I drew my unit sized from Stuart Reid and his "All The Kings Armies" and went with a smaller size than the ordinances called for as this is closer to what would be actually fielded when battles took place.
First the Foote:
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| the force takes up a frontage of 36 inches with everyone packed in close order |
As you can see from the image I have gone with a fairly tight formation and even so, with 6 ranks deep of shot (with 99 in each wing actually) you can see that the shot sections almost match up with the pike section for depth.
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| the Foote shown in oblique to give a better view of the depth and flags as this is 95% of the Royalist force that I have |
Such a force, taking up 36 inches or three feet on a wargames table would be impossible to continuously simulate (needing 300 minis just for the one unit!), while visually stunning, for tabletop game purposes its just not workable.
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| behind the foote at 1:1 is a more common Pike & Shot unit of three stands and only 6" wide |
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| wargames table unit of only 11 minis and 6 inch frontage |
Again they are described as 6 troop units of about 30 men each. The ordinances calling for 100 in each troop, on campaign with losses and desertions along with recruitment, they tended to be around 30 men in each troop, according to Stuart Reid.
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| The horse in six 'troop' formation with a couple of horse widths between troops |
When laid out at 1:1 this gives us 180 horses and men, allowing for a spacing between troop units, this again comes out to a frontage of 36 inches.
Once again placing a three foot horse unit on a wargames table will take up almost all available space, though truly look impressive!
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| 1:1 unit (180 minis) in front and 1:15 unit (12 minis) in behind |
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| the compromise unit of 12 horse in the same six troop pattern |
I'm hoping this little comparison will help folks in visualizing things that happen on the wargames table better.
5 comments:
Nicely illustrated and explained.
I use 8 figs pike/12 figs musket for foot regiments and 8figs for horse regiments; at 1:20 this about 400 for foot and 160 for the horse. I found more that 8 figs pike looks more like a pike block to me - less doesn't quite look right.
The visual impression is certainly striking! I have sometimes wondered, though, just what 'der kleine krieg' would look like in this period. If, say, you needed a bridge guard, not expecting any major attack, but against the possibility of small enemy raiding parties, or to secure a refuge of one's own r.p. - what would it look like? What would a raiding party look like - probably horse, but maybe not?
The sieges of places like Basing House look as though they might be interesting, too, with troops numbered in their hundreds, rather than thousands.
The siege game we, Rob really, built and did games with last year attempts to put the siege 'game' on the tabletop.
Most wars were really just lots of running about sieges, indeed even the totality of WWII could be viewed as an oil or energy siege against Germany where they attempted a sally to grab a supply in 41-42 and failed.
Certainly the detailed campaigning in the ECW era lends itself to getting into such questions.
Late to the game here. I've been toying with the idea of putting my toys together in 1 to 1 units. I should pull my finger out!
My foot units are pike blocks of 12 (3 ranks of 4), with shot wings being 8-12 strong (2 or 3 ranks of 4). Each unit has a command stand of officer, drummer and two colours. 10mm scale figures. Total frontage is 12 cm so a bit over 4 1/2 inches.
Horse unit strength is a variable number of stands or troops (3 figures in 1 rank to a stand/troop). 4 horse stands are 12cm wide. Like the foot, horse have a supernumery command stand (officer, guidon and trumpeter). Gallopers form up 1 stand deep, trotters 2 stands deep. Here they are in action:
https://horseandmusketgaming.blogspot.com/2019/09/cheriton-wargame.html
Nundanket, never too late!
I went through a few other games with others systems and grew tired of the need to re-base stuff.
So all of mine are on fender washers, to make them ferrous-magnetic, and I use neodymium magnets on sheet steel with the grass paper as my bases.
only 3 base sizes have been used in various combinations; 3"x3"; 2"x2"; 2"x1.5". I also have some 1/2" x 6" stands that are used as skirmish lines or irregular foot units.
I have thought about what might work for 15mm minis (so your 10's would fit in here also), having them in the 2 horse 4-6 foot groupings that are needed for most units, then on the magnetized stands (one friend I worked with used a hole punch on card stock and put paper on both sides sealing in the little neodymium magnet into a paper punched 'pocket' on the stands) having spaces to indicate the unit 'losses' from combat. This way the units 'wear down' and keep their frontage rather than removing stands and becoming smaller as they become worn.
Great to have your comment on the blog and welcome to the bloggosphere!
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