15mm figures for the Vendee?

[NickNascati]

All,
     I’m interested in doing some skirmish gaming set during the revolt of the Vendee, no more than 20 figures per side.  With Alain Touller’s figures no longer available, what is out there?

[OB]

Lancashire games have an excellent range of 15mm Vendeans in their archive section. loads of variants too.  Do a search here and you will see pics of them.

[NickNascati]

I’ve seen them.  Very nice, but shipping to the US, pricey.

[OB]

Blue Moon if you want to go a bit bigger would be OK from what I've seen of them.

[NickNascati]

The Blue Moon figures look very nice, but they don’t offer cavalry or artillery for the Republicans or the Royalists.  Also, I don’t need packs of 30 figures.

[OB]

Yes Nick, that's the downside of Blue Moon.  They are not very good at completing ranges either.  I hear you about shipping costs.

[italwars]

The Blue Moon figures look very nice, but they don’t offer cavalry or artillery for the Republicans or the Royalists.  Also, I don’t need packs of 30 figures.

I don t know if those BM are compatible with any other 15mm range for the period..simply because i game only in 25/28mm. But as you're looking for such an "out of the beaten path" front..that is the revolts in Vendée and Britanny , if i was you i would take the opportunity to first  buy those BM that are available in USA..Cavalry in Vendée saw such a limited use cause, even if some sufficiently large battles took place, a level of manoueuvre, coordination of arms and mounted combat similar to those  seen in North/Central Europe was never reached..it was, after all, an asymetrical war, in a rough ground with the  rebels  certainly not wishing to wait to be charged by ennemy reguar cavalry.. the Vendéens had very limited cavalry forces made out of mixed, untrained and poorly mounted elements (peasants of the 18c. did nt own horses except a few lucky ones going at war with their precious heavy workhorse or riding the one of their lord) used mainly for scouting and in some rare occasions to shyly pursuing a routed ennemy  ..the only instance that i remenber of a classical "close to or charge the ennemy" order given by a general during a battle of which i don't remenber the name  was simply met with a refusal  by those very individualistic  Vendéens mounted peasants..same thing could be said for the Republicans ..very limited use..sometimes they were so few in a battlefield that they mixed together few Chasseurs à Cheval with a handful of the local Gendarmes à Cheval (i'm referring to mounted constabulary belonging to the Gendarmerie)...i'm sure that, for the French, at this scale, you can also enlist Prussian 7YW hussars as  proxies  French Hussards in mirliton headress, Loyalist AWI cavalry in Tarleton for the Chasseurs à Cheval and maybe, if available in 15mm, British or Spanish Peninsular War Cavalry in bicorne headgear for the very few French  Cavalerie de Ligne rarely employed in Vendée. Take also into account that because of the broken ground, such as "chemins creux" , swamps, forests, bocage type enclosures and the fact that, from what i read,  practically every settled battle fought in Vendée aimed at the conquest of a village or  a chateau , few if no  cavalrymen were listed in quite a few orders of battle that i read  ....and finally maybe you could consider, to fill the gaps of the Artillery to use some bicorne type Spanish Napoleonic Artillery or AWI guys for the "Bleus" or even some Napoleonic French Artillery with a bicorne head from the BM infantry..The Vendéen rebels had , except captured pieces, very few artillery including museum 16/17 c. types collected from Castle's "museums", towed by oxen and their crew could be made, in 15mm,  out of,  maybe 30 Years Wars castings in large floppy hats or even from simple civilian/guerilla/settlers/plain clothes type castings..

[NickNascati]

Italwars,
              Thanks for your helpful input.  I am coming up with a plan, now all I need is for my PayPal to regain a healthier status.

[vtsaogames]

The only horses in my Vendee forces are officers' mounts. Lots of bocage though. An AAR:
http://corlearshookfencibles.blogspot.com/2020/01/back-to-vendee-with-rebels-patriots.html
Hmm, right before Covid hit.

[NickNascati]

The big issue I have is the size of packs.  The rules I use are One Hour Skirmish Wargames.  Forces are generally not more than 12-20 figures per side.  The Blue Moon packs are of 30 figures, meaning I’d have to buy close to a hundred pieces to get less than forty for a game.

[FifteensAway]

If you have - or know someone who has and will let you use (Old Glory USA is okay with that) - an Old Glory Army Card, you knock 40% of the purchase price.  Even if you only need 40 out of 100 figures, you can always either sell-on or donate the other figures to a worthy cause.  Locally, we have some one who does paint-and-take sessions teaching people to paint at local conventions - and hopefully will again if we get the conventions back.  Alas, that is becoming a debatable point.

Difficult to succeed in being 'picky' when chasing a niche era.  I got lucky for a few of my desires - mostly courtesy of Old Glory - Three Musketeers in 15 mm in particular but others.  And Robin Hood in 15 mm from Splintered Light Miniatures.  Sometimes we have to hold on to hope for a long time.  After 20 years of hoping, I finally was able to realize 15 mm WWI figures for German East Africa courtesy of QRF Miniatures.  So it is either compromise, wait and hope, or commission the figures you want (and that makes shipping and/or having to buy extra unneeded figures pale in comparison; I know, I've done it).

Good luck getting what you are hoping for.

[italwars]

Difficult to succeed in being 'picky' when chasing a niche era..

in my life i've been "picky" on almost everything  and happy and proud to be such even if the masses and self-rightous could disagree  ...but 'm not so when we talk about wargame...with niche areas i even accepted some monstruous compromises..for example, recently, instead of spending money for another ephemeral project  i was satisfied by fielding some small 25mm metal Ral Partha and Navwar Conquistadores, mixed with plastic 1:72 Revel figures and fielded against converted Airfix foot indian bowmen and naked spearmen acting as Southwest natives for a small but enjoyable skirmish...no one among both plastic and metal guys complained

[NickNascati]

I have my fingers crossed that a deal may work out for me.

[FifteensAway]

for italwars: you may wish, if you do not know them already, to become familiar with Khurasan Miniature's historical range of figures - if you decide to do more than a skirmish in conquistador era and you work with 15 mm figures.  Have a look.  Temptation may strike you. 

[AndrewBeasley]

The YouTube channel The Joy of Wargaming has a few games that may interest you.


There is no specific playlist for them but you can find them in this list [size=78%]https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL_z29m150g5p0LDSs5rusmcIET15cnjXF[/size] From around October last year.