Scurrers Revisited

As soon as I had completed the Stradiotti I was rather keen to re-base the existing Border Horse in a similar fashion and after something of a summer hiatus I considered this a nice 'no pressure' task to ease me back on to the painting desk.

So here we have some new and I hope improved scurrers to return to the ranks of my Tudor army. These were all originally based individually which had its advantages of more dynamic photography and posing but during a game the wire spears often got damaged so there were some issues.

Furthermore, as I found with the Stradiotti a larger base really helps to display the figures better and give a sense of movement and cohesion. Perhaps most importantly, when arranged as a unit this basing goes some way to represent the unit in a loose open order as light cavalry operated. At this juncture I must give credit to this notion as I did with the Stradiots to James Roach whose efforts in the same really enhanced his Italian Wars armies, you can view these here. 

I used the re-basing operation as a chance to experiment with the figures for the best composition and I also painted a new addition to add to the fray; a captain of the Percy household;

Henry Algernon Percy provided most of the border horse for the 1513 invasion of France (though it is doubtful he commanded them), this captain wears a Percy crest on the shoulder of his issued livery coat, with him he brings his hunting hounds, no doubt a natural addition to a scurrer's armoury.

These were acquired from Simon Chick who recently commissioned their sculpts and what fine sculpts they are, effortless to paint and a lot of movement - just like the scurrers.

Finally, this mock up replicates one of the favoured scurrer tactics as recorded by Sir Thomas Audley;

Where possible Scurrers were used, or rather Audley suggests the tactical notion of using Border Horse to entice enemy cavalry by feigned retreat or otherwise into waiting formations of bows and shot. I seem to remember this being adopted by Samurai armies in the film 'Ran' so I guess the tactic is no doubt ancient and culturally universal.

Either way, it makes for an interesting photograph.

Stuart