not forgettin' the Man Himself....

and finally the les Higgin Marlborough that started off this train of thought.

Marlborough man

And not a ciggie in sight.

One of the periods I've continually looked at but never actually had a proper set of armies for any length of time in is the War of Spanish Succession. I did once have a 15mm collection but sold it on when I suffered from a small bout of T.F.E. I had some nice minifigs 25mm too but never painted 'em sold those too . I've looked at the various available ranges and never really had my skirt blown up by any of them. I like the OG 25mm Infantry but am less keen on the cavalry- mainly because there are several types missing but its still a good basic range. I'm very keen on the new Bliemoon 15mm - well 18mm really but someone else will have to paint them for me also here I can't decide between the WSS or the GNW- the voting is currently going North but you never know.
I know chaps rave about the Front Rank offerings and I can see why but no the coats don't hang right and the muskets are too short they are just too stiff for my taste. As for the new plastic 28mm well less said. I'd lose the will to live building 'em they will fall to bits in the hurly burly of the table- even if careful and the photos I've seen don't convince me anyway so I'll simply pass a veil over that and move on.
So what's a chap to do ? I even have the most perfect little Marlborough to lead the allies. A lovely little Les Higgins 30mm Jason figure one of only about 20 of the range I possesand the only mounted example one of the best 30mm figures I've ever seen put a good bit of the modern stuff to shame and almost 40 years since they were last made. I'll never have an army's worth but perhaps enough to make the couple of OG regiemnt I have raise their game.
Of course there is always Drabant but that is likely to be a bit on the dear side nevertheless its tempting to do at least a small force or two just for the look of the thing. I have about 20 painted and want to do more but its a slowjob along with all the other gazillion projects but here are a few pictures of myfinished figures.
Regt Dorrington.
English Footguards
A French Dragoon
Regt Navarre
All to be added to inthe fullness of time.
Maybe one day I'll even run a Marlburian game you never know....

Russian Magic .

Now it may not have escaped your notice Gentle Reader that I'm a devotee of 40mm size models- in scale terms this works out at about 1/43rd or Railway O guage or 7mm = 1 foot.
I have a fair collection of these figures and a couple of ranges of my own aside from Sash and Saber.
Also I have Drabant Miniatures of Moscow . These are what is known as a bit tasty and I've been importing them into the UK for the last 4 or 5 years or thereabouts.
They are not cheap- about the Same price as Foundry's re-released 40mm ACW BUT IMHO far superior and Remember Moscow is a long way off so they have a way to travel - not just down the road in Nottingham.
For myself I'm slowly building a Marlburian Collection and will get around to some TYW in the fullness of time. I have a few ACW in my largely Sash and Saber Collection and our own line of Ancient Greeks was largely sculpted by the Drabant team.
So when Drabant owner Nick Bokarev sent me these pictures I thought I'd share them .
The first shows Dutch Guards of the very late 17th- early 18th century and the second a Swedish Heavy gun and crew of the Great Northern War period.

More shiny toys.

As ever these things take longer than you'd like but I now have a second release in the "Glorious Victorian Toy Soldiers" range. These new figures cover the Rifle and Fusilier regiemts of the British Army . Now I've always had a soft spot for the Green jacket- especially when it carries the red distinctions of the KRRC( my Dad was a rifleman in the early 60s in the 2nd Green Jackets - The KRRC ) or the 60th Rifles - depending upon date. Now thanks to Sean Bean and Sharpe the 95th get the glory but the 5th Bn 60th had rifles first- not by a long time its true- about 3 years or so but first nevertheless and definitely senior in the line - 60th against 95th until both regiments were taken out of the line to become the Kings Royal Rifle Corps and the Rifle Brigade respectivly. Despite the perfectly normal interegiemental rivalry both regiments and thier modern successoors- The Rifles speak for themselves and in the case of the 60th starts in the French and Indain War in the mid- 18th century and continues in Afghanistan today seeing on the way such diverse fields as Talvera , Albuhera, Delhi Ridge , Spion Kop the Somme Calais etc etc etc By Gum you may say the lads have been about a bit and just like the rst of our Armed services so they have.
So here are the rifles available in both helmet and busby - paintable as either KRRC or Rifle Brigade- and doubtless as RIR and possibly Canadians too .
In addition you can now also get the Fusilier regiements or at least the non-scottish ones- I plan Scots in the future. so the British Army marches on in toy form as by God we hope it continues to do despite the actions of its enemies- mostly those in Parliament .
Andy

High Standards from John "The Flag"

Now it has to be said I can be a tad picky.Whenever I'm building a unit or an army I do the best job I can.Not for me the "i just painted 'em quicly to get them on the table " excuse Nahh do it right or don't bother. Now this can get you into trouble in soooooo many ways - it means you spendd a small fortune on booksand your painting speed drops to something less than the speed of a government department giving out tax refunds.
But what it does mean is you look out for the best your wallet can bear. Now when I build a unit I want them to have proper and accurate flags banners ,colours and standard- which ever is appropriate to type. In the past I've painted by own - which I still do but less often, used various paper printed flags - ranging from not bad at all to bloody awful- ALL of these need a greater or lesser amount of touching up even if its just to paoint the edges - which many chaps miss- it look awful if you don't- you get a white edge round the flag yeauch!!
However I now have a fine , almost perfect solution - get 'em from John the Flag - this needs explanation. Johns lovely flags are printed on cloth and come fitted to the pole. He does lots of different ones in addition to those I have I have seen ACW AWI and more ECW as well as WSS and Napoleonic. Most of mine are fro my 40mm collection but he does them for 25/ 28/30 mm too. I've found nothing better.
The pics show - first
25mm Royal Eccossais.
40mm Napoleonic British-3rd foot
40mm ECW Sir John Gells regt(stars) and John Lampughs .
40mm Spanish Napoleonics. Leals de FernadoVII(blue coats) and a unit whose name I forget.
Contact john on jondhut@ntlworld.com .
Getting these is a bit slow- John works for a living- but the wait is well worth it.

40mm ACW Game at Derby.

My thanks to James Douglas for supplying the photos as I'd forgotten my dammed camera !!
The figures are all Sash and Saber 40mm ACW mostly from the collection of Phil Freeman an avid 40mm gamer and Collector. about 20% of the figures were mine but almost all those in the pics are Phils For the actual gaming we use a somewhat modified version of Featherstones Horse and Musket rules- a bit more period detail was piles in- Rifles Muskets - 2 types Breechloaders and rifled artillery. Since I was working most of the time(you can't get thestaff ......) the gaming was done by Phil and Peter Sleigh . One of these days I'll get to play with my own toys.
Most of scenery was mine buildings either scratchbuilt or from the Sash and Saber range of scenics- which in the UK you get from yours Truly or in the US from Chris at Sash and Saber the Walls and some of the fences too. - Though some of the latter were Phils own. Table size was 10 feet by six and was a tad crowded- with 1000 plus figures on at once the game was a bloodbath - especially for the luckless Rebs who despite an artillery superiority were shot to bits in their assaults. It just wasn't Phils day. Nevertheless the game looked fantastic and was fun to watch- not a phrase I'll use often as I've never seen our hobby as a spectator sport.
As ever Derby was a great show- often overlooked I feel its been a favorite of mine for years. Roll on next Derby.
Andy

Commieswald- technical stuff and Umpires comment.

As an exercise it was quite hard work..Jim the painters comment that we needed 2 umpires was apposite - he took over the last few moves as my head was throbbing .
Actual troop numbers were fairly substantial. On the Allied side their battalions avaeraged 28 figs each though Von Donop was 48 and the Lieb Grenadiers a mere 14. Cavalry squadrons were most often 8 figures with the British having 2 3 squdron regiment and a single squardron with the Hessians/Dutch haveing a single Squadron plus a troop of Hussars.
On the French side Most of their squdrons were again 8 figures but there were some 6figure s and a 10 - fitzjames and a12 - Royal Dragoons. Infantry avaerages 28 figures but the Grenadiers de France were 52 .
In terms of make of figures most were of course old Glory but Stadden Willie Front Rank and Eagle were also represented as were Jacdaw- I just don't have many Jacdaw painted yet.
So in rough figure numbers the Allies disposed of 320 infantry- including Jaegers 58 cavalry and 6 guns- including 2 battalion guns which had to be asigned to specific infantry units.
The French had 308 infantry including lights 104 cavalry and 5 guns- including 1 heavy piece.
In analysis the question remians why did the French footle about ??? They singularly failed to "get tore in" while an Allied defnsive was an obvious move for a somewhat outnumbered and certainly out horsed army . The French Cavalry was not used well- niether were thre brits . There was no major cavalry vs cavlry figt in the whole battle-on the French right their horse did achive a victory of sorts against the British but were too few to exploit it .
Niether commander showed at his best that day.....
Perhaps a veil should be tactfully drawn over the affair and we should await the next campaingning season to begin...
Andy

The Battle of the Commieswald Sept 1746

A bright crisp day saw the arrival of generals troops and terrain at the Commercial Inn- Tantobie Co Durham known as the "COMMIE" Locally but strictly speaking is now actually
"The ..... RI... as all the other letters have fallen off.
Nevertheless 5 members of the Tantobie Warfare and Tactical Society and 3 Border Reivers Wargamers converge upon this hostelry for our almost regular monthly game. This time I was in the chair again and so elected to dig out the 18th century troops for a largish encounter battle.
Now read on.......
The French army disposed of 10 infantry Battalions 15 cavalry squadrons and 5 guns plus some light troops while the Allies consisting of British Dutch and Hessian troops deployed 12 infantry battalions 9 cavalry squadrons and 4 field guns plus 2 battalion guns attached to the 2 British Infantry brigades.
Rules were a somewhat modified version of Warfare in the Age of Reason plus the experience of your steely eyed and granite jawed Umpire.....
Both sides were hesitant at first and movement was kept to a minimum. The Hessian
commander- actually a Dutchman - Hertz Van Rentaalls by nom de plume watched anxiously as a mass of French horse bore down upon him on the Allied right. There was little he could do but grit his teeth.and order Hessian regiment Von Donop to stand fast on their ridge. The Dutch Garde Te Voet moved up in support along with the Hessian Lieb Grenadiers. Dutch Gunners worked like trojans to get their guns into position before the grip came.... The first wave of French Cavalry came on- FitzJames Horse and a squadron of the Royal Dragoons . Fire leapt from von Donops muskets and when the smoke cleared the Royals were gone loose reined the sorry remnants galloped from the field. Fitzjames however were of stronger mettle despite many an empty saddle they closed with the Hessians and a fight ensued- alas they simply were not strong enough to do more than disorder the Hessians and the remains of the regiment drew off to make room for the second wave- 2 squadrons of Cuirassiers du Roi and another of Dragoons . Again the French charged in Gallantly but this time to even less avail a fearful volley from VonDonop smashed the Curassiers flat ably seconded by the Dutch gunners - A troop of Dragoons got amongst the gunners and a shout of "Nails! Nails !" went up but there were none ,  the dragoons however were enough to finish the gunners. The  supporting LiebGrenadiers enough to finish the Dragoons ... The French Horse had shot their bolt.
What .I hear you ask, had been happening in other parts of the field while these momentous events unfolded on the Allied Right- well not much to be honest... The French maintained they had a plan but no amount of enquiry by your gentle Author could uncover what it actually was.
On the Allied left fear of the French artillery was causing the British cavalry some concern- Your author could hear the Marquis of Granby spinning in his Grave at such craven behaviour. When the British Dragoons finally launched their attacks the French barely broke sweat seeing them off despite some French gunners standing not upon the order of their going and legging it for the rear. The French right was never in any real danger.
In the centre peace reigned- a little bickering between the Schomberg light infantry and the British line resulted in heavy casualties for Schoomberg . The French plan seemed to involve neutralising the British Guns before commencing an advance. This last is however a mere guess as finally the French centre began to move. Fire rippled along both lines but the additional firepower of the British Battalion guns sent 1st battalion La Reine reeling back. However the British having suffered from French guns and indeed light troops were not prepared to move and stayed nailed to their positions.
After shattering the French Horse Van Rentaals had been given furiously to think- a not common event after calling for the Bols he decided to advance his command from the ridge to menace the remains of the French horse and threaten the centre but as dusk approached little more could be achieved and his thrust petered out.
On the other flank despite defeating the British Dragoons the French cavalry no more than 3 squadrons- were not strong enough to do more than support their own foot. so the action petered out into a muttering of skirmishers as night closed in.
In truth it was an interesting fight- the more so because some of the players exhibited a pusillanimity I didn't expect. The main body of the French horse was handled with courage but was in the event thrown away to little avail.. The foot of both sides- excepting the Germans and dutch lacked resolution- though the British could claim with some justice that they were merely acting on the defensive.
Both sides exhibited fear of artillery to a -to me- ridiculous degree and allowed their plans to be influenced by it.
Nevertheless as the saying goes a good time was had by all- and a few beers drunk too..
Andy

More shinyness

Just a quickie as the Bishop said to the actress! Here are a couple of pics of my slowly (very slowly ) growing collection of 40mm"Glorious Victorians"
Now normally I use matt varnish but these lads just have to be shiny. The 3 pics are 2 in Home service Dress and 1 in foreign Service white helmet. Painted in a more toy style than is my normal wont. I do like the look. The various chaps who persueded me across to the shiny side have a point.

One down 9 zillion to go....

You know how it is in this game finishing stuff can take a lot longer than you'd think well I finally finished my ox drawn Spanoshj Napoleonic limber. The model was finished last October but the driver wasn't. We finally he is so that can now be put away with the rest of the Spamish- all I have to do now is complete the 2 infantry battalions (I have half a battalion done,,,) a small cavalry unit and the Guerillas well at least its a start.
I have almost enough 40mm Penisular stuff for a game . Plenty if I could get around to finishing the 100 or so Infantry I have blocked in and just needing the details and finishing .
The limber of course is all C.S. Foresters fault- with perhaps a little help from Sophia Loren's chest !!
The Oxen are from the Sash and Saber waggon and the assorted crew all Sash and Saber conversions .
The British and French are all standard Sash and Saber figures except the British General who is an Austrian officer with a British head.

Projects Problems and Possibilities

Well here we are on a lazy Sunday afternoon still making strenuous efforts to avoid the soccer. As I sit here contemplating I wonder about those single minded blokes in our hobby who can devote hours even years to a single project. In some ways I admire 'em after all they must have a very high boredom threshold- unlike me the problem of course is that there is so much History about the place. Even if I restrict myself to the last 1000 years or so and ignore all those Classical chaps you know So- crates and all those blokes in togas shouting about Infamy Infamy- they've all got it in fer me!! Which I mostly but not entirely do. That still leaves a lot of history.
Then add in the fact that I'm in the toy soldier business with all that THAT entails with getting new stuff sculpted and cast etc etc.
The upshot of this is simple- you get precious little time to develope personal projects to a conclusion - no army is ever finished.
Currently as always I'm working on several projects at once. My 40mm Wars of the Roses are having a breather and the 40mm 30 years War have been dug out for a sorting out to see what I actually have. The tally was a bit less impressive in numbers than I'd thought as I'd made a good few individuals figures for use in the display case before getting started on proper units. So I have a smattering of Imperialists and Bavarians a Danish Infantry Company and a couple of Companies from the French regiment Champagne a couple of guns and about half a dozen cavalry that is my lot! So a long way to go before these are on the table.
Not so with my 25/30mm AWI. I've fiddled about with the AWI for years- starting with a bundle of Stadden 30mm which I acquired a bit cheap. I've added to them over the years and even painted some of them as well as adding units using Old Glory and Sash and Saber so now I have 2 small forces- enough for an evening game . The Old Glory US brought out their "Second Edition" range of ACW Napoleonic and AWI Infantry. All are very tasty indeed but the AWI are especially nice. and anyway I needed a display case unit . So I asked Tony Runkee to paint me one. Now Tony is for my money one of the best painters about. Not the fastest nor the most expensive by far you get a cracking job for a reasonable price and a style that really suits these figures. I've taken 3 pics one of the whole unit , one a comparative sizing shot showing a2nd Ed fig a Stadden30mm- the tallest- and an old Pax Britannica 30mm - so the same SIZE as RSM95. These are fine subtle figures and I'll be adding more units to the AWI forces . The other 2 pics are of my Bavarian Infantry Company- standing about as usual and the so far pathetic Imperialists pikes at the Charge and muskets ready to fire-I just need 4 times more of 'em .
Now if I can just concentrate on one project for more than an afternoon I'll be laughing.
Andy

Buildings, scenery and sucklike stuff.

Now when it comes to scenery for the table I'm never too sure what I want- Mostly I want it to"look right" whatever that may mean. There is a lot of stuff out there in the marketplace that is just awful- badly thought out lumps of resin with little or no idea of scale or proportion. Horrible "lift off Roofs" for the cranially challenged who want to put their little men inside the little housey Oh dearie me... I've seen otherwise good looking games reduced to post tornado wildernesses by player simply leaving the roofs off so as you may gather I'm not a fan of the lift off roof. It has its place in skirmish games but at least make the roof bloody well fit properly instead of the clumsy lumps I so often see.
Make the building at least pay lip service to the architecture of the period and the location - these days that does most often get done but oddities still appear though not nealy as often as they used to.
For myself I often used to make my own buildings- its not hard laborious yes but not hard. The first picture is a25mm- approx 1/50th scale A frame cruck house for medieval and pike and shot set ups roughly 1300- 1700 and a bit after- deliberately English in style youcould squint a bit and use it on the continent.
Te second pic id a 40mm - 1/43rd ish American barn. I left the doors open for effect barrels and interior are eithr placed or painted on like a theatre set simply to add a bit of visual interest. .

More Shiny men and an experiment.

Here are a couple more pics of my 40mm 1880s British - very Wellian . The not quite finishes officer in foreign service helmet is the first in that headgear and well you just have to have some Guardsmen don't you? After all look at all those little margin drawing in Little Wars.
Teh ECW Parliamentarian General represents Sir William Balfour and will - along with his Cuirassier troops be added to the Roundhead army after ernest entreaties by their Commanders after the Battle of Theakstons Folly. He's an Old Glory Cromwell figure - baton removed and Sword added but put upon a JACDAW horse. The rest of his troops will also be on jacdaw horses. I don't do this kind of stuff very often as it doesn't always work but in this case the figures fit the horses well and don't fail stylistically as both have movement. As I'm rather pleased wit him he's at the top of the post.
Andy

40mm Wars of the Roses.

I've always been a bit of a Medievalist. WOTR was my specialist subject when I did my degree I've had 25mm armies for the period in the past and re-fought a good few of the battles 1 St Albans 2nd St Albans Wakefield Stoke Field and of course have used Kingmaker as the basis for a campaign. All that was a good few years ago and in between I've had a few medieval armies- most notably a large HYW armies from Dave Allsops Hotspur range now sold on . Nevertheless I've fiddled about medievally speaking almost constantly so when the chance came to buy up the Brooks miniatures ranfe of 40mm WOTR I took it. Now under my own Romanoff Miniatures label I fully intend to add to the range- probably a gun and crew first then some Scots spearmen. Here are a few pics of the lads in action.
The plan is to use Anthony Clipsoms rules "Foray" for small unit bases actions rather than big set- piece punch ups. I really do need to paint more lomgbowmen here . Ah well at least some are getting done slowly but surely I have another 60 or so men at arms billmen etc - formerly Glen Brook's - that need re-basing. but I think I'll do more archers first to try and keep things balanced.

Crossing to the shiny side.

Add caption

Now in the past while I've admired the "toy soldier" stly I've never quite taken the plunge. For my money its a very particular style and I've never quite found the sort of thing I want. I've dabbled off and on and have a small collection of 54mm Medievals for the Hundred years war- comes of admiring those Courtenay and Ping figures I can't afford- and I fiddled about with some Irregular mins 42mm 7YW all to ultimately noavail- they left something to be desired. However some time ago I was re-reading H.G .Wells and thought why not do it sort of as Wells did so the idea of having a collection of late 19th century shiny toys took hold. Not I thought 54mm - too big and I'm not shooting cannon at 'em . As usual I don't think about rules until I've actually got some toys but it seems that Featherstone would suit - all simple and in keeping with the times thinks I. So with that I had a man or two sculpted and got 'em into a mould. I've now painted the first 5 as in the picture. with another group- this time Grenadier Guards on the way. The "enemy" will be Germanic basically FPW prussians once I get those made. As for commercial availability that will depend if anyone else fancies any. I also have a few Indian army on the go but they won't be ready for a while simply because there is too much to do in "Work" mode to give a lot of time to all the stuff I want to do.
As for work I'm hoping to have a fair bundle of new stuff out in the next few weeks. 15mm Moderns will get the 105mm light gun with ewither US Marine or British Crew New Aircraft will include a bloody lovely B-17 and some German Jets and more Jacdaw stuff is on its way. I'll also be getting a bundle of the Bluemoon 15mm WW1and Old West Ranges- in time for Salute God willingand the rest of the new BM stuff as I can and assuming customer intrest warrants.

Bases and suchlike trivia.

Now when it comes to basing most of my collection I'm pretty picky. I do use painting services - mostly for display units in the line of business as it were but also sometimes for my personal stuff. However I do have 1 rules I always base the stuff myself. The reasoning is simple even when I use different painters whose styles may differ slightly making the bases match through out the army gives homogeneity to the collection- looks better on the table too.
Bases have several functions of which the most important is protecting the model- then perhaps running a good second is the bases function in the game as a way of sspacing the unit . All my figures get based even those that remain singles though this may change in respect of one collection assuming the project comes off as I hope- under most circumstances the base is an integral part of the model . This is certainly so in the case of my modelof Denzil Holles Regiment of Foot for my ECW armies. The bases of the front section of the unit were deliberately made 3 inches loner to accomodate "Charge your pike" figures as the idea was to model the unit under some pressure from an enemy. Obviously the rest of the bases had to matchand I laid the odd stiff out there on the base fronts for added interest .The whole unit is 44cm wide almost 18 inches so the players need to watch the flanks- just like real generals.

The Battle of Theakstons Folly.

So Here we go my first battle report on this blog.
Settle back and transport yourself in your minds eye to the summer of 1643 - somwhere in middle England.
Major Genral Harbottle Grimstone of Parliaments Associated counties of Rutshire Loamshire and Trumptonshire has a problem his army is confronted by a Royalist force which heavily outnumbers him in horse and while their foot are neither as numerous as his own or as well equipped they are far from insignificent with 3 regiements totalling 150 figures Their Horse are in 8 troops toalling 72 figures whil hes can muster a bare 34. The Major Generals pride and Joy are his two regiements of foot The Lord Generals at 96 figures and Col. Denzil Holles at 94 together with commanded companies of Shot from Lord Brookes regt and Col. James Wardlaws Dragoons should enable the Major- General to hold off the Royalist forces- always provides he can contain those masses of Cavalry.
The first picture shows the action around move2 with the Royalists on theleft of the pic. slowy feeling their way forward - their 3 infantry units trying to bully and overawe the Lord Generals Orange- Tawney coated splendour.
To begin with the Royalists were cautios seemingly scared of the 2 Parliamentarian foot units in the centre. Wardlaws dragoons occupied Nutters Copse- bottom right of the pic - and remained there holding Parliaments left flank. On their right thir Horse- including a troop of Cuirassiers hung back to await opportunities.
The first Royalist assualt came from their foot upon the Lord General regiment2 charges were declared but a resounding volley or two from the Roundhead halted the Royaslist foot in tis tracksand The Kings lifguard of Foot and Sir William Pennymans regt began a slow withdrawal to reform.- The presence of Royalist horse precluded any roundhead follow up. .
The next 2 pictures show the 2 roundhead foot regiements in all their glory Large units like this take work but are well worth the effort. Even the 40 figs plus royalist units look fine- Large units can adopt more realistic formations.
On the Roundhead left Flank Col Charles Gerard decided to launch his royalist horse at Wardlaws Dragoons the first charge went in and was promptly shot to bits at point blank range by the Dragoons Col. Gerard was not pleased- he applied himself to his ale muttering the while....
Meanwhile- now about move 8 or so - the Royaluist launched a neck or nothing charge against Lord Brookes commanded shot behind their hedge on the roundhead right - some truly awful dice caused the roundheads to panic and conquently hedge or not they were cut to pieces by the Royalist Horse- who then Cavalier - like pursued the remnabt off the field in thier turn pusued by a single troop of Parliamentarian Horse.
The cris was now approaching . Roundhead cavalry - finally moving forward on the right were at first checked but finally narrowly victoriuos - capturing a standard of the Earl of carnarvon Horse but suffering lossesin the process. In the centre the 2 foot regiements began to advance while on the left Gerard - putting down his pint- launched another charge against the Dragoons which never really got off the ground. Gerard went back to his beer....
In the centre the now reformed Royalist foot were on the move Drums beating and Colours flying this advance meant business. A short firefight and finally all 3 albeit reduced- Royalist Foot units charged the Lord Generals Foot Almost simultaneously Gerard tried again - THIRD time lucky Wardlaws Dragoons finally gave way and scattered into the deths of the wood pusued by the finally victoious Royalists.
Thenext 2 pictures in the sequence show Gerard- red Cavalry Cornet- finally mounting his charge and a muttering soldier of Wardlaws thinking - "Time I was home".
The end was now fast approaching The Lord Genrals regiment was still resiting mostly due to some truly average dice throwing on both sides but the returning Royalist horse- although they had taken their own sweet time would even in their reduced state be enough to ensure a narrow victory for the King.
The final 4 pictures show the progress of the last struggle between the rival infantries- The fighting for the Pints of Theakstons was both prolonged and vicious - cries "Ya Basta! its yer round " and "Mines a pint " could be heard from the depths of the melee!!
The final picture shows the battlefield afrer all toys are back in their boxes ready for home.
A few technical points. Rules used were forlorn hope - for my money the best for the ecw and not half bad for the Thirty years war - with a biy of fiddling- there were a total of 8 player- including gentle reader the Umpire- my humble self- and the game laste about 4 and a half hours- including a lunvch break for hot beef butties as well as time for meansering scurrilous and highly humourous coversations that are mostly unprintable. All figure were from the Old Glory 25mm ECW range again IMHO the best and most complete of the modern ECW ranges out there- and yes I'm biased but they do look good on the table.
Doubltless in the fullness- especially when I get more units painted these armies will be at it agsain.
Andy