"ECW Battle Packs Released" Topic

I think this is a pretty neat idea.

May I assume the infantry come with the appropriate mix of pike to firearms?

Dave

Sorry I just don't get the idea. Who are they aimed at? Jo public or seasoned wargamers? Now I don't want to criticise Pendraken. I have a lot of their miniatures especially the excellent LOA but the choices they've made for these 'battles' are hardly inspiring. And as an ECW buff, the politics behind these skirmishes is far more interesting than the events themselves. If they want to push their ECW range, produce figures to the quality and depth of their LOA and happily reconstruct an Edgehill or Marston.

The idea is to get people into wargames via an interest in ECW, its a good concept and the size of the packs make it affordable. I'm interested in this and would like to see a few packs opened up in a review and perhaps based ;-)

Do they offer scenario set-ups? -Terrain, initial disposition of troops, numbers involved? As far as I've found, the information on these skirmishes is very sketchy.

….And there was also a fairly large battle with the Scots at Boldon Hill, Durham, in 1644.

There is a very useful and productive discussion on the Pendraken Forum about these: link

LEON at Pendragon claims 'the forces are correct' for each action.I'd love to know where he gets his information from, and how detailed it might me.

Thanks for all the comments, I'll run through the queries:

May I assume the infantry come with the appropriate mix of pike to firearms?

They do indeed, and the horse are a mix of hat/helmet as well.

Sorry I just don't get the idea. Who are they aimed at? Jo public or seasoned wargamers? Now I don't want to criticise Pendraken. I have a lot of their miniatures especially the excellent LOA but the choices they've made for these 'battles' are hardly inspiring. And as an ECW buff, the politics behind these skirmishes is far more interesting than the events themselves. If they want to push their ECW range, produce figures to the quality and depth of their LOA and happily reconstruct an Edgehill or Marston.

As it says in the news story, these are all based on the 3 battles that took place up here in the north-east. We were approached by our local Battlefields Trust guys earlier this year, as they're doing a lot of research into these battles and are currently putting on talks and presentations around the area. We agreed to put together some starter packs to go alongside their work, that they could take around with them and offer to anyone interested in gaming them.

The packs aren't necessarily aimed at existing wargamers, more towards people who might be new to the hobby or have an interest in military history instead. The small buy-in cost should be enough to tempt people in and then they might go on to look at other ranges/periods in the future.

Do they offer scenario set-ups? -Terrain, initial disposition of troops, numbers involved? As far as I've found, the information on these skirmishes is very sketchy.

There's a leaflet in each pack with more information on each engagement plus a map showing the position of the two sides. There's more research ongoing to try and finetune some of the information they've got so far.

LEON at Pendragon claims 'the forces are correct' for each action.I'd love to know where he gets his information from, and how detailed it might me.

The numbers were all supplied to us by the Battlefields Trust and are based on the information they've currently got on these battles. There's always going to be an element of conjecture while they do further research but they've got a good idea of the numbers that were garrisoned under the various commanders plus the recruitment they were doing in the local area, so it should be a pretty good estimate.

I managed to sit in on Phil Philo's talk on the battle at Guisborough and it was really interesting. While they've got a good idea of the numbers, they've not been able to pin down where the two sides actually engaged, as there's a housing estate built on the potential site now. But they're doing further work in the fields surrounding the Priory to see what they can find.

If you get chance to hear Phil's talks on any of the battles, I'd really recommend it.

This was the Battlefields Trust model of Piercebridge that they brought to the Battleground show. The chap who built this lives in the town and possibly would have had Royalist troops stood in his back garden during the battle.

Leon,

Could we get your thoughts as to how many figures per base?

We were originally looking at bigger packs (1:3 or 1:5 ratio) and the plan at that point was to use 100x50mm's. The pricepoint per battle pack was a bit too high though so we came down to 1:10 and probably a 60x30mm or thereabouts?

We also discussed putting bases in with the packs but thought it best to leave that up to the players, especially as a recommended set of rules hadn't been decided on.

Leon, thanks for the clarity. For King and Parliament rules would probably suit this well.

Great example of polite and informative manufacturer feedback.

@ Royal Marine: I think the Trust had a chat with Andrew Brentnall about using the FK&P rules but I'm not sure of the outcome of that.

@ Silurian: Thanks!

I think this is an excellent idea. For those who already know and wargame the ECW it highlights some otherwise little known engagements and for those interested in local history it shows them wargaming in a local context. A win/win surely.