"10mm Elizabethan / Wars of Religion / Late 16th C. Minis?" Topic

HI all,

I'm slowly getting pulled into the wargaming world and am currently investigating rules and miniature scales.

I'm looking to assemble two armies from the late 16th century: Spanish versus Dutch (and their assorted mercenary help). There appears to be plenty of options at 15mm, but I'm not easily finding options at 10mm.

Looking for heavy lance gendarmes, pistol-armed cuirassiers, mounted harquebuisers, and appropriately kitted out shot and pikemen (i.e. not Landskneckt or Thirty Years War).

Do I have any other options to compliment what Pendraken puts out?

Is the selection at 10mm so limited that I should stick with 15mm? What about 6mm?

I wish there were more options in 10mm as well. The late 16th century is one of my favorite periods but there aren't a lot of options in the smaller scales. Off the top of my head there are possibly some options with the old GW Empire (pistoliers, etc.) and Obelisk Miniatures (sculpted by Josf Ochman) have some conquistadors that might be suitable.

6mm has Irregular Miniatures and MicroWorld Games that might be suitable.

In 15mm, I love Khurasan's range. I also like the old Mikes Models range that is available from Essex. Hope this helps.

Pendraken has an Elizabethan range with some of these figures.

I would say –

15mm as a cheaper alternative to 28mm for big battles (sounds like you want to do this rather than skirmishes) is a good idea. You don't lose too much detail. Huge, cheap ranges for your period are available from Essex and many others. I've got a half finished 15mm ECW unit from their range so can recommend.

10mm – there isn't much around for this period in this scale. I've never bought anything in 10mm so can't say much more than this.

6mm – I'm currently collecting for this period in this scale, and between Irregular and Heroics & Ros, you've got everything covered with plenty of variations.

What you can do with 6mm is, if you want, 1:1 ratio of figures on table to real soldiers within reasonable space and money limits.

What you can also do is use 6mm figures for different ratios – 1:100, 1:200, 1:300 etc, without losing too much visual effect, because the eye rests on groups rather than individuals. So basically you can get a big battle on the go quickly.

That said, both the manufacturers I mentioned above produce detailed enough figures that you can see different weapons, arms, legs, heads, different helmets and hats etc so the period detail still comes across (especially when the costume at this time includes hose in one colour, doublet in another, halving and quartering etc). Easier to paint than you'd think (base colour, wash, pick out details).

Worth knowing that Irregular minis usually come posed on one strip (pikes squashed together) whereas H&R give you more freedom for arranging them.

There's also 2mm, where you're basically getting a block shape where you can just barely make out the individual figures. Apart from that, has the same virtues as 6mm but more so.

For Dutch vs Spanish background reading, there's a very cheap and exciting (albeit dated and biased) biography 'William the Silent' currently available on Amazon, which doesn't give you total detail on the battles, but definitely brings across the atmosphere and personalities.

Rules that support 6mm models – DBR, Impetus and probably several more but definitely these two.

Thanks for the feedback so far, everyone.

My tabletop buddy and I have decided on Baroque, but we're still stuck on which scale to go with.

The ability to field units with plenty of miniatures is an appealing aspet to 6mm (with the close-to-the-era appropriate minis from Irregular, Baccus, and the smaller H&R ranges). However.. they are such small miniatures!

15mm has many options, a point which is well sussed out. However, harder to get that big unit effect and play in on a 6x4ish table or smaller. Heck, even a 3'x3' setup seems interesting, which again points back to 6mm.

Decisions, decisions.

10mm Pendraken has all you need for the mass effect.

link

Old Glory has 10mm in strips that are easy to paint.

I e seen some guys go with Indivually based Pendraken for front ranks with old glory 10mm strip fir any 3nd or 3rd ranks.

For 10mm inspiration do an image search for 10mm ECW.

link

Hello WillPhillips!

This could be perfect timing for you. Baccus whos figures are slightly larger than some of the others will be shortly releasing a new line that will probably include some figures of interest to you. They are expanding and replacing their ECW line to cover a larger time period. You can see some of them on their site under news.

6mm only look small if your comparing them to larger figures. Once on the table figure size goes straight out the window as soon as the game starts.

With 6mm you will be able to raise big armies at a fraction of the cost. Painting is generally pretty fast as well which means you will be gaming faster.

Baccus also has a full forum to help you with any questions on the figures and your period of interest.

Best regards,

Glenn

@Glenn Pearce

Did you mean to say that Baccus is going to produce a Wars of Religion range?

Apologies for the half-year delay in replying – still haven't been able to make up my mind between the 15mm and 6mm divide, ha!

The scope of figures in 15mm is appealing, but the ability to show mass formations in 6mm is also nice… but there are so few miniatures for my specific interest, and I'm hesitant about picking up TYW/ECW or Landsknecht/Italian Wars figures, even if the details are harder to pick up in 6mm.

WillPhillips,

Stick to Pendraken, some of their references in Italian Wars and TYW are valid for the Late 16th if you do some imaginative paintwork.

I will try to post some picture later on. (No massive units sorry)