League Of Augsburg - Fighting Talk

I have been considering building some army bands for use with the upcoming Pikeman's Lament skirmish rules next year. I was interested in the By Fire and Sword game, but 15mm is not my size of choice, I think i prefer 28mm for now. With that in mind I have become interested in the 1655-60 war and also the Scanian war of 1675. I am hoping to get some advice on what figures to use for them.

For 1655 I was looking at the Northstar 1672 range of the english or dutch figures, and also the The Assault Group Swedish. Some of those figures might look right. Or, at least these figures look as right as I can find, if anybody has any other suggestions I would like to hear them. TAG also looks to have a good amount of decent looking adversaries to fight as well.

For the Scanian war I was considering Warfare minis and Front Rank Late 17th Century line, both of which look right enough for the period to me.

What I also need is information about uniforms and flags, I have read the article on this site, and seen a few pictures of Scanian war uniforms, but are there other places to look? I have not seen anything for the 1655 period. As for flags, I have also seen nothing, would using Great Northern war flags be to out of place if nothing else is available?

I would assume that for 1655 most troops wold still have bandoliers, but would that have been done away with for most by the Scanian war?

I think I may have some information at home, but I cannot get to it until Friday, i will have a look then and get back to you

Mark

I think GNW might be OK for Scanian Wars (watch me get shot down) but not for the earlier period. GNW Swedish standards were from much earlier regulations.

For Scanian Warfare would probably be a good fit along with Northstar as you have mentioned and probably Front Ranks earlier stuff too. Not so sure on the earlier period it sits in between the 30 years war and the 9 years war periods so......... maybe its the very early stuff for 9 yearswar that has 12 apostles for musketeers?

There are various sources available but as usual some are contradictory. I think it depends on whether you want to go to 'rivet counter' levels of accuracy or use the normal wargaming standard of 'suspension of disbelief' in order to get your uniforms etc right.

I would operate on the following broad principles:

Pre 1650 - go for the late TYW or ECW uniform styles with the bias towards Central/East European clothing types. Flags - not sure but look at Late TYW Swedish flags compare them with 1690-1700 era flags (there was a reissue of colours a couple of times between 1670 and 1690 I think) and look for the transitional design trends. Karoliner shows flags from the Skane Wars period and uniforms. The big difference for the Sweds in the Skane War period is the variety of coat colours - yellow ,red, green ,blue, grey brown etc

Between 1650 and about 1670 It has got to be a mix of styles - a transitional look.

After 1670 it is your choice based around:
Cuff at elbow or cuff at wrist
Fur trimmed or karpus or soft felt hat
Apostles or cartridge pouch

Illustrations show ALL of the above for the Skane War period. I would do what you think looks best for your purpose. Some wag is always going to come along and tell you you've done something wrong - many times that is all these people do - talk, whilst others, do.

All manufacturer's mentioned offer nice products - I love each one for different reasons.

Buff coats for cavalry mind!

I have a some information on the Danish army of 1675-79 if that might be helpful (the booklet "Danish Uniforms, Colours & Standards 1675-1679" by Olaf Hasselager and Torstein Snorrason).

Email me at phil(hyphen)carrington(at)virginmedia(dot)com if you are interested.

Cheers,


Phil

Just had a look and I have some information on uniforms for 1675, this is from what was a Swedish Children's book from 1976 called
Karoliner by Alf Aberg and Gote Goransson.

I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the Swedish forces around the GNW.

there are also two pages of information that are too big to load, so if you can supply me with your e-mail address i can send them to you

Mark

Warfare 9YW figures will be fine for both sides of the Scanian War. I will have to dig it out of my library, but there is an illustrated book on Swedish uniforms and flags of the Scanian War that has just about everything you need.

The Swedish Army Museum's trophy collection has color photos of dozens of captured Danish flags from the 1675-1679 period.

The booklet on Danish uniforms 1675-1679 mentioned above is excellent.

Here is the book on the Swedish army:

Scanian War 1675-1679 Colours and Uniforms.Lars-Eric Höglund. English.

74 pages including 8 in color. Covering the uniforms, colours and standards of the Swedish Army during the Scanian War 1675-1679. Some 84 colours and standards are illustrated in color, as well as 20 color illustrations of uniforms. The uniforms, colours and standards of 123 different units are described.

It may be out of print, but definitely worth looking around for.

There was a 3 part artical in miniature wargames about the battle of lund .that would give you all the informstion you should need.i still have the issues i,ll try and look them out and tell you the issue numbers. The warfare miniatures 9 years war figure would do fine for the danish and swedes .but some units wore the karpus.think the narke varmlands may have been one of them