Figures for the French Wars of Religion

[bluewillow]

Ok, new project plans for 2022 are in the wings, I want to build armies suitable for the French Wars of Religion from the "sixth" war (1576–1577) to the edict of Nantes 1598.

The armies I will build will predominantly focused on the region around us here in Mayenne, Pays de Loire. We have 6 large field skirmishes and two battles and 35 sieges within 60klm.

I am interested in what figures apart from old glory are available for the period, Wargames Atlantic have some coming and I have a few Eureka miniatures which are very large. Anything I missed?

Planning on the Catholic Leauge "Duke of Mayenne" army and Huguenots lead by Henry IV.

Interested what rules that people are using work for small to large battles, currently thinking Impetus Barouque. 

Once the armies are completed we will conduct "walk the battlefield in the morning, Wargame in the afternoon" tour and wargame at French Wargame Holidays

Cheers
Matt

Cheers
Matt

[whiskey priest]

I went for Foundry seadogs for my Dutch forces for the same period. For the Spanish I used a mix of Gamezon imperials and old citadel Estalians. However now i'd use TAG's range of Spanish and dutch for a lot of that range. There is also the old Vendel range that is now sold by Thistle and Rose and they are sculpted by the same guy that did the D'Arlo border reivers (sold through Colonel Bill's). Most of the above will fit together size wise. There are also some figures from warlord in their Wars of religion range which are lovely sculpts. Slightly smaller than the above sculpts but with careful handling will fit in no probs (the Anderson Collection that posts on here uses them together in superb style).

[John Boadle]

"Figures suitable for the French Wars of Religion" is a very sore point with me, I'm afraid. I really want to do this period. But basically you can't do wargames armies for it, unless your standards of accuracy or sculpt quality are a bit low by modern standards. Almost all the figures available were sculpted decades ago and/or are of a childish level of historical representation. One of the most essential troop types you need to represent is gendarmes, who in this war almost universally adopted half-armour with close helmets, and a cassock over the armour, usually in a uniform colour for each company. There is no figure for this available afaik.

Of good quality mostly, and accurate for at least the broad period is the TAG Dutch War of Independence range. It comprises Dutch and Spanish infantry so far, but their dress is perfectly good for French and English infantry. They also do tolerable Landsknechts, but there's nothing for the Swiss who were the foremost infantry on FWOR battlefields. It's much worse when it comes to cavalry. There are some Reiters out very soon indeed, and I think they will be pretty good, but only three packs. There's lots of places you can get a useable mounted arquebusier, but those guys only ever formed a tiny part of the cavalry (less than 10%). It's the gendarmes or chevaux legers, and the later Huguenot pistoleers that are an insuperable problem. There are some more Dutch and Spanish cavalry due out eventually, but TAG release historical figures with glacial slowness. I mean a few packs every couple of years. When these cavalry do get released, they should hopefully pass for the French cavalry types we need, but that's not guaranteed. So maybe in a few years...

[Friends of General Haig]

I would look at TAG, Warlord and Foundry.  TAG do a good selection of 16th century stuff, and Warlord have a fair few in their Wars of Religion range.  Foundry used to have a few things for this period too.

Warlord even have Gendarmes in cassocks https://store.warlordgames.com/products/wallenstein-s-lifeguard-regiment?variant=31469014679632

[wkeyser]

I am doing it in 15mm take a look at Khursan range, it is quite complete and fantastic sculpts by Clibinari.

[TheBlackCrane]

I was also going to suggest Khurasan if you wanted to do it in 15mm. I don't have the French but do have figures from the rest of his C16th range and they are excellent.

(Also not had any issues with parcel coming from USA to Europe (UK) as I know one issue which always gets raised is mail/postage)

[rct75001]

Have a good look at TAG mate.
Richard

[SteveBurt]

I have a friend with French and Spanish armies of this era. I will see if I can find out what he used. Field of Glory:Renaissance is a good set of rules

[Paul Richardson]

I seem to recall that at one stage TAG was proposing to make some specific French WoR figures but I don't know whether that's still the plan. Even if it is, they'll be a little down the line because TAG still has the Dutch to finish off.

[bluewillow]

Thank you chaps

Looking at the current ranges none really fit the bill for The War of the three Henry’s, I like the TAG range big figures yes but loads of character, warlord are too late IMHO.

I am tossing up if I should get a range made specifically, although it has been a number of years since I was involved in that part of the business.

I have started a Facebook page specifically for the wars of religion fir those who do Facebook, and I will start posting my research on my blog as normal.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/621094262284621/

Cheers
Matt

[Bogdanwaz]

Old Glory has a line for mid to late 16th century:

https://www.oldgloryminiatures.com/products.asp?cat=25mm+Wars+of+Religion+1550+to+1600

[Paul Richardson]

The Warlord figures were originally sculpted by Paul Hicks for Arsenal Miniatures and were supposed to be suitable for the siege of Malta of 1565.

[Lowtardog]

I noticed that Artizan are bringing out arquebusiers which would be ideal. Also recently it's worth looking at the Flint and feather Europeans by Bob Murch, they would fit pretty well I think. Whiskey Priest has said others I'd look at using already and has a great little blog. You may find some useful figures amongst the eureka conquistadors Spanish and Portuguese too

[Patrice]

I am mainly using Foundry swashbucklers, with some other miniatures from various ranges (including a lady with a hunting crossbow from Bad Squiddo Games whose clothing fits well enough in the period) and I am currently adding a few TAG mounted characters for more variety.

Friends also bring more TAG miniatures etc. (?) for some games.

I think this is very good for the kind of games I play: RPG-minded very small skirmishes in the Guerre de la Ligue in Brittany; but that would certainly not be enough for larger skirmishes or battles.
https://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=120567.msg1511087#msg1511087

[Lowtardog]

If not too worried on accuracy, Mom miniatures have some nice period style figures, also some nice characters, bigger chunkier figures https://en.momminiatures.com/army-hijos-del-grifo