Review of Elizabethan Ireland Progres

Chum Chris is putting on a game wanted to know what I had available. As they are currently based singly I needed to get them out and sort them into units to check so I thought why not share some Pictures.

 

The English are very nearly complete, currently just a unit of 8 billmen to do, although I may invest in a unit of longbows from Darlo figures too.

Completed we now have for the foot, 5 shotte, 3 pike and 2 Bills. The last unit of bills got their command figures whilst I was taking the pictures.

For horse I have 2 units of Demi Lancers and 4 of light horse, border horse to you and me.

A mix of figures, lots of Foundry swashbucklers fleshed out with Assault group Dutch and Hoka Hey border reivers.

With 13 Gentlemen with swords I can choose to flesh out units, create another unit of pike by adding more officers into the other 3 and swapping out pikemen or creating a unit of Spanish targeteers. Food for thought.

The dismounted border reivers are going to mostly be surplus to requirements, will need to give some thought to their future uses.

Just one longbowman, the start of a potential full unit I think.

Some left over command will flesh out the remaining billman unit that needs finishing. The mounted officer will be a Lord for the army on his own base.

Lastly the Darlo command figures I was still varnishing when I started taking pictures. Quite nice these.

The Irish are more varied and have at least 3 or more units or so to complete.

Foot so far we have 5 Gallowglass, 2 Kern sharpshooters, 2 Bonnaught and 3 kern.

For horse just 2 units of light horse currently. All Redoubt figures with head swaps.

 A massive mix of figures, the Gallowglass are mainly Antideluvian and Perry but also include Steve Barber and Flags of War figures.

The Kern and Bonnaught are even more diverse, with some Wargames Atlantic Dark Age Irish and some Crusader Medieval Kern fleshing out Perry and Antideluvian.

The shotte include some basic conversions, adding muskets to hands and a few head swaps to tie them into the Elizabethan era.

Used this Gallowglass Captain as my lord but I have a couple of mounted figures to paint for leaders, along with a unit of Bonnaught, Kern and Light horse.

So plenty for a game and more on the way.

Whilst I am reviewing this, our latest game has decided me that Irregular Wars are the way forward. That does mean I need to make a decision about basing.

The bases need to be Square for game mechanics ideally, I am currently working on 80mm which feels about right, however calculations and measurements in MM do my head in. At 75mm the command radio of an English Lord at 7U's (Unit frontages) goes from 525mm to 21 inches which makes much more sense to my addled brain.

So does it look right?

Formations were typically deeper during this period so on 3 inch square base a "virtual" third rank is achievable (Followers of my Great Northern War armies will be familiar with this)  it just creates the illusion of deeper units.

8 man units may even be a little too crowded, 7 may be better, so moving the below to two ranks of 3 with a command figure at the back.

I am pretty much decided on this and the large base gives some scope for making them pretty.

Horse in threes looks perfect for me, fair bit of work to remove all the old bases and start again but worth while I feel.

The Kern will be scattered in an irregular fashion, 7 below looks a little crowded to me so maybe 5's and 6's, certainly the Kern Marksmen who are classed as "Loose" 5 per base with plenty of cover will look right I think.

The Kern potentially could be in 6's as below, randomly placed.

For Gallowglass closer formations with 7 or 8 but not in formal ranks perhaps is best.

No doubt I will update you with pictures of the first companies as they are based and finalised.

Thanks for dropping by.