Renaissance Skirmish Project in 15mm - 🧨 New Pic 14 March

[WillPhillips]

I have recently pivoted my historical wargaming focus from big battles in 6mm to skirmish-scale games in 15mm after I received much  interest from my network of gaming friends about the latter... and continued crickets about the former!

I hesitate to lean too much on the "pike and shot" term for a skirmish context as there is not much space (conceptually and physically!) for blocks of pike and shot when you're paying homage to the raids and skirmishes and street fighting that happened around the peripheries of armies on campaign and in battle.

My friends and I are busy grown ups with limited painting and playing availability. That said, we still want to get a game in once in a while without filling our vehicles to the brim with mini and terrain cases - and without spending half the game in the rule book trying to remember how combat works.

To that end, I'm attempting to build a fast-playing rule set that works well in smaller spaces (we're trying 2x2" as well as 2x3") using 15mm figures multibased on 1.5" rounds, so that you end up with warbands of roughly 11-30 figures on 4-12 bases. Add onto that a strong narrative element and rules that pay homage to the era rather than strictly recreate specific events (you could think of it similar in spirit to Bolt Action).

If you're going for tabletop quality (as I'm not skilled enough to try much better!), then those sorts of numbers paint up very quickly... much more quickly than the 6mm big battle project I was laboring on!

I'm not much of a painter or photographer, but here are the initial shot of my first warband.

[WillPhillips]

Work on the project has been focused on the terrain over the past few weeks. I've never built any terrain or a gaming board. So, it's not fancy, but I'm happy with how it's shaping up.

http://tabletop.willphillips.org/2020/09/21/initial-15mm-terrain-efforts/

Trees are all pre-mades or premade armitures with foliage clumps. Likewise, the buildings are 3D prints which I am speed painting pretty quick in order to get things on the table.

Still more terrain pieces to get in and then assemble, but as as start, I'm pretty happy with it.

[DivisMal]

This looks bloody brilliant! While I’m usually not a friend of multi-bases for skirmishes, they do work here.

[blacksoilbill]

That's a really striking set-up with all the autumn colours. Nice work!

[Captain Blood]

Neat. Nice little figures and vignettes 

The terrain does look rather like a cake 
I like the unusual choice of autumnal colours and the dusting of snow though. Well done for making your own terrain. I bet you’ll be back with more now you’ve got a taste for it.

[vexillia]

Have you considered using Conflict at the World's End v 2.0 for the later period? 

They are Wargame rules for small actions in the Age of Discovery. Designed by Irregular Wars, the pdf bundle features separate pdfs of rules, 48 army lists, quick reference charts, some useful diagrams, as well as campaign rules, scenarios and a pdf of optional chance cards.

What the press said:

• Miniature Wargames 384, Apr 2015
• Latest reviews at Wargame Vault.

The pdfs are optimized for screen reading and can be printed equally well on either A4 or US letter paper.

Free sample pages and army lists - https://www.vexillia.com/common/shop_books.html#t-0

[MGH]

I have to second Vexilla's suggestion. I have those rules and they make for fun skirmish games.

[Bloggard]

This looks bloody brilliant! While I’m usually not a friend of multi-bases for skirmishes, they do work here.

+1

really like the look of your terrain / table too.

[TheBlackCrane]

Really like the look of this, and anything Renaissance is always a good thing! Good inspiration for the tabletop too.


I third the suggestion of the Conflict at the World's end rules, I love them, and recently finished painting up a whole load of English, Spanish, Irish and Imperialists for the rules - in 15mm the bases are 30mmx30mm, 1 base to a 'company' so quite similar to your approach with rounds. Really good rules.

[WillPhillips]

Thanks for the feeback, fellas.

Autumn is my favorite time of year, so the terrain choice is simply pandering to my own preferences.


I actually think I picked up a copy of the Vexilla rules along the way - or a demo, I'd have to look - but this is just as much an exercise at scratching my own creative itch in writing some rules as it is getting a chance to game.

Sure some of you know where I'm coming from there.

[fastolfrus]

Have you looked at By Fire and Sword?
Setting is late C17th, but it uses bases of figures (3 to a base), and has 3 levels of play: Skirmish, Task Force, or Divisional.

Skirmish is scenario driven and allows for forces of 6 to 40 bases, with no need for matching numbers on each side. In some scenarios (such as ambush) the smaller force has to attack.
 
Rules are available at present as a free PDF.
http://www.fireandsword.wargamer.pl/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=46&Itemid=58

May not be what you are looking for but there are some good rules mechanisms that are worth checking

[shakespear]

Have you considered using Conflict at the World's End v 2.0 for the later period? 

They are Wargame rules for small actions in the Age of Discovery. Designed by Irregular Wars, the pdf bundle features separate pdfs of rules, 48 army lists, quick reference charts, some useful diagrams, as well as campaign rules, scenarios and a pdf of optional chance cards.

What the press said:

• Miniature Wargames 384, Apr 2015
• Latest reviews at Wargame Vault.

The pdfs are optimized for screen reading and can be printed equally well on either A4 or US letter paper.

Free sample pages and army lists - https://www.vexillia.com/common/shop_books.html#t-0

These rules look awesome! Can I get print on demand in the US?

[vexillia]

These rules look awesome! Can I get print on demand in the US?

According to this you can - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1494483467?linkId=FEOY5BVEBBBH3ZXP

[WillPhillips]

Like most of my gaming projects, this skirmish idea got put on hold when Covid flared up in the United States.

Now that I've gotten back in the wargaming mode, I've pulled the project out from my storage area and realized how pleased I was at the progress I had with my autumnal-themed wargaming board, my first foray into terrain.

Thinking hard about picking this back up.

Need to at least put together a second warband so I can have a pair to play with... in that far future on the other side of Covid.

More pics here:
http://tabletop.willphillips.org/2020/09/21/15mm-autumnal-table-terrain/

[WillPhillips]

Tried to "quickly knock out" three cavalry figures, four pack horses, and two footmen tonight.

Took me about three hours!

Man, I am struggling with really getting 15mm.

They have as much detail as my larger 28mm guys, but because it's so much finer, it's harder to paint. Not like the tiny 6mm figures that you can get away with block painting and applying a wash to.

This isn't a great photo, but... yeah. Not feeling really great about my progress tonight!