Saturday 27 July 2013

Work in Progress - Renaissance Spanish

Well.....after all that analysis I just went on and started painting.  Not just Spanish but a couple of 30YW command bases:

30YW Swedish (Confederate cavalryman), 30YW French (temporary mounted figure) 
and Spanish Colonial.

On my painting table are the following:

16 - Crossbow                                18 - Sword & Buckler                            20 - Muskets   
24 -  Half-pikes                                 8 - Pikes                                                 9 - Indian Bow
15 - Indian Blades                             1 - Gun (plus 3 crew)                              3 - Lancers

Only 4 of the pikes have metal armour - the other four are cloth.  I have decided to allocate the former to a Spanish Imperial army for the Dutch Rebellion period.  The cloth four will become a colonial unit. 

Half-pikes provide an interesting problem.  Given their "Irregular" nature, and the terrain they had to work in, to me they are like Ax(X) in DBM terms so should be 3 to a base. 


(All conversions of musketeers)

Sword & buckler men are an easier decision - surely Bd(F) in DBM terms and therefore 3 to a base.
Muskets - I'm still torn between 3 or 4 to a base (any suggestions?).


Looks like this project is growing in an 'organic' manner in spite of its 'scientific' start.  Next thing to deal with is the 'native' problem.  Oh Well!

Thursday 4 July 2013

Going Back to the Source

I thought that I would take a look at the original site for 'DBA in the New World' - Steven's Balagan:

http://balagan.org.uk/war/dbx/dba/new-world/index.htm

...and what did I find:

Element Type Abbreviation Cost
(AP)
Official
DBA equivalents
Suggested
Base Size (mm)
Suggested
No. Figures
Lancer aka Knight Ln 15 3Kn 40 x 40 3
Shooters European ShE 7 3Bw, 4Bw, CB 40 x 20 3-4
Superior ShS 5 4Ax, 3Bw, 4Bw 40 x 40 5-8
Ordinary ShO 3 3Ax, 3Bw 40 x 40 5-8
Blades European BdE 7 3Bd, 4Bd 40 x 20 3-4
Superior BdS 5 4Bd, 3Wb, 4Wb 40 x 40 5-8
Ordinary BdO 3 3Ax, 4Bd, 5Wb 40 x 40 5-8
Skirmishers
(i.e. Psiloi)
Sk 2 2Ps 40 x 20 2
Artillery Art 15 Art 40 x 40 1 gun + crew
Litter
(i.e. WWg (I) )
Lit 3 Lit 40 x 40 1 litter + crew
Pike Pk 3 4Pk 40 x 20 4
Spear Sp 4 3Sp, 4Sp 40 x 20 4
War dogs (i.e. Warband) Wb 3 3Wb 40 x 40


I also searched for photos - Will McNally's blog provided Conquistadores, Aztec & Maya:

http://willwarweb.blogspot.co.uk/

Conquistadores -  standard bases - Shooters & Blades (3), Lancers (2), War dogs (3), Artillery (1)
Aztecs - all on squared bases - Shooters & Blades (5), Skirmishers (3)
Maya - all on squared bases - Blades (4), Skirmishers (3)

The squared bases follow the ideas of Michael Fischer:

http://fanaticus.org/DBA/variants/squarebases.html

Now I need to sit down and compare the evidence before me.






















































































Wednesday 3 July 2013

Sorting Out the New World - Part 2

After a DBR troop type grid I looked at DBA & HOTT:


DBA
Depth Troop Type No. per base



80 Artillery 1
30 Auxilia 3 to 4
30 Blades (3 Bd) 3
20 Blades (4 Bd) 4
60 Blades (6 Bd) 6
30 Bows 3 to 4
60 Bows (6 Bw) 6
40 Camelry (3 Cm) 3
30 Camp Followers 2 to 4
40 Cavalry (3 Cv) 3
80 Cavalry (6 Cv) 6
80 Cavalry (Lch) 1
80 Elephants 1
40 Hordes (7 Hd) 7 to 8
40 Knights (3 Kn) 3 to 4
80 Knights (6 Kn) 6
80 Knights (Hch) 1
40 Light Horse (2 Cm) 2
40 Light Horse (2 Lh) 2
20 Pikes (4 Pk) 4
30 Psiloi (2 Ps) 2
80 Scythed Chariots 1
30 Spears (3 Sp) 3
20 Spears (4 Sp) 4
20 Warband (3 Wb) 3
30 Warband (4 Wb) 4
40 Warband (5 Wb) 5 to 6
120 War Wagons (Lit) 5 to 6
120 War Wagons (Wwg) 1



HOTT
Depth Troop Type No. per base



80 Airboat 1
80 Artillery 1
80 Beasts 2 to 4
80 Behemoth 1 to 4
20 Blades 4
40 Clerics 1 to 3
80 Dragon 1
40 Flyers 1 to 3
40 Hero 1 to 3
60 Hordes 5 to 8
60 God 1
40 Knights 2 to 4
40 Lurkers 1 to 3
80 Magicians 1 to 3
40 Paladin 1 to 3
40 Riders 2 to 3
30 Shooters 4
30 Sneakers 1 to 3
20 Spears 4
30 Warband 3

To be continued .......

Sorting Out the 'New World'.

Looking at my stash of Spanish Renaissance figures I managed to put together a DBA-RRR 1.41 Spanish Colonial army (12 elements).  Painting commenced - then I thought about the 'DBA in the New World' rules set.  Would it be possible to combine the two?

My first step was to look at troop basing.  The listing in the DBR (v1.1) book is in an interesting order so I worked out a grid that I prefered.

  DBR – 25mm scale        Frontage – 60mm
       

Depth Troop Type No. per base



60 Artillery (I), (F) or (X) 1 to 2
60 Artillery (S) or (O) 1
60 Baggage
30 Blades (S), (O), (F) or (I) 3
20 Blades (not F) – alternative 3
120 Boats (S) or (F) 1
120 Boats (O) or (I) 2 to 4
30 Bows (S) or (O) 3
30 Bows (I) 3
40 Camelry (S) or (O) 2
40 Camelry (F) 1
60 Dragoons 3
80 Elephants 1
120 Galleys 1
40 Hordes 5 to 8
40 Lancers 2
40 Light Horse 1
30 Pikes 4
20 Pikes (alternative) 4
40 Pistols (S),(O) or (I) 3
40 Pistols (F) 2
120 Pontoneers
120 Ships 1
30 Shot 3
40 Sipahis 2
30 Skirmishers 1
30 Warband 3
20 Warband (S) – alternative 3
120 War Wagons 1

Next was to look at the DNW troop definitions:

Artillery
Blades
Camp Followers / BUA  Denizens
Cavalry
Elephants
Lancers                                       "Knights are simply renamed as Lancers"
Light Horse
Litter
Pikes
Shooters                                    "Treat Shooters as DBA Bows"
Skirmishers
Spears
War dogs                                   "Warband has only been retained for War Dogs"

European troops - Bd(E) or Sh(E) - 3 or 4 per base [author prefers 3]
Natives - if DBx (3 or 4), author prefers 5 to 8 (as Horde), alternative - 2 x DBx (6 to 8)


To be continued .....