Loebl was my first foray into using the Warlord Games plastic figures and, slight size variation between them and the earlier Renegade pieces aside, they are decent if generic figures for the period. The annoying thing is there is too much variety in headgear for my chosen subject, so I either make do with various Scots bonnets and monteros, or leave figures in the box. I have used all the options for Loebl, with the Scots bonnets in my own mind being used for troops I imagine to be Irish. I like the heft of metal figures and plastics will not feature massively in the collection overall, but I have now painted one regiment of cavalry (Vastgota for the Swedes) and three regiments of foot (Loebl, Aldringen and the Swedish Red Regiment) all composed for the most part of plastics with the odd metal figure for specialist types. I have a couple more I can do also, when I get round to it.
The flags are again courtesy of Mark Allen's work in WI, painted by me onto sticky labels as I have for almost all of this collection, but the unit ratio has increased from 1:1 to 2:3 pike to shot, with the complete regiment coming in at 16 pike and 24 shot, though I do sometimes pare a few shot off as a forlorn hope or to help out elsewhere (with Aldringen mainly, as I have not yet painted their own shot).
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| Metal interlopers in the form of the standard bearers (one Renegade, one Assault Group) in an otherwise plastic figure unit |
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| Four-fifths of the full regiment |
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| Metal and plastic side by side. Largely indistinguishable? |
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| Another option to get around the less useful headgear options in the Warlord box is to leave it off! |
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| Another day, another shot, as the head of the column splashes out of the ford on the stream board I made for the Steinkirche demo game from last month's Wargamer show |
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| And with a friend or two in support |
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| Final shot, more of the same |
G
Are those Warlord Imperialists, or ECW troops pressed into service?
ReplyDeleteI'm embarking on my own ECW force with Warlord for the Parlementarians and Old Glory for the Royalists (I like OG's Montero caps), but have pressed a unit of their Swedish cavalry into service (what as I've not decided).
How's the situation with the Swedes? I'm tempted to use them for the Trained Bands of London. Do you think they'd suit?
Rob,
DeleteThe only real difference between the Swedish foot boxed set and the specifically ECW ones is the addition of a few metal command figs and musket rests! The sprues are the same as far as I remember. I would heartily recommend getting the "Battalia Starter Army" (about £60 I think) to start with. Warlord started with ECW and backdated slightly, so the figures are very suitable for ECW. My plastics are a mix of Royalist and Parliament initially, but as I said, I think the sprues are the same for the Swedes/ Imperialst anyway(?). I have both TYW boxes, as well as ARquebusiers etc, but have only built the ECW types so far. The rest are on the "to do" list.
Gary
I've already got one battalia box. Construction and painting has been held up by the fact I'm trying to decide on a basing, which requires deciding on a rule set.
ReplyDeleteI'm thinking Once Upon a Time in the West Country (which arrived today) for skirmish, and then to expand to either the old 1644 or Perfect Captain for bigger battles. That's spurring me to individual 20mmx20mm basing for infantry and 25mmx50mm for cavalry, with sabots designed for Perfect Captain. I played a lot of 1644 back in the day, and it was rather fun. The campaign in it also looks good.
I liked the metal additions in the Swedish cavalry box; I think adding the additional helmets is a much better way to go about modifying the plastic box - that way, the spares can go into the parts bin for using on other regiments (solving your headgear concern).
The problem with investing in Warlord too heavily is that I dislike their Montero caps, and the Royalist Oxford Army (and probably Hopton's 1643/44 army) were almost all in Monteros. As is, I think I have enough Warlord for four good Parlementarian regiments (16 pike and 32 musket, plus officers), which should do nicely for Waller's non-London regiments. It's the trained bands that I need to model (well equipped but rebellious troops) and for that, I want more helmets.