Horsing Around at the Painting Table

I recently received a shipment of 40mm x 30mm MDF bases, which means it is time to get caught up on some cavalry basing.

First up, 12 stands (36 figures) of armored 17th century cavalry.  These could be useful either as continental Cuirassiers in the Thirty Years War (or some time earlier).  Possible as Schwarzreiter during the Schmalkaldic War (maybe a little early for these figures, maybe not).  Also possible as Lobsters in ECW.

Next up, I have a unit that are clearly Reiters, from the look of their equipment and the plumed helmets.  As with the Cuirassiers above these fellows have 3/4 armor, black, and with pistols.  Different helmet styles, and slightly different armor styles are the big difference.

Moving away from the Renaissance (although not very far away), I also started re-basing my later Medieval Knights.  These fellows would fit right in during the late 14th or 15th centuries.  My inspiration?  I got these out to play a late medieval solo game of Chainmail (in honor of St. Crispin's Day), and was reminded of the basing situation.  That, with a new box of bases staring at me, told me to put off the solo game, and get the Knights re-based.  (as opposed to Chaucer, who would have them Debased).

This evening, I sorted out the first part of this collection, all of which need to be re-based.  In doing the sorting, I uncovered four basic categories of knights. 

• There are knights (of different helmet designs) on chaffroned horses.  
• There are knights on horses with just harness.  
• There are knights on barded (metal barding) horses.  
• And there are figures (knights?) who are carrying standards, musical instruments, etc - that could be part of these units.

I selected out the knights who were mounted on horses with just harness (and not full chaffron or  barding).  There were enough to do 14 stands of knights (3 figures per stand).  Those are who I based this evening (pictured above).  So why pull out the un-chaffroned knights?  Wargamers (and wargames army lists) love to differentiate.  Variety is the spice of life, after all.  In many army lists, there are second tier (or even third tier) Knights, representing either lower nobility, poor knights, mercenary heavy horse, etc.  These will be instantly identifiable on the table, as being different from the chaffroned knights, or the barded knights.  And there is still a lot of variety in pose, equipment, and armor style (probably too much variety in armor style - but I go to war with the army I have, rather than the army I want).

Finally, a few units I actually based a few nights ago.  These will see service in an upcoming 2nd Punic War game (at Fall In 2016).  Four Roman units, at three stands per unit.  These are in with my Late Republic Romans, but from looking at the equipment, and depending on the theater of operations, these could be (possibly) Pre-Marian, on up to maybe 1st century AD.  At least in 15mm scale, that is my claim. (the High Medieval knights are in the background).

 All this in addition to work I've done lately on my 16th century infantry (Swiss, German, and Spaniards).  In a day or two when the glue is set, I will flock the bases on all those above, and they will be off to fight in Flanders. Or Burgundy. Or Gaul.  Or Saxony.  Or Lincoln.  Or maybe just stay here in Stafford.

Pax.