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Delving into the English Civil War

Delving into the English Civil War

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Rules and Miniatures

Tutoring 8
Skill 6
Idea 11
4 Comments

Now that I’ve decided which aspect of the ECW I want the project to be based around I now have to decide scale and rules. I initially contemplated on 28 mm but once I started to investigate miniatures and costs I decided it would be too expensive. So I then considered 15 mm, its a scale I like but I didn’t find any miniatures in this scale I was happy with. So I went up to 20 mm or 1/72, now the problem with this scale was the lack of ECW miniature producers at this scale, but I did discover a company that made plastic 1/72 miniatures called A Call to Arms, they produce Parliamentary and Royalist infantry, artillery and command sets.

I’ve ordered a box of Parliamentary infantry to begin with, which contains 32 figures. I shouldn’t need any more than that, once I’ve painted these I’ll then purchase artillery, cavalry and command boxes. Price wise each box is around £8, so an army should cost around £32 give or take a pound or two.

Rules, is a big one as there’s plenty to choose from out there. Osprey Publishing produce a popular set called The Pikeman’s Lament, designed to cover all wars for this period of military history. Foundry Miniatures also produce a great set of rules called 1644, yet I decided on two set of rules which doesn’t include either of these.

The first set I went for was Field of Glory Renaissance rules, these I plan to use for large battles, and for more skirmish level games I plan to use The Kingdom is Ours by James Daniels published by Helion & Company. The FoG rules are no longer published by Osprey, so you’ll have to look around for a copy on sites like Ebay.

http://www.acalltoarms.co.uk/172_2.html

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bigdave
Cult of Games Member
3704xp

Interesting choice of scale and material – must admit, I’ve got a bit of a love/hate relationship with 1:72 plastics so be interesting to see how they turn out from a painting point of view. Tried to use 1:72 scale as an entry into Napoleonics in the past but I hated how paint kept flaking off the soft plastic to such an extent I’ve pretty much given up on them now and they’re left in a draw till I can regain the patience to have another crack at em.

torros
Cult of Games Member
23808xp

One trick is after you’ve painted them is to give them a coat of PVA and then varnish. Because the PVA is elastic it will bend with the paint

Thinned down AP dip works well on them as well

torros
Cult of Games Member
23808xp

I be wary of the call to arms figure as I think there out of production . From memory SHQ did a nice 20mm ECW range . Tumbling dice do nice figures though there 1/72 stuff is listed as 25mm

The rules you’ve picked for large battles are pretty good for the later renaissance period

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