Thursday, 10 March 2022

Dutch Artillery, 1672 style


Here's my first unit of artillery for 1672, a battery of Dutch guns.  These are mostly miniatures from the North Star range, with accessories from Bicorne Miniatures and TAG. I converted several 1672 pikemen to add variety to the limited number of poses of the gunners. Unusually, I painted most of these myself from scratch, and the guns, too. Ian added the static grass and I added the tufts. all the pictures are clickable.


I think I have the uniforms reasonably right, but, in any case, there is a very great deal of uncertainty about the Dutch uniforms. They possibly had orange sashes. Incidentally, the wicker basket in the left foreground holds grape shot.


Here is a close-up of the unit's officer, he is an officer from the Warfare Miniatures "officers with character" range, equipped with a TAG linstock. These recent releases from Warfare are very nicely sculpted and compatible, size and style wise, with 1672. Great buttons! The chap behind him, on the left, is a 1672 pike man equipped with a (Bicorne?) trail spike. 

I hope you like these, I do! I'm still a very long way from playing a game in this period, but the armies are coming along in the background. A big shout out to David Imrie for further lighting advice; I now have green grass, again!

In other news, I've been chatting with Andrew Brentnall and David Imrie about how to depict units in the Thirty Years War. David Imrie has recently painted and based a breathtakingly-lovely Imperialist unit and I am strongly resisting basing up a unit or two of Swedes. Andrew and I are in the early stages of discussing some possible tweaks to For King and Parliament to take into account some of the additional continental troop types and tactics that one encounters in the TYW.

Monday, 7 March 2022

New Chits of War released

 I've just released some more lovely chits for use with To the Strongest! and For King and Parliament. Chits of War come in sheets of 80, are 20mm in diameter and are drawn from a bag and used in the place of playing cards. I've introduced two new colours, white and yellow, to complement the existing five colours (purple, dark blue, green, red and orange). 

The coloured, varnished MDF chits are double sided for speed of play, because you don't need to flip them over.  The two new sheets offer a strong contrast to the existing colours, so you won't mix them up.              


I've also had matching stratagem tokens made:


You can find them here (chits) and here (stratagems).

Monday, 28 February 2022

Updated To the Strongest! Medieval Army List eBook released


I’ve just published an updated versions of the medieval army list eBook for To the Strongest! The 211-page PDF now includes 120 Medieval army lists, including five new lists (West Slav, Old Prussian, Early Lithuanian and Samogitian, Later Feudal English and Yi Korean lists). I’ve also moved the Later Hindu Indian, Early Lombard and Avar lists here, from the Ancient List eBook, as they sit better alongside the medieval lists. Several of the existing lists have been revised, and a good deal of background information has been added.

Each list consists of a spreadsheet describing the army. Most of the lists also include details of how the army fought and a historical background, and sometimes a picture of painted miniatures.

You can find buy the army lists here.  Should you order the lists you'll receive updates roughly every three months until at least the end of 2022, with new lists and additional material added each time. The next update will be at the end of May 2022. The eBook costs £9.99.

https://bigredbatshop.co.uk/collections/all/army-lists

Alternatively, if you are outside the UK (especially if you are in the EU, where I can't sell digital products) you might like to buy it from Wargames Vault for $14.99.

https://www.wargamevault.com/product/343132/To-the-Strongest-Medieval-Army-List-eBook?term=medieval+ar

Monday, 21 February 2022

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.

Tuesday, 8 February 2022

Blowing hot air


I am just finishing some bases on a couple of regiments of cavalry for Roundway Down (at Partizan in late May), and I found myself wondering whether anyone else uses their wife's hairdryer to blow away surplus flock? Also does anyone else matt varnish their finished flock? I find it comes out better in photos, that way.

Monday, 31 January 2022

Burgundian arquebusiers and TtS! Ancient Army lists


One more Burgundian unit, for the time being, again painted by Lionel Bechara, flocked by Ian and tufted by me. I intend to add at least two more units of these, including some nice old Grenadier minis that will add a bit of extra variety; perhaps also some Perry officers and a standard with an arquebus. this unit is based on slightly shallower
FK&P13c bases. I have more-or-less enough Burgundian foot, for the moment, and I've started to think about mounted knights, coustilliers and pages (gulp; potentially quite a lot of work in them!).

Today I've just released an updated version of the TtS! Ancient Army list eBook, with four new lists (Cappadocians, Hasmonean Judean, West African Forest Kingdoms and Mossi). Now with 164 army lists, the book is now approaching completion and consequently the new armies I am adding tend to be somewhat more obscure, although often all the more interesting for that. I'm still adding background material to the lists  - I'm up to 128,000 words (!) - and revising some of the older lists. If you've previously bought a paid-for version of this list (as opposed to the original free version of the book) you should have recently received an email copy (from the BigRedBatShop) or a download link (from Wargames Vault). If not, please mail me. At the end of February there will be a similar update to the Medieval army lists.

Friday, 28 January 2022

Twofer

By way of a slight digression from the 1670s, here are some minis I finished late last year but never got around to photographing. I decided to expand my two x two stand units of Burgundian longbowmen each to three stands, and added stakes. Most of the miniatures were painted my my French chum Lionel Bechara, I did some highlighting. They are, of course, Perry plastics, even the flags are Perry. Chum Ian flocked and I tufted. I now have around eight Burgundian units, I need at least twice that. Chum David sent me some recently, which will certainly help. But even 16 units would barely speedbump my Swiss!

In other news... I've managed to get the BigRedBatShop restocked. I have pretty much everything in stock, aside from the Deep-Cut cross-grid mats which I can't get printed at the moment for technical reasons- but I have bought in some from Geek Villain. I have all of the coloured chits, plain MDF chits and bases back in stock. If there's anything that you want that appears to be out of stock (other than cross-grid mats), mail me, I probably have it somewhere in my lounge.

I'm currently finalising the latest version of the Ancient Army List eBook- that should go out on Monday, it includes four new lists and some other new material. If you've previously bought it I'll send you a copy or a download link.  It now has 164 lists in it- pretty much any ancient army that you'd ever want to put on a table.

Finally I hope to be at Partizan on 22nd May- I'll be taking Roundway Down in 28mm. I still have a few slots for players- email me if you'd like me to book you in.

Tuesday, 25 January 2022

Royal Dragoons



Here is the first detachment of my Royal Dragoons ca.1685, which I originally intended to use for Sedgemoor. Now I find myself wondering whether I might be able to use them as the English 1st Dragoons in French Service in the 1670s, but haven't as yet discovered any uniform/flag details, they may not exist. Red seems possible, although they might have been in grey like the English foot in French service. I could potentially swap out the nice Flags of War guidons and use them later with my (projected) Front Rank 1685 dragoon unit.

I bought some of these 1672 minis, painted, a few years back, and chum Steve Spence painted a bunch more. Shaun McT is painting even more for me, and the foot versions, too. Ian kindly flocked the bases, I tufted and matt varnished. It's a big, deep unit- I found it challenging to photograph.

I really hate dragoons as one has to paint them mounted, dismounted and the standing horses as well- three times the work!


In other news, I'm planning to run a big Roundway Down game at Partizan near Newark-on-Trent on May 22nd. I'm scouting around for players- I need three or four players each for the AM and PM sessions (around 90 mins each), so if you are going and interested, please drop me an email (above left) and I will book you in.  I am also desperately keen to find someone local to help me set up the day before - 4pm-ish for around an hour or 90 mins - I need help setting up a huge hill. If you are relatively local and free please mail me, there might even be beer or a curry in it, after. :-)

Monday, 17 January 2022

Adrian von Bubenberg

Adrian von Bubenberg was a Bernese knight, general and politician. He is chiefly famous from the battle of Murten, where his valiant defence of the town bought time for the Swiss army to assemble. This then went on to crush the Burgundians. Von Bubenberg sallied forth to join the ensuing massacre.

The models were beautifully painted by chum Andrés Amián Fernández, and are respectively Perry, Wargames Foundry and Grenadier miniatures. The flag is from Iain at Flags of War. Von Bubenberg probably didn't have a beard, but I love that model! You can't see it clearly in the photo, but he has blingy gold-plated armour.

He'll be one of the commanders for my Swiss army, which has been in storage for around a year but which I hope to get back onto, shortly, when I return from my holiday in 1672.

Today I'm working on the latest version of the TtS! Ancient Army List eBook, which I will publish on or about 31/1/22 (I'll send everyone who has bought it an updated version). I hope to include four new lists and a fair amount of extra background material on several of the existing lists.

Thursday, 13 January 2022

Pontius Pilate's Bodyguard


Here's the third finished unit for my 1672 armies and the first French unit, Régiment de Douglas (also known as Hepburn's and Dumbarton's regiment at different times). Founded in 1633, the regiment later became the Royal Scots, the oldest regiment in the British Army, nicknamed "Pontius Pilate's Bodyguard."

I might later do an alternative command stand with British flags- I also intend to do the same unit in Front Rank minis for Sedgemoor. All of the minis but two were beautifully painted by Richard O'Connor. The lovely French colours are Flags of War. I assembled everything, basing on my FK&P06's, Ian Notter flocked and then I tufted. I've recently taken to matt varnishing the flock, it gives a pleasing finish.


In other news... I'm currently working on the end of January update of the Ancient Army lists. I just received a restock of the Deep-Cut mats and terrain strips, and currently have all the bases, in fact happily I have pretty much everything in the BigRedBatShop in stock.

Saturday, 1 January 2022

A Happy New Year to All!

Here in the BigRedBatCave we've had a busy Christmas and I've only managed a little modelling. However in the days before Christmas I finally managed to paint the walls and floor of my cellar storage space, which I hope you'll agree is looking pretty tidy. I only have around 5' 9" of headspace, but it will enable me to store a lot of minis, once I've fitted racking and sorted out the humidity.


Below is the "before".

My resolutions for 2022 - 

  • Finish and publish Renaissance
  • Finish and publish the playtest game, Ceresole 1544 and a secret associated project
  • Finish the Swiss army that has been in hibernation for a year.
  • Put on some banging games at shows
  • Catch up with everyone who I've missed in the last year or so!
I hope everyone is safe and well. I feel very optimistic about 2022. I feel the prospects for life and gaming are likely to be much better, for us, this year- let's hope than none of our cards are Aces! 

Thursday, 16 December 2021

The Tangier Regiment- twice


Here's the second regiment of my 1672 force- the Tangier Regiment, AKA Kirke's Lambs. This regiment cut it's teeth defending the British outpost in Tangiers and later fought at Sedgemoor. 

Most of the minis are by an unknown painter but chum Dave Millward filled out the ranks of musketeers, I highlighted and mounted the Flags of War flags- the billows came out particularly well on these. Ian Notter flocked the FK&P6 bases, and I tufted.


This is my second take on this iconic unit, I've also raised it (below) using Front Rank Miniatures. The original unit had a bigger frontage (25cm as opposed to 19cm) - it is rather less practicable, for that reason, but looks magnificent. Armed with snaphance muskets, it's better suited for the 1680s than my current 1670's obsession, and I'll probably use it for Sedgemoor. You can read about my other battalion here. I think I can live with the new, smaller unit size (above) - it'll be much easier to fight large battles with this size of unit, and rather less painting per unit, which means 50% more units. Of course, there would be even less painting if I'd gone for 2 ranks, but then one must suffer for one's art.


In other news, I've finally bitten the bullet and am in the process of painting the actual BigRedBatCave, photos next week, hopefully. Until then, stay safe everyone!

Friday, 10 December 2021

1st Foot Guards finished

Here are my first battalion for my 1670's project, the 1st Foot Guards ca. 1683. Strictly, they are outside the 1667-1672 period that I'm concentrating on but I had them mostly painted and couldn't resist finishing them off. The minis are North Star 1672. Unfortunately they have been in my "reserves" boxes for so long I can't recall who the original painter was, but chum Dave Millett very painted up a few more to match and I detailed and finished them. The flags are from Flags of War. The bases are my FK&P06's and they were beautifully flocked by my chum Ian (I tufted).

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


Here's my fifth 1672 infantry battalion, the Swiss Pfyffer regiment in French service. I love this regiment's jaunty yellow tunics! I picked up some mostly-painted minis for this unit on eBay, painted some more myself and the remaining minis were painted by Richard O'Connor. 

They are on bases but not yet grouted (I find it best to mount the flags before grouting, and the flags that chum Ian is making aren't quite ready yet).


I really like the North Star Swiss minis- they have bags of character. Most of my infantry units will have the same basic structure as this one, which has six pike, two sergeants, 16 musketeers and four officers. They are in three ranks on three of my FK&P6 bases so around 19cm wide. I'll take proper photos when they are finished.

Friday, 3 December 2021

Régiment de Douglas

 
Here's a WIP shot of Régiment de Douglas, later the Royals Scots, Dumbartons etc, in French service in the early 1670's. These minis were mostly painted by Richard O'Connor, although I painted one pikeman and someone else a single musketeer. Richard did a lovely job. They are all from the North Star 1672 range, and include an OOP Spanish piper who has changed nationality. Next week I'll pass to chum Ian for flocking. I'll take proper images when they are finished.


Including these, I have four battalions mostly finished, and another 6 or 8 well advanced. I also seem to have accumulated enough unpainted infantry minis for another 30 or so battalions, plus horse, dragoons and artillery. :-)

Thursday, 2 December 2021

Jengaaa!


In the (no doubt temporary) absence of any meaningful numbers of mid c.16th miniatures in the BigRedBatCave, I've been mocking up a couple of armies from wooden blocks (Jenga and birch cubes). This is a portion of the units- the big blocks represent roughly 3000 pike, the smaller blocks arquebusiers. The taller blocks to the right are cavalry, there are also guns (not shown). Eventually I plan to put flags on the tops which will show facings. I have most of the minis for Ceresole 1544 which I plan to use as the first test game for Renaissance, I'll probably also look at a French Wars of Religion battle, too, to test troop types such as Reiters that weren't present earlier on.

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.