Starting with pirates

[Mr.J]

Hello All

This might be a bit of an odd question with an obvious answer but what period would the Foundry pirates range be suitable for? Could the figures be stretched into the late 18th Century or are they designed specifically for the golden age of piracy? From the costume I don't see that there's much in it but if anyone could clue me in that would be great.

[Eric the Shed]

Personally I think the Foundry Pirates fit with the golden age of Piracy but there are enough generic figures to be used for crew into the late 18th century...

[Malamute]

I think the Foundry Pirates have more than a nod to Hollywood...

 Am I right in thinking the Golden Age of Piracy is late C17th to Early C18th?

In which case the wide brimmed floppy hat would be more appropriate than the tricorne. The Tricorne I believe becomes fashionable 1750 onwards, so a lot of the Foundry figures will fit the later C18th perfectly.

[Mr.J]

Perfect! Thanks for the responses, this pretty much confirms what I was thinking. I would like to keep my time period as loose as possible so that's great.

[Patrice]

You get "unformal" tricornes c.1700, and proper tricornes from the beginning of the 18th century (WoSS, etc), however civilian floppy hats are still around for some time.

French Marine c.1700:


If you want to look very closely at details, I think the Foundry pirates shirt collar doesn't fit for the 17th century ...but most people (including myself) prefer to ignore it.

[Carpathian]

"A General History of the Pyrates" was quite a popular book at the date of its publication in 1724, and includes copper plates of what people of the period *thought* a pirate should look like.




https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_General_History_of_the_Pyrates

[Leigh Metford]

The Foundry range was intended to cover both the buccaneer era of the late 17th century (c1660 - 1700), and the golden age of piracy (c1700 - 1730), so some figures work best for the former and some for the latter. If you buy/borrow both relevant Osprey books it will make working out which is which easier.

[warrenpeace]

To me the "Golden Age of Piracy" in the Carribean was from about 1640 to about 1680. That was when pirates in the Carribean had a code of cooperation and were able to gather into fleets for raids on the Spanish Main, especially the great raids led by Henry Morgan. After that they were driven out to the Indian Ocean for a couple of decades due to the alliance between Spain and Britain.

During the earliest part of the period some clothes would have been much like those of the 30 Years War and the English Civil War, when the clothes were not rags or local improvisations. During the later period clothes would have been more like those of Monmouth's rebellion or the War of the League of Augsburg (aka The Nine Years War), floppy hats, "12 Apostles" powder charges hanging from a bandolier for use with the matchlock muskets, or some men would have early flintlock muskets. Many of the Foundry pirates are totally suitable for this period.

Later, after the end of the the War of Spanish Succession around 1714, there was a huge explosion of piracy in the Carribean and the east coast of North America, lasting from about 1715 to 1725. This is the period that a lot of people think of as the "Golden Age of Piracy." But the pirate code had largely broken down by then, and pirates only occasionally operated with more than one small ship in company. By then the tricorne hat had become very popular, and flintlock pistols and muskets were common. All of the Foundry pirates are great for this decade.

[Leigh Metford]

Angus Konstam's two Osprey books make the distinction between the buccaneer era and the pirate era very clear. The earlier period was primarily one of armies (albeit small ones), land operations, and battles, and the latter was a time of nautical skirmishes. Buccaneers were as likely to be soldiers as sailors, and in their martial activities they all served as musketeers trained to fight in the military formations of the day. The later pirates were outlaws/criminals (including recalcitrants from the buccaneering era) involved in plundering shipping, and their weaponry was geared towards types that worked best in melees fought in the cramped confines of ships' decks.   

[Mr.J]

Thanks again guys, I've just bought Osprey Pirates 1660-1730 to get my teeth into and have convinced my dad and brother that they need to get involved so we have 16 pirates each on their way to us. Any suggestions for rules for skirmish games of roughly this size?

[Malamute]

You quite a few choices for skirmish games in this era.

For starters there are the now OOP Legends of the High Seas rules based on GWs Warhammer system. You migth find a set in the bazaar here or on Ebay.

Osprey Wargames rules have On the Seven Seas which came out last year or the year before.

Have a search around on this board and you will probably find reference to various other sets as there have been a few threads asking for pirate rules over the years. There's a couple of other sets discussed in this thread:

http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=86529.0

[Mr.J]

Thanks, I'll check it out.

[Romark]

Blood and Plunder ,on release,should also be appropriate 

[warrenpeace]

With 16 figures for each of you 3, you've either got enough for small skirmish sized actions or more than enough for role playing sized actions. If you're interested in creating individual characters for role playing sized actions, I'd recommend that you buy three things:

1. Savage Worlds Pirates of the Spanish Main. This is a light role playing game with great rules for actions involving up to 50 figures. I've played a swashbuckling tavern brawl with those rules, and they are a hoot. What's really nice about it is the amount of background material on the era. The PDF download is only $4.99 US. The hard cover book is $39.99 US. The game could use a game master, but the combat system works fine and maybe could be run without a GM. Check it out here:

https://www.peginc.com/product-category/pirates/

2. GURPS Swashbucklers. Not suggested for the rules, but instead for the background material. I love reading this book, even though I'll never play GURPS (not into the heavy RPG). Great ideas in these books that can be used with other rules. PDF $7.99 US, soft cover book $19.95 US. Check it out here:

http://www.sjgames.com/gurps/books/swashbucklers/

3. Pulp Alley. These I recommend as very fun rules for role playing scale games between up to 5 players. No GM is needed. Players normally handle 2 to 8 figures, but using the Gangs rules can handle about 15 to 20 figures, fine for the number of figures that you have ordered. No specific pirate rules are out yet, but this system is easily adapted to almost any period. There are some suggestions for using Pulp Alley in a swashbuckler period in the Pulp Alley Leagues supplement book. Should be able to steal ideas from Savage Worlds and GURPS to incorporate in Pulp Alley games. Check it out here:

http://pulpalley.com/

If you're looking for larger scale skirmish actions then other people will have recommendations for that.

[Leigh Metford]

The recently released Osprey rule set 'En Garde' claims to be able to handle games of this size, and includes a generic 'swashbucklers' list that encompasses pirates.