Victory Without Quarter Mission Creep

 

There are words for it. “Mission Creep” for the military and “Project Drift” for civic ventures. That tells us it is something humans do. So it is no surprise to find that I’m painting Scots units when I intended to major in English ones.

It could be worse. I have five English Regiments of Foot done and three squadrons of Horse. Also I have done a One Man and His Dog by way of command. 

Here he is.

 

He (Rupert of the Palatinate) is a Frei Korps 15mm miniature bought just before the Deluge. Next White Coats with red flags, yellow flags and white flags.

All Matchlock 15mm, or nearly so.

Note each company (base if you like, stand even) has its own flag. I feel this is period feel stuff and I like the look of it. 

Apparently standard practice was colours front on encountering the enemy for the first time. Then colours to the rear before the fighting began. I need to credit the fellow gamer and blogger who made these fine flags. Investigation will follow.

Let’s horse around starting with Cuirassiers with a black flag.

 

Next red flag horse. It is too small to see but the flag ridicules a notorious cuckold on the opposing side.

The blue flag boys have a nice white heraldic device. They are also getting a second squadron.

All the Horse are Matchlock 15mm.

A moments pause for the Dead. These are important as a tracking device in Victory Without Quarter. Many more of these to come.

Caledonia here we come. First the Strathbogie Regiment. The flags are from the magnificent Project Auldearn.

Some Highlanders from QRF as was. The great thing about Highlanders is by substituting flags they can represent any Clan Host. Below we see QRF, original FK15 and Peter Pig. Mix and match.

 

Now the latest Cards. Sealant has yet to be applied. I'm waiting until I have the set.

I am enjoying this project a great deal. Bigly in fact. I’m enjoying it bigly and you cannot say better than that.

A “Victory Without Quarter” Story

 

A long time ago I read books about the ECW and of course the non "E" Civil Wars . I even bought the odd edition of ECW Notes and Queries. Of real knowledge of the ECW I had not so much. The last stand of the Whitecoats, the massacre of the  women and children,mistaken for Irish. Fierce Cornish Regiments made an impression. 

Battles at Corbridge and Newburn too. The Scots put a gun in the Church tower there. That puzzled me until I learned of Frame guns. Two centuries ago quarrying in Millfield nearby disturbed a mass grave of the Scots dead slain at Newburn.  A Scots victory.  The English slain would have been buried on the other side of the River Tyne.

Little vignettes of courage and desperation. That’s about it.

All the same I downloaded and printed Clarence Harrison’s Victory Without Quarter rules for the period. It looked good and looked even better when the rules for Highlanders appeared. I’m currently interested in English Battles. Though an attempt at recreating Dunbar has real appeal. 

Regular Readers know I’m much given to the League of Augsburg style of gaming and Clarence is a key collaborator of Barry Hilton. I happily knew what I was in for.

I had very few painted figures, English that is. I do have Covenanters, Highlanders and Irish in good supply. Where were my English to come from? For some years I have been collecting Matchlock figures from eBay. The idea was a future 30 Years War Project. I must have saved a fortune. Also the figures obtained were cast when the moulds were young.

Today I counted. I have 10 regiments  (18 figures each) of Foot and 8 (12 figures, 2 squadrons each) of Horse.  It looks as though we are in business.

Now I have to paint them. Looking at the cast on flag poles of the standard bearers I can see this is going to be a little flag project. Fine, 3 flags a unit then. 

I also need to make some cards in order to play the game. I will show them here as they are done done. Unit Cards require painted figures as the front image. Naturally, it will take a while to complete the set. When that is done I will spray the whole deck with sealant. That's ink jet print sealant. There are, I have learned, sealants galore. They may not all be for the likes of us.

Oh, and casualty markers too. Ditto.

Anyhow, we are off and you see my progress on the page. Having sat in King Charlie's Chair (not the current Charlie) I'm beginning with the Marquis of Newcastle's White Coats- a Brigade no less.

Raw Generals and Green Soldiers-A Review

 

I first came across Padraig Lenihan's work decades ago when I bought a copy of his Catholic Confederates at War.  

I recall there was minor confusion at the time with some expecting a tome on Dixie. Lenihan's Confederates were of course the Armies of the Irish Confederation in the War of Three Kingdoms. No Emerald Guard or Louisiana Tigers then. 

I found Catholic Confederates at War interesting but something big was missing.  I still have my copy.  In Raw Generals and Green Soldiers he offers a retrospective explanation. Here we go:

" Thirty years ago, when I wrote Catholic Confederates at War, I was certain that class was the key to unlocking the meaning of the 1641 rising." 

He continues "Today I would give more weight to recent experience of official expropriation and to religion, a bitter grievance in itself, and a badge of convenience for other issues."

Quite so and who knew? Not to mention the ongoing destruction of the native legal and social structure. To put it plain Ireland was in the process of becoming an imperial colony and the majority of the Irish of all classes resolved to resist that outcome. We might call this context.

Enough of that then. To Raw Generals and Green Soldiers, which is rather good.

Should you want a handy volume to introduce you to the Confederate War this is it. While maintaining a national overview Lenihan gives us tasty chunks of local detail. The footnotes and bibliography bespeak of a serious endeavour.  They are also very useful should you wish to pursue the subject further.

Obviously this is a relatively slim volume compared to the hefty books of old.  There must have been hard choices for the author on what to include and exclude.  What he gives us is accessible and well written.

Not least of Raw Generals and Green Soldiers attractions are 8 colour plates. these are by Seán Ó Brógain and are very good indeed.  If you want to know how the soldiers of the Confederacy looked Seán shows you here. Think Trews not Breeches. 

Should you have wondered Khurasan Miniatures capture it best.  Even then you will have to press some Tyrone's War Irish Light Cavalry into the ranks to best represent the Irish cavalry. Not an ideal match but close. I'd like to think Peter Pig would do an Irish Lancer based on Seán's illustration.

There are black and white illustrations too. This sort of thing below is very good.

A useful book to have if you are interested in the period. Published by Helion and widely available as far as I can ascertain.

Next week we are back in the Sudan.

League of Augsburg-Going Dutch

 

This is my League of Augsburg Dutch Army.  It forms the core of my Grand Alliance Army.  Its genesis was 24 years ago.  How time races by.  The Blue Guards, two battalions. Flags from Ian at Warflag.

Often thought to be the finest infantry in Europe. Whatever of that, they were elite soldiers in every respect.

Regiment Aylva first battalion above and below.  Figures from Irregular, Essex drummer, and two of David's flags.

Regiment Brandenburg currently with Warflag flags. 

They need a stand of pike men added.

Regiment Keppel also in need of pike men.

Regiment Pallandt, and would you believe it? They need a stand of pike men too. Luckily I have the figures.

A couple of guns, Essex and Irregular.

Guard cavalry, maybe a second squadron needed here.

Ginkel's Regiment, two squadrons. That was unusual like the English the Dutch often simply had one.

Rede Cavalry here.

Schomberg's, I think, in two squadron's.

First above, second below.

Eppinger's Dragoons, an elite unit mounted and dismounted.

Two squadrons as you see.

Dismounted and ready for action below. All of the Eppinger's flags are from Ray at Don't Throw A One.

Seldom seen on the table top, some Dutch Marines.

By my reckoning I need to do 15 pike men and six troopers and that is my League of Augsburg Dutch Army completed. Not bad and it has taken less than a quarter of a century.

Montrose and the Covenanters (1) -A Field of Battle 3 Project

I decided to redo my Covenanter and Montrose Royalist Armies.  This entails buying a few more figures but mainly I already have what I need.  The catalyst for this is the long - awaited release of Field of Battle 3.  It promises lots of fun to come and now includes this period.

This means again submitting myself to the tyranny of painting tartan.  Having just refurbished my Picts I’m not quite ready for that just yet.  

Instead I started with a pair of Covenanter regiments Balfour’s and Campbell of Lawer’s. Both were veteran regiments they appear below in that order. You can see them in line or with pikes advanced or withdrawn.

I’ve done Campbell’s in their Ulster issue red coats call it artistic license.

The stern Strathbogie Royalist regular regiment here. 

All of the excellent flags above are from that splendid and inspiring blog Project Auldearn here’s a link. https://auldearn1645.blogspot.com/

Next, I’ll do Minimore’s and Farquharson’s royalist regular regiments with their mix of Highland and lowland troops.  Then onto Seaforth’s and Argyle’s Highland regulars.

That means I’m having to convert some figures into regular Highlanders with pikes. 

Figures wearing hose are the key.  They can be painted as bare legs or as trews. These ones are coming along nicely.

Soon I’ll be ready to tackle MacColla’s Life Guards.  These will entail some minor conversion to get the look I want.  Likewise the Irish regulars will need some minor work before painting.

By then I should have my tartan painting hand in and work on the clans can begin.  The initial aim is 12 units a side.