Border Reivers

For today's post yet more border horse join the collection, this time the figures are from the Flags of War Border Wars range: https://www.flagsofwar.com/collections/border-wars. Best suited to the Elizabethan period they are great miniatures and will also work for the "Rough Wooing". Stuart and I intend to game battles such as Solway Moss, Haddon Rig and Ancrum Moor and if you are familiar with these clashes you will know they all involve thousands of border horsemen! The intention is to combine them with my mid 16th century Assault Group border horse, https://camisado1500s.blogspot.com/2022/07/mid-16th-century-border-horse.html, which will give me just about enough to attempt some of the famed border clashes of the 1540s.

The Flags of War miniatures are really detailed, being intended for skirmish gaming, and each figure is unique. I only had twenty three in the various sets I bought so figure twenty four is a converted Assault Group reiter who has been given a spear instead of pistol to make him into a wealthier reiver. Of course I have converted a few of the figures, just small things like weapon swaps and adding a few more targes. As I intend to use the figures for the 1540s  some of the horses carrying pistols have been swapped for Assault Group ones without guns in holsters as I didn't want lots of pistols in the unit, these being still fairly rare on the Anglo-Scots border in the 1540s. In the "Anglo-Scots Wars" Gervase Phillips states that an English officer, Christopher Ellerkar was shot in the neck by a Frenchman with a pistol during the Siege of Haddington before Ellerkar killed him with a lance and this was worthy of note in the dispatches to the English government but the use of pistols was increasing. By 1547 the inventory of arms in the Tower of London included 275 "shorte gonnes for horsemen".

The result is two great units of border horse that can be used from around 1540 all the way up to 1600. One unit is charging dramatically whilst the other is moving at more sedate pace. The flags are removable so they can fight for the Scots or English with the simple swap of the flags, something they probably share in common with the original border horsemen! They carry a wide variety of weaponry, as is befitting a motley collection of reivers, such as lances, swords, bows, pistols and crossbows. There is a great figure armed with the miniature crossbow used by the reivers known as a "latch" who has a dead rabbit hanging from the saddle; a chap with an eye patch and a warhammer and a horseman with a bags of loot slung over his saddle and an axe-pistol. The axe-pistol really reminds me of the bizarre combination weapons of this period like the gun-shields, https://www.artic.edu/artworks/106394/gun-shield, or the triple barreled mace pistol, https://royalarmouries.org/collection/object/object-3295, that never really caught on. Whilst I wouldn't want to see every figure armed like this the inclusion of one is a nice mid-Tudor touch. The photos below show the two new units whilst the last four show all of the mid-16th century border horse riding out to harry their enemies across the border!

A unit of 28mm border horse made predominantly of Flags of War miniatures, the armoured chap with a spear held upright is a converted Assault Group miniature.

Border horsemen from Flags of War. Some of the figures have been converted.

English border horse.

The reivers prepare to burn and pillage in the name of the English crown.

A view of the units from behind.

The first unit. The reivers carry a wide variety of weaponry  including a latch, a bow, a crossbow and a pistol.

Note the dead rabbit handing from the saddle of the horseman with the latch.

The second unit is more dramatic and is at the charge.

Note the reiver with the bag of loot and axe-pistol.

A photo of the Flags of War units combined with the mid-16th century Assault Group units.

A host of English border horse.

28mm English border horse.