in one of the few avenues open to them. Really limitless potential.
These are beautiful minis! Painted a bunch myself. Useful as scrappy bounty hunters, or just to raise some hell when they descend into town, pockets full of cash from fur sales, looking to get drunk and enjoy some female companionship. :)
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Edit - Whoops, somebody beat me to it! Oh, well!
Well, here's what Wikipedia has to say about them...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mountain_man
They were quite a rugged bunch. The guns that look like they are wrapped up are exactly that. It's a deerskin (or similar) cover used to protect the rifle from the elements. Lots of snow in the 'High Country'.
I imagine some of them were of mixed race, like Métis, since many associated more with the Indian tribes than the white settlers. There were several black Mountain Men during the period, as well.
As for gaming with them? Haven't got that far yet. Only have OW8/5 so far. Love Wee Jamie Swanson - he's huge!
I used to have Foundry's article on Mountain Men. I'll see if I can dig it up when I get home tonight.
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That was a great Mountain Men article -I think it used to be available on the Foundry website, but not any more. Lots of great inspiration for games, if I remember. As if those figures weren't inspiration enough!
Mountain men posses are in the Alamo sourcebook for LOTOW.
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I shall have been able to pass my after noon to speak to you about montains men, but my English is too bad lol lol. I leave that to the others.
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Thanks Oxiana re the article, I have the mags at home somewhere, and probably the text on a disc. ::)
Duhamel, you should post some links for Christian to some of your great stuff. 8)
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ok ok :D
http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=11840.0
http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=11394.0
http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=11222.0
http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=11210.0
http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=11206.0
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Thanks Duhamel 8)
There you go Christian :)
the second link demonstrates my thoughts exactly re the Hawken rifle - just great :-*
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Lest we forget:
http://oldwest.witchhunter.net/gallery_gold_diggers.html
and:
http://oldwest.witchhunter.net/gallery_grizzly_hunters.html
:-* :-* :-*
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Found it! Christian, if you PM me your email address, I'll send you off a copy of Lance's WI article. The Foundry version had the same text but was illustrated with additional photos of their painted figures.
Mike
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Wow, what a huge response! :o Thanks so much for filling me in on this, everybody. The information on the period is fascinating, and the pics especially cool. Looking forward to reading the WI article, it sounds like it was quite an epic undertaking.
With all the great Wild West stuff how am I ever going to finish any of the other projects I'm working on? :P
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look up the "mounties vs Indians" thread in the old west forum. There are a number of game scenarios discussed there. The mountain men can fill a lot of roles. Or look up "The fight at Duck lake"
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Hi i am just starting to paint a posse of these bad boys myself, the main thing i am stuck with are they mainly wearing linen hunting shirts or are they heavier animal skin coats? pics soon!
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A big public THANK YOU to archangel1 for pointing me to WI issues 169-171, the last of which has a great article on LOTOW scenarios, very suited to small games. And thanks to Lance for the original articles in WI.
Found it! Christian, if you PM me your email address, I'll send you off a copy of Lance's WI article. The Foundry version had the same text but was illustrated with additional photos of their painted figures.
Mike
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You're welcome. My pleasure.
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Yes, I must say, it was a terrific article! So thanks to those responsible ;)
Hermit, those miniatures look really good :) It seems I missed out on the Christmas discount from Foundry...? :'( I'm going to pick up the Rocky Mountain Rendevous pack soon anyway...
As for ideas on how to use them...! Rival companies battling for hunting grounds, Indian raids, baggage train scenarios, add some bears or deer and you can even go hunting!
Can't wait to get started...
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They aren't in the core LOTOW book, but there is a specific mountain-man posse in the Alamo book
They are in the LoTOW main book on page 99 as a "Free Trapper" hired gun. In the book they are described specifically as mountain men.
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I've seen the Alamo book and you can field an entire gang too :)
I wonder though, how do their powder weapons mix historically with revolvers and shotguns and the like? The trappers were active from 1820-40 (according to Wiki)...
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I seem to recall that they don't sweat the details too much - they only have access to Black-powder weapons & shotguns (as ML & BL shotguns are treated the same in the rules) when building a posse, but after that heros can aquire new (more modern) toys. I think the general idea is don't sweat the details, but I must admitt I'm not sure I'd be entirely happy facing down a 'modernly' armed posse (even though the older guns are cheaper...)
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Yes they are covered in LOTOW. And although they saw their hayday in the earlier period there type of hard living loner carried through into the 1870s & 80s. Becoming scouts and guides, trying their hand at prospecting, buffaloe hunting, and still trapping. Although later changing their focus to the furrier trade. They are in the Alamo book for the time period & many of the men with Davey Crockett were mountain men. Often there coats were made from the same woolen trade blankets the fur companies traded to the natives for furs. Even the woolen coats would have been fringed to shed water faster. Besides their long arms, they would have carried a side arm and several kinds of knives or hatchets.
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Excellent.
I think that with the 20% off everything from Foundry these big packs will be a good buy!
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The local paper ran a collection of articles from Christmases past yesterday. One was an article from 1900 describing some old timers, still clinging to buckskins and beaver skin caps, coming in for their annual trip to town.
Guess those figs can be used for the whole old west period then.