"Donnington Miniatures' 15mm Medieval ranges" Topic

I write in praise of Donnington Miniatures' "New Era" range of 15mm medieval figures, in particular its Hundred Years War range. There are some amazing crafted figures, full of animation, and some very decent poses. I am suitably impressed.

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I now wish to collect and game this period and Fields of Glory: Storm of Arrow has been suggested as a good set of rules. What is the general consensus on rules, please? Many thanks.

Enjoy

Big fan of dbmm. Think it does this period pretty well.

Those do look pretty good, and I do like some of the unique poses.

How do they match up size wise, with the Essex and Minifig (taller and thinner than Essex) 100 Years Wars figs?

The only one I thought that looked really off, is the Joan of Arc fig, who looks like she needs a shave very badly, having what appears to be a full beard, and full mustache, to me. ;-)

I'd really like to sample Donnington, but the shipping of over $16 USD from the get-go isn't really conductive to small orders…

Damon.

I think that is the rule set the guys who owns(?) Donnington plays or played.
I like them as a fun rule set with a simple enough set of factors (once you know them) and good balance of luck and skill.

I don't know the Minifigs HYW figures, but do have and do mix Donnington NE and Essex. The riders match well. Essex horses are a bit bigger of course but both ranges are two-piece-castings so you can mix things around and get a pleasing combination.

Field of Glory works very well for Medieval battle, as does Armati if you can find a copy. In FoG, later English armies will need their stakes, earlier ones will need to use field boundaries and tricky terrain to see off the knights (they are unlikely to hold against mounted in the open): this is appropriate, and models the interaction better than the DB rules IMO …

Phil
Ancients on the Move

Nothing like selling single figures with a minimum $16 USD postage to the US. I used to purchase Donnington but that is ridiculous.

email the owner and ask for say 4 samples to be sent in a jiffy bag (a padded envelope) and pay for figures and actual postage by paypal.

I think if its samples he'll be reasonable.

Having played just about every HYW compatiable system available I would strongly recommend the various DBX variants over FOG (DBA 3.0 is by far the weakest of the DBX types).

DBMM is good but complex but the new DBA3.0 does a surprisingly good job with a minimum of complexity. Disappointment with the FOG mechanisms and army lists for the HYW was the main reason our group dropped it (after much initial investment).

The English did stand off French knights in the open at Crecy.

If price is an object the Perry Brother plastic 28mm figures are quite reasonable and available over the counter in the US (so no postage…)

TomT

The English did stand off French knights in the open at Crecy.

Of course, in reality they were stationed uphill with pot holes dug in front … otherwise yes, 'in the open', TomT …

'mechanism' is precisely why I would favour FoG for this despite the fact that in general I am switching more to DB.

Phil

Might of Arms beats all the above IMO. Version II is being playtested (I am one of the playtesters). It isn't abstract like DBA, DBM or DBMM. Real units with restricted behavior that is historical. 55 pages of the rules only which includes diagrams and examples. Additional pages with optional rules. 150 army lists all in one package. Even a mechanism to do a "mini" game with less figures that is a popular way to introduce any game these days.

No shed loads of dice, you only need two D6 to play. Basing is same as popular DBX system. Less complex than most rules out there. More complex than Impetus and DBA though; which I think is a good thing.

The only problem with the rules is availability at the present. Many copies in the used market place though. Version II will be a PDF with print on demand availability.
Pricing will be less than current rules out there (print on demand will be a different price and depends on what quality is bought). I would say look for something new to come out in early Spring of 2014.

In the meantime, find yourself a used copy. You will be glad you did. I have never seen a bad review of the rules. It has always come down to having opponents willing to give it a go. We did a year long campaign with 16 people; NO ONE complained about the rules. A first! We just jumped to Warrior and then FoG. Should have stuck with Might of Arms.

Can't agree with the comment on the 100YW lists being bad in FoG though. As far as standing up to the French, I do it all the time with my English! I will agree that the complexity of FoG is high and the learning curve a bit steep. Not sure all the complexity is necessary. It has lost steam here in Texas. FoG Renaissance is doing pretty well though.

I still prefer Might of Arms over any other ancients/medievals rules I have tried. There will be a version that takes it to 1680 down the road too.

I'm still a fan of Warhammer Ancient Battles for Mediaeval although,if like me, you are using the DBx 40mm base norm you will need markers for casualty removal. But we add in a target priority rule borrowed from WRG 6th and play +1 penalty for changing targets.

Yes I'd commend MoA

I've tried Hail Caesar but something about it didn't ring true.

In terms of 15mm figures for the period.

I like the Donnington New Era figures but over the last thirty years I've built up a large pool of 15mm figures which, if you are not too picky, cover the whole of the HYW to WOTR period and have embraced virtually every manufacturer. En masse on the tabletop differences between them barely show.

Yesthatphil is quite right. Longbows (English or otherwise) need a fair bit of help from the terrain if they are not going to be ridden down by cavalry or rumbled over by infantry, and to win battles they have to be supported by close combat infantry for when the armies come to blows….if not, there's something wrong with the rules.