Thirty Years War - Pikeman's Lament test game

I bought the PL rules many years ago but did not play much with them. This is mostly due to the first playtest foundering and misunderstanding the rules somewhat.

Lately I came to appreciate PL as an excellent choice for quick games with a medium-size collection, somewhere between a skirmish and a full-scale battle. Another good option would be Sharp Practice, they are practically at the same level. I'm thinking of using SP for the period as well. I used it for my Nova Hungaria games before so I have fond memories of it (the original, I never touched the second edition).

Anyway, it just struck my mind that I actually have enough figures now to play another initial test game, so I created a Swedish and an Imperialist TYW Company, at the suggested 24 points, put some terrain on the table and went at it. I read the rules thoroughly and made some notes, including quick references to unit stats.

I'm putting this post on the miscellaneous blog because I did not take any photos.

Beginnings of Project Deluge

The Deluge was I think one of the most influential reads of my teenage years. Of course if I read it now the romantic ideals are more visible and the prose itself is sometimes... odd shall I say? (I'm not one of those revisionist/cancellation types by the way.)

Anyhow, I had 1/72 Polish armies for the second half of the 17th century, which I think I sold on to someone along with the GNW collection. Now that I built a sizeable traditional Western European 28mm force, it's time to turn to the East again.

I'm building forces for The Pikeman's Lament, downsizing units, so a cavalry unit is three, a forlorn four, a pike/shot unit is eight figures.

My basic Polish force would comprise of:

Six Winged Hussar figures

Six Pancerni

Six Polish dragoons

Additional Registered Cossack/Rabble cavalry (already complete)

For the Pancerni and dragoons I'll buy Warlord horses and a single sprue of their plastic cavalry, which I'll use to create a pair of masters and homecast the rest.

Additionally I'm home sculpting Cossack infantry, to eighter fight the Poles or join them as registered Cossack infantry, which would consist of 2x8 pike, 2x8 shotte, 1x rabble foot and 1x Tabor artillery on a war wagon.

The Rabble foot and artillery crew would be Frostgrave Crewmen conversions, they have the necessary baggy clothes and most likely would only need head/arm swaps and minor modifications with putty.

Half of the Cossack shot would have arms from the Warlord firelocks set (one sprue has two pairs of arms so all I need are four sprues) and I'll make weapons for the rest, 50mm paperclip pikes for the pike and probably sculpted firearms for the other group of shotte.

I have a Cossack infantryman master dolly in the making, all I have to do now is work on his overcoat, sand it smooth, add buttons etc. before I can start recasting the armless version. It's made from the body of a Perry HYW archer and a bald FG crewman head which worked with my previous experiments.

Disclaimer:

- I know that Foundry and TAG both sell Eastern European infantry but with postage and even more so with VAT I'm just not happy to commit - it's not their fault and most likely I will expand this part of the collection and purchase figures from them.

- For recasting I use air-drying putty such as Green Stuff or Magic Sculpt, and a Blue Stuff mould. It's not the most effective way and it especially limits the poses I can use to make my masters, but I live in a small apartement and the heat and fumes from metal casting are simply not viable. This means I have to think creatively!