Pike and Shotte Command from Warlord Games

2015 has one been off to a great start with massive inroads into my English Civil War project . . . okay; I painted regiment of foot (plus markers) and a brigade command stand for Victory Without Quarter.  I’ll chock that off and put it in the win column!

Next up will be a rounding out the King’s Oxford muster by adding Talbot's regiment of yellow coats. In addition, I am going to put together my “final” list for the armies I plan to fight with Victory Without Quarter. I have been designing my forces not based on a particular order of battle or muster list; but, on a set of forces that would provide an enjoyable game and provide the flavor of the period.

In order to flush out my own order of battle, I wanted to give the upcoming regiments some more variety in their command figures.  Thus I purchased Warlord Games’ Pike and Shotte Infantry command pack. In bold italic is the description from the Warlord site with my comments:

Officer.  Lifted straight from page 116 of Wagner's classic TYW book, this officer is a classic study. He is richly dressed, in old fashioned jacket and possibly has served on the continent himself. He will be ideal for all early armies, as Royalist, Parliament or Covenanter and will serve as a captain or lieutenant of foot. He has a partizan and sword, and a pistol hung down from his belt. A lovely study. 

I love the expression on his face; this is a no nonsense officer from the new school who believes in training his own company. The arm with paritzan comes separately and fits perfectly with a little super glue with no gaps. Looking at the picture of the back of the figure I just noticed a mold line from the middle of his hat to what appears to move down to his sash.

Ensign. This fellow is taken from the wonderful Haythornthwaite ECW book, and is a classic Ensign, with sword drawn and dressed in a cassock. Again he could be used in all armies, Rebel, Royalist, Scots or Montrose.  Love the figure but I was disappointed with the quality of the casting. This is the first time I have received a Warlord figure that had so much flash and mold lines on it. Not sure what happen with this figure as it is not their usual quality.  It took me about 20 minutes to remove the excess flash and file down mold lines. Not a great job but after painting it should look okay. I still need to fix that funky looking sword. I'm not sure what regiment he will be with but I look forward to painting the flag.

Drummer.  Every Company fielded at least one drummer and our fellow is neatly attired in a posh jacket with ribbon and braid attached. He wears a jaunty Montero with feathers too, something that the Colonel has thought it worth dipping into his own pockets for, which was common at the time. Being a Warlord Drummer, although he is not carrying a sword, he is still packing a pistol for close defense.  With the Montero cap the drummer will end up with the King's muster in Oxford and will be joining Talbot's regiment. 

Sergeant. We asked for this sergeant to be a hard-bitten professional who has seen a thing or two in his time. He wears a Burgonet and sleeveless buff coat and is doing what sergeants do best, shouting! He could be slotted into any Civil war army.

Once I figure out the rest of the regiments I am painting this guy is definitely going to be leading a pike block!