Perry Plastic Men-At Arms Box Cover Art

[Atheling]

Cheapest need to know source for my money is probably Osprey's The English Medieval Knight 15th Century by Christopher Gravett. IIRC he is top man at the Royal Armouries in Leeds (or was) and while the actual history may not be his strong point, he knows armour. 

Arlequin is certainly right, for an Osprey this is a very good book.

Having said that, it wouldn't do you any harm to read a bit more into it, Tobias Capwell, curator at the Kelvin Grove museum in Glasgow, is what one might term as an expert and his books are available at Amazon:

The Real Fighting Stuff: Arms and Armour at Glasgow Museums, Tobias Capwell:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Real-Fighting-Stuff-Glasgow/dp/0902752820/ref=lh_ni_t?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE

Masterpieces of European Arms and Armour in the Wallace Collection, Tobias Capwell:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Masterpieces-European-Armour-Wallace-Collection/dp/0900785861/ref=pd_sim_sbs_b_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=0JDE5GG6T42KSBYQ49RZ

Hope that helps you folks?

Darrell.

[Arlequín]

I vaguely remember reading somewhere that 'men at arms' formed about 10% of English domestic armies in the 15th Century (I don't know how true that is, but I doubt it's far from the mark). So while the 3 box deal is tempting, do you think the Perry's will come up with a deal for 27 boxes of WotR infantry?

[Atheling]

I vaguely remember reading somewhere that 'men at arms' formed about 10% of English domestic armies in the 15th Century (I don't know how true that is, but I doubt it's far from the mark). So while the 3 box deal is tempting, do you think the Perry's will come up with a deal for 27 boxes of WotR infantry?

  That would be a resounding no! 

Still, there's plenty of other projects that I'll be using them for besides the Wars of the Roses and they will be a vast improvement on the 12 (not including the Yorkist and Lancaster nobles) available metal men at arms.

I'll be using some as the front ranks of my Swiss, the Burgundians, French Ordonnance army possibly even Talbot's force at Castillon amongst others so they will get used! Eventually 

Darrell.

[CaptainHaddonCollider]

So while the 3 box deal is tempting, do you think the Perry's will come up with a deal for 27 boxes of WotR infantry?

I guess they will change their WOTR army deals to incorporate the boxes though... 10% ratio or no. 

[Blackwolf]

The great thing will be to chop 'em in half to make more mounted men at arms; well that's what I plan to do anyway

[Arlequín]

I'm actually looking forwards to the 'light cavalry' set more. Non-MatA mounted figures have never been much in evidence in figure ranges over the years, while MatA's were always over-abundant. With metal costs being as they were/are, the cost of creating forces like the French & Burgundians, with their mounted archers and coutiliers was always prohibitive.

For the skirmish gamer, being able to essentially cheaply have duplicate foot and mounted figures for games, for all mounted types, has been a long time coming.

[commissarmoody]

I'm actually looking forwards to the 'light cavalry' set more. Non-MatA mounted figures have never been much in evidence in figure ranges over the years, while MatA's were always over-abundant. With metal costs being as they were/are, the cost of creating forces like the French & Burgundians, with their mounted archers and coutiliers was always prohibitive.

For the skirmish gamer, being able to essentially cheaply have duplicate foot and mounted figures for games, for all mounted types, has been a long time coming.

I agree, I need more light cav! 

[Atheling]

I agree, I need more light cav! 

Well ditto, I would of course welcome the early arrival of the Mounted 'Lights' 

I wonder how far off they might be? I know that the Perry's have surprised us all with their Early 15thC release, should be around or before October 25th is my guess(?)  That might rule out an earlier release for the Mounted 'Light' troops but then again we really have no idea how far along they are. They might be in tooling, they may well still be on the sculpting table(?).

Darrell.

Darrell.

[Arlequín]

I'm patient, so just knowing they are in the pipeline is enough. 

It is, I imagine, the final box in general bread and butter troop terms, which would leave just a few 'oddities' to be produced in metal. That being said, I wonder if there is sufficient interest for Scots/Northern foot, Irish and perhaps some poorly protected English levies out there, to warrant further plastic sets?

[doowopapocalypse]

I'd like some. Lord of the Isles and all that?

[Atheling]

I'm patient, so just knowing they are in the pipeline is enough.  

It is, I imagine, the final box in general bread and butter troop terms, which would leave just a few 'oddities' to be produced in metal. That being said, I wonder if there is sufficient interest for Scots/Northern foot, Irish and perhaps some poorly protected English levies out there, to warrant further plastic sets?

Well, the Gallogliagh/Gallowglass and Irish Kerns are glaring holes if you want to fight the Battle of Stoke Field that's for sure. I'm not so sure that it would be prudent to produce Scottish Lowland troops of the sort that Margaret (probably) had in her army as they wouldn't look so different from the English troops as you know Arlequin.

I think and I stress 'think' that anything else we see for this period will be in metal and probably along the lines of various national command packs and hopefully the correct mini's to finish off the Wars of the Roses/Cousins War that I have outlined above.

Move a little further back into the 15thC and I wonder if we will see a box of plastic mounted Men at Arms for the Agincourt to Orleans range(?) or perhaps French foot 'knights' men at arms for the same time period?

Darrell.

[von Lucky]

They are now working full time - meaning that all release date estimates are out the window.

By this time next year we'll have full plastic sets for the Second Schleswig War and all three Cod Wars (ships included).

[doowopapocalypse]

Some of those spiffy Castillian Sucession helmets wouldn't go amiss, either.

[huevans]

They are now working full time - meaning that all release date estimates are out the window.

By this time next year we'll have full plastic sets for the Second Schleswig War and all three Cod Wars (ships included).

Goodness, I've always wanted figures in 28mm for cod in full harness.

[janner]

The 10% ratio is fine for bigger battles, but you'd expect that to shift significantly to the right if you're doing a skirmish game based on a confrontation between magnates' military households.

I expect they offer up considerable opportunities to kit bashing with the existing boxed sets to create less well armed troops, such as armoured legs for a brigandine wearing man at arms or retinue archer...