First Carlist War in 15m – The Carlists

 

I should begin by saying these are big 15mm figures, more like 18mm really.  You need to be mindful of that should you chose to substitute figures from other ranges. Most of mine come from QRF.  The rest came from the Spanish company Capitan/ Warmodelling.  The two are compatible in my view.

We are about to see my entire First Carlist War collection in a series of posts. Today, we are going to look at the Carlists.

You may notice that my painting style evolves in the following pic’s. This is due to the glacially slow release of the QRF range.  That said the QRF range is happily now complete. 

The Carlists were very much of an up and at them attitude.  Partly because of disposition and also because they were often short of ammunition. Consequently they liked to charge sooner rather than later. 

The other thing to note is that Carlist infantry moved faster than their opponents.  They were also masters of difficult or broken ground. A Carlist Mountain Gun battery above.

Carlist brigades often deployed whole battalions in skirmish order backed by a reserve battalion in column. Unusually, Carlist skirmishers would charge home without forming into closer order.

Now, let us look at the cavalry. The first pic is of QRF Carlist cavalry.  If you can get past the identical horses QRF have the fullest range of First Carlist War cavalry anywhere.

I think the use of a single horse figure let down the QRF (one piece casting) cavalry.  A shame, because the riders are fine and the variety of units commendable. The normal solution is to substitute horses.  You cannot do that with one piece castings.  

 

I chose instead to mainly opt for the Capitan ones.

Carlist cavalry was often very effective.  Lancers were popular.  That said the Carlists never had anywhere near enough horseflesh to match the quantity available to their opponents. Above Merino's Lancers and the Ontoria Hussars.  Both crack troops.  Other Carlist lancers are perhaps best rated as regular.  Interestingly, Carlist cavalry did not perform outpost or scouting duties.  They were in short supply and reserved as battle cavalry.

 

While we are talking about QRF let me recommend their range of First Carlist War artillery pieces to you.  They really are very nice.

My latest Carlist unit here.  The Portuguese volunteers with their distinctive green boina.  Note the two Totentaz grenadiers.  The rest are QRF.   Totentaz have some lovely Carlist War figures.  Alas, the range is far from complete.

I seem to have enough figures for another two battalions and another squadron or two of lancers.  I'll also be adding some cavalry command bases that will enable the cavalry to go further.  I'll show them here along with the Carlist Generals when they are done.

Next the Cristinos aka Isabelinos.