English Civil War & 30 Years War (Pike & Shot)

The perfect way to start your Pike& Shotte army or add additional units of the bravest Soldiers to your army. The Battalia includes the following: 80 Pike & Shotte Infantry - allowing you to make 24 pike men 48 muskets with 2 sets of Command. 24 Cavalry 10 Firelocks Plastic bases Full colour Flags for both Parliament and Royalists Models supplied unassembled and unpainted

The 17th Century saw large standing armies in action all over Europe, in numbers previously undreamt of, and huge numbers of infantry, artillery and cavalry were raised. The cavalry of the period were mostly of the heavy variety; big horses that could barge other enemy cavalry and intimidate infantry, while carrying a determined rider protected by, at the very least, a back-and-breastplate, and us…

Thundering across the field of battle, resplendent in their ornate plate armour and pistols held tightly in gauntleted hands the charge of a cuirassier regiment was something to behold! With luck the regiment would stop and perform their speciality – the ‘caracole’ - a complicated, but well-executed tactic, whereby the first ranks fired their pistols in the very faces of their foe, then wheeled aw…

The role of the dragoon was still being defined in the wars of the 17th century. Dragoons later went on to become heavy shock cavalry who rarely got off their expensive horses. Our subjects fighting in the English Civil Wars and Thirty Years War are really mounted infantry, musketeers mounted on poorer quality horses. Their role was not glamorous, but was nonetheless vital to a 17th century genera…

Firelock companies were raised throughout the Civil Wars for a variety of purposes. Formed originally to fight in the wild bogs of Ireland where a flintlock was more easily handled than the clumsy matchlock, firelock-armed musketeers grew more common as the Civil Wars progressed, all armies sometimes fielding large units so armed. The firelock had numerous advantages over the older matchlock. It w…

The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries saw the rise of the pike-armed infantryman as well as the increased firepower of black powder weapons on the field of battle. The heavy "shock" cavalry could either be fended off with long pikes or shot down, no matter how thick their armour. This change of events led commanders to rethink their cavalry tactics. As arquebuses and muskets became cheaper to ma…

The skirl of the pipes is perhaps one of the eeriest sounds that you can hear, more so if you were a Covenanter soldier in the Civil Wars in Britain 1642-1650 awaiting the approach of Montrose' wild Highlanders! The Scottish Clans were a throw-back to an earlier time. Small, tight family groups who eked out tough lives on hill farms supplemented at times by raiding from other Clans in long standin…

The 17th Century saw the assembling of large regular armies equipped and supplied by the state. Many units, though not all, were uniformly attired for the first time, and formed into companies and regiments then finally brigaded together into tercios or battalias. Formations on the field could vary enormously as the situation dictated. On paper, a regiment may have ten companies of 100 men each bu…

The late 15th and early 16th centuries in Europe were defined by near-constant warfare. National ‘standing armies’ were unheard of and the ambitions of empires were reliant on the mercenaries they could afford to hire. This box contains: Plastic components to make either 30 Pikemen or 25 Pikemen and 5 Arquebusiers Command sprue with options for officers, standard bearers, drummers, etc. Plastic ba…

The late 15th and early 16th centuries in Europe were defined by near-constant warfare. National ‘standing armies’ were unheard of and the ambitions of empires were reliant on the mercenaries they could afford to hire. Landsknechts were instigated by the Holy Roman Emperor, Maximillian I, as a reaction to the Swiss Mercenary Pikemen that had dominated battlefields for decades before the Italian Wa…

Europe in the late 15th and early 16th centuries was a place of almost constant warfare. With no organised national armies battlefields were the domain of the mercenary companies of the day – chief amongst these were the colourfully dressed Landsknechts. Landsknechts were instigated by the Holy Roman Emperor, Maximillian I, as a reaction to the Swiss mercenary pikemen that had dominated battlefiel…

The late 15th and early 16th centuries in Europe were defined by near-constant warfare. National ‘standing armies’ were unheard of and the ambitions of empires were reliant on the mercenaries they could afford to hire. Landsknechts were instigated by the Holy Roman Emperor, Maximillian I, as a reaction to the Swiss mercenary pikemen that had dominated battlefields for decades before the Italian Wa…