"A friendlier thread: Do any non-British play the ECW?" Topic

Hi.
Well, there was another thread about any foreigners playing the ECW, but it derailed into a discussion about the value of ECW gaming in general. But as a German building an royalist army I wonder if there are more foreign people like me interested in this particular war, including gaming and collecting fitting miniatures of course. Please feel free to contribute. Of course british wargamers are welcome in the discussion too. :-)
Cheers,

Black Cavalier

Edit: It would be nice, if you also could tell something about your armies, preferred scales and rule sets. ;-)

No – but I would be happy to do so if someone else bought the figs.

In fairness, the OP hijacked his own thread last time.

As before, I'm an American, and I've built ECW armies several times, in 5 and 10mm. They're no use for skirmishes, but they do let me fight the big historical battles. I find the period fascinating as history, but what strikes me as a limited tactical range moves me toward armies and rules which permit quick resolution.

If I had a group with regular meetings, I could be talked into larger castings and more detail--fighting over a few counties in a campaign system. But that option is not currently open to me.

I don't have any specifically ECW armies (I have some generic 2mm armies for the period) but haven't played for a long while, I do have friends who play though.

What I have found is that ECW players tend to be very enthusiastic and often more knowledgeable about their period than other wargamers. Strangely enough I've never seen a badly painted ECW army either – though I can't see why that should be.

I'm a Brit as it happens.

Yes , much more intelligent thread. Thank you.

As a Brit i do play a fair bit of ECW. About 30 games a year.
first played it back in 1973 with peter Laing 15mm figures
Then came the Minifigs "strip" range. That was fantastic in my opinion . Rules used were one Shire book. I do not remember the name of it but believe it was ECW dedicated.
Bought the first release of the Perry ECW 25mm range. This is when they came as singles. Very good figures indeed. Used the WRG green renaissance rules. Found them horrible due to fussy mechanisms. The play sheet was hard work too (8 point). But, of their time I think.

I still play a lot of ECW in 15mm. Rules = Regiment of Foote.

American here, but of German descent on both sides of the family. I have a Royalist and Parliamentarian armies in 28mm. They include mortars, medical teams, Forlorn hope, engineers infantry and cavalry. Most are Redoubt. Some are Warlord plastic with double thick bases (which seems to work ok). Infantry is usually 8-9 bases mounting four figures each. Cavalry are usually 4-8 bases mounted two to a stand. The artillery are sakers plus some smaller pieces. Each of the larger guns has a limber and horse team (obviously not used often. I also have supply wagons. There are about 7-8 regiments each for both infantry and for cavalry. Admittedly sometimes I switch more generic types from one side to another which is something I would never do for our Civil War ( except for very early actions.) I use an ECW variant of regimental fire and fury. Works for us. H

I sold my two large 28mm ECW armies last year a HISTORICON here in the U.S., and there was a virtual feeding frenzy for them, so there must be some players in the States.

I'm in the US and I have a bunch of stuff I am rebasing for Baroque

American – have been gaming ECW in 15mm for several decades, primarily using vintage MiniFigs. I have Parliamentary, Royalist, Covenant Scottish, and Royalist Scottish (Montrose) forces. We use a "home-grown" rule set now called "Charge yr Pikes." link (but now rather dated)

A four-game "campaign" from 2004:
link
link
link
link

We've also used a gridded playing field in 2007:
link

And a one-off game in 2008:
link

And even tried out "For King and Parliament!" rules in 2016:
link

Jim

I'm British and although I have never played the ECW, I would like to one day. Conversely, I have just started collecting 28s for the ACW.

Also an American. Been playing Ecw and 30YW since the 90's. Not so much lately as I need to finish a bunch of 28mm figs. Have used 6mm, 1/72-25mm in the past. I also have a load of 10mm figs to do. I used For God, King and Country. Now planning on using the Field of Battle variant when it's available. May use Victory without Quarter in the meantime.

Thanks.

Never really understood the charge of the ECW being tactically boring. Plenty of variety of troop types, tactical methods and scenarios. Even without adding in the Scots and Irish armies.

FWIW I have armies in 15mm and 28mm and use the original Regimente of Foote rules by Peter Pig.

I'm from Canada, and we play ECW in 28mm using (most recently) either Pikeman's Lament or For King & Parliament.

That said, I have a strong urge to raise some 10mm armies for Peter Pig's RoF. Or a myriad of other rules that I own!

As a Yank in the Southwest…in the U.S., I started out many years ago in 15s for ECW. Got into by accident, but that's another story. The primary rules played then were written by an Aussie called, "Push-of-Pike". I've posted here many years ago about the rules. Fast forward to today, I have added a nice collection of 28s. Most are single base as I can use them in mixture for Blood and Plunder, Donnybrook and an ECW version of Sharpe Practice v2. I do have some based for Victory without Quarter.

P.

For many years it was the only period I collected. I began in 1980. I still have my vintage Minifigs 25mm armies although almost all the figures I now add are conversions to some degree.

Rules were WRG then Forlorn Hope. I'm currently messing about with my own rules based on a much modified version of Forlorn Hope + other influences.

Dutch.
28mm Parliament, Scots Covenanters.
10mm 30yrs War Generic. Danes / Swedish
Pike & Shotte, Warhammer ECW rules.

I'm in the US and would have no problem playing in an ECW game. I do not have any figures for that era. I am interested in it though.
I would imagine that there are plenty of non-Americans playing ACW games too.

28mm armies, both sides. Yes, I'm an American. I don't see why the nationality of the player has much to do with it….I have Napoleonics and I'm not British, French, German, or Prussian. I have 1870…well, you get the idea.

In truth, Americans are virtually all from somewhere else at some point in their lineage. I think it would be pretty narrow minded to not play a period because of a non-US perspective.

As John Leahy mentioned, there are ECW rules in the upcoming Field of Battle 3 rules.

From the other side of the foss… Companion of Turenne in another life.
For ten years I had two armies but nearly no one wanted to play, and with the rules we had, found it a bit dull, mostly the same armies on both sides.
Sold them.

Then…i
But now, as I dreamt of for 20 years, go into 30yw which offers more variants and wider prospects. Though some boardgames ( I had a very ancient one., very good from the Pike and Shot society) offer the theoretical possibility to do campaigns which would have ECW get back its appeal.
Though hardly will go again.

I'll add that if I was starting over I'd be collecting the new Eureka 18mm range – the high percentage of cavalry needed would be more easily addressed in 18mm than in 25/28mm.

I've chosen to have the main Royalist Oxford Army circa 1644 and Parliamentarian forces that can either represent Waller's or Essex's armies with a change of command stands.

The post in this tread are, with an exception, quite interesting.
And i am happy that there are some continental European gamers out there. At least I am not alone at the continent with my gaming habits 😉.

My own miniatures are 28mm and from Warlord, Perry and Horcata.
I own the rule sets of Pike & Shotte, 1644, Warhammer ECW and Pikeman's Lament. But I probably have to go for Pike & Shotte because of the largest player base. Or I could use Pikeman's Lament for intros. But I have somehow the feeling, that I have to restrict myself for solo gaming for a while 😕.

@ColCampbell: Nice minis. And the hexfields were nice too.

@Schulei: That's cool. Do you plan to visit Crisis this year?

Regarding MiniPigs: I already filed a complaint for hijacking this thread.
I advise all posters to ignore him and continue with a way more productive discussion. Let's see what others will post 🙂.

I got suckered into it by the Warlord plastics and added a ton of Perry and Redoubt and a few Dixon and Foundry figures.

Yes. Baccus 6mm.

I have always wanted to as I bought two Essex Army deals in about 1987. I added some Foundry figures to fill out the Command stands etc. I was inspired by a large ECW game at one of the big UK Conventions (In Reading?) the year before. I stared to paint a few units up but then wanted to switch to using acrylics. I bought something else to experiment on and never made it back to finish off the armies. I will probably have to repaint them this time around.

Me and a bunch of local guys in Texas play ECW. I'm a pretty serious student of the period and have big collections of 28 and 15mm figures. ECW was my entry into Renaissance via George Gush.
It also seemed like the players were not like the Napoleonic nit pickers who were more interested in arguing. ECW saved me from leaving the hobby since the guys were nicer and had a serious interest in knocking back a pint or two.

Was one of the first periods I played at my first club.

I like the weird mix of weapons, tactics and personalities.

This does make it hard to find rules, however. Somehow, they are just difficult to "synergize" if that's a word.

That being said, I am working on 40mm from Sash and Saber / Romanoff, and will probably have them do double duty in the 80 Years War where I can have more Reiters and armor. I also have a fringe plan to game a Dutch colonial war in New Jersey because one of the scraps was in the town I first lived in!

One friend has 28mm armies and we are trying out To the Strongest, and finding it a good balance for a "big battle" feel. I'd probably want something quirkier for small battles. Encouraged my to get out my old copy of "File Leader" which is certainly quirky!

Overall, I think ECW is more interesting than ACW, but I play ACW because it is local history.

I have encountered a couple of challenges in ECW gaming.
Here they are

1. Pikes do cause problems with storage and handling. They do look good though.
2. Flags. A regiment needs plenty to look good. But if the units are quite small the flags can take up valuable pike space.
3. Have to paint 2 lots of figures for dragoons. mounted and dismounted.

How do others deal with these realities?
Thanks for a positive thread Andre. An achievement!

Martin, I approach the problem like this:

1) Mine draw blood from time to time. I prefer upright pikes as they make it easier to get units into base-to-base contact and they look OK no matter what position the unit finds itself in, be it marching, fighting or standing still. I have metal tool boxes sold specifically for power tools that are deep enough for my pike.

2) I have mine on 40mm round command stands that have two ensigns and an officer. My pike blocks are 12 or 18 figures. This way I can change unit IDs at will by swapping command stands and have a nice block of pikemen. I have more command stands than I do units so sometimes I put multiples down to represent battlaia made up form several small regiments. I'm going to do some more ensigns based singly on 25mm round bases to give me even more of them on the table – as you write they do look good en masse. I also have drummers and some NCOs on round bases to add visual interest to the units. The figures that count as fighting for game purposes are based in fours on 40mm x 40mm. My cavalry are on 40mm frontage x 50mm depth in pairs. For these I base the standard bearer with a figure painted as an officer on a base. I want to add a lot more such bases to my collection.

3) I've pondered this one for decades. In the end I chose to have one large unit that I have the foot and mounted for but the figures, other than the command ones, aren't stuck to the horses. This means I can add cavalry figures to these horses to swell the numbers of 'real horse' if I don't need mounted dragoons for a given game. I reasoned that in very many battles the dragoons arrived on horseback but fought on foot. With this in mind I've built-up units of dragoons/commanded shot that I only have the foot figures for. I think the time when the mounted dragoons are needed are for the smaller more fluid battles and chance encounters. However, even in such instances the dragoons can be placed on the table, on foot and ready to fight. When I played a game based on Cropredy Bridge the Parliamentarian dragoons were placed forward of the bridge and we assumed their horses were some way back in the village. In game play this didn't cause any issues at all.

American here. Blue Moon's beautiful range pushed me over the edge, but I've hardly painted any of it yet.

I'm basing infantry generically with 4 figs on 1" squares. Haven't yet alighted on a rule set but own a few and am eying others.

The dragoon issue is resolved neatly in De Bellis Renationis rules by having a horseholer with a few riderless horses and some dismounted dragoons all on the one base. Been playing these rules for years and find that the dragoons fulfil their historical role very well.

Yes, in Missouri. My first wargame period was WWI Austria, second period TYW Austria et al, and third period was ECW. 15mm .

Martin – the Shire book was "Discovering English Civil Wargaming" by John Turnstill

I'm with Timmo on the vertical pikes option. Plus I think they are slightly easier to store. No matter how good a casting pikes can easily start to look like cooked spaghetti, so I much prefer seperate pikes.

The dragoon issue – I sort of go the DBR route, a mounted command stand, then enough horses and horseholders for everyone in the unit. When they are mounted up just take the foot dragoons off the table. When dismounted put them back on. Obviously in an ideal world we should have a mounted and fighting representation for each unit.

I'm in the U.S. and I've been playing ECW games since I first came across Once Upon a Time in West Country. Fun skirmish rules. 1644 came next. Currently doing 10mm with the Warmaster ECW mods. I have armies for Royalist and Parliament in 10mm and a bunch of 28mm skirmishers.

Thanks Kev!

That Shire book. Is it still around?

Who's Kev?

You can usually find it on fleabay or ABE Books

Sorry, I just like to use names when I speak with people. So i took a guess. Keith?

Interesting and popular thread! I am British, and have played ECW for a long time. I have English (Commonwealth), Scottish and Irish armies in 28mm. I have also started TYW 28mm collections in the last 12 months, Swedish and Imperial. My favourite rule set at the moment is Warlord's Pike and Shotte.

I'm English and East Anglisn and started with Heroics & Ros 6mm in the 1970s, building the army of the Eastern Association and then due to lack of opponents, they languished in a cupboard for years. Having joined a new club last year, I've got them out and find that Heroics still cast the same figures, letting me build opposing units!

I live in the north of Scotland. We play the odd game of British Civil Wars, such as Montrose's campaigns but also battles from the English campaigns. A few years ago, I sold all of my 15mm ECW figures to an Australian based in Perth, so obviously a following there.

Yank and I love it

Another Canadian here. I love the period, I have 3 28mm armies and 1 TYW Swedish army. So it "ain't just a Brit thang".

Hi from Canada.
One of my very first armies in the late 1970s was ECW using the 15mm strip Minifigs.
We played using the Universal Soldier rules.

I'm an American and I've always been interested in the ECW. In fact, when I'm at Historicon, I'll be checking the vendors out to see if there are any figures as I think this will be the next period I dive into.

I have loved the ECW since the 1960s, when I first encountered Donald Featherstone's rules, and the Sealed Knot, and Peter Young's books. In the 1990s I started to create a large 10mm collection with AIM miniatures, and looked about for a set of rules. I hoped to convert Volley and Bayonet, but failed, and gradually collected more and more sets of rules over the years as the figure collection grew, but rarely found its way onto the table. Convinced I would have to create my own, I set about it, but without a base concept around which to construct it. I then discovered Simon Miller's To the Strongest ancients rules, and was convinced something could be done,, The result was ‘For King and Parliament', and my collection is rarely off the table. The grid system works for me, and the games have proved to be great fun. In addition, I have managed to achieve my ambition, and play Marston Moor in a reasonable amount of time, with multiple players. At Partizan we played it to a conclusive Parliamentarian victory in three and a quarter hours, using over 100 units, 8 players, and 3,000+ 10mm figures. Result!

Yes there are many individuals who play ECW here in the states.

Salute

I'm a British born, Canadian, who lives in Trier Germany. Been wargaming the ECW since I was 14, some say I took part. Presently I have a large collection of 15mm armies. In the end I settled down to using "Victory without Quarter" rules as I play almost always solo. NO clubs where I live.

I live in Birmingham AL and play ECW. I even developed my own rules.