"Getting into English Civil War need advice" Topic

Recently I decided to get into the English Civil War period after getting a few of the Osprey books and getting the movie Cromwell.

With the help of a friend I got a small number of 28mm figures mainly by Warlord Games and Perry Miniatures.

He was able to provide me with 2 Regts of Cavalry at 12 figures each(painted) and part of a Infantry Regt also painted.

Now I'm building the Parliamentarian side but I want to star small.

So what I need is advice as to what I need to build with regards to Infantry,Cavalry and Artillery.

Any help would be grateful.

Thanks
Michael

The simplest approach is to ensure that you have 2 muskets for every pike in your Foot units (not "Infantry" in the ECW!). You have 12 man regiments of Horse (not "Caavlry" in the ECW!), so make your Foot units about twice that – so 24 man units, with 8 pikes and 16 muskets in each unit.

Hope that helps.

…and maybe a small piece, 4 or 6 pounder?

MajorB thanks for the advice I'm sorry about using the wrong words for the units I'm still stuck in the Napoleonic period.

But this info will help me out a lot I think.

Michael

I would add a regiment of Dragoons as well, very useful chaps are dragoons. Start with 12 mounted figures and 12 dismounted. Worth looking at the Pike and Shotte rules from Warlord games- fun set of rules and some ideas as to how to organise your units. The ordnance artillery) should be something like a Demi- culverin or a saker.

steamingdave47 my friend also provided me with an unpainted Dragoon unit but he only had 6 dismounted Dragoons so I have to look around for that.

I do have an unpainted Ironsides Horse unit and he gave me 3 Guns with crew.

I plan on getting a copy of Pike and Shotte since these are the rules that he's going to use.

Michael

I plan on getting a copy of Pike and Shotte since these are the rules that he's going to use.

Pike and Shotte doesn't do the English Civil War very well. I'd recommend a modified Black Powder for ECW.
link

I wouldnt worry about painting part-units, often a company or two of dragoons were attached to a force, there were plenty of independent companies and regiments were often so understrength that they weren't much bigger than companies anyway

While I might suggest a different set of rules myself, I wholeheartedly suggest that you use whatever rules are popular in your area.

Why

Because for someone starting a period, finding opponents to play with is far more important than deciding upon which rules to play.

If you (or your opponents) have access to any of the excellent ECW Scenario Books from Partizan Press, my advice would be to pick a smallish battle that appeals to you (and won't require too much terrain) and build your initial troops to match that scenario . . . because once you have that you will not only be able to play a game, but you can then expand from there.

If you don't have that access, take a look at the linked scenarios on this website (scroll down about 75%) and pick one of them:

wfgamers.org.uk/WWAE.htm

You should be able to adapt one of these battles to whatever rules you will be using.

Above all, HAVE FUN!

-- Jeff

Jeff I fully agree with what you said and we'll see what happens.

Thanks
Michael

Those small scenarios looking intersting, thanks for posting!

You are welcome, GamesPoet.

If you want to see what 28mm figures look like on a 5' x 8' table, we have fought Southam once and Whalley twice.

One of the guys (who takes much better photos than I) has posted a number of photo reports:

Southam -- link

Whalley #1 -- link

Whalley #2 -- link

-- Jeff

The pictures look very good and the figures were nicely painted my painting has a lot to be desired but I'm getting better because my main scale that I painted was 15mm so for me painting 28mm might be most interesting.

Michael

Michael,

Actually our figures (mostly Perry & Warlord), are really rather simply painted.

While there is absolutely nothing wrong with very detailed painting, wargame figures are mostly viewed from three or more feet away . . . and what we see is the "mass" of the unit and not subtle details.

You do NOT have to be a polished painter to have good-looking units on the table top. Paint as much or as little detail as you choose . . . if you look carefully at my painting, you will see that I just paint over a lot of detail because it isn't noticeable at wargaming distances . . . and it allows me to get painted figures on the table more rapidly.

One hint is to limit the number of colors you use for any one unit . . . Keep It Simple, Sir . . . and you will get units on the tabletop before you know it.

-- Jeff

Thanks for the advice Jeff.

Michael

If you can find it…the ECW rules by Gamesworkshop that came out in the mid 90's is a great book… If you use Warlord figures each box will give you the proper amount of miniatures for each unit you want to field…And for a skirmish level game try "Witchfinder General"…small bands of troops purging evil…

While digging thru one of my boxes I came across some stuff a friend gave me some months back 2 items were connected to The English Civil War.

The first item is a booklet called English Civil War notes and queries and published by Partizan Press it has some interesting things in it.

And the other item is indeed a set of rules for the English Civil War called Forlorn Hope now I don't know anything about it and maybe some of you could tell me more info on it but I might've a backup set of rules for the ECW.

Michael

One other thing dealing with The English Civil War is books.

I've started to get as many of the Osprey books as I can afford.

So far I have the following:

Soldiers of the English Civil War(1):Infantry
Soldiers of the English Civil War(2):Cavalry
New Model Army 1645-60
The English Civil War Armies
The Campaign of NASEBY 1645

One the way are 2 Campaign Series books Edgehill and Naseby.

I'm also getting The English Civil War 1642-1651 by Philip Haythornthwaite.

So what other books would you suggest that I get?

Thanks
Michael

Hi Captain G,

I liked Forlorn Hope, quite detailed but rather 'chart-heavy' compared to more modern sets. They gave really good games

The osprey line has several fantastic books, new model army, is my favorite "old school" osprey , and the battle studies are great. The armies are really easy to paint, I'd go with Essex 15mm and use printed flags rather than the cast on ones. I do like pike and shotte. 1group of 16 pike & 2 groups of 12 musket per regiment. Try to build a foot regiment for every horse regiment (12 models) , a gun for every 2 foot foot regiments works OK, throw in a dragoon unit, no more than one. Ceiling limit would probably be 5-6 regiments per side -tops! Scots? That's a whole other basket of fish. There's a great osprey book of the Covenanter forces as well.