The figures pictured are part of a larger project to field an Early War Parliamentarian army, specifically for the Battle of Edgehill, and this regiment portrays Sir William Constable’s regiment.
Constable was from Yorkshire and he recruited heavily from his lands there. At the battle of Edgehill, his regiment formed part of Sir John Meldrum’s brigade.
After Edgehill the regiment then marched to Turnham Green before taking part in the siege of Reading in 1643. They then went on to fight at the battle of Newbury before finally being present at the Battle of Cheriton.
Soon after Cheriton the regiment was reduced and absorbed into local associations, and ultimately the men would likely be reformed into elements of the New Model Army. This was a common fate for many parliamentarian regiments as the war progressed.
To help you start your own Pike and Shotte English Civil War forces remember formations on the field could vary enormously as the situation dictated. On paper, a regiment may have ten companies of 100 men each but, due to sickness, casualties and lack of money, regiments could be much smaller. In gaming terms, this gives you plenty of freedom to vary the size of your units as you see fit, and to change the ratio of musket to pike as you want.
This regiment has been put together in a very conventional deployment of a pike block (with command) with two flank elements of musket. The musketeers have musket rests, which were common at the beginning of the war, but were often discarded as the campaigns wore on. The blue coat colour is probably accurate for Edgehill (by late 1643 it is reported the regiment was issued grey or red doublets), but like many English Civil War regiments is debatable, as is the flag colour. An advantage of this is you can really use your discretion when building your army on such details.
An obvious place to start any English Civil war army is the Battalia Box Set or the Infantry Box Set.
The featured models have been specifically put together to represent an early war regiment, however, and as such use the following metal sets:
