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[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

Just one thing about the ECW - these days it's called the "War of the 3 Kingdoms"

IanS

[d_Guy]

Just one thing about the ECW - these days it's called the "War of the 3 Kingdoms"

IanS

Quite so. I had originally used that on my blog tag (and it is my preferred term) BUT I would get visitors thinking it was the war of the same name in China (totally different era, but I seemed to have been the prime destination for those folks for a time) 

[fsn]

Err, that'd be PC Wren, actually it was a series, including Beau Sabreur and Beau Ideal. Once upon a time they had them all in Widnes library.

It was. I always get Beau Geste confused with The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution.

Apologies.

[fsn]

May I invite caution about renaming "The Dark Ages" to "Really Early Medieval"  and "English Civil War" to "The War of Three Kingdoms".

I may have a stab at the former, but I'd never find ECW under the latter.

[Ithoriel]

An entirely unrepresentative survey of 9 people (4 "gamers" and 5 "general public") leads me to believe that the Dark Ages is "Vikings and looting and pillaging and stuff" while Early Medieval is "probably the Crusades or Simon de Thingy and Magna Carta."

The War of The Three Kingdoms is either "What?" or "Isn't that one of the Chinese unification wars, who does decent 6mm figures for that" or "Dunno, I don't watch rubbish like Game of Thrones."

Which suggests that historians may use the terms suggested but "real people" don't!

[d_Guy]

It was. I always get Beau Geste confused with The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution.

Apologies.

A logical confusion since the conjugation of the two conceived the "Cultural Revolution".

[fred.]

May I invite caution about renaming "The Dark Ages" to "Really Early Medieval"  and "English Civil War" to "The War of Three Kingdoms".

I'd echo this. While these terms may be in use by historians, they haven't made it to popular naming or wargaming.

With the write ups, can I request that people put in the years, that the ranges refer to (most people have done this) it does help when trying to work out what goes when.

[fred.]

World War II
1939 to 1945, the biggest conflict the world has seen. Involving countries from all continents, with land battles taking place in Europe, Asia and Africa. Different theatres were active at different times, and involved different combatants. The sides were the Axis, of German, Italy, Romania, Hungry and Japan. On the Allied side were Great Britain, Soviet Union, and the United States, alongside France, Poland, and Canada.

The main theatres of operation include:
Western Europe, 1939 to 1941. The initial German aggression, with invasions of Poland, Denmark, Norway, Netherlands, Belgium and France. Italy declared war late in this era. Operations continued into the Balkans and Mediterranean into 1941.

East Front, 1941 to 1945 the main area of fighting, consuming the majority of the German forces against the Soviet Union. Started with the German invasion (Barbarossa) where German troops supported by Romanian and Hungarian troops swept into Russia, reaching the out skirts of Moscow by the winter of 1941. There followed two years of intense fighting across the whole breadth of Russia, in weather conditions from deep snow, to hot summers. The tide turned in mid 1943 with multiple Soviet offensives that drove the Germans back to their own borders. Followed by the final push through Poland into German and to Berlin ending the war in the West.

North Africa - 1940 to 1943. The battlefields of North Africa were constrained to a narrow strip of coastal land from Egypt to Tunisia. Initial battles were between the British and Italian forces, going largely in favour of the British. Then German reinforcements were sent (the Afrika Korps), which swung the balance back to the Axis. In 1943 American troops landed in Tunisia and fought there way towards the British troops who were pushing forward, eventually defeating the Axis Troops.

Western Europe 1943 to 1945 - the liberation of main land Europe started with the invasions of Sicily and Italy in 1943 by Anglo-American forces. Followed by the invasion of France (D-Day) in June 1944, leading to the liberation of France, into the Low Countries, and finally over the Rhine into German in 1945

The Far East. The Japanese were the main protagonists in the Pacific, attacking various European colonies from 1940 onwards with considerable success. The US was attacked in Dec 1941 bringing them into the war. The US ground campaign consisted of many amphibious assaults on Japanese held islands. Further north British Commonwealth troops were involved in fighting to free Burma. And there was considerable fighting in China, from before the start of the war in the West.

[fred.]

That was a bit long!! But WWII feels quite big....


WWII British
The British forces encompass troops from the British Commonwealth who typically wore the same uniforms and equipment as each other. As British forces were involved for the whole war in multiple theatres, there are several distinct troop types represent in the Pendraken Ranges.

BEF - usable from 1939 to 1941 in Western Europe - principally for the Invasion of France
Home Guard - 1940 to 1942, defensive force in Britain.
8th Army - principally for North Africa for 1940 to 1943, troops in shorts were also found in Italy in 1943, and can be used in the Far East, though long trousers were favoured in the Jungle.
Airborne - Western Europe 1943 to 1945, airborne troops in smocks and brimless helmets.
Slouch Hat - Far East
Generic - Western Europe 1943 to 1945

[Nosher]

Working tomorrow but got some time off later this week so will knock something up for the Renaissance lines - Poles. Turks and TYW

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Fred, you missed the Italians on the Eastern front!

[Nick the Lemming]

An entirely unrepresentative survey of 9 people (4 "gamers" and 5 "general public") leads me to believe that the Dark Ages is "Vikings and looting and pillaging and stuff" while Early Medieval is "probably the Crusades or Simon de Thingy and Magna Carta."

That's High Medieval (13th C+ is Late Medieval).

[fred.]

Fred, you missed the Italians on the Eastern front!

If that's all I missed, I'll regard it as not too bad!

[Ithoriel]

That's High Medieval (13th C+ is Late Medieval).

It may be if you are a professional or amateur historian but for most of the world (wargamers and non-wargamers alike) it's the Middle Ages where King Arthur and his knights wear armour that wouldn't be out of place at Bannockburn or Agincourt and live in Renaissance castles.

Familiar, if dated, nomenclature is to be preferred when dealing with non-specialists.

[Nick the Lemming]

It may be if you are a professional or amateur historian but for most of the world (wargamers and non-wargamers alike) it's the Middle Ages where King Arthur and his knights wear armour that wouldn't be out of place at Bannockburn or Agincourt and live in Renaissance castles.

Familiar, if dated, nomenclature is to be preferred when dealing with non-specialists.

It's the correct term. If you're doing a range of historical minis, then historical accuracy is a good thing no?

[Ithoriel]

It's the correct term. If you're doing a range of historical minis, then historical accuracy is a good thing no?

For me it depends on whether your prime objective is to educate the public or sell toy soldiers. But ultimately it's Pendraken's decision.

Just putting the case for the prosecution

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Early 16th C. English/Scots
During the early 16th Century, England and Scotland were both military backwaters compared to many renaissance states. They were both embroiled in yet another series of wars, which led to a Scottish alliance with France, and while Henry was diverted fighting around Flanders, James VI launched what would ultimately be the disasterous Flodden campaign. Out-manoeuvred by the English northern army, and forced to fight on ill-suited terrain, this resulted in the death of James VI and the annihilation of the Scottish nobility and army in 1513.
Meanwhile, Henry VIII himself was leading a series of expensive, and ultimately pointless, campaigns in Northern France with his allies, The Holy Roman Empire. Henry invested huge amounts of money in continental mercenaries and prestige weapons such as artillery, all of which failed to bring the French to action, apart from 'The Battle of The Spurs' and a few sieges. Eventually, Henry's allies formed their own peace with France, and Henry returned to England to deal with domestic issues, while what continental gains he had made were shortly lost.

The ranges allow you field everything you need for these conflicts, including English billmen, both heavily armoured and local levys, as well as longbowmen, knights and foreign mercenaries such as pikes and hired gendarmes; the Scots have heavily armoured pikes, artillery, and some interesting highlanders and archers. Also within the range are character figures for each force at Flodden Field.

Mollinary and Cameronian, you chaps might want to spin this differently...

[Orcs]

Polish
Battle for Poland
Battle for France

Germany attacked Poland on 1st September. the invasion of Poland and the Germans refusal to withdraw brought Britain and france into the confict on 3rd September.  Outnumbered and outgunned the Poles fought hard. Most of their armour were small tankettes. The Poles did have some better tanks. Their own adaptation of the license built Vickers the Single Turret 7TP was better than most of the German tanks., but there were too few of them and they were not ready for the "Blitzkrieg" style of fighting.   The campaign included frequent use of Armoured trains. The cavalry charging tanks  is a myth. On one occasion at Krojanty Polish Ulans charged some German infantry and routed them, delaying the German pursuit for 24 hours. The cavalry did suffer heavy losses from machine gun fire  when caught in the open by German Recce troops.  The countries fate was sealed when Russia invaded from the east on 17th September, finally surrendering on 6th October.  Many of the Polish Troops fled to Britain to continue the fight. Including most of the legendary 10th Cavalry Brigade who retreated through Hungary and fought in the Battle of France with French supplied tanks

Addition to above.

The Polish Army used quite a selection of French equipment.  The following codes from the Fench range are also applicable to this army

F9 FT17 Round turret 37mm
F9a FT17 Hexagonal turret
FRE14 Unic P-107 Halftrack
FRE2 Hotchkiss H35
FRE55 75mm field gun
FRE56 Laffly S15R
FRE12 Renault R35

[Leon]

Thanks for the replies again, I might have to pare some of them down a bit to fit in the box, but keep them coming!

On the Dark Ages / Early Medieval debate, I don't think we'll be looking to change any of our categories for now, we've not had anyone confused by them so far so if it ain't broke don't fix it!

[Subedai]

16th Century Polish
This is the army that includes one of history's most iconic cavalrymen -the Winged Hussars. Created by the King of Poland, Stephan Bathory, in the 1560's these heavily armed and armoured warriors more often than not carried the field for the next century, culminating in the importantEuropean victory over the Ottoman Turks at the siege of Vienna in 1683. The Polish Commonwealth of the time extended far beyond its current borders and included Lithuania, modern Ukraine and parts of Russia; there was even a Polish Czar. Ably supported by artillery, pancerni cavalry and uniformed units of arquebus and axe armed hajduk infantry, the Polish army was definitely the one to beat in Renaissance Eastern Europe.

MickS