(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)
As mentioned in the Previous Post I’ve been working on this stand of ECW Pike. These are (mostly) from Old Glory (though the officer and drummer, I think, might be from Dixon Miniatures). I got a great load of OG ECW stuff when I traded away all my 15mm DBA armies to a fellow in Edmonton.
The Pikes I manufactured myself out of "jumbo" paperclips - hammering the end flat and then filing to a point.
After (or during) the Great Stock Taking Event I got to thinking a lot about what I’m really going to do with the unpainted heaps I have and did some planning and when it came to the ECW stuff – which I am definitely going to do something with SOMEDAY (hopefully in the not-to-distant future!) - but It was difficult to determine how many stands of this and that, and thus how many armies I might be able to put together (for a campaign, say) when I wasn’t sure how many figures I could cram on a stand. Now the Rafm Successor pikemen will easily fit 8 to a stand – and for pike I’d really like the stand to be dense and bristling with pikes… but the Old glory figres tend to be a bit chunkier than your average 30-year-old “true 25” Rafm figure… so I wanted to paint one stand to see if I could cram 8 of these Old Glory pikemen on there… Of course this means I’ll be able to make less stands with what I’ve got… but looks are more important!
(okay... so, maybe this stand isn't exactly "bristling" with pikes... three of the eight being command types and having no pike at all... but the OTHER stands will be more "bristly"...)
After a little planning last night I have realized I have just about enough to do THREE armies (I’ll have two extra stands of Pike and I’m short two stands worth of Shot )… The armies will be more or less the same:
4x Pikes
4x Shot
2-3x Horse
0-1x Artillery
Alternatively I guess I could just use what I’ve got to field two really BIG armies – or two standard 12 stand armies with a whole lot of “options”!
The Horse will be a mix of Knights (Cuirassiers), Cavalry and Pistols – one of which will be the forces general. The Pike and Shot will be organized into two regiments, each consisting of two stand of Shot and two stands of Pike.
I also have a bag of “Moss Troopers” for when I get around to doing some Scotts armies (which I, of course, HAVE to do at some point!?)
Unfortunately I also have two bags of Pike “at charge” they are not counted in the total as they are utterly USELESS!? “At charge” means the pikes are straight out to the front – how on earth are two stands of opposing pike – or any stand for that matter – to come to base contact with and inch and a half of pike sticking out the front edge of the base (if anyone has a use for these… could be yours… CHEAP!). Maybe I’ll just melt them down as some point… I also have a spare bag of Unarmoured Foot Commmand…
Ideally I would like to eventually have four 12 stand armies (plus maybe a couple of options for each) of English (two nominally for Parliament, two nominally for the King!), as well as a Scotts Covanenteer army and a Scots Royalist army to use for a campaign… at some point…
Just when I was swearing to myself that I’d buy no more plastic figures Warlord Games has come out with a plastic Regimental Pack of Covanenteers… Damn their scaly hides!
Earlier this year I made a couple of Army Markers out of a couple of spare command groups I had lying around. I made one for each army in the HOTT Summer Campaign to move about and mark all the armies positions on The Map that I made… I thought I’d do the same for the upcoming Dark Ages DBA Campaign in February. I already HAVE a Norman one, but there will potentially be two Norman armies in the campaign… (well, one Norman and one “West Frankish”)… and I happen to have been working on Normans recently and so started on these guys a while back… but just finished them up now.
Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:
I’d like to say I’m moving ahead with Saxons and irish… but I’ve been working on a second stand of each of the ECW pike and shot (y’know to finish off the regiment…). After that, however, I’m pretty sure I’ll be done with THAT distraction….
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You know, looking at your excellent stand of pikes really makes a good argument for stand-based armies. The ability to tightly pack troops like this, nearly impossible with individual figures (especially if you want any stability with the figures), works quite well on a basewith several figures (similar to your tightly ranked Romans). They just look good!
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