Ogniem i Mieczem - By Fire and Sword

Ok, I picked up the following for my Polish force:
Skirmish box
Cavalry regiment
Winger Hussar box

For my Lithuanian
Winged Hussars with character

I guess my question here is... do I buy the Lithuanian skirmish box or move right to buying blisters of other units that support both Skirmish forces? A lot of the pieces are interchangeable so I could easily make the Lithuanian skirmish force after I bought the Polish gunners, etc...

I am fond of both skirmish sets and am planning to have my teaching army to be either the Turks or Muscovites.

Which of the 2 skirmish boxes do you guys think is best to build off of?
Polish or Lithuanian?

One thing to realy consider with this question is the following. The Lithuanian skirmish set contains Petyhorcy, which only can be used in list from 1662 onwards, so only the latter part of the period.
The Polish skirmish force has units that can be used for both Lithuanian and Polish armies, except the Wallachians, which can only be used in a Polish army.

So, for starting either a Polish or Lithuanian army for the early period, the Polish skirmish set is best.
If, on the other hand, you want a later period Lithuanian army including Petyhorcy, then the Lithuanian skirmish set is a very good one.

Hope this helps,
Cheers,
Zagin

Someone will probably correct me but I believe the skirmish boxes are a better deal than individual blisters. So,as long as you have long term plans to let things get out of control here is my suggestion
First, buy some blisters that complement the polish skirmish set.
However, as soon as you start thinking about blisters that are also in the lithuanian set buy that box.

That makes a lot of sense.... the issue for me really was the ground troops... buying a blister there....
The issue was that the Polish cavalry regiment levels the playing field.... has units to cross over form Poles to Lithuanian.

I think I will do what we all do...... let it get out of hand right now!!!

I will be buying either the Muscovites or Ottomans very soon.... I will play whichever I get against the Poles.

Then, the next purchase will be the Lithuanian skirmish box set.

thanks guys!

Here I am. I have made an Excel file with all troops from skirmish formation and individual boxes/blisters. The possible difference is neglectable, so the only question is, how much do you need from each unit.

When it comes to which army to collect, I would advise to start with the Polish. Some things to keep in mind like Iluzagin said, but a bit more options with the Polish lists and you can always add some Petyhorcy later down the road. There was a remark from Kadrinazi on a banner that was only used by Lithuanians (Pogoń).

Did a search and I guess he meant this one:


In the banners I think I found some that had a similar coat of arms, but that also says "Ioannis Casimiri" and if I remember correctly what I read, the two riders are not the same. So, I guess those are save to use and interchangeable between the Polish and Lithuanians. If not we have Kadrinazi to warn us.

Remember, unless you're playing in an official tournament you could always use petyhorcy as pancerni and vice versa. I'm damned if I can spot any difference, except that petyhorcy may optionally be equipped with long lances.

Ah well

Ok, after a great time at Fall-In! in Lancaster PA..... and much time spent with the By Fire & Sword crew....

I have finally settled upon division level.....
I flushed out my Polish-Lithuanian force to be a hard hitting cavalry force and capped it off by getting the Tartar cav I needed.... still no foot troops yet. The only Polish item I need is the order markers, they were sadly out by the time I made it to the booth. Being the convention director has some disadvantages!

For my Opposing force, I decided Turks would fill the bill. I got the Turkish garrison of Raszkov as the main building block of the army and then the Mehter, another 2 units, Sipahi and something else.... plus all of the dice, order markers, etc....

Now that I have over bought and am all intimidated..... I will be sending all of my forces to Old Guard Painters to get painted up. This Ukrainian painting service is AWESOME!!!!

I also got to play in a game called Magnates... WOW.. another awesome game.... I need to buy a copy as I played it and loved it! My friend won a copy, so at least we can play!!!

I say hats off to Tomaz and crew!!!! They are excellent folks! Very helpful and very professional!