Set Dressing With Civilians in Pike & Shotte

We’ve all had those games where a unit just does nothing to impact the battle. Be it bad rolls, unfavourable tactical matchups, or some kind of terrible curse from the Dice Gods (remember, freshly painted models die faster!), they just sort of… sit there, looking pretty, but contributing nothing to your (hopefully glorious) victory. Frustrating, right? But what about models that are meant to do nothing?

I’m not talking about some arcane wargaming strategy here – I mean it literally! Models that have no impact whatsoever on the game, because they’re there for one reason, and one only – to make your tabletop look as pretty as possible! I’ve always been a huge advocate for ‘set-dressing’ battlefields as much as possible, and I want to shine a spotlight on the fantastic range of non-combatants, civilians, livestock, and other ancillary figures we produce, in particular for the Pike & Shotte range of 28mm figures.

Just a quick note – our Pike & Shotte Landsknechts range has some absolutely gorgeous civilians, who deserve their own feature really. To avoid this article becoming over-long, I’m only going to focus on the Thirty Years War and English Civil Wars ranges – there’s quite enough to be going on with!

We’ll begin with the Herald, recently returned to the Warlord Games Webstore! There’s any number of uses for this splendidly-attired fellow – if you really must have him playing some kind of role in-game then he makes for a fantastic addition to a commander’s base or even a unit of cavalry, but I think he’d make an awesome centrepiece to a little village diorama, perhaps riding down the main street, telling all the villagers to clear off before things get hairy. This sort of stuff really escalates a table from ‘green baize with some random buildings’ to something that feels very ‘alive’ and is also a great talking point (and a way to show off to your mates!).

Speaking of villages, you’ll need people to populate them! While some of the eponymous Villagers look a little belligerent (perfect for a slightly rowdier street scene – or maybe they’re just having a grand old time at the local inn), there are also the slightly more respectable among their number – look at that stout chap taking his piglet to market! Salt of the earth! If you need a bit more ‘upper crust’ for your scene, or perhaps some of the local ‘quality’ to negotiate with the military types, look no further than the Townsfolk. In such an era of religious fury, you’ll also need a firebrand preacher (or two, or three!) to get a suitably feverish atmosphere – enter the Rabble-rousers! Combining all three sets really adds life to what would otherwise be a fairly plain set of buildings in a corner of your table, and this sort of addition is an area where I think wargaming can really benefit from pinching a few ideas from railway modellers (our sister company, Skytrex, knows a thing or two about that).

In the same vein as populating your towns and villages with people, consider populating your fields with livestock! The Farmyard Animals plastic boxed set gives you everything you need to fill out pigsties, cow pastures, and more. Even just a few animals scattered across a nice field will elevate any table, and there’s nothing quite like declaring that a crucial objective is ‘next to that donkey’ or ‘underneath the badger’. Some of the villagers and townsfolk also make good farmers for more parochial scenes, and given that armies do march on their stomachs, a farm is actually a very feasible reason for two Pike & Shotte forces to be doing battle!

Next, we come to the slightly more military side of ancillary models – those figures that aren’t strictly necessary for gameplay, but who would absolutely have been present in real life. Warlord CEO John Stallard (owner of a fantastic and frankly enormous gaming table incorporating much of what we’ve talked about so far) is a firm believer in having a well-resourced baggage train, particularly for his ordnance, so naturally we make plenty of options to allow you to keep your guns and men well-supplied. Whether it’s a limber for the guns themselves, a mule train for small goods, or various wagons for the heavy stuff, there’s more than enough to keep the rear area of your army from becoming a featureless expanse of grass! If your commander is the kind of chap who travels in style, there’s even a well-appointed General’s Coach for him to ride in – it also makes a great objective marker, as it’s sure to be packed full of valuable papers – and people!

Bringing up the rear we have the Horse Holder (one of my all-time favourite models and an absolute must-have for anyone fielding dragoons… IE, everyone!) with his equine charges in hand, suitably bribed with an apple. Perfect for helping represent exactly where all the horses go when the dragoons dismount (traditionally every fourth man would go to the rear to act as a horse holder), he could also make some great base decoration for a commander who has dismounted to do… whatever it is commanders do! Finally, we have the surgeon, hard at work on some poor unfortunate. Given the state of battlefield medicine in the period, I don’t much fancy his chances, but he does make a great centrepiece for a field hospital diorama, perhaps set up in the local inn (you know, the one you populated with all those villagers!), or even as a really extravagant casualty marker for a unit!

It just goes to show – you don’t need to be a soldier to make an impact on the Pike & Shotte tabletop!