Wars of the Samurai: Old Glory Cavalry

I'm back with another unit for my Pike & Shotte: Wars of the Samurai armies. This will be the first of three cavalry units I'll be fielding on the table.

As mentioned in my last post, I was able to buy a large quantity of secondhand Old Glory miniatures at a convention flea market. The cavalry was in pretty rough shape, with the figures partially assembled using globs of hot glue and epoxy, and many of the riders suffering from badly bent and broken weapons. After a day of disassembly, cleaning, rebuilding, and rebasing, I was able to assemble three 12-man units. 

While the sculpting quality of both the riders and horses is reasonable, especially considering the price, there is a significant issues with how the separate riders fit onto the horses.  The open shape under the saddle/rider's legs is much wider that the horse's back, resulting in huge gaps between the two. Even squeezing the rider's legs against the horse doesn't completely eliminate the issue. 

As such, the only way to get the figures to look ok is to fill the gaps with large amounts of Green Stuff or putty and try to blend it in with shaping and paint.

My figures came with six horse poses, so you can get a good variety for 12-man units. I used the excellent images on the Kriget Kommer blog when selecting horse colorations. 

The riders come in a variety of armor styles, which is nice, but some styles seem a bit archaic for my mid 16th Century setting based on the Osprey books I have.  However, I'm not an expert and worst case, perhaps some samurai still like the older styles.  The faces and bodies of the riders are not as realistically proportioned as the Perry figures, but do have a lot of character and remind me of exaggerated woodblock prints. 

The armor and lacing color selections were based on the Osprey books, the catalog of Osaka Castle's armament collection, and various woodblock prints. I tried to go for a mix of elaborate and subdued lacing, both for variety and to preserve my own sanity while painting.

This particular unit will be Mōri clan allies for my Ikkō-Ikki army. I've gone with a red standard, as I've seen this color associated a lot with the Mōri. In the future, I'll order some Mōri clan mon decals for the standard.

While these figures will never hold a candle to the newer samurai miniatures on the market, I think they are still a viable option if you're on a budget and and have the ability to work around their shortcomings.
 

Wars of the Samurai: Ikkō-Ikki

I'm back with another resurrected Warhammer Ancient Battles project.  Originally abandoned when Warhammer Historical dissolved and the Divine Wind supplement was cancelled, I completed some of the figures about 13 years ago for Osprey's Ronin game. But the majority have sat unpainted in the pile of shame at the bottom of the hobby closet. With Warlord Games releasing their Wars of the Samurai supplement for Pike and Shotte, I figured it was time to get this project out of mothballs.

As no other players around here are into Samurai, I'm going to build two smaller forces:  the Ikkō-Ikki Buddhist rebels and forces loyal to Oda Nobunaga in the late 16th Century.

First up are the sohei monks.  I painted these a while back, but basing materials have improved since I last worked on them, so I've refurbished them to a more modern standard, similar to my old Hail Caesar armies found elsewhere on the blog.

The figures are Old Glory and The Assault Group (TAG), with a Perry miniature thrown in as well. There were no sohei bannermen available at the time, so I tried to create one from an Old Glory samurai using greenstuff.

I had a few of the peasant figures painted back in the day, but the majority came from the unpainted lead pile.  These are a mix of Old Glory peasant infantry, TAG peasants and followers, Perry's dedicated Ikko-Ikki, and a few wako pirates from the old Cavalcade line.  The sculpting styles vary widely between the lines. The TAG are thick and a bit characterized, the Perry are thinner with realistic faces, and the Old Glory are somewhere in between the two in size and style. The Cavalcade are the smallest and weakest of the sculpts  and my least favorite out of the mix. If I were to start over today, I'd likley go a different route, but at the time TAG and Cavalcade were available at the local shop and I was able to get the budget friendly Old Gory figures at a convention flea market for pennies on the dollar. 

These eight stands will form the backbone of the force, but I am looking to supplement them with some teppo (matchlock) and yumi (bow) ranged units and samurai from the allied Mōri clan.

Italian Wars: Landsknecht Units

With the release of Warlord Games' "Death and the Landsknecht" supplement, members of my gaming group are interested in running some larger Italian Wars games, particularly Pavia.  As the bulk of my current Holy Roman Empire army is made up of city militia units with only one unit of landsknecht, I decided it was time to bring some more mercenaries into the fold.

First up are two new command stands featuring Georg von Frundsberg and Götz Von Berlichingen.  The main figures are Warlord Games' dedicated miniatures, with additional miniatures from Foundry, Wargames Atlantic (conquistador drummer), and two TAG miniatures repurposed from an earlier command stand I had built.  There are some differences in figure height and bulk between the various manufactures, but I think they look reasonable enough. The figures are attached to the stands with magnets, so they can be easily broken down in the future if I want to do something different with them. 

Next are two large pike blocks assembled from Foundry miniatures and the plastic Warlord Landsknecht set.  There is a bit of size variation in the Foundry line, with my figures ranging 26-29mm to the eye, and the mercenary character set being much bulkier (I believe it was a different sculptor than the majority of the line).  The Warlord figures sit right in the middle of that size range, so the overall blend looks fine. I was not a fan of some of the Warlord head options (they look too big for the bodies), so I've mixed in some spare Perry heads I had in the bits box.

To support my pike blocks, I assembled some strips of Doppelsöldner with  Zweihänder swords. Depending on the rules set, they can either be added to the front rank of my pike blocks or set up as small associated units. The miniatures are a mix of Warlord Games Landsknechts, Wargames Atlantic conquistadors, and some 3D prints designed by Peculiar Companions (Erramir Orlans).  The Wargames Atlantic miniatures are bulkier than the other two lines, but I decided to still mix them.

A Foundry great cannon and crew.

I really wanted to add some Steel Fist miniatures to my army and looked into ordering Doppelsöldner and mounted crossbowmen, but the quoted shipping from the UK to the US was astronomical (~50%), and this was even before the tariffs kicked in.  I looked at a US stockist, but their inventory was pretty threadbare.  About the only thing remaining were  knights, so I bought six with Zweihänders. As with the above Doppelsöldner, these could be added to a pike block or kept in their own small unit.

Lastly, there are my mounted crossbowmen.  As mentioned, I had hoped to get the Steel Fist set, but opted to buy the cheaper 3D prints designed by Peculiar Companions. They are smaller than the Perry cavalry, but are fine in separate units.

And with that, I think I now have enough units to more than support my portion of this project.  Now we just need to find time in everyone's schedule to get this battle started.

Italian Wars: Spanish Units

 So almost a year ago I thought I had wrapped up my Holy Roman Empire army for the late medieval/early renaissance era. But as with a lot of gamers, new toys catch your eye and you find an excuse to add to your army.  For me, I was standardizing the storage boxes for this army from the mishmash I had, and now found myself with additional space in the new box that had to be filled with something.  Finding a few packs of Artizan Spanish on clearance at my local store, I thought they would make a nice addition to the army.  Of course a few packs don't add much, so I ordered two boxes of the Wargames Atlantic conquistadors to fill everything else.

First up is a command stand. Though I know Spain converted over to the Cross of Burgundy banner early in the wars, visually I don't find it very appealing and decided to use the earlier flag. Trying to paint the details in on a flag that size was beyond my aging eyes, so I just used a printed version. The commander and drummer are Wargames Atlantic plastics with a metal Artizan figure holding the banner. I think the two manufactures' figures are very similar in height and heft, so they are very easy to blend together.

Spanish sword and bucklermen from Artizan Designs. For the heart shaped shields, you either had to fit them with the wide edge towards the hands or shoulder; I wasn't sure which would be more proper, but guessed hands.  Hopefully I got it right.

Crossbowmen from the Kingdom of León. These were made form Wargames Atlantic figures with spare pavises from Old Glory. Frustratingly, the WA kit doesn't really include enough crossbow quivers for all the figures; because I wanted more firing/preparing to fire figures rather than loading (the loading hand is sculpted attached to the quiver), I ran short by one, even using two boxes of the kit. And if you go with the arquebus handgun option instead, there are no ammo pouches included at all.  My other major complaint about the kit is that the paired arms aren’t numbered (and they aren’t always close to one another), so it was a bit of an annoying guessing game during assembly. Definitely a poor design choice by WA.

Pikemen. The majority of the figures are WA, with a few Artizan thrown in. As with most of my army units, I made the artistic decision to use a unifying color palate for the unit based on the banner they carry. The WA pike are very short (approximately 50mm) compared to other manufactures, which is a bit disappointing visually.  Again, I'm not sure why WA made that decision.  One thing I will get WA credit for is the wide variety of head options available. I chose to avoid the morion helmets to give the unit an earlier feel, and I still managed to get quiet a bit of diversity of out of what remained.

Despite the shortcomings of the Wargames Atlantic kit mentioned above, I think they are a good value for the money and overall I'm happy the assembled figures. Throwing in the Artizan Design figures also gives you a bit of additional variability that only improves to the look of the units.

Early Italian Wars: More Units and Final Army

The refurbishment/expansion of my Late Medieval/Early Renaissance army for the Holy Roman Empire is now complete. 

First up is another commander flying the Hanseatic League banner, which is also the coat of arms of the lead Hanseatic city of Lübeck.  The figures are plastics from Perry's War of the Roses line. 

More mounted knights in plastic from Perry. While the overall combined height of horse and rider is similar to my Front Rank knights, the riders are much smaller and the overall bulk is less. Having both units on the table looks fine, but I wouldn't mix figures into one unit.

A supply cart from Front Rank.

Early Landsknecht pikemen from The Assault Group. I only needed 30 for my pike block, so used the other two as another command unit. Size-wise, they are around the same height as Old Glory and only slightly smaller than Perry.

Old Glory miniatures arquebusiers painted in the colors of Münster.

A mix of Old Glory and Perry plastic arquebusiers from Kiel. The Perry figures are a little taller and more slender than the Old Glory figures, but I think the variety of poses allows them to mix well enough in this unit.

Perry, Crusader, and Wargames Foundry arbalest crossbowmen from Lübeck. The Perry and Crusader miniatures are sculpted in a very similar size and style and blend in quite well.  The older Foundry figures, while nice, run on the smaller side, so you'll have to be a bit more careful with how you mix them in. 

And with that my army is now complete. It was fun to revisit a project I started nearly 20 years ago for Warhammer Ancient Battles and I am really happy they are now getting time on the table with my Hail Caesar group after so long in storage. So far they have managed to beat the Hussites and Hungarians in two close battles, but we'll see if their luck continues to hold.

Early Italian Wars: More Command, Pikemen and Artillery

I'm back with more figures for my Holy Roman Empire army for the early Italian Wars.

For some reason my phone camera had issues capturing the appearance of the flags on the command stands with my normal photography setup; to give a more accurate assessment, I've also shot the figures against a white background under normal lighting. 

Command Stand 1: Count of Württenberg with the Reichssturmfahne. Figures by Front Rank.

Command Stand 2:  Elector of Saxony with the Reichsrennfahne. Figures by Front Rank.

Pikemen from Hamburg. Figures from Perry (plastic) and Crusader Miniatures.

Medieval Artillery. Figures and large cannon from Front Rank, small cannons from Old Glory.

Early Italian Wars: More Refurbished Holy Roman Empire Units

The refurbishment of my Holy Roman Empire (HRE) late medieval army continues. As with the previous units, each one (except the knights) is themed around a particular northern German city, generally affiliated with the Hanseatic League

Army General from Lübeck. Figures by Front Rank.

Knights. Figures by Front Rank.

Light Cavalry from Dortmund. Figures by Front Rank.

Light Cavalry from Bremen. Figures by Front Rank.

Spearmen/Billmen from Nordhorn.  Figures by Old Glory with a Mirliton hero.

Pikemen from Köln (Cologne).  Figures by Old Glory.