The Pikeman's Lament: My 1671 Spanish and Buccaneer companies

Devoid of the usual May festivities I’m devoting this not-as-merry-as-it-could-be month to work on a range of Rampant armies. My overall minimal aim is to level the bases with filler, and get them all undercoated and base-coated while we wait 18 months for a Coronavirus vaccine or herd immunity.

To kick off, here are my 28mm companies for The Pikeman’s Lament based on the Buccaneer attack on Panama of 1671. The Buccaneers are flintlock-armed veterans, the Spanish firelock-armed militia.

The figures are mainly North Star and Blood and Plunder.

The Spanish (1): Back row: Mounted Captain, Gun and crew, Horse. 
Front row: Lanceros, Pike.

The Spanish (2): Three units of matchlock-armed Shot.

The Spanish (3). Front row: Captain on foot with some extras. Indian scouts as Commanded Shot. 
Back row: Armada de Barlovento (Marines).

 

The English: Four units of flintlock-armed Buccaneers with their Welsh leader, Henry Morgan.

Border Reiver Project 4: First wash

The next step was to apply an overall light wash - light in colour and light in thickness. Washes are easy to apply and gentle on brushes. I use a GW Wash Brush. In this case the wash is a light yellow-brown (Coat d'arms 228 Buff ) appropriate to the predominant 'uniform' colour which in this case are the jacks with which most of these figures are kitted.

Coincidentally, brown is also the best colour for leaving in the shadows although most of that will be contributed by the final stain. Brown is also the main colour of clothing, hair, and weapons, though I will probably be using additional, different browns to pick those out. Humble Border clothing was typically a dark 'hodden grey', but that was actually more brown than grey.

Now, I could have mixed brown into the gesso undercoat, replacing two jobs with one. The brown wash, however, brings the figures into relief and gives them more definition and this will make the detail easier to see. That's the theory. I'm not entirely convinced it's very significant. The initial wash is very light in colour because I want to be able to add other washes over the top of it.

As with the white undercoat, I go through the figures again to touch up the wash. I don't want to discover any white patches or specs at a later date. This is a good time to review the forces.

Reivers. Front row: Reiver Household (two units as Forlorn Hope). Dog handler with bloodhounds (personality figure). Mounted Reivers. Back row: Reiver Retainers (two units as Clansmen). March Warden (who should really be with the forces of law and order in the next photo).

Garrison and Militia. Front row: two units of Bows (as Shot). Second row: light gun and two units of Shot.  Back row: three units of pike.

Animals, Civilians and 'Tudor Rebellion' figures. Front row: sheep and shepherd, cattle and cowherd, assorted and pitiable Border civilians. Second row: Gentlemen Adventurers (including a Lady Adventurer), Rabble.

Some of the figures weren't quite dressed for the Borders so the project has grown into the area of 'Tudor Rebellion' - Protestant against Queen Mary or Catholic (or unprincipled opportunist) against Good Queen Bess. When playing Tudor Rebellion rather than Border conflicts, the Garrison troops will be split between a Royalist force and defecting militia throwing in their lot with the Rebels.

Buccaneers vs Spanish for The Pikeman's Lament

Sir Henry Morgan

I didn't list 'Buccaneers' amongst my projects for 2019 as it wasn't current, but I have been giving the idea a lot of thought. Musing about potential projects has always been a big part of my engagement with the hobby - a sort of wargame equivalent of window shopping.

My attraction to the Buccaneer era goes back to the pirate imagery of childhood, the publication of The Pikeman’s Lament, the appeal of the Northstar 1672 range, watching the Versailles TV series (about Louis XIV) and some discussion on the Lead Adventure Forum (LAF). It didn't come together straight away but things gradually fell into place.

In developing the idea I am indebted to Jose Maria Cagiga Mata of the Spanish Lead Painting blog  for help with  figures, costume, background information and ideas.

North Star 1672 matchlock musketeers

For the benefit of those not fully up to speed, Buccaneers were English, French and Dutch freebooters licensed by European powers in the second half of the 17thC to attack and loot Spanish ships and cities in the Caribbean.

I like to hang my model armies on the peg of a specific historical reference point so I'm focusing in particular on the career of the Welsh Privateer Henry Morgan (1635 – 1688) whose English forces successfully raided a number of Spanish cities including Panama City in 1671.

Blood and Plunder Spanish

Despite their exotic and piratical nature, Buccaneers were typically military veterans, fought in conventional military units, and by 1660 were more soldiers than sailors in appearance. So this project will feature fairly conventional pike-and-shot forces rather than the more cinematic imagery of the Golden Age of Piracy. The Pirate actions of the early 18thC were essentially naval actions, while the Buccaneers also fought large scale land battles.

Subject to checking compatibility, I'll be using Northstar's 1672 and Firelock Games' Blood and Plunder ranges, English Civil War figures from Bicorne and Renegade, and some Monmouth Rebellion shot from Front Rank.

Bicorne Miniatures ECW firelocks

The Buccaneers will be flintlock-armed. Opposing them will be Spanish Militia with matchlocks and half-pikes bolstered with some Marines from the Armada de Barlovento and artillery. The Buccaneers totally outshot the Spanish Militia so it will be good to even the sides with the help of some Spanish Regulars.

Although the project is more-or-less planned, I don't currently have the time or space to pursue it, unless or until I have made more progress with the 28mm Reivers.

2019 Interests

GAMES
I didn't actually get to play many games last year, so this year I need to be more proactive. Games I'm keen to play are:

• The Men Who Would Be Kings using my Pathans and Egyptians.
• Lion Rampant using my Late Medievals. 
  
• Dragon Rampant.
• Dux Bellorum using my 25mm Vikings and Anglo-Danes. 
  
• Hammerin' Iron.
• L'Art de la Guerre.

PROJECTS
I've learnt not to over-face myself with too long a to-do list, so while I have a lot of unfinished and potential projects, I'm only going to list (1) major projects which are (2) currently underway and (3) which I seriously intend to progress during the year:

 Timeline Miniatures Border Reivers from Hoka
Hey Wargaming (not my painting!).

• 28mm Border Reivers for The Pikeman's Lament. This is my main painting project for 2019. As soon as they have a basic coat of paint I intend to start using them and will then finish painting them over time.

• 28mm 1798 Irish Rebellion for Rebels and Patriots. I'll continue gradually to collect these. If I complete my Border Reiver project, acquisition might speed up.

• 28mm American War of Indepenence for Rebels and Patriots. I recently bought an ideal collection of well-painted Perry plastic British and am now looking out for a matching force of Continentals. This project will either be realised suddenly or not at all.

• 15mm armies for L'Art de La Guerre. I'm currently reorganising, rebasing and supplementing some of my old 15mm Ancient and Mediaeval armies in order to create paired opponents for ADLG. My areas of interest are the Late Roman period, the Dark Ages and Europe 1250-1300. Rebasing figures and buying painted ones doesn't involve too much time or effort.

So there you have it: a modest range of rules systems (mostly closely related) and a firm committment to working on only one major painting project.

Comparison of 28mm Border Reiver samples

The 28mm Timeline Miniatures from Hoka Hey Wargaming will be forming the heart of my Border Reiver collection for playing Pikeman’s Lament as they have that true Border character but I will be supplementing them with some other useful Elizabethan models from the Foundry 'Sea Dogs and Swashbucklers' range which were said to match in height and bulk.

Before sending large orders I decided to get a sample packet of each just to check. I can now personally confirm that both ranges conform to the so-called 'heroic 28mm' size, i.e. they are really 30mm from top of the head to soles of the feet.

Top: Timeline. Bottom: Foundry

The Timeline Reivers were originally sculpted by the late Jim Bowen and are now sold by Alan Rudd. I had a minor query about horses which Alan kindly answered by phone. Foundry is of course a much more corporate enterprise.

Both ranges are nicely animated, clean, and robust, and this style is very much to my taste. I guess the Foundry ones are a little chunkier and deeper-cut but they won't be distinguishable by the time they are fully painted and based.

The seadog-style ‘shorts’ worn by some figures in the Foundry range may need a little conversion to better represent the more baggy hose worn by the 'lower orders' on land. There will also be Garrison troops, and everything may also double up as English Royal and Rebel armies if I want a change of scene.

The Pikeman's Lament

In looking for Border Reiver rules I had first envisaged a 'true skirmish' game In which each figure was autonomous and had initially alighted upon En Garde. I may return to it, but while I'm not looking for games with mass armies, the number of figures used in En Garde (up to 20 a side) was smaller than I really wanted for this particuar project.

Then I remembered The Pikeman's Lament (2017) by Daniel Mersey and Michael Leck (Dalauppror), a rule set I had looked at after I had started playing The Men Who Would Be Kings but before I started playing Lion Rampant and Dragon Rampant. I also came across the reports of Border Reiver games using Pikeman’s Lament on Angus Konstam's Edinburgh Wargames website. That clinched it, but before the headlong rush into hitting the 'Buy' button, I thought I'd better try out the rules and period by substituting my as yet unused Late Mediaevals and playing a Reiver game.

The Rampant games are commonly referred to as skirmish games, and one figure does represent one man, but the idea of skirmish needs some qualification. In wargame terms I tend to think of these games as squad games in which individual figures act as strength markers. That is not a criticism, just an observation, and it is a type of game I prefer to 'true skirmish' games.

We staged a stand-up fight (Scenario A) pitting a Reiver family, retainers and servants (commanded by my friend Ian who has Border ancestry!) against garrison forces of the March Warden supported by other Reivers (commanded by myself). The backstory is that the Reivers  were ambushing a Hot Trod (or pursuit).

The Reivers comprised:

1 Reiver Family mounted* (Dragoons – customised) @ 4
2 Reiver Family on foot (Aggressive Forlorn Hope) @ 6 = 12
1 Retainers (Clansmen) @ 3                   
2 Retainers (Commanded Shot) @ 2 = 4       
1 Lownes/Armed servants (Clubmen) @ 1               
TOTAL 24

The 'Dragoons' had customised values which upped their Attack Value and Stamina in compensation for losing their Shooting factor and Skirmishing ability.

The Warden’s forces:

1 Border Horse* (Gallopers) @ 4       
1 Garrison Pike @ 4                
1 Garrison Shot @ 4                
2 'Hot Trod' Reivers (Aggressive Forlorn Hope) @ 6 = 12
TOTAL 24

*Officers with these units.

The photos show the course of the game. In order to speed things up and maintain momentum we tended to make assumptions and bluff our way through on the basis of our knowledge of other Rampant rules. We inevitably cut corners and made a few mistakes but these were mostly corrected and probably didn't affect the outcome of the game.

Ian's force (far side) and mine (near side). My force was slow to start moving but I was relatively pleased about the match-ups. I hoped to out-shoot the enemy on my left flank, charge the Retainers with my Reivers and charge the enemy mounted troops with my lancers.

 

Ian's Commanded Shot 1 get the worse of a fire fight with my Garrison Shot. A Wild Charge by the Retainers and an Ordered Charge by Ian's Reivers 1 on my Reivers 1 is beaten off with losses on both sides. Both Ian's units are Wavering. The Retainers never recovered from this setback.

The Officers' units square up for a fight. The Retainers fail to rally and keep retreating.

The mounted Reiver unit attacks my lancers but bounces back.

The March Warden's unit attacks eliminating the Reiver mounted unit and the Reiver Leader. Tests all round for loss of Officer. The Warden's unit has ended up within 3" of a third party, the Armed Servants. We weren't quite sure what we were supposed to do about that illegality. We left it there.

Ian's Commanded Shot 1 is eliminated by overwhelming fire power.

I lose my Reiver 1 unit but the March Warden's unit ploughs into the Armed Servants who are chaff to the scythe. We should have gone on until there were only three units left in total on the table but the outcome was pretty certain at this point.

In conclusion:

• The rules worked well (as expected) and there were no difficulties in stretching these Seventeenth Century rules back to the Sixteenth Century.
• I probably wouldn't use the customised Dragoon option again. Any mounted Reivers will simply be treated as Gallopers.
• Using substitute figures was surprisingly distracting and it would have been better to use MDF counters.
• This is the first time I've played with my Late Mediaevals and I didn't like the rectangular figure bases as it's difficult to avoid lining them up. I'm therefore going to rebase all the infantry on 2p pieces like my other Rampant armies and this will make it easier to keep them in the prescribed clumps.
• We both enjoyed the game. Reivers are a colourful option despite the Hodden Grey. I am going ahead with this project and have ordered some sample packets.