Project Log: Late 1500s 10mm Pike & Shot Armies | Updated April 2024

[AlexanderTheOk]

Privateer raid on San Miguel. Donna Lee, commanding the Spaniards, had no trouble beating my pirates senseless.
I am aware that the Jolly Roger on the Envy may be a few decades ahead of its time, and that it's only speculation that the Cimaroons might have built up a small stock of horses before the 70s (most of them are on foot with machetes, anyway, but Lee didn't photograph those).

Looking good! Can you take some more shots of the maroons? Also, did you base the English with the intention of using them as sea dogs?

[FierceKitty]

We'll do a rematch soon, and shall take more pix. The English could find themselves in support of Dutch rebels one of these days too, so they're pretty generic, and probably too uniform.

[Metternich]

You get very fine painting on a very small canvas.

[FierceKitty]

You're generous to me. The absence of those things one has no reason to do in the smaller scales, like eyes or shading, makes life much easier.

[FierceKitty]

Some Maroon foot made it into the pictures this time.

[FierceKitty]

And the dreaded war-dogs in action.

[fred]

Looking good. I like the use of the pirate figures they work well, will remember this for mine.

The English bill figures look a lot better painted up than I was expecting from the webstore photos.

[FierceKitty]

Check out their forum - there are some far more skilled brushes than mine at work there.

[Frostie]

very nice, I do love 10mm as a great gaming scale

[WillPhillips]

(Crossposted from my gaming blog: https://tabletop.willphillips.org/2024/04/10mm-pike-shot-militia-levy-and-irish-skirmishers/)

Emulating the battles of the pike and shot era has been something of a white whale. I’ve quickly gotten intimidated by – or otherwise disinterested in – the sheer scale of such an undertaking each time I’ve embarked on the idea.

First time in 6mm. Then in 10mm. I last worked on this project during the summer of 2023.

After I stalled out on a recent smaller-footprint, hex-based skirmish project in the era (not posted here – see my Rebels or Beggars Instagram), I’ve come back to this.

Last week’s project was to knock the dust and rust off. Here’s a 100x50mm pike & shot unit, same footprint militia levy, and a 50x50mm unit of Irish skirmishers. Mostly Pendraken with a smattering of old GW Warmaster figures and – for the militia – some Forest Dragon.

One of my longer term* interests is to bring a wargame of a battle from the Dutch Revolt or French Wars of Religion to an SCA event as something of an interactive class on warfare during the pike and shot” era of the 1500s and 1600s.

Lots of units remain to be based and painted, including three monster sized 100x100mm tercios. Oof.

That said, here are some photos. I remain a bad photographer.









Next up? Two 100x50mm bases of Stradioti and a small 50x50mm base of shot.

I'll be posting progress pics on my history-focused Instagram and Facebook pages named Rebels or Beggars:

https://www.instagram.com/rebelsorbeggars/

https://www.facebook.com/rebelsorbeggars

[SJWi]

Will, lovely looking models. Have you made any progress on the rules front? I'd hate to see you spend so much time and effort on your beautiful figyues and then fall at the "rules hurdle".

Regards

[fred]

Great looking figures, big bases of 10mm look awesome

[Basementboy]

Gorgeous! They’ve got a very nice grimy look to them, really cool- love the flags as well

[WillPhillips]

Will, lovely looking models. Have you made any progress on the rules front? I'd hate to see you spend so much time and effort on your beautiful figyues and then fall at the "rules hurdle".

Regards

Some progress, and my approach to this has evolved over the last few years.

I'm under no illusion that another pike-and-shot era ruleset will have any large appeal, so I won't be testing any kind of commercial release, nor will I be marketing them significantly.

I've now narrowed my goal with this (long term and in no real hurry) project and its rules.

I'd like to have two large-enough armies to take to game stores and, as a member of the quasi-reenacting organization, SCA events I attend to act as an interactive demonstration of how war in that time and place may have looked.

So the rules are going to be very, very simple. Maybe a step or two more complex than what's presented in One Hour Wargames.

That way, those without the interest in the era - or are new to wargames - won't be inundated with complex mechanics, math, or edge cases.

Simple unit stats (I think I can get away with a basic move range in S/M/L increments like SAGA), a combat strength stat, a simple ranged stat with distance, and a catch-all discipline/order stat.

No command stands. Zones of control get handled well enough with big stands and no interpenetration.

Activation and turn sequence inspired by Crossfire and the Lion Rampant-derived series.

But all that's of course subject to playtesting... which right now uses what I've got combined with cardstock proxy markers.

[WillPhillips]

Great looking figures, big bases of 10mm look awesome

Yeah, big bases was definitely the goal to give that impression of scale and mass.

Had I not had these leftover from the initial 6mm scale project (https://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=122480.msg1538507), I may have gone a smidge larger. But I'm happy enough with these.