Thirty Years War in 3mm?

My interest in the Thirty Years War periodically resurfaces, and I started this article some months ago the last time it did. I haven't taken things any further, but I thought I'd post it anyway.

I was waiting to see Impetus Baroque at the time, but at the Cavalier show last year (February 2016) I caught sight of the Liber Militum: Tercios rules. The rules emanate from Spain and the English-language version is not as good as it could be. Nonetheless, it appears to be easier to follow than some rules allegedly originating in English.

Suggested 15mm basing on full-size bases.

Basing follows the Impetus precedent of being quite large - 120mm wide for pike-and-shot units, 80mm wide for cavalry and 40mm wide for artillery. Regardless of figure scale, I immediately thought of reducing the base sizes so that a game could be played on a compact 48'' x 32'' playing area. A 120 mm base would become 80 mm, an 80 mm base would become about 53mm (say 60mm) and a 40 mm Base would become about 27mm (says 25 mm).

My campaign for open-handed pikemen in 10 mm or 6 mm didn't get too far, so I began to consider the Magister Militum 3mm figure strips. These do not look clipable, so I needed to see how complete strips would work on the desired base sizes. With the strips being 20mm long, this exercise may also applicable to unclipped Baccus strips.

Tercio Square, Classic, Reformed and Modern
 formations using  Magister Militum's 3mm strips.

Tercios has four types of pike-and-shot unit: Tercios, Classic, Reformed and Modern. I've played or looked at a number of Renaissance rule options over the years. These definitions seem to be a good as any and better than many.

There is some disagreement as to whether the distinctive Tercio formation with shot at the corners was actually used in the TYW. As I understand it the Tercios were not entirely inflexible, but capable of various arrangements. If the shot on each flank were to close up a Tercio would present a simple pike block with sleeves of shot, albeit a large and deep one.

The illustration above shows suggested basing for 15 mm figures. The diagrams (right) show how I would do it with 3 mm strips in a way that would best reproduce the relative numbers and proportions of the 15mm figures.

The iconic T formation for the Modern (Swedes) was my own idea. It may not have been commonly used but it's distinctive and a convenient way of arranging the strips.

I'm not sure of the exact depth of the strips. If they are deeper, then the Tercio square in particular may look better than the way I've depicted it (i.e. squarer). In principle the strips seem to work.

Anyway, this was an entirely cart-before-the-horse exercise as I still haven't even read the rules properly, let alone played them. And I do have some reservations. I'm a bit wary about committing to a rules set that uses bases with different frontages. And I don't think Magister Militum's 3mm range yet has all the required figure types.

Two other developments have also recently occurred. Firstly, I've bought a copy of the new edition of Twilight of the Sun King (more anon) and learnt that a TYW/ECW version is also planned for this year. Secondly, I've seen the first releases in the new 6mm TYW/ECW range from Baccus. Notwithstanding the cast pikes, these are superb figures...

Baccus: Fragile cast pikes but very nice effect.

At last: 17thC and 18thC in 3mm!

Pikemen

The recent expansion of Magister Militum's 3mm figures into the pike-and-shot and horse-and-musket eras has greatly advanced the probability of my starting two new projects: Seven Years War armies for Maurice and Thirty Years War armies.

I will probably get some sample figures to see how they base up, but a few more troop types (e.g. grenadiers and cavalry in hats respectively) will be needed before I can do complete armies. Richard at MM has confirmed these are planned, with the grenadiers coming rather sooner. I suspect that some other missing troop types (e.g. grenzers) might be recruited from the Oddzial Osmy Napoleonic range.

Salute 2015: all roads and hills

30mm wide roads: TimeCast (left), JRM (right).
Possibly not the most interesting photo to appear
on this blog.

Conscious of my painting backlog and diminishing time, I went to Salute with only the shortest of shopping lists. My priority was to get some more '6mm scale' JRM dirt roads from Magister Militum to supplement those I already have. I've got plenty of curves, junctions and cross-roads, but not enough straights.

The JRM roads, produced in a rubbery substance, are 30mm wide and good for pre-modern 6mm or 10mm games. Unfortunately JRM appear to have stopped supplying MM. Whether they are still trading outside the USA, I'm not sure.

Elizabethan Small Wars: Part 9: Irregular Wars - Scenery - Wattle enclosure

I'll be posting again about buildings for Irregular Wars, but my first acquisition is this 15mm wattle enclosure produced by Baueda and supplied in the UK by the indispensable Magister Militum (15WFN Wattle Fence). The pieces have been mounted on plasticard and are ready for an addition of  my usual PVA and sand base texturing before painting. When finished I'll stick some felt on the bottom to stop the piece from sliding around.

World War 2 Naval

The Italian Battleship Roma

I've been thinking about getting into WW2 gun-action naval wargaming, particularly the Anglo-Italian battles in the Mediterranean. It would be a new game for minimal effort, cost and demand on storage.

I got a 2" hex cloth from Magister Militum at Salute and am now planning to get some Figurehead 1/6000 ships. (1/6000 would be a logical step down in scale from my 1/3000 pre-Dreadnoughts.)

The most appealing commercially available rules I've found so far is Grand Fleets, but I'd prefer something simpler like DBSA.

Being very small and hard to recognize at playing distance, I would definitely want to put the ships on, say, 25mm x 50mm bases which will have enough room for clear labelling, even if it's just an ID number.

A small fly in the ointment is the Figurehead destroyer bases which are moulded on and will have to be countersunk into the MDF layer of my larger MDF-and-steel bases.

Spoils of War

My raid on Salute 2013 realised:

• A long wait in the cash queue as I had forgotten to buy an advance ticket.
• 1 box of Hexon (two-tone green & brown), some hills and some matching flock for possible use on model bases.
• Some Pendraken/Minibits 100mm MDF bases for making 'SBUAs' (significant BUAs) and woods for my 1940 3mm/Hexon/Hexblitz project.
• Brigade Models 2mm terraced houses & English village packs for same.
• 1 Magister Militum blue felt cloth with 2" hexes (for naval wargaming).
• Some O Scale conical milk-churns (Skytrex) to add period flavour to my IWI games. I'm told I should buff them with steel wool to make them look well-used.
• A cappuccino and an almond croissant (nice but rather expensive compensation for queuing).
• Half-time beer (extortionately expensive and not even real ale).