Basing 17th century musketmen - help me choose!

[Sigur]

Hi people,

I'm currently trying to do a proper TYW army. Now my main problem is how to base the Musketmen



The upper variant would be the swedish system then. Nobody reloads, the unit fires from all ranks at once. Lower variant would be the Spanish system (as far as I know) in which only one rank fires, then run to the back and reload while the next rank fires to keep up a constant stream of fire. I'll probably use both amongst my armies, just curious what you think. Practicable? Looking alright to you? Or just bonkers?

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

I would in for a slightly different idea, what figures have you got and which poses?

More firing then option a, more mixed option b

[Steve J]

I prefer the look of the bottom one. At the end of the day a lot depends on the numbers of poses per pack as Lemmey says, or you could request specific numbers of poses from Leon to fit the look you want. I always go with a look that I'm happy with so that it doesn't bug me on the gaming table!

[Sigur]

Thanks for the replies so far.

I got 1 of each: YW1, EC3 and EC14. Got YW1 some weeks ago which are 30 musketeers in firing positions. HOWEVER, EC3 and EC14 each come with 50% firing and 50% loading models. I'm sure you can see my problem.

So you think I should go for something more mixed in general then?

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

In that case I'd say mixed (firing by platoon)

[jchaos79]

Make two different units, one unit option A the other option B. It will be helpfull to dishtinguish them quickly during the game.

[FierceKitty]

In the 18th century, when fire discipline may have been at its best, controlled volley firing broke down after a few minutes on the battlefield and men loaded and fired at their own pace whatever the officers tried to enforce. The same must have applied on the battlefields of the previous century.
See Christopher Duffy for more details, if you haven't read him already.

[Sigur]

Thanks for the useful replies, everybody.

@mad lemmey: Cheers. I'm strongly considering that now.

@jchaos79: That's what was my plan actually. Imperiag/Leaguist units with only the front rank firing, (native) swedish units firing from both ranks.

@FierceKitty: Hmm, that changes things a fair bit. Thanks very much for the comment. The mercenary units of the time were properly drilled but (fire) discipline probably wasn't all that high after the first shot (especially with that one being much more important back then). I'll look into Christopher Duffy's books, thank you. So far my main sources were the Osprey books and some online sources.

By now I'm strongly considering using one single 60mm base for each unit of musketeers so they aren't too huge when compared to the pike blocks I'm using (40mm frontage). This means just 12 to 14 men per unit though.

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Are you planning two sleaves for each unit? I'm sure they'll look really impressive at this scale.

[Sigur]

Yup, according to my lists (I wrote one for Leaguists/Imperials and one for Swedes with Saxon allies) each pike unit has two sleeves of musket. In the case of the Swedish there are even some more muskets around. I chose 10mm because I really want to go for that "massed army" look. I hope to upload some pictures of my painted units on here soon.

[ciaphas]

i would base them dependant on weither they are rank or platoon firers a seems to platoon firers and b looks like rank - a british post new model army and b french (wss) era jacobins ect.

jon

[Sigur]

Thanks, ciaphas. It basically was mixed. Mostly rank firing (which was the typical way of doing it at the time) with the Swedish going for salvos of up to three ranks lateron.

In the end I decided now to a.) change the base size to 2 bases of 30x20mm  per unit and b.) to just mix the models a bit. Keeping the all-firing models for swedish native units and similar, the rank-firing for well-disciplined Imperial units and maybe some more chaotic units for lower-tier musketeer units. Thanks for the input, everybody. It's really appreciated. This is my first big historical project and there just are some points I can't decide on.

[Hertsblue]

Musketeer formations in the 17th Century generally operated in five or six ranks, those who didn't fire by salvo usually used "intraduction" or "extraduction", i.e. ranks moving forward in turn to fire, or ranks firing and then retiring to the rear to reload. Not easy to reproduce with two ranks! Whichever basing system you choose will probably look fine - after all you're going to be viewing them from a scale height of about 500 metres. 

[Sigur]

If not 550m! Yes, you're right. I was just thinking on how to get the general idea across and I was a little confuzzled about the fact that I got way more firing guys than reloading ones. I think I got it sorted now though, cheers.