My Renaissance Polish army is growing and so is my collection of relevant books. I had a Polish army 30 years ago, sold it, but always figured I would rebuild it one day. 30 years ago I had limited sources of information; the 2 Osprey books and a few articles in magazines as well as George Gush's book on Renaissance armies.
Recently there have been quite a few on the market by Helion- so they have all been added to the collection!
I am particularly taken with the books on the Swedish Deluge- so many armies and fascinating campaigns!
All my new books are at the end of the post!
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| Polish Winged Hussars...one of the most iconic of all wargame units! |
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| My two all time favourite Osprey books- and my one of my favourite Osprey pictures ever is the cover of Volume 1! I have two copies of these; much thumbed, dog eared and well read over the years. |
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| My first bit of information on the Poles came from this old classic. Not my first copy. I stupidly gave that away when I sold my first Polish army and found this on ebay a few years ago. |
The Army: HUSSARS
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| ARTILLERY! THE INFANTRY : Haiduks and Cossacks |
LIGHT CAVALRY
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| An officer! |
THE PANCERNI
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| Another one from Osprey! |
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| My two favourites! |
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| Some great info on both Gustavus' early TYW Swedes and his Polish opponents. |
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| If you know ANYTHING about Winged Hussars...then you know about Vienna in 1683! |
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| This was a real eye opener for me as I had never considered the Swedish Deluge...but if you've got a Swedish Thirty Years War army ( or anything that can double for it) and Renaissance Poles...then you can play this period..and it's fascinating. |
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| The campaigns.....totally new to me! |
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| All of them! |
And for a book that covers everything:
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Some interesting stuff here too!
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| Love this one too! |
Still a few packets to paint up from The Assault Group...
..............and then they can fight my Ottomans.........
..........and then they can fight some of my Thirty Years War stuff pretending to be Swedes....
.......and then they can join my Saxons for the Great Northern War and fight Swedes...again.........
...and maybe I'll build a Muscovite army ..
....and then a Tartar Army..and then..............
.....mumble....mumble......
Excellent looking figures John.
ReplyDeleteThanks Ray! Fast becoming one of my favourite collections
DeleteThe Poles are looking spectacular John. I'll have to have a look next time. Richard
ReplyDeleteHey Rich, there will be a game in the offing very soon.
DeleteLovely army (and basing), plus an excellent library to match :-)
ReplyDeleteThanks Norm- one provides inspiration for the other...and vice versa!
DeleteNice army. Are all the figures Assault Group?
ReplyDeleteAll are except the Hussars- the are the Warlord game box.
DeleteExcellent post John. Steve and I have been talking about our first Swedes v Poles games for a while now so your post has gotten the juices flowing again.
ReplyDeleteThanks Carlo- yes I am keen to give them a run against the Swedes!
DeleteSuch interesting and well painted units.
ReplyDeleteThanks Peter- interesting definitely!
DeleteGorgeous looking Poles!
ReplyDeleteFredholm von Essen's books are great aren't they? If you (too) are becoming more aware of The Deluge, check out "By Fire and Sword" by Wargamer.pl (http://www.fireandsword.wargamer.pl/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=46&Itemid=58). Rules and army lists are wonderful and useful publications in their own right and, of course, for the game system. There were downloadable pdf versions of the rules and main army lists, but the links seem to have gone. An 'expansion' book for The Deluge was published recently (and is on my wish-list).
The trilogy of films directed by Jerzy Hoffman are great viewing. There are versions with English subtitles on YouTube. If you are really keen Project Gutenberg has epub, translated versions of Henryk Sienkiewicz's books (author of Quo Vadis?), which inspired the films.
Regards, James
Thanks James- very much appreciated- I will look all of those up. Thank you! It's becoming my latest obsession!
DeleteThe free downloads *are* there. See link to them from here: https://www.wargamer.com/free-wargame-rules
DeleteThe history of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth is fascinating (and somewhat sad). I came to it via an interest in the Great Northern War. Reading the first volume of Norman Davies' "God's Playground" last year (highly recommended if you have not read it—both volumes) lead me further back. Then the Fredholm von Essen books came out...! :)
ok- thank you!
DeletePlay that period a lot using ReG (Renatio et Gloriam)
ReplyDeleteI haven't tried ReG, although have read some good reviews. Another one to add to the collection and trial runs!
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