Zurlauben II

Here's another WIP of Zurlauben, now with the new minis integrated and with the colours fitted. grouting tonight and off for flocking on Friday. Zurlauben was destroyed at Blenheim, where the Comte himself died, leading a cavalry command.

At a rough count I have 40 more mostly-painted battalions to finish and base, around six months work on the infantry, alone. Gulp.

Zurlauben

Sorry for the recent lack of posts; I've been frantically basing and re-basing units for my War of the Spanish Succession, which has really cut into my time for posting. Here's a unit I'm currently working on, it's a mix of a small unit I bought and Shaun McTague's painting.  I still need to do the highlights and varnish. Front Rank 28mm.

Strategic Reserve

It's been so long since my last post! Here I've been really busy, tidying up Partizan purchases, restocking stock and publishing a bunch of TtS! Medieval Army lists (which are currently on sale for a few days more).

My current obsession is the War of the Spanish Succession, and I'm putting an army together for a game at Colours in September. Below are one of three armies I'm trying to reorganise into a single collection. I bought the below minis six or more years ago, from a chap in Spain, and is the least painted of the three armies; I call it my strategic reserve. It has remained untouched in the loft since I bought it.

This weekend I opened them up and sorted them out into 5 RUBs.

There are roughly 100 painted infantry minis, really well painted, although more than half of these are grenadiers, so I might struggle to use them all, except in an imaginations setting. The one below, for example I need 2 minis, for a Foot Guards grenadier company, but I seem to have 21. :-0

In total there are getting on for 300 foot and 72 horse, dragoons and mounted generals, and quite a lot of artillery. I'll see what I can do with it.

The Relief of Norchester at Partizan - all the Gabions in the World!

Here is Norchester- a town well fortified, now, with its new line of modern defences. The medieval walls are now partially protected by trenches, two horn works and the famous Bishop's Bastion.

The siege lines have expanded, too. Next outing I hope to have a tented camp to stand alongside the baggage train.

Above and below, the battle from behind the Parliamentarian lines; left and centre.

... and the right. Here, the Parliamentarian cavalry triumphed- Prince Rupert had to leap a hedge to seek the somewhat illusory protection of a unit of Royalist forlorn hope!

Above, the normally sleepy village of Soggy Bottom. The impious crophead dragoons have stabled their horses in the churchyard! And finally, below, a short video of the battlefield.

Partizan was a fine event, as ever- very well organised, indeed, a well-oiled machine. There were some super games of which my favourite was Aughrim, which I'd have watched all day, if I'd not been a tad busy. That Omaha Beach game looked most impressive, and the Bodkin's Roman vs. Sassanid game, and others. It was super chatting with so many people, at least five re-enactors pointed out their regiments on the table. A terrific show!

The Relief of Norchester at Salute 51

Here are some super photos of the Relief of Norchester game that my friends helped me take to Salute last weekend. The photos were taken by chum Ian Notter. Above is a shot of the parliamentarian Great Battery, which had just commenced its bombardment of the eponymous city.

...and here is the city Norchester, itself. You will be able to make out the tall buildings of the Flemish merchants' quarter (Norchester exports wool to the Low Countries), and the bombardment has already damaged the ancient bell tower of St. Andrew's church. Beyond the city is Norchester Great Wood.

The other end of the battlefield is defined by the Bishop's Wood. Above and below, there was a massive cavalry clash on this wing, with over 300 horse in 15 regiments fighting to more or less mutual destruction. We used the For King and Parlaiment rules to fight the battle, everyone picked them up and it ran smoothly.

On the other wing, above, Hesilrige's heavily-armoured lobsters (right foreground) held the Parliamentarian left flank throughout the day, resisting numerous charges!

And finally here is a view down the battlefield showing many of the 27 foot battalia that were engaged. The battle was extremely close- the Royalists were behind most of the day, and down to four medals just after lunch, but managed to squeak a narrow victory an hour later, forcing the parliamentarians to lift the siege!

Above is a brief video that I shot before the event.

...and I was delighted to win an award for the game- best 25/28mm game, second year in a row!

I'd like to thank everyone who helped m to deliver the project, particularly Ian Notter who helped a great deal with the modelling and advice, as well as the photography. Huge thanks to those who played on the day and helped me to engage with the public- especially FK&P stealth co-author Andrew Brentnall. Also thanks to everyone who dropped by for a chat, and apologies to anyone I didn't manage to talk to- it was insanely busy. And finally a big thank you to the South London Warlords who, as ever, did a fantastic job running the event.

I will be taking the game to Partizan next month. If you'd like to play, please drop me a line. In the meanwhile, the brave citizens intend to bolster the defences of Norchester with some state-of-the-art renaissance fortifications, to be erected in front of the medieval walls.

All the New Horse

I've recently, with the big Salute game in mind, added just over 100 new 28mm cavalry to my ECW armies. Around half the minis are from eBay purchases, retouched, and the remainder were painted by the hard-working Shaun McTague. I finished and based all the minis, and chum Ian Notter flocked them all. They still need tufts and flags. Around a half are Renegades, the rest are Bicornes.

Above and below, there are 54 "Dutch" horse in six 3-deep troops, some of these are cuirassiers, acting as lifeguards for the generals.

...and above and below, there are another 54 minis in three Swedish regiments of 18. These will all be Royalists.

This will give me just over 500 beautifully painted cavalry in the Salute game- around twelve regiments a side, plus three lifeguard troops. I am striving to achieve a historical ECW ratio of horse to foot-  I should have 1:2.5 or so on the day.  

...in other news I added some more items, including magnetic basing materials, to the flash sale in the BigRedBatShop. 

New Regiments of Foote

I'm running a big ECW game at Salute, and intend to add six or so new foote battalias to my armies. Above are the first two, painted and part based, and below is a third. By chance, these three are almost entirely Renegades, with a few Bicornes added. Shaun McTague painted around half of them, and the remainder are from judicious eBay purchases. I've highlighted and am basing them. Two of the units will be Royalists from the Oxford Army, clad in cloth recently looted from the warehouses of Bristol, and natty montero caps.

If you'd like to play in the big Salute game for an hour or so, please drop me an email.

In other news, I've added a few more items to my BigRedBatShop flash sale of battle mats, bases and chits.  The cloths are reduced by 10% or more, and the bases and chits by up to 50%.