By Fire and Sword: Polish Skirmish Starter Box(es)

Well, I completed two Polish skirmish starter boxes. Took two days - painted one per day. 

After some internal debate, I opted not to attempt a historical paint scheme on these figures. My reasoning, which is the same as how I've painted my SAGA figures:

• The multiple, vibrant colors require a lot more effort in painting, and don't dip as well
• By painting units in uniform colors, it makes for easier identification on the tabletop
• There's a lack of easily accessible resources to get good guides to paint them (unlike, say, WW2)

 So, what do we have here? First, we have some Cossack style cavalry. Each starter box comes with 4 bases, but I've learned that two-base units preform rather poorly. I'd recommenced if you have a single starter box, combining them into one four-base unit. With the two starter boxes, I'll probably go with two squads of three, and one squad of two.

Cossack style cavalry want to get into close combat, but they can shoot some too. They have the "elite cavalry" rule, which allows them to maneuver around in open order, but close to a tight close-combat formation during the charge. So ride around, shoot some bows and arqubuses, then condense formation and make the charge.

 You also get three stands of Pancerni cavalry per starter box. Banners of three seem ideal. Pancerni are the second best close combat cavalry in the Polish army, second to the Winged Hussars. They have a decent armor of 5, negating about half of the hits taken, and can be upgraded with spears to get the additional bonus in close combat. Like the Cossack style cavalry, they also have the "elite cavalry" rule.

The third type you get in the starter box are the Wallachians. they must move around in open order, and do not have the "scarce ammunition" rule the rest of the Polish cav have, so they make better shooters. However, they still have two dice in close combat, so they're not total pushovers either, but keep in mind fighting close combat in open order does give a -1 combat resolution.

And last but not least, each box comes with a command stand.