Wednesday 16 May 2012

Irish army of James II

This is a neat blog on the subject of recreating an Irish Jacobite army. There are some figure comparisons of Warfare, Front Rank and 1672 ranges so worth a look if 28mm is your scale.

4 comments:

Sean said...

I want to create Boyne armies in 6mm, but the 6mm pictures I have seen all look like "man in hat carrying stick". Any advice?

Sir William the Aged said...

Sean;

Unfortunately, that I know of, there really aren't any "correct" figures in 6mm for the period of the Boyne except for Irregular's LoA range, and these definitely qualify for the "man with stick" appellation. You could use ECW figures from Heroics & Ros. They are a bit dated, but still very serviceable figures. They also do armed peasants in their ECW range, which would work for some of the militia figures. Their only other option is Marlburian figures, which are really pretty good, but all have very noticeable tricorns.

http://www.heroicsandros.co.uk/heroics/pdf/webcat.pdf

Baccus also do both ECW and WSS in 6mm, so the same things I said above would apply to them as well.

https://www.baccus6mm.com/index.php?content=products/ecw&detail=ecw

I think I would prefer the H&R simply because they are individual figures with more scope for mixing them up a bit.

Now, what you might want to consider is using Pendraken's 10mm figures. Not much of a size jump, and their range is good and getting much better. They still have all of their original range out, and they have all new infantry sculpted by Clibinarium that is absolutely excellent. He will also be doing cavalry in time, but is probably completely tied-up at the moment sculpting Barry Hilton's Warfare 28's.

http://www.pendraken.co.uk/Renaissance-c12/League-of-Augsburg-Old-range-sc50/

and

http://www.pendraken.co.uk/Renaissance-c12/NEW-League-of-Augsburg-NEW-sc258/

My thoughts only, your mileage may vary.

Bill

Sean said...

Bill,

Thanks for the advice. I had not considered 10mm before. The Pendraken pictures look quite good. I am a bit puzzled by the composition of their army packs though, which seem to have disproportionate numbers of grenadiers and dragoons.
Are the 'Old LOA' figures still available?
Also, Irregular seem to have 36 figures in 6mm for a regiment, what should be the 10mm equivalent?

Sir William the Aged said...

Sean;

Yes, it is my understanding that the "old" range is still available along with the army packs. I feel sure that this will continue at least until Clibinarium is able to sculpt new cavalry, artillery and command. Also, while Clibinarium's new range is more animated and more detailed, the old range is still quite good and the two will mix in the same army.

As to the composition of the army packs, I can't really say what they are based on, you would have to ask Leon. What I would suggest, if you know what mix you would like and your desired army's composition, e-mail Leon and ask him for pricing. I suspect he will try and work something out for you.

Now, as to how many figures to buy/use; that will depend in large part on which set of rules you use and what size or type of action you want to portray. I have seen players with limited table space take a set like "Under the Lily Banners" or "Impetus: Le Roi de Soleil" and simply halve the recommended 28mm base size using the same number of figures. I have seen many others that keep the 28mm basing and double (or even triple) the number of figures per base. The decision is really yours unless you are playing as part of a group or club, then follow their lead.

Personally, I like the look of the larger number of figures (being more of an "old school" type), but can see definite advantages to the smaller bases as far as doing the largest battles on the Continent. A battle like Marsaglia or Neerwinden would look very nice on a standard 4 foot by 8 foot table, or possibly even smaller.

Bill