Recomendations for Pikeman's Lament Figures

[mdauben]

I just picked up a copy of Pikeman's Lament recently and I'm thinking of running a demo game for our local club.  The P&S era is a whole new thing for me, though, so I was hoping for some suggestions on some appropriate 28mm figures to use for my two demo forces?

I thought I would pick a pair of forces from the examples created by Michael Leck and Daniel Mersey.  Based on my still rather rudimentary knowledge of the era, I decided I would pick two Thirty Years War forces, specifically these two:

Holy Roman Empire
2 Pike @ 4 points each
2 Shot @ 4 points each
2 Trotters @ 4 pints each

French
1 Forlorn Hope @ 6 points (The King’s Musketeers)
1 Pike @ 4 points
2 Shot @ 4 points each
1 Field artillery @ 6 points

If anyone can point me to some manufacturers and specific figures I could use for these, I'd be very grateful!

Thanks!   

[Pijlie]

Assuming you want 28mm the plastic Warlord figures are excellent value for money. Renegade Miniatures are the most beautiful I have seen so far.

[mdauben]

Assuming you want 28mm the plastic Warlord figures are excellent value for money. Renegade Miniatures are the most beautiful I have seen so far.

Yes, I'm definitely looking for 28mm figures.  I looked through the Warlord P&S offerings before but I'm really clueless about this whole era and came away confused.  Which figures exactly would you suggest for pike and for shot and trotters and forlorn hope?  Would I use the same figures for both sides or was there some significant differences between the dress of the Holy Roman Empire and the French?

Sorry if these seem foolish questions, but as I said I'm just starting to dip my toes in the whole P&S thing, and beyond the rulebook and a couple of Wikipedia articles I'm still pretty ignorant.   

[Kommando_J]

The heavy cavalry with pistols would make good trotters, for forlorn hope there is a firelock box set or alternatively the charging musketeer blisters, a forlorn hope is just made up of desperate troops so anything charging will wrok.

The devils playground book I would recommend.

[GamesPoet]

With 30YW, I'd do HRE and Swedes.  What do the rules suggest for a Swedish force?

I've got some of Warlords HRE, but they're based for BF&S, yet they'd be good figures for Pikeman's Lament, too.

[Pijlie]

Sorry if these seem foolish questions, but as I said I'm just starting to dip my toes in the whole P&S thing, and beyond the rulebook and a couple of Wikipedia articles I'm still pretty ignorant.   

As they say, there are no foolish questions

The end of the pike & shotte era saw the beginning of the uniformed soldier, uniforms slowly becoming more common from the 1630ies onwards. That means that for most of the period, uniforms were usually absent. Soldiers wore their civilian clothes, augmented with armour and sometimes distinguished by some piece of coloured cloth worn on sleeves or hats. Sometime a regimental colonel took the trouble to uniform his troops at his own expense, often only a coat in a uniform colour.

This is a good thing, because you can use the same figures for most armies and have a lot of freedom as far as colours are concerned. Exotics like kilted Scots or Ottomans being the exception of course.

The first examples of uniformed soldiers in the P&S era are some Dutch and German regiments and the blue and yellow regiments of Gustavus Adolpus.

[mdauben]

With 30YW, I'd do HRE and Swedes.  What do the rules suggest for a Swedish force?

This is what they listed for a Swedish force.

SWEDEN
1 Pike @ 4 points
2 Shot @ 4 points each
1 Aggressive Elite Gallopers @ 6 points (Finnish Horse)
1 Aggressive Gallopers @ 4 points (Swedish Horse)
1 Commanded Shot @ 2 points

[Dalauppror]

Hi Mike

Thanks for geting a copy of the Pikeman's Lament, appreciated!

If you are starting from scratch with the Thirty Year War i would recomendation the classical nemesis Sweden vs. Holy roman Empire

SWEDEN
1 Pike @ 4 points (12 minis)
2 Shot @ 4 points each (2x12 minis)
1 Aggressive Elite Gallopers @ 6 points (Finnish Horse) (6 mounted minis with Sword and Helmets)
1 Aggressive Gallopers @ 4 points (Swedish Horse) (6 mounted minis with Sword and floppy hats)
1 Commanded Shot @ 2 points (6 minis with muskets)

In total 12 pikes, 30 shot and 12 horse minis.

HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE AND CATHOLIC LEAGUE
2 Pike @ 4 points each (2x12 minis)
2 Shot @ 4 points each (2x12 minis)
2 Trotters @ 4 pints each (2x6 mounted minis with pistols and maybe some muskets)

In total 24 pikes, 24 shot and 12 horse minis.

Total for both companies are 36 pikes, 54 shot and 24 horse minis i.e  total 90 foot 24 mounted.

The easier an probably very cost effektive to get the minis for these two companies are to get Hold of a Warlord "Pike & Shotte starter battalia" as in that Box you get: 90 foot and 24 horse minis for £75... Seems like it was mest to be as that is exactly what you need to field both companies

One word of advice to get all the pikemen needed you need to a small bit if conversion as there are only 24 pikemen and 8 command minis and you need 36 of them, but there is 6 extra pikeman bodys in the Box but no pikes so you have to make your own for the last 4, or you give them left over bits from the command/cavalry sprue.

Also for the catholic Trotters you may mix in some leftover musket arms from the matchlock sprues to make arquebusiers.

Best regards Michael

[mdauben]

Hi Mike

Thanks for geting a copy of the Pikeman's Lament, appreciated!

You're welcome!  I knew some people in my last gaming group who were heavily into the Pike & Shot era, but it never really clicked with me.  Ive bought a number of the recent Osprey game books and have really liked them so I gave Lament a try and I really like the rules and the scale of the game. 

If you are starting from scratch with the Thirty Year War i would recomendation the classical nemesis Sweden vs. Holy roman Empire

I pretty much picked HRE and France at random based on my still very limited historical knowledge of the era so I'm not married to the pairing and I can see where the Swedes might make a better match. 

One word of advice to get all the pikemen needed you need to a small bit if conversion as there are only 24 pikemen and 8 command minis and you need 36 of them, but there is 6 extra pikeman bodys in the Box but no pikes so you have to make your own for the last 4, or you give them left over bits from the command/cavalry sprue.

Yes, I noticed even with my original pairing, all the Warlord boxed sets came up short on having enough pikemen.  Oh, well, I'll figure out some way around that as the box set you suggested does seem like a very good deal.

Thanks for the help and suggestions!

[Dalauppror]

Glad to help out !

If orderingång from Warlord you can always add a extra sprue of pike and shot, cost £8 i think then you get 4 pike and 8 Musketeers extra.

[mdauben]

I was getting ready to place an order with Warlord, when I thought I'd check some of my domestic sources to see if anyone had what I needed and if I could save any on the product cost or shipping.  The first place I checked didn't have the Battalia box set, but they did have the Imperialist Regiment box, the Swedish Regiment box, the Imperial Harquebusiers (Cavalry) box and the Swedish Cavalry box, all together for the same price as the Battalia box direct from Warlord, with a lower shipping costs, too.

By my count, these boxes will give me everything I need in terms of miniatures, plus a bunch of metal bits to dress up the infantry and cavalry figures.  

Is there any reason I should not go with these?  

[Eric the Shed]

Other than the fact you wont get the firelocks no reason at all -

ref the Harquebusiers they are all armed with firearms.

good luck with your venture

[mdauben]

Other than the fact you wont get the firelocks no reason at all -

Yes, but the Swedish Cavalry box includes six musketeers on foot to use as the Command Shot unit so that works out. 

[Eric the Shed]

great news - I had not seen that box set...

will you have enough standard cavalry?

[mdauben]

will you have enough standard cavalry?

Yes, the box still contains the same number of horsemen (12) as the other cavalry boxes, in addition to the six musketeers.