France 1513

 

Today is is very much a bits and pieces post. Roughly around  Henry Tudor's 1513 Campaign in France. We can see how various manufacturers figures fit together. Pretty well so far. 

Most of what you see I have had for years. Although, happily, some Minifigs bargains recently came my way. Including artillery. You may recall Minifigs house style was to imbue added character into command and artillery sets.

Above we have Landsknect from QRF and Alternative Armies. The latter provided the Crossbow men. Not a bad match at all. I'm wondering about asking AA to produce some French soldiers based on Stuart Mulligan's Army Royal work. Sometimes that works.

Minifigs next in the form of Archer Cavalry. Equipped with crossbows this time.

Stradiots from Minifigs above and QRF below giving me 12 in all. 

They fit with each other and can provide 2 units of 6 cavalry using Lion Rampant. Three figure variants thanks to mix and match.  

The Earl of Suffolk, or Sussex? From Essex. You know what I mean. That is one of Pete's Flags. Note the big lad's plumes in Tudor colours. It paid to play safe.

Much more to come on this one for both English and French.

EFM Border Reivers -A Review

 

As part of my Flodden Project I ordered some packs of 15mm figures from East Front Miniatures. The service was excellent and the figures arrived within days including a 10% Discount offer on a future purchase. EFM also gave me a free mounted Long Bow man figure.

In terms of size these figures sit easily with QRF, Minifigs Essex. They are mounted on ponies as they should be. I count 4 pony variants. Not bad at all.

I present all of them to you painted. You can see them unpainted at EFM.

LS24- Scottish Swordsmen, 8 figures with two variants. Two interesting figures. Both might do service with Cortez or such like. Paint the fellow with targe as having bare legs and he could join a Highland clan array. Consider his Trunk Hose as Cannions. As Borderers they are perfect. 

There is also an English Swordsmen pack of two different figures. Both packs could supply English Targeteers for the Nine Years War in Ireland. Obviously they can be used as dismounted borderers.

LS35- Lancers in Bonnets, 4 figures. 2 Lancers with separate arm that can be glued lance up, lance charged. This is rather good. For Borderers pistoling see the blue cloak figure below. Two horse poses for all 4.

LS33 -The Heidman and the lads, 4 one piece casting figures of The Heidman, a Lancer, a mounted Archer (not shown) bow in quiver and a Borderer firing a pistol or Dag as they used to say.  The Heidman is the star of the show for me. 

Also, the pistoleer, he is wearing an Irish style Brat cloak. Interesting and not an unlikely detail. It is not often recalled that Borderers served on the Irish side in the Nine Years War.

LS31- A pack of 8 hounds and two handlers. Very nice and intended for a Hot Trod on the trail of miscreants. You get 4 big dogs and 4 smaller ones. The big dogs are Bloodhounds the smaller ones Beagles. Useful, the big ones,  as Spanish war dogs in Mexico or Peru.

EFM also offer a pack of English Crossbowmen and ditto Scots. These are going to serve with my Colonial Spanish. They are appropriately equipped and half of them are a perfect size fit with my Khurasan Colonial Spanish and with Grumpy Portuguese. The other half won't being stockier. All of them are good for Border Gaming.

There is also a pack of 8 Civilians, 2 children, 2 women, 4 men all in Tudor clothes. Handy for scenarios.

To recap these figures would work in other conflicts. As themselves in the Tudor  Wars. As colonial Spanish or Portuguese. Not the mounted archer figures of course but the others are quite serviceable.

If you fancy reiving and feuding along the Anglo-Scots Border in 15mm look no further.

Maximillian once more

 

Above the 2nd Infantry Battalion of Imperial Mexico. Not a uniform easily missed.

Two Republican regular battalions. Maybe the 3rd and 4th Regiments but I wouldn't swear to it.

My 2nd and 3rd Battalions of the French Foreign Legion. 

I have seen illustrations of these with white, red(line infantry) or pale blue trousers. 

I chose to go with pale blue (chasseur colour) for one. I suspect in actuality all of those colours were worn.

I'm not really sure who these fellows are supposed to be. Dismounted cavalry for sure. They all carry a picket pin for their horses. I have painted them as Rurales which they may indeed be. They are Minifigs. Luckily I have saddled standing horses to go with them.

I think there will be one more Maximilian post in this phase. Then I will have to wait for Little Corporal to fully list the range.

1513 Valois French

 

Humans repeat behaviour. Consequently it comes as no surprise to find I have two French Renaissance Armies. One is in “heroic” 15mm scale. It has Venexia and Blue Moon figures. It is intended for the Great Italian Wars. Shortly I will turn my attention to it, for Gonzalo!

The other French array is older and smaller. Here we find Minifigs, Essex and QRF. Mostly anyhow. That one is today’s subject. It is intended for 1513'ish, to fight the English. The latter in the form of an augmented version of my English Flodden army. What fun awaits. 

By the way, I took out Ian Heath's Foundry Book on the period. He notes that for pikemen the English relied on Landsknecht pike. Colourful. I have painted a small unit of English arquebusiers too. Mostly they hired in firearms, Spanish and Italians featured.

Back to France. Let’s have a look at what we have.

Stradiots from QRF. Betimes the English hired these fellows too. Stradiots had fought the Turks. Not a drink of water. Maybe they had the edge on the Border Horse? Or, perhaps it was just to deny them to the French? Stradiots were handy with the mace. They liked to stun.

 

Archer Cavalry from Minifigs led by a Gladiator standard bearer. The latter has had his hand successfully drilled. I’m not getting better at drilling. It’s just he has a massive hand that would be hard to snap. He is on an Essex horse. Pleasing enough, I think. The flag is one of the free ones from Lancashire Games.

Archer Cavalry sans bow. That happened. Archer sometimes just meant a soldier. These are from Donnington. 

QRF Landsknechts. These will do for either English or French Armies. 

I need to paint another 4 pike men for this unit. Nice little figures.

QRF Swiss, because I have them. Right period, wrong theatre.

I wanted some Franc Archers pike units. The Franc Archers ratio was usually one third pike, two thirds crossbows. Unlike the Gascons these crossbow men seem to have formed up. I need a couple of units like that.

I thought I might do specific noble's contingents. 

Antoine de Crequy and Bernard/Berault Stuart because I have the flags. Actually Stuart was smiting away in Italy at the time. De Crequy though was about.

I have also got a flag for Blaise Montluc and I might do another unit for him. I enjoy reading Montluc. As with Bernal Diaz he reads like a modern to me. Translations of course. 

Adventuriers from lots of manufacturers. 

Above from Essex.

Arquebusiers above Essex and QRF. Below from Khurasan.

I'll show this Army again when it is finished. Likewise with the English one. 

I should say most of what you see was painted a long time ago. A few additions and re-basing did the trick.

This brings us to Lion Rampant and what I think of as Lion Mulligan. That being Stuart Mulligan's Lion Rampant version for 1513 and there abouts. Between what is on Stuart's Army Royal blog and the magazine article I think I have it. I want to try it out as he seems to get interesting games.

Once I have done that I want to try it again with Montluc's (and other contemporaries) thoughts on arquebus v bow as an adjustment. I'm just curious to see how it might work.

Also my Flodden rules can easily accommodate 1513 in France and I will be doing just that.

A final thought. I had not intended doing this when I listed this year's projects. Yet, here we are. A nice aspect of the hobby. Sometimes we surprise ourselves. 

 

Back to the Maximilian War

Above, the 1st Regiment of the Mexican Republic. Below, the 2nd Regiment of the Mexican Republic.

The second Battalion of the Belgian Legion. Fashion note, the Belgians wore grey kepis. The drummer lacks a Haverlock and you can see his grey kepi.

While researching this project I came across a set of rules for the Maximilian Adventure. I had a read and they look good. Certainly worth a try. Here is a link if you are so inclined.

web.archive.org/web/20040814060448/http://www.geocities.com/fenerator/maxrules.htm

More irregular Mexican lancers. 

This means I have completed 3 squadrons (6 bases) of these tough and handy lads.

Zouaves, first class troops. I should manage another battalion. I don't think turbans were worn in Mexico. But, we go with what we have got. Actually if there was a chance of being sabred I would want a turban.

Unless, a real risk, the remaining figures get redesignated as Brazilian Zuavos da Bahia for the Great Paraguayan War. They were free men of colour making a point in the Brazilian Army.  The Great Paraguayan War/Triple Alliances continues to intrigue me.

The Foreign Legion, did they really join to forget?  Very good troops. I think I'll do another two units. I intend to differentiate them by trouser colour. They should all wear white ones. But, field conditions and all mine will be a mixture.

Last, but certainly not least, the Algerians. You could not beat them for colour or much else.

 

I'd estimate I'm about half way through what I bought.  Cheers Scott. All very pleasing and I hope to buy more from GeoffQRF via Little Corporal. I am optimistic. To paraphrase Neil Young the listings have begun. 

I might add another base to each infantry unit for Field of Battle considerations. It is not essential I hasten to say. Against this I want to do the War of the Triple Alliance. Some of my Maximilian figures would make first rate Paraguayans. GeoffQRF/Little Corporal will re list their Triple Alliance range but I don't know when.   A dilemma.

Anyhow, by my calculation I now have the following completed.

French- 1 squadron of cavalry and 3 Battalions of infantry.

Mexican Imperials 2 squadrons of cavalry and 4 Battalion of infantry.

Mexican Republic 4 Squadrons of cavalry and 4 Battalions of infantry. 

It is all coming along nicely. Once everything is done we will have a parade for each Army.

Flodden, I Have More

 

Today I’m pleased to show you more units for Flodden/1513. A lost cache provided the necessary figures. Above, Khurasan archers in royal livery fronting the Macclesfield contingent. 

Christopher Savage, Mayor of Macclesfield commands. His banner is one of Ray's. Thanks kindly Ray. The Billmen are from QRF.

 

Lords Hamilton and Maxwell and their pikemen. All from QRF and once again benefiting from Ray's flags.

  

Above Hamilton's in line to show variants. Below ready for action.

Lord Maxwell's in line.

 Ditto in battle order.

More English archers in Royal Livery. These are the last of my Khurasan archers. 

English arquebusiers, a rarity in this period. Figures from Essex and QRF.

They appeared in France but not at Flodden. The flag is from Army Royal.

This project is just about done. Some artillery and half a dozen Border Horse left to do and that's it. 

Maximilian-Down Mexico Way

 

If you want to do the French Intervention AKA the Maximilian Adventure in 15mm you really need QRF. A venerable but comprehensive range of figures. Substitutes are possible but will only take you so far.

Back in January I got the Maximilian bug. I had some figures but nowhere near enough. QRF under new ownership was just about to hit the rocks which didn't help. I placed an advert on LAF and got a good result.

Last month I commenced unpacking what I got. Below you can see my painting progress so far.

The Austrian Legion. I need a second Battalion of these.

The Belgian Legion Battalion. Apparently these lads were all young with no real military experience. Their Commander was keen for glory. There was a second battalion and I have the figures for them. QRF make some excellent mule mounted Belgians. I want some.

Death in a sky blue coat - the Chasseurs de Afrique. Feared and famous. They are getting a second squadron.

Mexican National Guard. This unit in a distinctive red coat. Uniforms varied from place to place. White is always good if you are stuck.

Mexican Battalion Supreme Powers. I should have painted 3 yellow sardinas (vertical stripes) on each sleeve. It would hardly be noticeable in this scale so I didn't. This battalion was very well armed with Henry repeating rifles. They were described as very confidant soldiers.

The Egyptian Battalion. Mostly Sudanese slaves who were collected in lieu of back taxes by the soon to be Khedive of Egypt. Once in Maximilian's Service they were freed. Everyone had only good things to say about these fellows. Their flag is not the Egyptian one as I substituted a Company Flag. The survivors ended up in Paris.

The Empress Lancers named for Carlotta, Empress of Mexico. Mrs Max' in other words. Her daddy was King of the Belgians. Hence the Belgian Legion.

Two squadrons of Mexican Irregular cavalry. Handy with the lance. 

Lances were used to herd cattle in Spain and Spanish America. Great training for spearing people apparently.

Mexican regular cavalry. Depending on when these lads could be Imperialists or Republicans. 

That is it so far. 

Now, good news. Geoff is shortly to launch GeoffQRF and will sell the Maximilian range along with half of the old Frei Korps range.  I will be adding to my collection. 

Also I'm keen to do a Great Paraguayan War/ Triple Alliance Project. GeoffQRF can provide the figures. Here I think of Eliza Lynch, what a story.