BAROQUE Renaissance Project.

 

I received a copy of the BAROQUE renaissance wargame rules (by Dadi&Piombo) for Christmas and have been poring over the army lists for the last two weeks as a preamble to starting a new wargame project for 2023.

The lists cover wars over the period from 1550 to 1700, so encompass a lot of variety in the European continent mostly, including the French Religious Wars, Thirty Years War, English Civil War, Wars of Scandinavia, conflict between France and Imperial Germany, and Eastern theatre against the Ottoman Turks. Equipment, weapons, uniforms, and tactics developed slowly but surely from massed charge to firearm dependent.

The rules are very similar to the Impetus rules in their core design, yet provide period-specific troop types and tactical differences for the pike & shot units that feature strongly in the military doctrines of the era.

As an aside, I have a good word to say about the writer – Lorenzo Satori. I got the book as a paperback and then purchased the PDF separately. Unfortunately, the PDF is password locked, so my narrator wouldn’t… well… narrate it. So, I wrote to Lorenzo, explained my situation and requested a non-password locked PDF. A couple of days later, he sent me an unlocked PDF. Great stuff!

Right, that’s the rules bit sorted for now. Next we look at the figures.

The first thing I considered was the figure scale, but I needed to also consider the material and manufacturer in close conjunction. I had a lot of options; 2mm metal, 6mm metal, 10mm metal, 15mm metal, 1/76 scale plastics, and 25/28mm plastics.

I soon discounted 2mm, 1/76, and 25/28 for various reasons including range comprehensivity (if that’s a word), and base/table size. I wanted the look of a large number of figures on a reasonably sized single base without needing a huge playing area. So that left 6, 10, and 15.

There are a lot of excellent 15mm manufacturers and ranges, but to get the desired look, I’d need to be spending about £200 per side. I dropped 15mm at that point.

I then put 6mm and 10mm against each other under the microscope. I really like the idea of multi-figure casting such as Baccus6mm and Kallistra (and Old Glory). Both scales had enough variation for my needs, except kallistra, which was a shame), but once more, the price was the final governing factor; 10mm are approx. 150% the cost of 6mm. So it looked like 6mm Baccus was my final choice.

While deciding on the scale, I also had to decide on the period, which meant I was limiting my options to some extent as I zeroed in on 6mm. Baccus have a decent range of figures that could be used in most wars in Europe to cater for the armies in the lists. Once more, pricing became a major factor in this decision too. As I calculated the cost of building an army, I realised that the Baccus English Civil War Boxed Starter Set contained all the figures I needed to start with, plus extra bits and pieces, and all for half the price I’d calculated if buying individual packs rather than an army deal.

And that was it; my project for this year will be English Civil War (British Rebellion to some) in 6mm scale, provided by Baccus6mm.

I’ll write up a report when the figures arrive…