"Essex 15mm Medieval Irish army pack?" Topic

Does anyone know if the Medieval Irish army pack made by Essex for DBM is any good? Are the figures good, and are the selections reasonably accurate historically and for the list? Thanks.

I have the DBA pack. The figures look nice, but I am unsure if they are accurate. To my eye, they look very generic.

The bonnacht with axes are fine and so are the galloglaich. The Ostmen for the early period are nice but one pose only in each pack.

The kern not so much so. The cavalry no imho.

What period roughly do you want to do?

I want odd opponents for my HYW french (early part of the wars).

You might look at the Feudal Castings medieval Irish. They have a lot of variety and personality. I am not sure who has the line now, but someone can chime in with the details.

Allen

The poses are the usual (somewhat unexciting) from Essex.

Yeah, Oh has kindly recommended Feudal Castings Irish before, but they arent easily obtained in the USA I believe.

Feudal castings were bought by QRF (uk) , who I believe have recently been bought by SMM (the ancients line that is ) So might be easier to get in the US now :-)

Its part of their bloody day range

link

Not so good if you live in the uk :-(

SMM have an opportunity here as the original Steve Shaw figures for Irish cavalry were going by the pics on the website dropped by QRF and replaced with imho rather lacklustre figures. I'm presuming that SMM got all the molds as part of the sale.

If that's so then there should be molds for a mailed Irish cavalry man with long spear overhand on a trotting horse and a light cavalryman with a handful of javelins. Both of these figures are excellent opc and that's what I would use for the 100 years war period.

Another vote for Feudal Castings. Even when QRF owned them I had no trouble ordering from the US.

Thanks for the recommendation listlurker but it looks like the Blood Day 15mm Ancient Irish wouldnt work for Medieval Irish, at least to me. Does anyone know if SMM will be carrying the Feudal Castings line soon?

Jeeves of couse you need to get figures you like but with regard to the Bloody Day range The following are imho good for Medieval Irish.

IG01,02,03.

MI08a,09,10.

It still leaves you snookered for cavalry. You might use some hobilars from the Medieval range but they're more nearly right than right. As an alternative see if SMM will do you a pack or so of the mailed cavalry in the IG command pack. There should be another mounted figure in Cotun and helmet with javelin but its not in the pic. If its available it would give you two poses.

Good luck with your search.

So, O.B., the irish models you recommend were originally for the early part of the middle ages, is that correct?

The IG codes represent Gallogliach or even Irish nobles on foot. The acorn helmets seem to have been enduringly popular. You get a nice mix of mail and Cotun.

The MI08a code was intended for the earlier part of the middle ages but I think you could use them and if I recall right 09 and 10 were designed as later medieval Kern. To be honest I'm never sure about the wicker shields but they look nice when painted and inked.

I was wondering O.B. if you could recommend some good books about ireland of the period? Thanks.

Jeeves what sort of books do you want?

There are some very good academic books but they tend to be very specialised great if you want to know how medieval Ireland worked but a bit much if you just want background for wargaming.

Give me a bit more info and I'll see what I can come up with.

Any kind of introductory text would be good. Something to begin to approach Ireland of the period would be what I want. I already read quite a bit of Medieval history, so unless the book is very very dense, I think I can handle it.

Are there any good wargaming books out there about Ireland specifically? I can't seem to find a single one.

There are no good wargaming books about medieval Ireland that I know of.

McNally who wrote the Osprey Boyne book also wrote a book on Aughrim both are very good and wargamer oriented – nice pics and loads of tactical detail. Its not medieval though.

Although its not solely devoted to medieval Ireland if you want to get a handle on the broad sweep of Irish military history G.A Hayes – McCoy Irish Battles is very good and accessible and cheaply available in paperback.

It covers the following battles:

Clontarf 1014

Dublin 1171

Dysert O'Dea 1318

Knockdoe 1504

Farsetmore 1567

Clontibret 1595

And chapters on Yellow Ford, Moyry Pass and Kinsale all Tudor battles, then Benburb and Rathmines both Civil War, The Boyne and Aughrim Jacobite, finishing with Arlow in 1798. It has nice pics too.

You could probably access Froissart on line and read the Irish sections for free.

Sean Duffy has an excellent and affordable paperback Robert the Bruce's Irish Wars.

In hardback and therefore expensive I like Colony and Frontier in Medieval Ireland edited by Terry Barry, Robin Frame and Katherine Simms.

Also check out 'History Ireland' on line. If you register you can access the archive of articles for free. Some of them are on medieval Ireland and the standard is very good and interesting. Its well worth the effort, there are podcasts too.

Hope this helps.

Edward Bruce invaded Ireland in the early 14th century and that was an interesting campaign to read about. The book "The Wars of the Bruces" covers it I beleive. It came to an end with the death of Edward Bruce @ Dundalk in 1318. There are Scottish, Irish and English troops involved.

Allen