Flodden Project -An update

 

Above we have James, King of Scots.  He is a converted QRF dismounted gendarme, his comrades are from the same stable.  I gave him a green stuff   "Base".  The "Base" is the wee skirt thing and added a pike.

 

I cannot complete this unit until QRF fully restocks.  The same applies to the unit below. I'll show the completed units when I can.

Scots archers, there were none, bar Highlanders, at Flodden. There were a few about all the same.  Probably my last Scots unit until the re stock.  That said, I might manage the burgesses of Edinburgh.

Luckily, I have English galore to be getting on with. 

The Earl of Essex's contingent here.  All from QRF.  Later, we will see some Khurasan figures.  The two are happily compatible.

The Earl's standard is from Pete's Flags. That of the archers is one of Ray's flags.  The latter St. George's flag shows Tudor allegiance by virtue of the roses.  

The Earl of Norfolk's men here.  

Flags sourced ditto.  

QRF figures once again. 

Here are the men of York.  Note the City banner and the flag of the Holy Trinity both from Ray at Don't Throw a 1. 

  

We will be seeing the Holy Trinity flag again carried by Northern contingents.  Also, The Five Wounds of Christ one ditto.

 

You can probably guess where I am considering going.  Project creep, as ever.  If we get there we might have a look at northern English attitudes back then.  

Note the illustration below. The banner of St. Cuthbert (Sacred battle icon of the North) and a Percy standard.  Percy flags are easily sourced. Ray has one and a nice St. Cuthbert one too.

The game plan so far is like this.  A core of Royal English troops in green on white livery, say 4 or 5 units. All from Khurasan. Followed by six units of Northern troops and four to six others contingents. 

Now, we may not get that far.  I have bothered to take a period political refresher so there are grounds for optimism.

More Bill Hooks 2 fun shortly.

French Infantry 2 for Beneath the Lily Banners

 

Another 5 French battalions based for Beneath the Lily Banners.  Above the Foot Guards first battalion, I really should do the second one too.

The Swiss, always reliable.

Zulauban's  Regiment.  Swiss led Germans who distinguished themselves in Ireland.

Regiment Famachon a Walloon formation.

Regiment Dauphin with their spectacular flags.  French Dragoons next.

Qajar Persians in 15mm for With Talon and Claw

I had a bit of a revelation while reading through Barry Hilton’s “With Talon and Claw”rules.  These, I thought, will do nicely for the Anglo-Persian War.  The more I thought about it the more it appealed.  I particularly like Barry’s take on Eastern Armies and troop types.  While we are on matters Hilton, I’ll observe his command system lends itself very readily to the Indian Great Rebellion of 1857.  A thing to be explored subsequent.

Anyhow, in the spirit of time and tide, and faint heart and fair maid I took action. Here are my revitalised Qajars.  First, the tribal cavalry,

 

One unit bows, one guns.

A final one with lance and bow. 

 

Tribal cavalry were always fast and could be very dangerous.

Kurdish lancers looking as though they could have fought in the days of Saladin.  Their ancestors may well of done so.  His best troops were Kurdish lancers.

Next, the regular cavalry trained by a succession of French, Russian and British military advisers.   

They were not bad troops at all.  Apparently they found all the European gear a bit restrictive.

A battalion of Regular infantry variously trained by the above trio of military advisers. 

Quality was variable but some of them could have a real fight and be ready for more.

The rest of them will appear soon.   Guns, Camel Guns, more infantry regulars and a bunch of interesting irregular foot.

You may ask who were their opponents?  Afghans, potentially Sikhs, Ottomans, British and Russians.  Lots of options there.

The toys are from Irregular Miniatures.  I believe Khurasan also offer a range. 

You might have noticed that I have moved to a bigger font size. The idea is to make it easier on the eyes of the reader.

Flodden - The Riding Families

Here we have Alexander, third Earl Home surrounded by his retainers.  Behind him are the dismounted men of the Scottish border clans.  I say dismounted because mostly they fought mounted.  It follows then, that Alexander must have had some powers of persuasion to get them off their cuddies.  Presumably, it was the lure of new technology - the pike.  That he was also Warden of the March would have helped too.  The instruction of the King of Scots?  Well, alright, that as well.

 

There is much informed debate about pikes and pike men.  Military contemporaries expressed a range of views.  All had a favourable view of the weapon.  They diverged as to the amount of training needed.   Later in the century an English commander thought three years experience would produce a fine pike man. Such a fellow could hold his own against the very best pike men. Alexander's men didn't need that level of competence as they were not destined to face opposing pike men.  No, they would face Bow and Bill.

I think the border clans pike training was more akin to the Spanish light pike model.  That is, they could form up, advance in order, make an attack and stand firm to see off cavalry.  According to the accomplished Irish Captain Tyrrell this could be satisfactorily learned in six weeks. I suspect this is what Home's lads imbibed during their training. More or less.  

The other attraction was that wealthier and better armoured fellows would bear the initial brunt of pike led combat.  Loot was a big factor in border warfare and you had to survive to get any.  Let me add, courage was never in doubt.  It wasn't that sort of place.  You did have to do or die.

The best way to combat pike men was to shoot them down before they closed.  As an alternative, attacking the flanks of a pike formation was a good road to success.  

At the Battle of Flodden the English opponents of Home's forces tried both.  Without success. The reasons for this were straight forward.  Let's consider them.

The ground favoured pike fighting allowing a steady and ordered Scots advance. Bad ground could play havoc with a pike blocks formation.  Order was everything.

The Scots were drawn up on a narrow frontage, headed by exceptionally well armoured men. The arrows of the English longbow men could not pierce their armour. 

The English Bill men could not attack Home's flanks because they were protected by Gordon clansmen.  The Gordon's were armed with Great Swords, axes and bows and could match the Bill men.  That's Ray's Gordon flag you can see.

The English were stymied for options and, outnumbered, were routed.  Artillery would have helped but none was available for this part of the English line.

Elsewhere on the Flodden battle field it was a different story. The ground was bad for pike, the English artillery was good. Archery still failed for the same reasons.  It didn't matter, the English Bills hacked down the disrupted pike formations. 

Home is sometimes faulted for not capitalizing on his victory and turning the English flank.  I do not think this would have been easily accomplished.  

There were at least one thousand English border cavalry to his front. Had he attempted a flanking move they could have flanked him. That would have compelled him to stand to fight them off. A series of threatened charges could have consumed the time available for any attempt on the English open flank.

As it was, Home was able to retire unmolested with his forces intact. Given the scale of losses in the Scots Army that was no small thing.  The border was, as for the English, the first line of national defence. Home may have intended to secure his side of it.

The Borderer toys all from QRF. The unit represents a two unit pike block in Bill Hooks speak. The flag is from Ray at Don't Throw a One.  

The Gordon's are a mixture but mainly QRF.

Ray has a nice portfolio of Flodden flags free to download. The Don't Throw a One link is in the side bar. We will see more of them as we go.

I do have some Border horsemen.  They will trot along at some stage in this project.

Flodden Highlanders-Cruachan!

 

These are Flodden Highlanders from QRF.  They are representing Clan Campbell hence Cruachan!  The latter being a a favoured Clan Campbell geographic location.  When the Campbells shouted "Cruachan!" in battle they were asserting a key element of their collective identity.  It was all about people and places.

While we are on topic, let's talk about what a clan was.  A clan was an agnatic corporation with the head of the clan as chief executive.  The key lords (tigerni) were the board and the rest of the clansmen share holders.  The clan bard was responsible for public relations and marketing.

Should there be a vacancy at the top, the board elected a new Chief Executive.  They were legally obliged to do so.  Candidates began their campaign for the top job around the age of 6 but only one could succeed.  Shareholders ratified the final decision. 

There was a lot of management in clan life and, at every level, careers could prosper or wither. It was, barring truly atrocious behaviour, a job for life with a good pension scheme.  Loyalty, from top to bottom and back up again, was the rule.  Members were expected to follow corporate policy.

When a clan turned out for war it went as well equipped as collective resources allowed.  It was in no ones interest to willfully deplete the clan's human resources through lack of due diligence. 

Clans rarely went in for outsourcing functions preferring in house provision.

Clans were not entirely a closed shop.  Following the proscription of clan Mac Gregor Clan Campbell was willing to rebrand some Gregori as Campbells.

As you can see the unit contains the usual line up of middle management gentry in mail followed by shareholding clansmen in their shirts. Armament is standard, bows, swords and axes.

The toys are entirely from QRF.  I'd call them biggish 15mm.  By design the gentry are slightly bigger than the rest.  They were fed for it in real life-a nice touch.

Next time, we will look at Scotland's other clan people, those on the border with England. James, King of Scots, took the view that they too lived the agnatic corporate life. It was understanding such things that kept him in business. We do well to heed him.

This one is a Bill Hooks project.