"Mounted/dismounted" Topic

A recent post that mentioned having a number of mounted Commanche figures & their equivalents dismounted reminded me how much I like this mechanism.

Its the equivalent of Special Effects or CGI for tabletop miniature games!

I have SYW dragoons, Natal Mounted police (AZW), ACW cavalry and, specially, Celtic chariots that all have the required two sets of figures. All additionally require, IMO, horse holder stands as well.

Do you think it a waste of figures or a really cool mechanism to have mounted/dismounted capability?

I think it's cool (and more importantly to me, looks more "realistic"* on the tabletop), but it's also a pain in the booty given that it doubles the minis to paint. :p

* whatever "realistic" means in this context

What could be better than more models of more stuff?

I only uses the foundry border wars figures for wild west games because they all have mounted/ dismount figures of each of the characters.

I have to wonder at dismounted Comanche since they almost never fought dismounted.

I like the option of having dismounted figures, and it's also nice to have mounted versions for those troops that typically fought on foot, but rode to and from battle. A good example of these would be the many bodies of mounted militia on the American frontier during the wars in the Ohio Valley, in the VA and PA back country, and in the deep South. I have a ton of figures on foot, but there are only a few packs here and there of mounted militia.

In the case for dismounted Comanches, surely if raiding settlements the Comanches would have to dismount to take scalps, seize captives, and loot the buildings. Right now I'm reading Michino's "A Fate Worse Than Death," and the Comanches seem to be frequently dismounted during these types of raids. I assume they would leave a few youngsters to look after the ponies and bring them out of cover when the raiders needed to escape.

No, I think it's a very cool device.

I try to do it for virtually all mounted.

I always think "I could paint another unit, or the same unit but on foot".

In some cases its a must like ACW, some Colonial periods, etc.

My current entire Old West collection consists of mounted and dismounted, about 50-60 of each.

I always try to have dismounted versions of my Anglo-Norman knights. They seem to have dismounted to fight pretty frequently.

For skirmish games like "Cry Havoc" and "Song of Arthur and Merlin," it works well to have dismounted and dead versions.

I don't consider this optional. For the ACW you absolutely need dismounted figures. The Boer War is another must have dismounted figures. You need them for the Victorian Colonial era too.

Napoleonics or FPW doesn't need them, but I am sure there are exceptions. Any thing earlier than that doesn't need them. With one exception, the ECW sometimes requires them.

Pretty much all scenarios I have for mounted figures have a set of mounted and dismounted stats, including stats and autonomous behaviours for appropriate mounts (horses, yes; motorcycles, no; scifi flying jetbikes, maybe).

So I like having mounted and dismounted figures as well. For rank-in-file figures, this just means extra infantry. Generally, I shoot for 60% of cav to have an infantry figure at the start of the game. You don't need 100%, as infantry die off.

For me, this is the same as having unarmed, improvised armaments, and period weapon armed figures for civilians.

If you plan your infantry numbers to include these options, it's not usually a big deal.

As zippyfusenet says, "What could be better?"

If they really did often fight both ways, I say you need them.

I have Sioux Wars with 25mm Foundry and Old Glory Indians and Foundry cavalry. I have matching mounted and dismounted for all figures. Presently I am at something over 15o Indians (or should I say 300).

With the cavalry I am at something over 70 (or 150).

I also have matching led horses for the cavalry. I started doing matching loos ponies for the Indians. However, I find that all of them never dismount at once, so I probably only have about 100 loose ponies.

Tom

Apart for centaurs (!), all mounted troops dismounted at times.
I do know this was pretty rare for some cavalry in some eras during battles as opposed to skirmish & scouting.

Thus, the fact that I don't have any dismounted figures for my Napoleonic hussars & dragoons etc isn't a problem as I only do battles for these armies.

Foundry 7th Cav, Cheyenne, SYW Cossacks, Mountain Men, etc figures come with both options and are incredibly specific. Terrific figures, particularly if you can pick them up at a flea market sale.