College of Kings

This week I completed my units of Polish Cossacks. There are four units each of 8 figures. Along with the three units of Polish Pancerni and five units of Pospolite Ruszenie, I now have the bulk of the Polish cavalry completed (about 100 figures). I just have one unit of Reiters and one unit of the famed Winged Hussars to complete.

For the Polish Cossacks I used figures from The Assault Group. About two thirds of the figures were from their Polish Cossack range. The remaining figures I took from their Polish Pancerni range. However, I did not want to use the horses that normally come with the Pancerni, which have a lot of decorative horse coverings. Instead I wanted to have them on the same horses as the rest of the Polish Cossacks. Pete at the Assault Group assured me that the Polish Pancerni figures would fit on the Polish Cossack horses and was able to swap out the horses when I ordered them.

For the Pancerni type figures I used the lance on some of them, on others I put the musket into their hands instead. Unlike the figures that I used in the Polish Pancerni units, I did not use lance pennants on these figures. I wanted these units to have a less formal appearance.

For the flags I used sheets from Battle Flags and Adrians Wall. One of these sheets had a green Polish Cossack flag. This flag is almost identical to that shown in the Osprey book on the Polish Armies. For the rest of the flags I used more general Polish flags.

I still need to put some grass tufts on the bases but otherwise they are complete.

I am looking forward to moving on to the Reiters and Winged Hussars to complete the Polish Cavalry. The Winged Hussars should be an especially fun unit to paint.

At the 1651 Battle of Berestechko there were around 40,000 Pospolite Ruszenie or Noble Levy. So they represent a sizable part of the Polish army and need to be represented in my army. When deciding on which figures to use it quickly became apparent that no manufacturer has these troops in their Polish range.

In the Osprey series Polish armies 1569-1696 (1) on Page 7 it discusses the dress of Polish Pospolite Ruszenie. It mentions how Hungarian dress was dominant, but how it was also influenced by Turkish and Persian fashion. In general noble dress was extremely expensive.

I therefore decided to use a mixture of figures from the Assault Group range. I used Hungarian Light Horse, Hungarian Hussars, Croats and even a few Ottoman Akinjis to fill out the ranks. I selected figures that looked noble, with an emphasis on those with feathers and ornate trim. The result is units of figures that look as if they fit in with the period but are different from the Polish cossacks and Polish Pancerni. I am very happy how the mixture of figures turned out, it gives a very distinctive force and contrasts well with other units.

I have painted 5 units of 8 figures each with two additional figures for a command group, giving a total of 42 figures. I hope to complete the movement trays for these figures later in the month.

The flags were a combination of a pack from Adrians Wall and a pack from Battle Flags. I selected general polish style flags (with the cross) for all except the one on the command figures, which almost exactly matches a noble levy flag in the Osprey book. The command flag can be seen at the front in the image below.

A few additional pictures of the Noble Levy are shown below. I have also recently painted 33 Polish cossacks and these are just waiting for the flags to be added in the next few days. Once the flags are complete, I will post some pictures of them.

The Cossack Peasant horde was a common part of the the cossack army in the 1650 period. These troops were poorly trained and were generally not equipped with fire-arms. Instead they were equipped with swords and various farm implements.

For my army I have decided to have two cossack peasant hordes, each of about 28-30 figures on a 80mm x 200mm base. I feel that this number looks like a reasonable amount without going crazy. The total infantry for the army will be 96 regular cossacks, 48 mounted infantry and 56 cossack peasants. So roughly 25% of the army will be peasants.

This week I completed the first of the horde units. The figures are all from The Assault Group. I used a combination of their laborer figures and their half-pike figures, with a few figures from other packets. The main criteria for selection was that they did not have fire-arms.

For farm implements, I used a couple of the implements that came with the Assault Group figures, but mainly I used implements from Bicorne Miniatures. A photo of the implements is shown below and includes pitchforks, rakes, scythes, axes and hoes. They were very easy to attach to the TAG figures using a small drill and super glue.

Overall I was happy how the peasant horde turned out. It makes a good contrast with the rest of the fire-arm equipped cossacks. I tried to weather the farm implements by using rust powders on top of the natural steel paint. I am not sure how well this shows up in the photos.

I am also painting some Polish cavalry at the moment and they are getting very near completion. I have 40 Polish noble levy and 32 Polish cossacks on the paint bench. They should be finished within a week or two and I will post some photos when they are complete.

Since my last post about two or three weeks ago, I have been painting some more cossacks to get the army closer to completion. The painting was focused on completing a couple of artillery pieces and doing the cossack dismounted cavalry. I have now painted virtually all of the cossack figures that I have, so I also placed and order with The Assault Group for two cossack peasant hordes and some Gulay Gorods (walking fort sections).

The cossacks will have a number of artillery pieces. Each of the ten war wagons has a small cannon attached. However, I also wanted some larger artillery pieces. The cossack artillery was typically made up of captured Polish ordinance. I therefore decided to use two of the SteelFist artillery pieces that I had recently bought – these come with two barrels, a French barrel and an Imperial barrel. I selected the Imperial barrels.

For the artillery crew I used TAG figures. I still need to decorate the bases a bit more with a selection of grass tufts. I may also add a few wooden barrels and miscellaneous items to the scene.

The cannons were painted with brass barrels and natural steel trim using Vallejo paints. The brass was washed with a Vallejo sepia wash and the natural steel was washed with a black wash. I also used the black wash on the end of the barrel and around the firing port. I then used three different rust colored powders on the steel parts, but only very lightly as I wanted the guns to be weathered but still in good condition.

The cavalry units of the cossacks often fought dismounted as they were no match for the more organized Polish cavalry. My groups of cossack cavalry are each made up of two skirmish bases of four figures each for a total of eight figures. For shot infantry I typically represent small units by eight figures and standard units with twelve figures. I decided to represent the cossack dismounted cavalry unit with a skirmish base of twelve figures. The eight mounted figures and twelve dismounted figures tend to look right on the table – the purist may ask how can you go from eight to twelve figures, but since they are never on the table at the same time, I don’t think that it is a problem.

Behind each unit of cossack dismounted cavalry I have placed a horse-holder base with three horses. I had intended to use one horse-holder base behind each group of twelve infantry to indicate that they are the dismounted cavalry. After seeing how they look, I now plan to have two such bases behind each unit. I have placed an order with TAG to get the extra horses and figures.

I am looking forward to the arrival of my new order from TAG. I plan to paint two peasant horde groups each with about 30 figures. These peasants will be armed with a mixture of farm implements. I hope to have the cossack army completed sometime in September, I will then move on to the Polish army to finish the project.

After completing the Tatar horde, I have the Cossack Army and the Polish Army to complete for my 1651 Cossack uprising project in 28mm. Over the past few weeks I have made some progress on the cossacks. I have completed all of the mounted figures, about 30% of the infantry and I have painted (but not based) the war wagons.

After some changes here is a list of cossack army forces that I plan to complete:

• 10 war wagons
• 4 units each of 12 foot figures of Register Moloitsy (these units have flags)
• 4 units each of 12 foot figures of Moloitsy (these units will not have flags)
• 2 units of 30 figures of cossack peasants
• 4 units of 8 mounted figures of mounted cossacks
• Each of the mounted cossacks will also have a dismounted figure and horse holders
• 2 units of cossack artillery with captured Polish guns
• Command bases

The above picture shows the war wagons that I bought from Redoubt Enterprises and the cossack flags that I bought from Adrians Walls. All of the figures are from the Assault Group cossack range. I still have to base the war wagons, but I was quite pleased with how they turned out. I have ten of them at the moment and this should be enough for a defensive Taber (I can alway add more later as they are very reasonably priced). On the basing I plan to chain some of them together and have some small earthworks in front. I used the artillery figures from TAG to man the war wagon small calibre cannons. The flags were assembled and I use some model war ship rigging rope to lash the cross beam onto the main staff. I actually used a needle to thread it around the pole.

For the cavalry I have used two bases of four figures for each unit giving a total of eight figures per unit. There are a total of four units. As the cavalry often fought dismounted I will be painting some dismounted figures on skirmish bases to go with them. I also have some horse holder figures to place on the table when they are dismounted. These dismounted figures and the horse holders are the next units on my paint bench.

For the infantry I will have three types of units. The best will be 12 man units of register Moloitsy. I will have four of these. I will also have four 12 man units of Moloitsy. The register Moloitsy will be distinguished from the Moloitsy by having a flag, otherwise they will be the same. At the moment I have painted three of each unit.

I also plan to have two 30 man units of peasant cossacks armed with farm implements. I plan to use TAG figures but to equip them with farm implements from Bicorne miniatures. I have ordered the farm implements and I will review them when they arrive.

Below are a few more pictures of the cossack army of 1651. With mainly infantry and dismounted figures left to paint (about another 150 figures in total), I feel that I am about half way through the cossack army. With their Tatar allies, they should be quite a formidable force for the Polish Army to take on.

Earlier this month my copy of By Fire and Sword – Player’s Edition arrived. The rule book was $20.00 plus $9.75 shipping from Wargamer LLC. The shipping cost seemed a little excessive given the size of the book.

The reason why I ordered the Player’s Edition is that I wanted to explore the rules without spending too much. The Task Force rule book is $40. I am also aware that there is an older rule book that includes the army lists that sold for even more. As the army lists are all on-line and can be obtained in a free pdf from the Polish website, the Players Edition seemed a good low cost way to see if I liked the rules. The one thing that is not clear is whether the Players Edition and the Task Force rule book are the same set of rules or not. It would be great if someone could let me know.

The rules are written to cover the period that I am interested in, the cossack uprising in the 1650s. In fact the creators say that it focuses on the Polish battles between 1640 and 1676, so a perfect fit for me.

Firstly I want to give some details on what I am looking for in a set of rules for the period. I plan to play battles with over 1,000 figures of 28mm. I also plan to host these at the local club where we can often have 8-12 people wanting to join in. Normally I have 2-3 people who have a working knowledge of the rules but do not play a set of rules regularly. The rest of the players pick the rules up as we are playing. I therefore need a set of rules that give a flavor of the period, but are also reasonably fast play and easy to pick up. The mantra of Lou in our club is that a good set of rules needs to be Fast, Fun and give a Flavor of the period (the three Fs)

For this reason I have been a fan of the Pike and Shotte rules for my Italian Wars battles. My first thought of rules for this Cossack Uprising period was also to use Pike and Shotte with a few custom rules for the period (such as some to allow Cossack War Wagon defenses). However, I wanted to have a look at By Fire and Sword to see if it was a good alternative or, at the very least, provide a basis for some custom rules for Pike and Shotte.

Before I delve into the rules themselves, I need to get perhaps my largest criticism out of the way first. The font, type size, line and word spacing are just terrible for me. Here is an image of one page of both Pike and Shotte and By Fire and Sword.

The Pike and Shotte page is on the left and the By Fire and Sword Page is on the right. The Pike and Shotte rules are well laid out, spaced and easy to read. I have found it all but impossible to read the By Fire and Sword without glasses and even with glasses it can become difficult when my eyes become tired. Also, maybe because of the translation from Polish to English, reading the rules can become hard work and difficult to understand what they are getting at. I have read the war wagon rules five times and I am still not entirely sure of what they mean. For this reason I am interested to know if the Task Force book is the same rules but in a larger format to make it easier to read.

Having got this initial criticism out of the way, I can say that the rules are worth giving some time to. I should note that I have not yet played a full game with them at the club, but I have been through them a number of times at home. My opinion may change a little after a club game.

The rules were written for the writers own range of 15mm figures based on their standard bases. All of the distances and ranges are in cm. To use my 28mm figures I plan to just convert the cm to inches and I think that everything will work just fine. I also think that as long as the bases of each army are roughly the same, there should be no problem for a friendly club game.

The first thing that I like about the game is the Initiative and Orders concept that they use. The overall commander and the commander of each regiment (and possibly a subordinate) are given a number of command points. This is often 3-4 for the overall commander or 2-3 for a regimental commander. It can be less for less well commanded troops like levy cavalry. These points can be used for a number of different command activities like issuing orders, rallying troops, modifying the skill or morale of troops, or delaying shooting. A commander can also pass down any command points that he does not plan to use to a lower level commander. The commander can also assign a number of command points to improve his die roll when trying to get initiative at the start of the turn. These command points ensure that a commander and his subordinates can focus their time and attention on critical areas of the battle. I believe that the way the command points are used will have an outcome over how the battle develops and who ultimately wins.

The orders are also well thought out. You can assign troops a move, charge or defense order. The type of order that a unit is given effects how it performs in various stages of a turn. For example a unit with defense orders can fire earlier in the turn and has certain shooting advantages. One particular rule that I like is that a unit with a Defense order can delay its fire to any point in the turn with the expenditure of a command point. This simulates an officer controlling the fire until the optimum time.

The movement section seems a little more complicated than the free movement of Pike and Shotte and consists of movement and maneuvers. Personally I don’t think that this complexity adds much to the game. I believe that it is aimed more to the tournament type of play that the rules were undoubtedly written for. For a club game I think that they will just slow things down.

The firing and combat sections of the game are very similar to Pike and Shotte. You take a certain number of D10 depending on the troop shooting value and the number of bases/troops. You then modify the dice role by a small number of factors to see if you can role under the skill value of the unit to hit. The one minor point here that I dislike is that rolling low is a good thing – it is very counterintuitive and I generally don’t like rules that work in this way. One interesting rule is that hits at long range have to be re-rolled to hit, I think that this is clever way of handling the effect of range. However, it could probably be handled more quickly by adding a factor to adjust the die roll.

Like Pike and Shotte, units that are hit get a save. The unit has to roll under its armor value to save. Again rolling low is better. The one thing that I don’t like on this armor save is that it has to be modified by the effectiveness of the weapon firing at you. Any time that you have to ask your opponent for information to be included in your roll it tends to slow the game down. Pike and Shotte does not have this problem.

Figures bought from the rule writer are typically based three figures to a base. Casualties are recorded by a combination of markers and removing bases from play. One or two casualties are indicated by a marker with the third casualty causing the removal of a base. A unit is typically three or four bases each of three figures. Using the combat system in the rules may require units to be mounted in a similar manner. As my figures are individually mounted, this basing would not be an issue other than requiring some new movement trays. However, as I will discuss later, I probably won’t be taking this step.

The combat resolution is similar to Pike and Shotte where the casualties suffered by each side are compared and then adjusted by a few modifiers to see who wins. The loser needs to test morale. Speaking of morale, there are a few circumstance which will lead to a unit needing to take a moral test. To take a morale test the units morale value is modified by a few factors and then the player needs to roll under the morale value on a D10. Again a low die role is good. A commander can spend command points to improve the chance of a unit passing. There are three morale levels each with their own consequences – good, disorganized or flight. Losing a morale test drops the unit one level, losing by a lot can drop the morale two levels. Rallying back to a good level from disorganized or flight level is done by spending command points and carrying out a new morale test.

There are rules for the army motivation to see when an army breaks, although I don’t plan on going into detail on those rules here.

There are also, like Pike and Shotte, a number of special rules that allow troops and armies to be customized to act like their real life counterpart. These custom rules are very good to represent this period and I may be using modified versions of some of them in my Pike and Shotte games.

Overall, there are a lot of things to like in the By Fire and Sword rules. I particularly like the command points and orders concepts. When I look at the movement, firing, combat and morale sections, there is nothing inherently wrong with the rules. They are similar to Pike and Shotte, but (in the words of Rick and Morty) just with more steps.

I think that the By Fire and Sword rules have sacrificed some playability to make them more suitable for tournament play. There is nothing wrong with this approach, it just is not tailored to club or convention day games that I like to play.

What I will probably try to do is take the command points and orders systems and integrate them into Pike and Shotte – where the command and control systems do not give me exactly what I am looking for. By adopting this approach, I won’t need to base my figures to be compatible with the rules. I will also be using some of the relative unit stats to craft some stats for the Cossack Uprising as well as incorporating some of the special rules for units and armies. The organization charts on-line are also an invaluable resource. Overall I think that the $20 was well spent and I would advise anyone looking at the period to consider reading them. By Fire and Sword is certainly interesting and some of the ideas will allow me to introduce greater period flavor into my games.

Having just finished my Tatars (100 mounted figures), I have started to move on to Pancerni cossacks of the Polish army. The Polish cavalry will consist of three units of Pancerni, one unit of Winged Hussars, one unit of German style Reiters and five units of Noble Levy. The first unit on the block is a unit of the Pancerni.

The figures for the Pancerni are from the Assault Group. I plan to have seven figures with a lance in each group plus one figure from the command pack, to give a unit of eight figures. This means that one unit will have a drummer, one unit will have a trumpeter and the final unit will have an officer.

I decided to contrast the rag-tag nature of my cossacks, tatars and noble levy cavalry with a more uniform look to my Pancerni and winged Hussars. I therefore painted all of the figures in a very similar manner, even down to using the same decals on the saddle cloth. The decals were from Veni Vidi Vici and are their 28mm white Maltese cross decals, which make a very nice rendition of the Polish style cross. I was not expecting the decals to turn out as well as they did, but I really think that they make the unit. I have now ordered a pack of the same decals but in 15mm, so that I can use them on the banner below the trumpet on the trumpeter.

The flags and pennants were from Battle Flag. I used flags from their 28mm Polish range. I brought several packs of their pennant flags so that I can have a slightly different pennant on each group of Pancerni and Winged Hussars.

Overall I am reasonably happy with how the Pancerni cossacks of the Polish army turned out and I am looking forward to painting the next two units of them. However, ten minutes ago the postman arrived with my 8 Winged Hussars from Warlord Games. These Winged Hussars may just jump the queue.