A Mustering of Thirty Years War French

 

A bit of a hiatus since my last update, but as they say if you have nothing to say, say nothing.

However, back with something a bit different from all the ancients and medieval stuff; this time we wander into the Thirty years War ...

A little known trivial fact is that all those long long years ago I actually started wargaming with the English Civil War - 25mm Minifigs for those who like to know these things - and the early modern period has remained an area of interest for me ever since. However, as "Ancients" in its widest interpretation (i.e. including medieval) is general more popular, and thus easier to get games in, I have generally done more gaming in that period.

About a decade ago I did have a whole burst of early modern gaming though thanks to my involvement with Field of Glory: Renaissance and subsequently the computer game spin-off - Pike and Shot. This also means that I appear as an author on Amazon; make of that what you will ...

So despite my figure collection mainly being for the earlier periods I do have some figures for the early modern period, and thanks to the (in development) MeG spin-off Renatio et Gloriam I am expanding my collection once again.

The largest part of my collection at present are the figures that I bought to use as Thirty Year War French and which have had some bits and pieces added (mainly different flags) so that they can also be used as the Weimarian army of Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar in French pay, which morphed into the French Armee d'Allemagne after 1643 and was led by Turenne for the later part of the war.

Most of the figures are from testudo Miniatures sculpted by Giuseppe Rava, which are now carried by Khurasan Miniatures in the USA. They are supplemented by some Donnington Miniatures figures which are comparable in size, and some from other manufacturers whose names slip my mind - apologies to them for that.

So here are some pictures of the collection. I think a few bits need a little TLC but on the whole I am pretty happy with how they turned out.

Generals. All Testudo I think; no idea where the flags came from.

Mostly Testudo, however, all the cuirassier units are other manufacturers but I cannot remember which. Think a couple may be Museum Miniatures, but the third cuirassier unit I have no clue (other than they are larger figures). Again no idea on the flags.

These are some markers I made to indicate horse units which had supporting musketeers (known to wargamers as "commanded shot") under the FoG:R rules. ReG looks to be representing these in a different way so these may get repurposed.

This unit is Donnington figures. All the following are Testudo.

The infantry units. The units with additional bases behind the unit have them for representing German infantry units in the Weimarian army or the Armee d'Allemagne. Also some have bases to allow wholly shot units to be fielded which are appropriate at times.

Markers to show which infantry units have regimental/battalion guns. The guns are from Peter Pig if I recall correctly, crew probably Donnington.

Couple of units of dragoons. Based for FoG:R, will need rebasing for MeG as they use a slightly different basing for dragoons (but thankfully the same for everything else). Testudo figures for the men, Essex horses I think.

Artillery. Couple of Testudo cannon on the right as you look at the picture, but no idea of the rest - suspect the other two are Donnington, limbers anyone's guess ...

And finally a camp. Odds and sods I collected over time thrown together for this. Tents are most likely Baueda.