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%.

Roundway Down at Colours

I'm in the process of finishing off the extra elements I have planned for our extended Battle of Roundway Down For King and Parliament game at the Colours show in Newbury on Saturday. Above are the new units- Prince Maurice's horse, Captain ffoulkes' firelocks*, some battalion guns and some extra casualty stands. Below is my forming baggage park, now with three teams of horses. 

Many of the minis were painted by chum Shaun McTague or eBay purchases, although Prince Maurice's are built around a core of minis originally painted by chum George Moraitis. I painted the wagons and highlighted/finished everything, Ian flocked all the bases, which I'm in the process of tufting - they will all be finished by the day. I will take some proper photos, later on, when everything is completely finished.

If you fancy playing on Saturday, drop me an email at simonmiller60 at gmail.com and I'll hopefully be able to fit you in. It should be a relatively short game- around 90 minutes, I expect. If not just drop by and marvel at the size of our hill! I hope to see lots of you there.

* There wasn't an actual ECW unit of this name, although there were a number of small units of firelocks on both sides. Captain ffoulkes is a Welsh officer and entirely a figment of my imagination.

ECW progress

I'm conscious that I've not posted on this blog for almost a month- it can get that way when I'm busy in the lead-up to a display game (in this case Partizan). Above and below, I've been making command stands, pursuit  markers, casualty markers and artillery pieces for the Roundway Down game. This has been going pretty well, with the first three categories close to completion, and only the artillery needing very much work. I should have them finished with plenty of time, which is good news, since I still need to build a darned great hill. When they are completely finished, I'll take some decent photos. 

In other news, I'm working on the next release of Even Stronger, which will include some new troop types and streamlined rules, due out at the month end- it'll have been a whole year since the last version! I'm also editing ancient army lists for the month end release and a book. Busy, busy busy!

ECW veterans

 

On Saturday I came across an old ECW regiment that I based up perhaps three years ago to illustrate how I'd model a unit on a 20cm frontage; it's the one featured in the colour pages in the For King and Parliament rule book. It's never been used, because I have always gamed on 30cm, but I've long thought about rebasing it. I worked out a shortcut to do this, by inserting three FK&P7 bases on the edged of the existing FK&P6's, adding extra files to the pike and to each wing of shotte. I just needed to paint an additional seven minis to bulk it out and, on a whim, I did this over the weekend.

The regiment is only in two ranks, unlike my other units which have three, but that's not an issue as I intend it to represent an understrength unit. The minis (many painted by Shaun McTague- the additional minis I repainted from eBay purchases) are a mix of Renegades and Bicornes, and feel like they are veterans.

I don't have a name for this unit, which is fairly generic- probably Parliamentarian as the sashes are orange. I'm open to suggestions! I'll post a better picture when it is flocked.

Snagging

I ran out of time, before Salute, and didn't manage to complete the basing of the Soggy Bottom horse. Yesterday and today I have been frantically adding tufts- at least four per mini- rather more than 1000 in total. Time permitting I will dry-brush them, later. Next I need to add weeds and flowers to some of the units. I've also added flags to the four regiments that lacked them- if manners maketh the man, cornets definitely maketh the regiment.

The four "Dutch" regiments are at the back and eight "Swedes" in front. This looks like quite a lot of horse, but to achieve a sensible horse:foot ratio to complement the infantry regiments that I have finished or mostly finished, I estimate that will I need to recruit around the same number again.

Oh- and the best music I've found for tufting- Bob Marley. The base line really helps with the rythmic action!

Hold your horses!

Reinforcements for Sunday's Partizan game. These are the horse holders for Colonel James Wardlawe's dragoons and will sit behind a hedge, all day, doing absolutely nothing, except for looking pretty. Minis are super Bicornes, which a few Redoubt horses for variety, painted by Shaun McTague.

There are enough horses to mount one of my two units of dismounted dragoons. Next I'll need to ask Shaun to paint 18 mounted dragoons. Dragoons are a harsh mistress; three units need to be painted to put one on the table!

Andrew and I hope that some of you will see our Soggy Bottoms at Partizan on Sunday- we still have slots for players for the afternoon game- drop me a line if you'd like to play!

Saint Something-or-other

Here's a quick shot  of a WIP terrain piece for my Salute ECW game; a Hovels church and scratch-build chirchyard. David Davies painted the church but I've detailed it- it stands around 25cm tall- a fine piece. The churchyard disassembles and packs away. I was going to fill it with gravestones, but apparently these were pretty uncommon until after the ECW. I will need some yew trees, though. I am looking for a name for it- the nearby village is named Soggy Bottom, after the local marsh- all suggestions considered!

In other news, For King and Parliament is finished, and I'm waiting for the Proof copy- very exciting- and I have a flash sale of rules, chits, bases and cloths in the BigRedBatShop! 

More hosses

Chum Shaun McTague brought in a load more painted cavalry yesterday. These are most of the additional "Swedish" horse (gallopers if you like) for Salute; around six eighteen-man regiments worth. Dauntingly I also need to complete at least three larger regiments of Dutch; not shown... 

Still trapped in the ECW

In the lead-up to Salute, all my ancient and medieval projects are currently on hold and most of my recent posts have been on my new ECW blog. So I thought I'd pop in here and say hi, even though all I have to post is a pic of a couple of extra ECW regiments that are approaching completion.

Above are two 18-mini regiments of "Swedish" horse. Below, these minis were painted by David Davies but I painted some of the horses and added a little highlighting. 

These chaps will become "Northern Horse"; hard riding, hard fighting and turbulent Yorkshire Royalists.

I am very much looking forward to the TtS! Worlds at Chalgrove in 3 weeks time. We have all the army lists in and I was very surprised to see that there are more medieval armies, than ancient ones! In fact, there are several surprising trends, of which more anon....

New "For King and Parliament" Blog

I'll be posting a great deal about the English Civil War during the coming year, so have decided to set up a dedicated ECW blog- it's called For King and Parliament (the same name as that of the rules Andrew and I will be publishing later this year)- better bookmark it now before you forget!  :-)  I've been posting pics, there, of my first ECW units as they go onto my FK&P bases; here's one as a taster.

In other news... for the final 48 hours of the BigRedBatShop Summer Sale, I've added even more Deep-Cut mats, MDF gaming tokens, bases and victory medal coins. The sale must finish on Friday night!

ECW 4

Progress on my first regiment- the command stand and casualty minis are blocked in and the rest are inked. Turns out that command minis are even slower to paint than musketeers! Still, I am on the final lap with perhaps two painting sessions left, which is just as well as my special designer bases are due to arrive next week...

Most of the units in this army will be painted by other people but it is nice to start with one that I have painted pretty much from scratch.

ECW 3

Steady progress with the ECW minis- I'm around 70% in on the first (front) regiment now, they need to be piked, inked and varnished. The command stand are mustering at the rear...  They are going to be, most appropriately, New Model Army.

ECW 2

Terrible photo but the ECW minis are coming on- I now have 60 "under the brush". The chaps on the left will be Royalists and the right, New Model Army. Two things I have learned thus far:-

1. ECW minis are not faster to paint than ancients; especially musketeers.
2. One needs to do a bit of research to get them right, there's more to them than there might as first appear...

Opening a new front...

I'm sorry for the recent lack of posts- I've been very busy writing "For King and Parliament" for release late this year and it's cut right across my blogging time. I still have loads of units that I completed for the last WHC gig in april that I've not photographed and posted, and a fair bit of other stuff, since.

In the meanwhile, here are some English Civil War minis which I've just repainted from eBay purchases, still on their painting blocks. I am assembling a generously-sized ECW army for a demo game at Salute next year. They are better than they look in the photo; will look great, based.

Also on my painting trays are three elephants, a unit of Galatian horse, a hundred or so Normans and half a Florentine army. I need to recover my focus...

Edgehill at Partizan

On Sunday at Partizan (the excellent wargames show in Newark) Andrew Brentnall and I will be running a participation game of our forthcoming "For King and Parliament" ECW rules. We have spaces for players- if you'd like to book a 90 minute game, please drop me a line via https://bigredbatshop.co.uk/pages/about-us ). Alternatively, just stop by for a chat!

The game will feature Andrew's 12mm collection, but I'll be bringing some 28's along, too.

We very much hope to see you there!

Casualties of war

Andrew Brentnall has been extending his ECW collection with some casualty bases- here are some of them, there are many more. We hope to make the battlefield a little less "parade-ground" than usual. Many will make it onto the table for his Edgehill game at the Wargames Holiday Centre, Friday week!

Edgehill at Chalgrove

Alongside the TtS Worlds at the recent Chalgrove event, Andrew Brentnall ran a participation game of the Battle of Edgehill using his superb collection of 12mm ECW minis and the "For King and Parliament!"rules that we have been writing and developing together. Here are some photos of the game in progress!

The calm before the storm. The Royalists begin their advance from the right,
 as Andrew shows the Earl of Essex how to identify his troops!

Gerard's Royalist Brigade negotiates the rough ground in the centre

Rupert's horse (centre, foreground) advance over hedges and uphill
 to drive off the static horse on Essex' left flank (right foreground)

Ballard's Brigade of Foot refuse to advance a second time,
as Ramsey's horse attempt to stem Rupert's onslaught

Wilmot breaks through the Parliamentary right, and sets off in pursuit!

The outcome of the battle was a decisive victory for the King - which might have ended the war in 1642.

The fKaP rules are coming on well, with all the key rule mechanisms in place and over 11,000 words written. We've spent the last six months in development and play-testing, with help from numerous chums. We are coming towards the end of that stage, now. I plan to pile on with writing the remaining text during the spring and early summer.

Edgehill

Here are some images of the Edgehill game I recently played at Andrew Brentnall's place with his lovely 12mm English Civil War collection. I posted them on Facebook, at the time, but neglected to blog them. All photos are clickable!

Parliament further table edge, Royalists, nearer.

The rules are an English Civil War re-engineering by myself and Andrew of my "To the Strongest" Ancients set. They are grid based, with activations driven by D10 or playing cards, and rattle along at a terrific pace!

The Royal Standard

Parliamentarian horse about to get Rupert-ed

The mat is a gridded Deep-Cut plains mat- I sell them in a variety of grid sizes (or without grids for that matter).

Dragoons fight it out in the hedges

The infantry lines close.

We had a great day running this epic play-test! It ended with a narrow Royalist victory, that wouldn't have been decisive. The working title of the rules is "For King and Parliament". I expect to publish them next May/June.

A Civil English War

Had a fun day of chat and play-testing my forthcoming ECW rules with Andrew Brentnall (co-writer) in his Suffolk fastness. Above and below is the warm-up scenario, Montgomery 1644. I lost two of my three commanders in turn two, but still almost managed to turn the game around.

Below, for the main event, Naseby, Andrew has brought in a senior military advisor in the form of John D-Z. Andrew's 10mm ECW minis were both very numerous and beautifully painted, and the below wasn't the half of them. The terrain wasn't too shabby, either.

Above the lines are closing; below my Royalist veterans were gaining a slight ascendancy over the riff-raff in Parliament's front line. On the whole, though, the battle as a whole was not going well for ye Kinge (me) by the time I needed to hit the road. Prince Rupert was wounded and his cavalry were recoiling. The mechanics worked very well, though, so I was pretty chuffed!