English Civil War

[Darkoath]

Well Captain Blood's post stirred something up in me and rekindled my interest in doing the English Civil War.  So I will start a post here that hopefully will get people talking about this period.

What are the good rules available for this period?  The two that I know off are the Perry's 1644 and
Warhammer Historical's The English Civil war.  Can anyone tell me what these sets of rules are like?
Are there any other good rules for playing the English Civil War?

Also what would you consider to be essential reading for information about the English Civil War?
Overall history, campaigns, Essential personalities, uniform guides?

What about good movies about the English Civil War?  The only movie I am familar with is Cromwell (which I very much enjoyed).

How about miniature ranges available in 28mm.  The two ranges that I have been looking at are Renegade and Bicorne, which I heard are sculpted by the same person.  Anyone have any of these miniatures?  What are some other good ranges?  Do any other ranges fit in well with the Renegade or Bicorne miniatures?

What about 28mm buildings for this period?  Which company would you suggest?

Sorry for so many questions but I am hoping that this gets our members talking about this period!

Darkoath

[white knight]

other people have posted about this, but ranges fall down in big and small.

on the bigger side you have: renegade, bicorne, redoubt
on the smaller side you have: foundry, perry, old glory (which are decent)
TAG falls in the middle and are by the renegade/bicorne sculptor. They can go both ways with some judicious basing.

[Aaron]

Clarence Harrison has a fun set of rules on his site http://www.quindia.com/studioarticles.htm and I understand the Too Fat Lardies have a set in progress.

I know CV Wedgewood's three volumes on the war are considered dated, but they are well-written and inspired me through several long painting sessions.

Darkoath covered the figure options. I'll point out that Old Glory's ECW range is one of their better ones and since you are in the states it is probably the most economical option if you are doing a big army.

[Galloping Major]

Re movies:

To be honest, most of the films set in the English Civil War range from fairly to extremely inaccurate.

One I would recommend if you can get hold of a copy is an award winning 2 part docu-drama called "Cromwell, God's Executioner". which is about the Irish campaigns, and surprisingly even-handed (for the most part) considering it was made for Irish TV by Tile films.

All right, I may be a little partisan here, as I appear in it commanding some of the guys from my re-enactment unit, but the whole production has a good period feel, and there are some superb scenes in it. I'll put you up an address for it later, along with some recommended reading.

Meanwhile, there are some pictures from the filming, along with lots of other useful pics and info on my unit's (The Tower Hamlets Trayned Bandes) website:
www.traynedbandes.org.uk

Hope this doesn't mean you're losing interest in FIW  

[OSHIROmodels]

I would go for Perry's figures if I were you. I reckon they are the best around for ECW (and they used to be members of the regiment I'm in many years ago).

I've only used Warhammer ECW rules and quite like them but can't really comment on any others.

For buildings any sort of English timber framed building would do and I'm trying to think of the company that I had in mind for it but it's completely gone 

cheers

James

[white knight]

For buildings any sort of English timber framed building would do and I'm trying to think of the company that I had in mind for it but it's completely gone 

PMP? TSS? Fantascene? Monolith? There are loads of companies that make buildings like that.

[Lowtardog]

White Knight has hit the spot on ranges and compatibility.

Redoubt is a fairly old range with some cracking figures but the seprate heads whilst giving good options can sometimes let them down a little as some appear over pressed and a little pinched.

I did a whole Covenanter army with redoubt and enjoyed painting them they were assisted with the odd Renegade figure which fit in pretty well being on the large side. I would avoid the renegade scots though as they are merely head swaps of the original English and the jackets are cut all wrong.

The old Foundry/Perry range is looking a little tired but if doing it again I would use the new Perry range and mix in Bicorne and TAG (mainly 30YW but some nice scots and generic figures)personally

Rules;
WECW - though a v2 is in the offing at the moment so you could either wait or pick up a 2nd hand or cheap copy

1644 is a forerunner and again you may be able to pick up older 1st edition copies on e-bay

I have played Peter Pigs rules which are popular at our club and have a nice pre game intro to make games interesting, originally for 15mm but can be converted easily.

Forlorn Hope is another set, never played it but said to be quite accurate, not sure if that slows things down or not though.

Buildings- the worlds your oyster anything from Tudor Beamed/half timbered to stone castles and the like can be used. Again white knight has given a list. Special note for PMC which are cheap and ready painted...search on the forum and you wil see lots of reference to them

[white knight]

Forummember cianty has a good list of manufacturers that offer this style of buildings on his blog: http://cianty-tabletop.blogspot.com/2008/11/tabletop-buildings-and-scenery.html

Also, on the miniatures side, I forgot to mention Eureka miniatures which have a nice range (great scots) that compare well to the perry ones sizewise.

[nagrombor]

I've had a quick scan through the replies and no one seems to have mentioned Warlord Games new plastic sets for the ECW.  They do Infantry, artillery, Covenanters and have cavalry on the way as well as some metal miniatures which complement the plastic figures.  They are scaled at 28mm and must surely represent a cost effective way to build a basic ECW force.  I suggest you have a look at their website.
I have played Forlorn Hope rules and they are a good set which give a very good period feel.  Battles are not initially bloodbaths (through small arms/artillery fire) but things rapidly deteriorate once one side starts to get its units broken and it begins to disintegrate.  The rule set provides force lists and the numbers of figures in a unit are used only as representations of the troop types as the rules are geared to the ratios of pikes to shot in the real life units (as opposed to working out how many of each you require to represent the unit in miniature).
The publishers of Forlorn Hope also produce a variety of small booklets which provide a goldmine of information about the English Civil War, how it was fought and the forces involved.

[BaronVonJ]

This thread might help:
http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=12966.0
I ended up with "Victory without Quarter" cause it fit my style, but it's not for everybody.
-J

[white knight]

I've had a quick scan through the replies and no one seems to have mentioned Warlord Games new plastic sets for the ECW. 

D'oh! I have them too. They are on the small end of the spectrum and they make some nice metal ones too.

[cianty]

Yay for the Warlord Games Pike & Shotte range! I totally love their minis and recently I often caught myself thinking that if I ever returned to army wargames, I'd definately go with Warlord's minis and the ECW period. Personally I much prefer skirmish style games, less minis and more emphasis on the scenery and possibly campaign development.

Does anyone of you sage folk have any suggestions for a skirmish kind of rules set that would allow me to experience the ECW period with just a few minis (so I can feed my Warlord hunger)?

[nagrombor]

Does anyone of you sage folk have any suggestions for a skirmish kind of rules set that would allow me to experience the ECW period with just a few minis (so I can feed my Warlord hunger)?

Pete Berry has authored or co-authored two such sets

"Once Upon A Time in the West Country" - a seventeenth century skirmish set, on a one-to-one scale, that (if I remember rightly) had a game based around capturing Prince Rupert's poodle!
"File Leader" - set on a company level basis (6 foot/base with bases representing pikes, shot and command but I can't remember the number of cavalry per base I'm afraid)
Both have straight forward mechanisms and are I believe available from Caliver Books.

Hope this helps

NB - If you want to try them but cannot get them I can let you have my copies.

[Captain Blood]

Ah - good to see a bit of ECW interest 

And the really great thing of course: you can do the Thirty Years War with pretty much the same figures - providing you keep the flags non-specific...

Personally, I favour the Bicorne / Renegade 'large' figures - just brilliant sculpts that ooze period detail and flavour. And a huge choice of figures.

The Perry ECW figures are also excellent. Full of character. But sadly, a bit of a limited range, and not compatible size-wise with Bicorne / Renegade. A good 5mm shorter.

Warlord I'm really finding hard to love. The plastic infantry are just not to my taste at all. Too chocolate box-like. Some of the metal figures are very nice though. Others are a bit peculiar. But it's down to personal taste - as ever... I'm reserving final judgement until I see the cavalry. I daresay I'll try a box... 

[bluewillow]

I have a huge mixed army from Perry, Foundry, old glory and Eureka (11 pike and shot blocks of 32) 5 guns, and about 96 cavalry and about 90 Highlanders.

I normally use WECW, its not to bad but haveoften thought about playing with the rules a little as the Highland charge is just toooooo powerful, apart from that all good.

Lots of great figure ranges out there, have a good look at all of them and think will I keep this army or sell it on later when I get bored with it. As it is my third Army for this period I decided to spend the dollars and buy Perry and Foundry (majority), but I just couldn't go past Eurekas Irish pike and old glorys very animated highlanders

cheers
matt