"By Fire & Sword: List construction basics Skirmish level" Topic

I put together an article talking about list construction basics for the Skirmish level, using one of the Polish skirmish lists as an example (mainly because I have the miniatures). I figured it would be a bit easier to comprehend the size and amount of miniatures if they were actually used for this guide. I will follow up with a companion article on the Division level in a day or two.

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Thanks for the information. I am one of the 'backers' of the Kickstarter campaign (Winged Hussar Lieutenant), and was left guessing at what skirmish sets and add-ons I wanted. Your article was very helpful.

I have a box-set of Polish Pancerni and another of Polish-Cossacks. They seem to have been good choices for adding size and variety to the Polish skirmish set I'll be asking for.

Yes, the Polish cossack style cavalry in particular forms the backbone of many cavalry regiments and is the most numerous troop type in the Polish army. The Pancerni are also a good choice since they are often forming 1/3 to 1/2 of the units in regular Polish Cavalry regiments.

A general guideline would be to never have more Pancerni units than you have Cossack style units. 50-50 is the best you can have.

I will post a similar guide to this one tomorrow, it will be about building division sized armies.

If possible, pointing out "backbone" unit types for each side would be helpful. For example, I have figured out that Polish Cossacks are "backbone" for the Poles; Pancerni are also "backbone" but less so.

I'd like to know what are "backbone" for the others, especially Tatars and Cossacks.

I'll see what I can do, I know the Wargamer crew have planned more faction specific tutorials so I'm keeping things more open ended and mainly showing how lists in the game are built and the ideas behind them.

@drummer:
- for both Polish and Lithuanian army – cossack style cavalry, You need a lots of them (Pancerni can be used only by Polish forces, Lithuanians have their own petyhorcy)
- Cossacks – Moloitsy, if You like 'horde' army also Cossack Rabble
- Tartars – Tartar Warriors and Tartar Rabble
- Swedes – here depends how one want to play, I would say unarmoured reiters and dragoons
- Muscovites – Boyar Sons
- Turks – The Feudal Sipahi

Best regards
Michał Paradowski
By Fire and Sword team

Excellent work Anatoli! Really explains how the system works and how it is diffrent from the classic point-based systems common among wargames.

Very useful article Anatoli thanks