Basing pike and shot units

[Subedai]

Very nice, I'm most definitely tempted.

Years ago I saw an impressive ECW 6mm game at a show which was close to 1:1 and each of the infantry regiments were about 12-15 inches wide in 6 ranks. Now ever since then I've fancied doing the same only in 2mm, and now the opportunity is here. So if I was to use one block per company then could you answer the following questions?

Amongst all the fine pictures there is one of all unpainted blocks set up in a MPM formation. I take it that the you are using BG31 (Infantry in 6 ranks) from the H&M Range as musketeers and RBG9 (Swiss/Landsknecht pike) from the Renaissance Range for the pikemen. Are both variants of the pikeblock shown -as in one with standards and the other without?

The rest of the troop types are really self explanatory.

Don't ask about rules because I haven't got a Scooby, although at such  a unique scale I will probably end up writing my own.

Thanks

MickS

[Hwiccee]

Hi MickS,


Yes the figures look good. I too remember the 6mm ECW game and that was stunning.

The unpainted stuff is now painted and I will try to get some pictures at some point - my camera is broken at the moment. Yes they are BG31 and RBG9. At the time I got them at the Derby show a couple of months ago there was no mention of 2 varieties and the website didn't mention it. So it was a surprise to me when I saw the figures and there were 2 varieties & it was only after you mentioned it here that I realised it was listed as 2 types. Bearing that in mind they are the 2 variants that were available at that time and I would guess now are listed as such.

It is perhaps not so easy to see but all the pikes have flags at the front of the block. By all I mean the pike only blocks but also those in MPM strips. I generally didn't like these pikes at the front and so I either filed them off or just painted them over. I wanted to put the flags on the back as I have done. If you look carefully you can see them on some that don't seem to have them on the front, for example on the front of the pikes in the Swedish brigades. Sometimes I painted these and you can clearly see these on the 'Traditional Tercio' picture where you can see the front.

So all the pikes have these flags at the front except the RBG9 block you mention with standards. On this block the 2 flags are up and you can see them easily. The other type of block has the standard flags on the front edge and you can see them in the pictures if you look carefully.

I think your idea would work fine with multiple BG31 and RBG9 making up a unit, add say a mounted officer command (RBG25?). I am seriously considering doing the infantry using just these but keeping the current idea I have for 3 blocks = 1 regiment, mainly as that works with the rules and bearing in mind I am trying to do ALL the ECW and TYW armies. But the rules I will use would work fine with a unit being say 12 blocks and I am sure others would too.

p.s. I have just noticed that you can see the flags on the MPM blocks on the Irregular webpage.

[Subedai]

Hi MickS,


Yes the figures look good. I too remember the 6mm ECW game and that was stunning.

The unpainted stuff is now painted and I will try to get some pictures at some point - my camera is broken at the moment. Yes they are BG31 and RBG9. At the time I got them at the Derby show a couple of months ago there was no mention of 2 varieties and the website didn't mention it. So it was a surprise to me when I saw the figures and there were 2 varieties & it was only after you mentioned it here that I realised it was listed as 2 types. Bearing that in mind they are the 2 variants that were available at that time and I would guess now are listed as such.

It is perhaps not so easy to see but all the pikes have flags at the front of the block. By all I mean the pike only blocks but also those in MPM strips. I generally didn't like these pikes at the front and so I either filed them off or just painted them over. I wanted to put the flags on the back as I have done. If you look carefully you can see them on some that don't seem to have them on the front, for example on the front of the pikes in the Swedish brigades. Sometimes I painted these and you can clearly see these on the 'Traditional Tercio' picture where you can see the front.

So all the pikes have these flags at the front except the RBG9 block you mention with standards. On this block the 2 flags are up and you can see them easily. The other type of block has the standard flags on the front edge and you can see them in the pictures if you look carefully.

I think your idea would work fine with multiple BG31 and RBG9 making up a unit, add say a mounted officer command (RBG25?). I am seriously considering doing the infantry using just these but keeping the current idea I have for 3 blocks = 1 regiment, mainly as that works with the rules and bearing in mind I am trying to do ALL the ECW and TYW armies. But the rules I will use would work fine with a unit being say 12 blocks and I am sure others would too.

p.s. I have just noticed that you can see the flags on the MPM blocks on the Irregular webpage.

Thanks for the prompt reply and look forward to seeing the pictures.

My 6mm ECW have 3 bases per regiment in a MPM style but I wanted to move on from there. Years ago -actually decades ago now- I was in the SK and off the field often thought about the C&C of the whole thing and how many problems arose from just trying to command a small pike block. That ECW game just brought it whole thing to the fore and it is that aspect that I want to concentrate on in any rules that I write. Plus in 2mm the plan is a lot more achievable on the size table I have.

Just out of interest, what set of rules do you use? 

MickS

[Hwiccee]

We are kind of going the other way to you. We are using 'brigades' as the units to do large historic battles with relatively small forces. The rules are a variant of the Twilight of the Sun King rules.