Burgundian arquebusiers and TtS! Ancient Army lists

One more Burgundian unit, for the time being, again painted by Lionel Bechara, flocked by Ian and tufted by me. I intend to add at least two more units of these, including some nice old Grenadier minis that will add a bit of extra variety; perhaps also some Perry officers and a standard with an arquebus. this unit is based on slightly shallower FK&P13c bases. I have more-or-less enough Burgundian foot, for the moment, and I've started to think about mounted knights, coustilliers and pages (gulp; potentially quite a lot of work in them!).

Today I've just released an updated version of the TtS! Ancient Army list eBook, with four new lists (Cappadocians, Hasmonean Judean, West African Forest Kingdoms and Mossi). Now with 164 army lists, the book is now approaching completion and consequently the new armies I am adding tend to be somewhat more obscure, although often all the more interesting for that. I'm still adding background material to the lists  - I'm up to 128,000 words (!) - and revising some of the older lists. If you've previously bought a paid-for version of this list (as opposed to the original free version of the book) you should have recently received an email copy (from the BigRedBatShop) or a download link (from Wargames Vault). If not, please mail me. At the end of February there will be a similar update to the Medieval army lists.

Twofer

By way of a slight digression from the 1670s, here are some minis I finished late last year but never got around to photographing. I decided to expand my two x two stand units of Burgundian longbowmen each to three stands, and added stakes. Most of the miniatures were painted my my French chum Lionel Bechara, I did some highlighting. They are, of course, Perry plastics, even the flags are Perry. Chum Ian flocked and I tufted. I now have around eight Burgundian units, I need at least twice that. Chum David sent me some recently, which will certainly help. But even 16 units would barely speedbump my Swiss!

In other news... I've managed to get the BigRedBatShop restocked. I have pretty much everything in stock, aside from the Deep-Cut cross-grid mats which I can't get printed at the moment for technical reasons- but I have bought in some from Geek Villain. I have all of the coloured chits, plain MDF chits and bases back in stock. If there's anything that you want that appears to be out of stock (other than cross-grid mats), mail me, I probably have it somewhere in my lounge.

I'm currently finalising the latest version of the Ancient Army List eBook- that should go out on Monday, it includes four new lists and some other new material. If you've previously bought it I'll send you a copy or a download link.  It now has 164 lists in it- pretty much any ancient army that you'd ever want to put on a table.

Finally I hope to be at Partizan on 22nd May- I'll be taking Roundway Down in 28mm. I still have a few slots for players- email me if you'd like me to book you in.

Liegeois Civic Militia

 

As a by-product of my big Swiss project, I ended up with a lot of Perry plastic minis that didn't look quite right for the land of mountains and superior hard cheeses, either because they are wearing gambesons or carrying bucklers or in the wrong clothing colours. Some of these minis are superbly painted by the likes of David Imrie and Lionel Bechara. It occurred to me that I could conscript them into the Burgundian army as the numerous civic militias of the Low Countries cities, who wore uniforms and marched to war under the banners of their guilds. They served the Dukes of Burgundy (and later the Habsburgs) with considerable reluctance and inefficiency.

n.b. You can click on the images for a close-up.

Unfortunately, I didn't have the right flags. At this point Mats Elzinga very kindly stepped forward and volunteered to produce a set of flags for the guilds of the city of Liege. I have eight guilds represented here. They all wear red except for the Meuniers (appropriately, the Millers) who have a yellow and black clothing theme, based on their guild flag. A few guilds had blue themes, perhaps a future project.

I found his flags were so pretty that I needed to paint more units in order to be able to use them all, so Shaun McTague very kindly painted up another 40 or so minis, which I highlighted. My chum Ian Notter flocked them- a considerable undertaking as they are very densely based in blocks of 16 and it's very hard to get in amongst the feet. I added tufts and flowers.

And here they are, all together! There are 99 minis, in all. I'm not entirely sure what I'll use them for, yet- possibly to fight a projected French army, since I rather doubt that they fought the Swiss (at least under their guild flags). But I'm delighted to own them. There are at least three or four lists in the To the Strongest! Medieval Army List book that I could use them in. I have told Mats that if he produces more flags for other cities (Antwerp would be really nice) then I'll make up some more units.

A huge thank you to Mats and everyone else who helped. I gather Mats will be producing the flags commercially, at some stage, they are quite lovely and without them I wouldn't have persisted with the project.

Burgundian pike

Here are some Burgundians that were painted form me some time back by Shaun McTague and Lionel Bechara. I highlighted and finished last August. They languished in the basing queue until chum Ian Notter very kindly flocked them last month, after which I tufted. I'm trying to clear the decks of mostly-finished units before a summer basing push.

The unit is a single block of pike, for use on a 20cm frontage. All of the minis are plastic Perrys from the Mercenary set, and I used the flags that come in the box- they are simple, but effective. The six bases are my FK&P6a's, which are roughly 60x40mm.

I'm a bit worried for these chaps- they are very heavily outnumbered by the Swiss they will end up facing...

In other news I'm told that the tables for the London GT tournament on Sunday 26th September are starting to run short, so if you want to come along, you'd better get your booking in sharpish! The event  is themed Rome and Rome at War. You can bring any army from the following chapters of the Ancient Army List eBook- we’ll use the edition published at the end of March.

• Frogs around a Pond
• Kingdoms of the East
• Rise of Rome
• Rome’s Empire
• Any army between 300 BCE and 300 CE from “Across the Indus”

If you don’t have a suitable army, I’m confident that we can lend you one. I could tell you what army I'm bringing, but then I'd have to kill you. ;-)

https://www.lgtpresents.co.uk/product-page/bhgs-to-the-strongest-gaming-ticket

Burgundian pike

 

I've recently entered into a golden period of finishing minis, but haven't taken many pics, which I'll try to remedy over the next few days. Here is a unit of 48 Burgundian pike that has been on the back burner for 3 years or so. The first minis were painted by Lionel Bechara, but most were painted more recently by Shaun McTague. I finished them (highlights, shade washes) and added flags from the Perry box, which didn't look much on the page but which look great on the pole. The bases are FK&P6a's. Later, I'd love to add another 48 minis not in the Burgundian livery, but rather in various coloured uniforms with guild flags. 

At the moment I seem to be working on Swiss, Burgundian, Milanese, Venetian and Florentine armies, in parallel. :-/ I'm loving the Perry plastics.

More long pointy sticks

A quickly-snatched picture of some Burgundians that I’m working on- mostly painted by Shaun McTague, with some by Lionel Bechara and a couple painted by me. I’m adding facial details, highlights and shading. 

This block will be 48 strong and will provide opposition for my Swiss (who are presently awaiting reinforcements). Later, I quite fancy adding some Low Country contingents, which often served in some Burgundian armies in the livery of their own cities, perhaps under guild banners, and which would help me to field Maximilian’s Hapsburg Burgundians.

Burgundian Arquebusiers

Here are the last of the Burgundians, for the time being, a unit of skirmishing arquebusiers painted, once again, by Lionel Bechara. These Perry plastics are superb minis- feather-trimmed hats off to the brothers!

I've just realised that this is my 11th blog post in March, the most blog posts I have made in a single month since March 2016. A Covid dividend! I do hope you all stay well, out there, as I plan to do, here.

Burgundian Crossbowmen

This unit of crossbowmen is my favourite Burgundian unit, so far. The Perry plastic minis were all painted by Lionel Bechara, although I did the Little Big Men Studios pavises and (with the help of Ian Notter) the basing.

It's a most unusual unit, because it looks better from the back (below) than it does the front, where you can see the details of the reloading crossbowmen (protected by their pavises). So I will be able to enjoy both the appearance of the unit and the effect of its shooting!

Above; lovely painting by Lionel! Below, I used the flag image from the Perry box.

Finally, you can see I've again used three of my favourite FK&P6 bases, so that I can field the unit either on a 15cm or on a 20cm grid. From this angle, you might also be able to make out the arrows stuck in the ground and pavises.

Burgundian archers

Here are two new companies of Burgundian archers, painted by chum Lionel Bechara. I'm really pleased with how they came out! They are on four of my FK&P6 bases; more than ably flocked by my chum Ian Notter. The flower tufts are mostly from Debris of War. You can click the image to enlarge it.

I've made stakes for one of the units, I'll need more. It's a pity that I didn't see images of the period Burgundian mixed unit etchings until after I'd already based these; I'd love to depict bows or crossbows screened by men-at-arms or pike, and I also suspect they would be more effective on the "To the Strongest!" battlefield. I'll certainly do a polearm/mounted archer unit, later on.

First Burgundians

Here's a modest beginning to my new Burgundian army. It's a vintage Citadel gun with two Perry and two vintage Citadel Brettonian crewmen that I must have owned for at least 20 years. Hopefully it'll do sterling work against the feared Swiss pike blocks! Most unusually, I painted these myself.