Thursday 16 December 2021
The Tangier Regiment- twice
Friday 10 December 2021
1st Foot Guards finished
This will be my personal standard for the period, 28 foot on three stands 19cm wide, a practical size for gaming. The third rank is largely superfluous but helps to make the unit look a little more like the period engravings. I hope to eventually raise 30-40 battalions, and as many cavalry regiments/batteries, primarily Dutch and French (including Swiss and Walloons) but also Spanish, English and Scots. Eventually I'll need to write a set of rules or perhaps an add-on to the For King and Parliament set.
If anyone has any spare 1672 minis, painted or unpainted, I'd be keen to buy up or swap for them to swell the ranks, you can email me at the address on the left.
In other news, I've recently had a couple of big restocks in the BigRedBatShop and now have pretty much everything in stock, particularly bases and the splendid coloured activation chits.
I have quite a few units underway and hope to be able to post one a week for the next month or so.
Monday 6 December 2021
Régiment Pfyffer WIP
Friday 3 December 2021
Régiment de Douglas
Thursday 2 December 2021
Jengaaa!
Friday 19 November 2021
Royal Regiment of Dragoons
Here's another WIP unit of 1672 miniatures- the Royal Dragoons circa 1685. It's not a good photo, I'll take a proper one when they are based. These minis were mostly painted by chum Steve Spence a couple of years back. I eventually plan to have 34-such mounted dragoons (and 34 dismounted and 34 standing horses- don't you just hate dragoons? So much work!).
I'm mounting the minis in eights in two ranks, two bases to a unit. I think the extra rank helps create an impression of mass. I'm particularly pleased with the way the Flags of War guidons came out. I've gone back to including a strip of metal foil, which is great since I can let the flag's glue dry completely before adding billows. Also I've worked out how to create the tasseled edge using a blunt-ish pair of snippers- I might go back and gild the edge.
My 1672 project is now well and truly underway, I have quite a few battalions on the verge of completion and hope to be able to finish one every ten days or so, and have enough units for a small game by the spring.
There is a paucity of suitable flags for the period, presumable due to its relative obscurity, and my chum Ian is making up some of the more obscure ones for me.
Tuesday 16 November 2021
Kirke's Lambs (again)
Here's a WIP shot of my third 1672-era battalion, the Tangier Regiment (later known as The Queen Dowager's Regiment or by its nickname as "Kirke's Lambs") in the 1670s. Behind them are the Foot Guards I finished a week or so back.
Interestingly, this is the second time I've modelled this unit. I have a larger version in this older post using Front Rank minis. Golly they look good, I'd forgotten! The later unit is better for Sedgemoor in 1685, having flintlocks instead of matchlocks. At the moment I think I'll have two separate collections- one for the 1670's and the other for the 1680's and 90's, using 1672 and Front Rank minis, respectively. It's a bit mad but the styles of the two ranges are quite different, and there was a fair amount of innovation in uniforms and weapons between 1670 and, say, 1690.
The new unit is (again) based to my intended standard for the period - 28 foot on three stands that will work on a 20cm grid. The minis are all North Star 1672, very graceful. I really like the look of the apostles and the sea-green facings. The drummer has reversed colours, very tasteful!
Again, I don't know who the original painter was (he used an interesting non-metallic metallic technique that I can appreciate but can't match) but chum Dave Millett very kindly painted up a few more minis to match and I detailed the minis, and Flags of War flags. I'll get these off to chum Ian later this week, with the Guards, and we'll see how they look, flocked! Proper photos in a few weeks.
In other news I'm very pleased with sales of the new For King and Parliament ECW scenario book "The Siege of Norchester" by Robert Avery that we launched on Friday- if you missed it you can find it here.
Friday 12 November 2021
The Siege of Norchester Scenario PDF published
Today I'm publishing the digital edition of the "Siege of Norchester", a scenario book written by chum Robert Avery. The Siege of Norchester is a supplement for TtS! For King & Parliament that contains twelve free-standing, fictional scenarios in a loose chronological order.
The 66 page PDF tells the story of the investment of the fictional, Royalist-held city of Norchester. It starts with the Parliamentarians gradually pushing the Royalist foraging parties back into the city itself, then looks at the Royalist attempts to delay the construction of encircling works. There’s an assault on the outskirts of Norchester and then a Royalist attempt to get a messenger through to the King to ask for aid. Finally, there’s the arrival of a Royalist relief force, the fall of Norchester and the attempted escape of the main Cavalier protagonists. The same officers and units are used throughout the campaign, and it is hoped that the players will come to adopt and recognise them as their own or the enemy.
The pack is designed to give players who don't have enough time to write their own scenarios a number of games that they can play with little or no preparation. All you have to do is print out the game and player briefings, set up the table according to the map, break out the figures and cards, and start the first turn. You don't even need to print the pack out in full: just the pages you need for the scenario you're going to play.
The games can be played either as a series of linked games or as a collection of one-off battles. To emphasise: each scenario is free standing and they do not have to be played in any particular order…but it is anticipated that players will play them in order as a campaign, keeping a running total of each sides’ score as they go along. The pack provides a Campaign Record Sheet as an easy way of doing so.
Finally, although specifically designed for FK&P, with a little work the scenarios can be adapted for any set of English Civil War/Renaissance rules: the basic elements of why, where and with what each side is fighting being largely common to all systems.
So whether you’re for the King or for Parliament, The Siege of Norchester gives you everything you need for many hours of joyful gaming!
You can order "The Siege of Norchester" from the BigRedBatShop or if you prefer (or if you are based in the EU) from Wargames Vault.
Monday 8 November 2021
IR Van Birkenfeld (I-59)
This is my second 1670's/80's era unit - Dutch IR Van Birkenfeld (I-59). The musketeers were painted by chum Shaun McTague, but I painted (!) the pike and command and highlighted everything. The bases are my FK&P06's, with integral magnets for storage and transit. I'll take a proper photo later- I'm going to have to make a flag up for them, unless anyone has any ideas what it looked like?
Postscript- I've found a partial flag in Hall from Triomphe 1693, against NLI38- I'll need to get chum Ian onto that!
I'm developing the impression that the majority of Dutch units started the 1670's in really bold colours (typically blues, but also reds), but by the late 1670's most had changed to shades of grey with coloured facings, possibly based on their original uniform colour or facing colours. This unit is in light grey as we know they were wearing by 1678- the socks should really be red, but I won't tell if you won't. ;-) I chose to put the officers in reversed colours.
I'm going to concentrate on collecting units that were present at the battle of Seneffe in 1674, because it was the main field battle of the war and because we have images of some of the standards that the French captured. For this reason most of my units will be in the early, bold colours. I'd like to think I'll eventually end up with perhaps 16 battalions of Dutch foot, and nearly as many units of horse, and as many French, which would be enough for a 12-15' wide table at a show.
In other news, I'm doing The Plastic Crack Podcast from 8pm tonight. I'll be wittering on about writing rules and what I'm up to, in general, ie Renaissance, why it's been so slow coming and why its going to be so good.
Finally I've received the PDF version of The Siege of Norchester scenario book for For King and Parlaiment from Robert Avery (who also wrote the popular Marlowe to Maidenhythe scenario book). It represents a series of small battles fought around the fictional city of Norchester. It looks very entertaining and I intend to publish it on Friday.
Friday 5 November 2021
1st Foot Guards
Monday 1 November 2021
Franco-Dutch Interlude
Sorry for the lack of recent posts- I was busy with Partizan and then publishing the updated Ancient and Medieval army list books, which went out last Friday (if you've previously bought a copy, you should have received a copy or download link, if you haven't, please email me).
I've been on a brief vacation in the 1670s, painting British, French and Dutch for a new project. The above aren't yet finished but look great in the flesh as opposed to the unflattering photo. I'll take a better one when they are on bases in around a week's time. They are from the North Star 1672 range- absolutely lovely minis although the range is unfortunately not complete. I seem to have enough minis for 30 battalions, like this, and 20-odd squadrons, but they are by no means easy to paint- the innumerable buttons, and the hat bands, sashes and feathers take an eternity. Waagh! At this stage I'm not looking to finish the armies but want to get three or four units on bases as a proof of concept, then I plan to get back to the Swiss that have been on hold over the summer.
Tuesday 12 October 2021
T'other Partizan 2021
Here are some images of Dave Lycett's wonderful 90mm Macedonians and Persians from our game at the recent Partizan show. All of the miniatures are from Expeditionary Force and painted by David. I wrote a scenario called "Gaugamesque" because of its similarity to Gaugamela, and we fought it out on a very austere table with no terrain. I posted some pics on Facebook on Sunday, but there are more here.
Friday 1 October 2021
Cheesy Indians at the London GT!
Last Sunday I took my Classical Indians to the London GT tournament. This is a massive event, mostly attended by Warhammer players, but also the largest tournament gathering of historical players. Above at the Warhammer players. The historical players were amongst those in the mezzanine (below), our players are in the second photo.
We had an odd number of players so I stood down for the first round which meant I had time to take a few mediocre photos, which I present in no particular order. I took other photos later in the event.
1 Tim Thompson 528 Galatian 2 Steve Dover 525 Third Servile War 3 Simon Miller 465 Classical Indian 4 Martin Sharp 450 Classical Indian 5 Andy Lyon 445 Gallic 6 Simon Purchon 438 Principate Roman 7 Gary Stark 297 Selucid Imperial 8 Derek Pearson 279 Batavian Revolt German 9 Colin Bright 259 Middle Imperial Roman 10 Dene Green 255 Lusitanian 11 John Lavender 249 Principate Roman