Perry Miniatures late 15th century ranges

[Griefbringer]

[I think we used to have a long thread about this topic in the old historical gaming section, but that probably has not seen posts for a while, so maybe better to start a new one.]

I have a feeling that it has been quite a while since Perrys added new miniatures to their Wars of the Roses / European Armies ranges for the late 15th century, but now they have added a number of metal infantry packs to WotR range, with cavalry sets supposedly to follow. The four new metal packs include kerns with javelins, kerns with bows, galloglass (with big swords/axes) and command.

My interests for 15th century are in continental conflicts, where the Irish were not commonly involved, so I do not feel particular urge to get these figures. However, Irish mercenaries showed up in a number of clashes during the War of the Roses, such as the Stoke Field (1487), so WotR gamers might be interested in getting a bunch of packs to provide such a contingent.

And of course there would be the opportunity to use them to play small conflicts in Ireland itself. The limited number of packs probably does not really lend itself to putting together a big Irish army (unless you like repeating same poses all over again), but they should still provide plenty of variety for doing a small skirmish force. For an opponent, one could either use another Irish clan, or a force of English colonists - a box of plastic WotR Bill and bow plus another of light cavalry should provide a plenty of figures.

[Codsticker]

However, Irish mercenaries showed up in a number of clashes during the War of the Roses, such as the Stoke Field (1487), so WotR gamers might be interested in getting a bunch of packs to provide such a contingent.

Did the Gallowglass not appear as mercenaries on the continent as well? Could be a good excuse to pick up some of those packs.

[Griefbringer]

I haven't heard of Gallowglass mercenaries in the continent, at least in the later half of 15th century.

That said, there was a sizeable Scottish contingent active in France in the 1420's, and maybe a few Gallowglass figures would not look too out of place in such a force.

[Codsticker]

Perhaps this is what I was thinking of (from Wikipedia):

Images of gallowglasses fighting as mercenaries in European mainland armies were sketched by Dürer in 1521 and later by French and Dutch artists[6].

[Griefbringer]

I must admit that I have not seen such sketch by Dürer - would be interesting to know where he had encountered such men.

[Griefbringer]

Speaking of Perrys, their metal packs will be going up in price at the beginning of April, so anyone intending to order a bunch of the Irish might want to do so before then. I think I will be ordering myself a pack of oxen and some metal billmen during March.

That said, the price hike should be just 50 p per pack.

[Griefbringer]

Don't forget the upcoming Perry price hike, if you are planning on ordering from them! I just filled a small order of my own - probably the last one to Perrys for a while, until I get my unpainted lead pile trimmed to a more manageable size.

BTW: in case anybody is interested, the yokes with the Perry oxen are separate pieces, and you can assemble the models perfectly well without them if you want to represent free ranging oxen on a meadow. I have done this with my oxen and placed the yokes into the bits box, from where they might some other use one day. That said, since the oxen come with separate heads, there is a big of a gap at the neck that needs to be filled that would be partially covered by the yoke.

[Axel]

I must admit that I have not seen such sketch by Dürer - would be interesting to know where he had encountered such men.

He painted these during his visit in Amsterdam. No idea wether he saw real one, though chances are that he only spoke with eyewitnesses:
https://www.historyireland.com/early...urers-drawing/

[Griefbringer]

Two new packs of Irish infantry have shown up on the Perry website: handgunners and kerns with two-handed weapons. Pretty decent looking figures on the pictures.

I presume that the cavalry sets will follow eventually.