Totentanz Miniatures - 15mm Renaissance comparison shots

I've just finished painting up 2 units of TYW miniatures, from Spanish manufacturer Totentanz.

Aside from the now-obligatory use of flowers on the bases, I actually think that they have come out pretty well - more a reflection of the figures rather than my painting!

As this is a new manufacturer I have also posted a load of comparison photos so you can compare height and stature against around a dozen different manufacturers.

(Testudo by Khurasan vs Totentanz)

The English Civil War - 3 FoGR Match Reports

The plain-as-bread Parliamentarian army take on three opponents in a 1-day competition in the heart of the Kings Country - Oxford.

See how Renaissance Hannibal and Oliver Cromwell square up in the post-match reviews, and scratch your head as to how many Youtube videos that do not feature members of the Sealed Knot can be shoehorned into the three reports of some of the most vanilla armies every to take the field.

And, potatoes on bases... Say no more!

The Danes at Warfare 2014 - top table action!

The last event of 2014, and the Early Danes get yet another outing at FoGR down by the banks of the Thames in sunny (cold and dark) Reading.

In four thrilling match reports they take on everyone in the world, from the Indians to the English, all whilst doing their very best to shoehorn references to bacon and Carlsberg into the narrative at every opportunity....and end up doing surprisingly well !

Lots of pictures, some barely-relevant YouTube videos and some very odd things to buy from Amazon as well all grace the reports - so, grab yourself some pancakes and maple syrup, pull up a chair and dig in!

Pike & Shot(te) Video game review

In a new departure for this site, here's a link to a YouTube video I managed to create in which I do a very bad job of playing Slitherine's new Renaissance video game based on FoG:R, Pike & Shot.

You can see it on YouTube here.

Here also are a couple of screen-grabs of the YouTube video of the game.

Overall it's very simple to pick up, the game rattles along at a decent pace and the AI appears to be sensible - no MTW-style clouds of units milling around aimlessly here!  However the graphics are a little basic to say the least, and it's hard to imagine why they haven't included at least a simple form of Campaign Mode in the core game (I think it's under way and planned for an update soon).

That, for me, means the current price of close on £40 (I think £36 as I write this..?) is probably a little bit on the steep side - even accepting the "this is for a limited audience so the price will need to be different to a Total War type title" argument. Once this isn't "shiny and new" and Slitherine presumably decide to knock a few quid off and it will start to look a lot more sensible - add the campaign mode and this will be even more true. Anyway, a decent game and also your only choice for this relatively obscure and poorly served period in the games market.

See how much it costs on Slitherine's site now!

Match Reports of The Dutch at Campaign 2014

In a report spanning 5 pages and almost 10,000 words, you can revel in the exploits of possibly the blandest army ever to take the field on this website, the Dutch (of the 80 Years War - no, me neither) as they duplicate their World Cup heroics and take on a limited themed pool of other similar but generally better armies in a competition in which the last army to be used was the decidedly non-dull Pirates.

Have a look at whether lots of average troops can actually take on lots of Superior ones - and be amazed at how infrequently a 35 point ship can feature in 5 consecutive battle reports.

Wake up and Smell the Edam !!

By Fire & Sword Ottoman and Polish Commanders

At Salute 2014 I picked up a lot of stuff I didn't really need - but this sort of fell into the "might be able to justify" category - commander packs from Fire & Sword for Poles & Ottomans.

Admittedly it was as much about seeing what these figures looked like in the flesh as any real need to add more generals to these two underpowered FoGR armies, but I was pleasantly surprised by how much "stuff" each pack comprises. 6 Generals/officers/Musicians, wire spears (pretty long...) which are the pointed type, plastic bases (for By Fire & Sword rules I guess) and some nice high resolution flags on good quality paper.

The figures are now undercoated and added to the painting queue - from first impressions they are a bit lanky and the horses are the same, but the detail is very good if a little fine compared to some of my other figures. Pictures to follow when they are done (don't hold your breath..)

Match Reports from Oxford 2014

The wild and breechless Scots Royalists are coming down the mountain to raid rural Oxfordshire!

See how they fared in three comprehensive battle reports, with smatterings of the noble Scottish language embedded in them, together with videos from Al Murray, Robin Williams, Horrible Histories and The Clash.

Then lay back and revel in some truly "fan-dabee-dozee" post match analysis (yes, you do know what's coming next..!), but a word of warning - do try and avoid clicking on poor wee Jimmy if you are about to eat.

Enjoy!

Lists from The National League FoGR Competitions

Mine and my opponents lists from The National League (Campaign) are now published on the FoGR Wiki. You have:

• Later 80 Years War Dutch (x2)
• Hugenot (x2)
• Later Imperial Spanish (x2)

(hint - the Dutch one came first... and last in the period!)

Half a dozen manufacturers added to the 28mm Renaissance Manufacturers directory

Parkfield, Mirliton, Crusader, Crann Tara, Warrior, Scheltrum and Curteys all now listed as having some Renaissance ranges somewhere between 25-30mm ...

Want to make your views on them known?

As they say, vote early vote often !

Impressive service from Front Rank Figurines

I ordered a handful of 28mm figures to paint up as trophies for the Central London round of the FoGR Southern League from Front Rank Figurines only a couple of days ago (actually about 10 o'clock at night on Thursday the 8th May) and here they are, through my letterbox first thing on Monday 12th!

Not only is that amazing service, the figures are also absolutely stunning too. I'll have to go and vote for them on the 28mm Renaissance Manufacturers Listings page on this website !

Here are a Scottish infantry commander and a Louix XIV Era foot officer, both ready to be based and painted as 15mm FoGR Great Commanders.

Let's see if my painting skills can come anywhere near close to those of the sculptor ...

15mm Renaissance comparison photos added

I've added a few shots of the Donnington Louis XIV figures from the previous post into the 15mm Comparison gallery - so you can see them against Essex, Hallmark and Lurkio figures for scale.

They look to be a good match for Lurkio's range, but not so close to the others. 

French Italian Wars Match Reports

A classic of the Renaissance era, as a French Italian Wars army takes on Ming Chinese, Scots, Caroline Imperialists and finally the Ottoman Turks in an early period FoGR competition held at Usk in January 2014,

Thrill and be amazed at what is rather embarrassingly somewhere north of 8,000 words of rather rambling prose and poorly thought out analysis all stitched together with a smattering of overly-flowery descriptive phrases plucked from the depths of dictionary corner. 

But at least some of the pictures are nice, and there isn't as much foreign-language-based swearing as in some of the recent reports either. 

Aquilifer added to the 15mm Renaissance Manufacturers listing

Italian manufacturer Aquilifer have now been added to the 15mm Renaissance listing, with their range of 12 Scottish and Highlander figure packs.

They now have their own website, which has also been added to their listing in the Ancients 15mm directory

It's been a while - so, some Perry Knights!

After somewhat of a hiatus I've finally gotten round to adding some more content to this site. Nothing too onerous (for me) but here are a load of photos of 28mm multi-part plastic Perry Mounted Men at Arms, which I will be using as C15/C16 Gendarmes in FoG Renaissance armies.

I was wildly impressed with these models - a phenomenal amount of thought had clearly gone into designing each sprue to have huge variations in how you could equip and assemble the horses and riders to allow you to do a variety of troop types from each sprue

The horse barding included was sufficient to do every single horse in the pack of 12

There were just 2 riders who were unarmoured and which add a bit of colour to the formation

Everything was painted in a black spray undercoat, and a drybrush of Gunmetal, with some Gold highlights to bring them up a little

Army Painter Dark Tone gave them a blackened look after the drybrushing

 Very simple Gold details really makes them look more upscale than just plain silvered metal

Ready to rumble - hopefully I will only see them from this angle when they get on table!

Arrrr! Here be Pirates!

In one of the most extensively trailed competition writeups ever seen anywhere on the whole internet, the Buccaneer Army takes to the field at Campaign in Milton Keynes (well, where else would you expect to find Pirates eh?) for 5 games of cutlass-swinging, eyepatch-wearing, blunderbuss-shootin' Pirate-ey action of the most intense type imaginable.

See how me band o'hearties fared in combat in 5 pages, 200 pictures and several thousand words of puns, random links, irrelevant videos and three of the best episodes of Madaxeman TV ever broadcast!

Arrr!

Compare the Pirate (.com)!

Just added a lot of photos of various 15mm pirates to the site, so you can see the manufactures side by side

As a sample, in this picture you have mostly Blue Moon with additional figures from Grumpys (far right) and Peter Pig (2nd from left). The pictures are all online here and searchable by manufacturer

The Southern League 2013 - London Round, Full Results

The London round of the Southern League 2013 covered the period of Revolution & Turmoil in the UK 1639-1688, allowing a choice of armies from Early Caroline English, Scots Covenanter, Scots Royalist, Confederate Irish, Early ECW Royalist, ECW Parliamentarian, Later ECW Royalist, New Model Army, Restoration British, Covenanting Rebels, Monmouth Rebellion

The full results and photo's are online now

There Be Trophies !

Just finished off the trophies for this weekends Southern League FoG:R competition - using some spare figures and trees, and one of the Empress Miniatures Naseby Battlefield Trust Special Figures (£1 from every sale goes to the trust) This chap is the "Cromwell" figure.

Empress Miniatures Cromwell

A Redoubt Miniatures infantryman who came with 2 officers on foot, who are now Great Commanders for my 15mm armies.

No idea where this chap is from I'm afraid !

For added interest I include on each base a replica English Civil War era coin - another late night eBay purchase from Warstore Flags webstore along with the bases from JP Designs.

I'm quite pleased with them - let's hope there are some worthy winners!

28mm Renaissance Manufacturer Directory

The latest manufacturer directory on Madaxeman.com is for 28mm Renaissance manufacturers.

I've loosely defined "Renaissance" as C15 to the beginnings of the Marlburian era, and rolled in Samurai and Central Americans too so it should cover most people's definitions, although I have left out the non-Ottoman "Arabs" as they can tend to morph across Ancients ranges (which is maybe another project for another rainy day ..or three).

I'm sure there are some manufacturers I've missed so please let me know if you spot them.

The page has the usual voting buttons on it so you can rate the individual manufacturers, as well as descriptions of what ranges they carry and links to their websites. If I've got something wrong please let me know and I'll fix it!

Field of Glory Renaissance Battle Reports From Godendag 2013

After only 2 weeks it's four more match reports !

The C17 Louis XIV French take to the field in four Field of Glory Renaissance Battle Reports From Godendag 2013

See how Louis' boys take on the Austrians, Swedes, Ottomans and Anglo-Dutch in 4 epic battles with some of the wildest swings of fortune ever recorded on this site !

Click here for the reports