Imperialists from the Thirty Years's War

I was somehow drafted into a playtesting project by a friend of mine, Michael(Dalauppror).  You can read more about this upcoming gamed called Pikeman's Lament on his blog. In this project he cooperates with the author of Lion Rampant, Daniel Mersey. In short it is a big skirmish game, much as in the same manner as Daniel Mersey's previous game Lion Rampant.  If you find the basing a bit odd then blame it on Michael, he made me do it. ;)

The Officer with the flag is from Warlord minatures. I am usually not a fan of casted flags, but somehow this one worked out fine. 

In any case I was supposed to paint up an Imperialist force from the Thirty Year's War. So I bought some straight out of the Box Warlord minitures and added some odd bits and pieces. That would do for the infantry, but I needed cavalry. Why then settle for ordinary cavalry when there are Curassiers- the very last fully armoured warriors in history. Sören another friend at the club informed me about a fairly new brand that was turning out miniatures - Bohemian Minatures. The brand is Czech, but the sculpts have been made by Paul Hicks. In short they are among the best you can find for this period. I can recommend them. The delivery was swift and efficient. I got then miniatures within a week of ordering.

The Pikemen - a must in this conflict. 

Unfortunatly Bohemian miniatures do not make any horses. Thus one have to buy these beasts seperatly . Front Rank horses are supposed to be the best match, but I found some Old Glory horses that was gathering dust in my drawers, and they fitted perfectly.

The unit I painted got a rather uniformed look. Maybe I was a bit influenced by the cover if the Warlord Box. During the Thirty Year's War the concentrated of uniforms were not really invented as such. However one numerous paintings regimenets from the time could have some kind of uniform semblance. This probably had to do with the fact that cloth for the soldiers' clothing were often issued in bulk when the unit was raised. If so then a unit would have a certain uniform look at the start of a campaign. Certain armies, notably the Swedish army as well as the Imperial army of Wallenstein had at times centralized systems of cloth production. When issued cloth I doubt the soldiers would have recieve an ample selection of colours to chose from.

Alt Piccolomini Curassiers 

The flag from the other side

The flags in this force( I could hardly call it an army) are more or less copied from historical sources. The Infantry have been given the colours of a unit that lost it colours at the very last staged of the war, captured at Prague in 1648. The name of the unit remains unknown. The flag is currently a  part of the Swedish State Trophy Collection. So is also the flag of the Curassiers. It was lost at Jankow in 1645. The name of this unit is Alt Piccolomini, named after the Imperial General Octavio Piccolomini (1599-1656).  Most of details I got from the book " In Hoc Signo Vinces - A presentation of The Swedish State Trophy Collection". It a very useful source when it comes to flags. You can find all kinds of flags taken from the enemies of the Swedes( Danes, Russians, Imperials and a few more). It also writen in English, which would make it bit easier for those that doesn't speak Swedish( I can Imagine there are a few out there). I picked up the book at fleamarket, so I have no idea what to pay for it in full price.

The book I used as main source for my flags