The Nine Years War in Ireland- Basing

 

Back in January I reviewed my Outstanding Projects and resolved to complete them. 

This is the formal start of my Nine Years War Project. A long term interest. Basing may seem like an odd place to start. Especially as I’m writing a game for the period that is basing agnostic.

Why so then? Well, it is about how each side fought. The basing being a visual clue to English solidity and Irish mobility.  Of course the dichotomy is not that stark. Some troops on either side shared the same spatial imprint. Today I want to look at pike and shot.

The Irish overwhelmingly used the caliver, a light piece. The English used a mixture of calivers and muskets. The musket was heavy. In the English sliding scale of role allocation the strongest men carried the pike, the next strongest were musketeers. The smallest/weakest took a caliver. The caliver was light albeit with a shorter range than the musket.

Caliver qualification for the Irish had a different criteria. Could the aspirant hit the target? If so he was in. This perhaps partially lies  behind General Mountjoy’s observation that “If it came to hand strokes the Irish usually prevailed”. The Irish caliver men came in a range of strength and sizes.  The other factor being that a sizeable minority of the Irish Shot had formerly been skilled close fighters.

The Irish Army in the Nine years War was oriented to missilery rather than close fighting. Caliver men could constitute up to 80% of an Irish Force. The trick was to protect the calivers. More on that in a subsequent post.

Currently, I’m envisaging the Caliver men of both sides as occupying the same spatial imprint. Musketeers will be more solidly grouped. They were not as mobile. mobility, an essential of war in Ireland led to the English eventually abandoning the musket there.

Now, to the Pike. The English pike man was trained to fight in a slow moving solid formation. He was heavily armoured. Normally he and his comrades could simply roll over their Irish equivalents.

Why so? The Irish Pike Man was modelled on the Spanish (Pica Seca) light pike men. His purpose was to move quickly to interdict the English cavalry should they threaten the Irish caliver men.  That he could do. He was not intended for push of pike. If it came to that he fought at great disadvantage.

This project will conclude with the publication of a new set of rules for the Nine Years War. Omerta prevents me from saying more. I find myself working within a set framework.  This is both helpful and restrictive. Helpful because it focuses the mind. Restrictive because some options are no longer appropriate.

The challenge is to produce something both soundly historical and fun.

Here follows the result of the helpful element of the process.

For the English a Battalia (Composite Regiment) might consist of 18 pikemen and 8 musketeers accompanied by a 6 man detachment of caliver men.  The pike and musket aren’t very mobile  and will stick together. The calivers are mobile, hence their contemporary appellation “Loose Shot”. Thirty figures in all. Looking something like this.

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Now the Irish Battalia. 18 calivers in 3 groups of 6 and 8 light pike men accompanied by 4 Horse. There is a lot of mobile firepower here and some swift moving protection. Once again we have 30 figures in all. Looking something like this.

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PPPPPPPPPP

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Immediately we can see the English Battalia wants to fight a close combat action while the Irish Battalia wants to fight a mobile fire power action. Both intend to play to their strengths.

Can we say more? Indeed we can. If our English Battalia is  “Brittainy Company" based we might call it “Seasoned”.  If it is formed of Conscript Companies we might call it “Raw”.

And the Irish Battalia? We should deem the 18 caliver men “Veteran” and their supporting Horsemen and Pike “Seasoned”.

Our Project takes shape. It reflects the Period. Next time we will look at other troop types and how they fought.

I'm aiming to have this one done and dusted by July. I hope you enjoy our various stopping points along the way.