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I've almost completed my 15mm English Civil War/Thirty Years War project. They are, as I've mentioned previously, mounted according to Howard Whitehouse's excellent rules set IRONSIDES. Each unit, horse and foot, has three metal movement stands 1.5x1.5". I have nine foot figures in three ranks for the foot for a total of 27 foot figures (nine pike and 18 musketeers) and four horse figures per stand for a total of 12 per unit. Artillery usually has four figures per gun; guns and crew are mounted on stands of differing sizes designed to fit them comfortably. I find that I really like the look of three stand units, especially when they are in three ranks as are the foot. I was surprised as to how many different manufacturers I was able to use for this project.
I've done very well over the last year and a half as to staying away from new wargaming periods. I even managed to rid myself of several! Several periods were tugging at my attentions. First of all, I was very interested in doing the Seven Years War in 15mm, except that I found it very hard to justify as I had a huge collection in 25mm. I tried thinking of approaches which would allow me to do 15min SYW; for example, I studied Greg Novak/Frank Chadwick's VOLLEY & BAYONET rules, which interests me greatly, and thought I could justify 15mm SYW by using V&B's approach where one foot regiment is represented by a single stand; I believe that SYW regiments are on a 1 1/2 X 3" stand with a brigade of cavalry on a 3" X 3" stand. This sounds attractive because of the ease of movement on the table, simple rules system, and the fact that one could fight out very large battles on a 6'X 12' wargames table. The only problem I had with this approach was that a regiment of foot, for example, can be represented only in one formation - line formation - Frank and Greg handle this by putting the stand sidewise when it is in column and then they place some sort of marker which occupies the amount of space which would be taken up if the regiment was represented by more than one stand. I didn't like this either. I did think of one possible solution which might satisfy me and that was to make a SYW foot regiment two stands instead of one; the two stands would be the same size as the one large one. I could even go with three stands per regiment, as I did with my English Civil War project in 15mm. I'm not saying that I never will do the SYW in 15mm, but I'm not going to tackle it right now.
What am I going to do? Well, I'd been doing some reading about the Marlburian period having picked up THE BATTLE OF BLENHEIN [by Peter Verney and THE ART OF WARFARE IN THE AGE OF MARLBOROUGH by David Chandler. Both are excellent books with Chandler's being an in-depth look at the period. I had been thinking of doing this period but couldn't make up my mind if I should do it in 25mm or 15mm. Brian Carroll's excellent article on how he put together his 25mm. Marlburian project served as a motivating factor for me. Darryl Sheldon of Regal Miniatures (1116 Broadway, Polk City, IA 50226) was kind enough to send me a full listing of his catalogs and I noted that he was carrying ROUNDWAY 15MM MINIATURES; and they produced a Marlburian line which was fairly extensive. This got me thinking a bit but not enough to bring me over the line.
Then I dug out Charles Sharp's fine article in MWAN #68 (I believe) "15mm Figures for 1700-1720: War of the Spanish Succession and Great Northern War" which was concerned with figure availability for this period; these types of articles are perfect for someone looking around for a period to do! Charles mentioned Roundway, Dixon, and Editions Brokaw as being three of the big producers with EB being the largest of the three. I still haven't seen any samples of the EB line so I can't really say anything about it except that it is supposed to be very extensive.
I'd noticed that ESSEX had released a 15mm line for 1660-1745 (see above and below from their ad) and I had looked at it to see if there were any figures I could use for my ECW project. However, once I started seriously thinking of the Malburian period, I dug out the ESSEX list and examined it closely. This was what really put me over the line as I have always liked ESSEX l5mm figures. There are 64 packs to represent the period 1695-1745 of which 30 are foot and 34 horse.
There appear to be command packs for almost all of the figures offered; the Hussars don't have command figures as of yet. I decided to make a trip to THE EMPEROR'S HEADQUARTERS in Chicago to take a closer look at the ESSEX line; I'd called ahead of time and found out they also carried the DIXON and ROUNDWAY lines for this period. I inspected the figures closely; DIXON and ESSEX match up very well. EHQ had a very limited number of ROUNDWAY figures although they were 40% off-, don't we like to find that when we are looking for figures? Unfortunately, almost all of them were horse command although I picked up about three bags of artillerymen and they will fit in sizewise with ESSEX and DIXON. I later called Darryl Sheldon and asked him to send me some packs of ROUNDWAY and I am looking forward to receiving them. The DIXON line has 23 foot packs, I I horse, four command, two guns, and an artillery crew pack. If you are buying the DIXON figures, be very careful as to which horses you order; they offer two periods - Malburian and Great Northern War - and horses H8, 9, 10 and 11 are for the Malburian while H 13 and 14 or for the Great Northern War. The Marlburian cavalry saddles are cast on the horse, while the Great Northern War cavalry saddles are on the rider; ah, ha; of course the majority of horses I purchased are of the wrong type! I would think a manufacturer would mention this type of thing in a figure listing!
I also picked up LOUIS XIVs ARMY from the Osprey series and MARLBOROUGH AS MILITARY COMMANDER by David Chandler while at EHQ but couldn't find MARLBOROUGH'S ARMY (#97) to my disappointment. I ended up purchasing many, many DIXON and ESSEX figure packs for this period and spent an enjoyable evening sorting out figures in the basement! They really are beautiful little toys - no doubt!
DONNINGTON MINIATURES, 15 Cromwell Rd., Shaw, Newbury, Berkshire, RG14 2HP UK offers a late 17th C. 16801700 line of 11 horse and 24 foot as well as a limber w/team and field gun and Charles informs me that some of the figures from this line, such as the Cuirassier in pot and French dragoon in stocking cap can be used after 1700, so I'm going to sample this line. I purchased some of their ECW figures and was pleased with the quality.
While at EHQ, I also purchased some more HALLMARK carts and wagons as well as some artillery crew from their League of Augsberg line which I can use for the Malburian period. They also list Malburian gunners but I couldn't locate them. I know that Darryl also carries the HALLMARK line; if you are looking for a variety of 15mm wagons/carts, you've got to check out HALLMARK! Very extensive selection.
MILITARY MINIATURES OF TEXAS carries the MUSEUM MINIATURES line and if you check out MWAN #95 (page 77), you can see their extensive line of wagons/carts. The nice thing about the wagons/carts that I have for my ECW project is that they can easily be used for my Malburian period and also SYW, if I ever decided to do it in l5mm! I always like to have lots of wagons to place on the wargames table; especially in 15min scale, for "breakthrough" cavalry to toot instead of following up routed enemies! I can also use my 15mm ECW buildings for the Marlburian period.
Pat Condray (check out "What's New in Hal's Mailbox" in this issue) offers a very extensive list of inexpensive booklets for uniform details and I was most impressed with them. If one had his booklets, I don't think you would need any other uniform guides. The Fucken books of the Lace Wars are also helpful for the Malburian period.
Well, I'm not sure as to what rules or approach to basing I'm going to utilize yet. I know that I'm going to look at V&B again and do some thinking about how to base units. Tod Kershner and Dale Wood's excellent WARFARE IN THE AGE OF REASON has amendments and army lists for the 3 Marlburian period (they use four 3-figure bases per unit) as does the fascinating rules set KOENIG KRIEG (available from OUTLAND GAMES, 1061 Bertram Ave., Dayton, OH 45406; who also produce at least two flag sheets in 15mm for this period) written by Barry Gray (usually four 4-figure bases per unit).
Charles Sharp wrote FURIOUS REASON OR FIRE AND FURRY rules for this period and they were in MWAN #86 (Page 107-124); they are quite interesting being a combination of Tod and Dale's rules and FIRE AND FURY! Charles informs me that he'll be updating this rules set for MWAN and I'll be looking forward to them! I'll keep you updated as to my progress with this project over the next year or so.
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© Copyright 1999 Hal Thinglum
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