Catching up on my Reading no 24

 A Chunky Tome from Partizan Press.

Some few weeks ago I ordered a new book from Partizan Press.

 When it arrived a week or so later the 'Thunk' as it hit the doormat was audible two rooms away.... well actually that is a bit of artisic licence as it would not fit through the letterbox but the postie was glad to get it out of his bag .

Yes Gentle readers it is a meaty tome. all 440 pages of it with a hardcover binding so what is this beast?

 

 A Battle Lost and Won- Marston Moor 1644 by Patrick Ray.  

Now for the unitiated Marston Moor - just outside York was the largest battle of the English Civil Wars of the mid 17th Century. The battle involved five armies, two Royalist, two Parliamentarian and one Scottish. Three of thecommanderrs on the Parlimentarian /Scottish side  fled the field but the battle was won by the next 'layer' of command for Parliament and the Royalist under Price Rupert and Newcastle  were defeated  thus York and the North of England was lost to the King as was - eventually the Civil Wars.

For ECW enthusiasts like me this is a well worn tale but it has never previously been told in such detail or in such sumptuous form. Brigadier Youngs 1970 book ce close but now seriously dated and technology has moved on significanttly in the last half century to produce  a book that is physically very fine indeed. Yes Cjaps I like this one. 

  The author takes the reader throught the lead up to the battle beginning with a 'macro' overview of the First Civil War the narrowing the focus to the war in the north and sloowly but precisely narrowing the focus down to the campaign detailing the siege of York and Prince Rupert of the Rhine's efforts to relieve the city and thee subsequent battle of Marston Moor.

 The five armies involed in the battle -  2 English Parliamentarian 1 Scots Covenant (hese three on the samwe side of course) facing 2 Royalist Armies - that of Prince Rupert and that of the Marquis of Newcastle are examined in deatial. The core of the book for me is the detailed list of regiments of these 5 armies which I have never before seen so conveniently tabulated.

 Yet there is more  obviously a detailed account of the battle - drawing on contempoary sources is there in considerable detail wsith  authors photographs of  surivng sites both of iege of York and thbatteffield of Marston Moor all in colour. In addition there are almost a doze pages of Foot Colours Cavalry Crnets and a couple of Dragoon Guidons again all in colour.

 As an aside I have had this volumes since February but it is a serious read and deserves more that a brief  speed read. To be honest I still have not finished  it completely haveing barely looked at some of the   7 appendices which add yest more infornation  including the articles of surrender for the city of York  as well as  brief resumes of the after battle careers of the main and some of the minor protagonists. In addition there is 'The battle in diagrams' which for those new to the period might well simplyfy some of the complexities and an exxamination of he contemporary sources.

If you only want one book an the battle of Marston Moor -get this one yes it is almost forty quid so not cheap but the pricetag is all there for you to see on the page and in the depth of the research.

 I could only find one tiny jarring note which I only mention because some other fella might shout 'Hey you missed this!' - In the oveiew of the war the author tells us the victor of the battle of Roudway Down wa Sir Ralf Hopton. In turth the battle was won by Harry Wilmot for the Royalists Hopton being besieged in Devvizes and only appearing on the battlefield late in the day, Of course Devizes is a long way from York - so this does not in the slightest impinge upon the overall quality of this excellent volume. 

 Highy Reccomended

 

 

Shinyloo5 BadDay at the Blue Bell.

 So for our second outing at the new venue I was in the chair and chose a 'Shinyloo' game since it had been about 2 or perhaps 3 years since the shiny dudes had been out on the table. In the interim I had added a few figures here and there as other posts on this blog will attest but to be truthful I had not realised quite how much I had added to the forces- especially the French. What with all the scenery there was a good bit to go into the back of Shaun's motor for the 5 minute run to the pub.

The gear- ready for loading

Once there we joined an already presnt Andrew and a few minutes later Andrew turned up ! Confused? well not really as only 3 of the 4 people present were Andrew with one using the diminutive when at 'work' - see the front of either of my 2 published books!

So after a quick pint to fortify the inner man we began to set up and play. It was at this point that I realised that I had painted a good few more French than Brits over the last couple of years and that consquently the British were in for a bit of a kicking and so it proved. 

The Frebch Right  as viewd from the British lines 

The table was a long thin one  12 feet by only 4  so I halved the usual long move distances in Charge! but it didn't make much difference as it turned out. Shaun took the British and the two Andrews the French. To begin with honours were about even. The rifles giving some French Voligeurs a bit of stick but not enogh to send them home. French artillery doing the same to the Royal Scots Greys and the Royal Horse artillery beating up some French infantry.

The Scot Greys - in 2 squadrons, backed by a few Royal Dragoons before their encounter with the French Cuirassiers.

The British left Flank.

The French Centre advances.

The fateful moment when the British realised it was not their day. 

 However the French cavalry- seriously out numbering the British now took a hand and launched a charge  of Cuirassiers against the Greys and a secondary move by the Dragoons against the troop of Hussars watching the British left flank./Despite being outnumbered the Hussars held their own in the first turn of melee (actually no casualties on either side)  but the Greys were not so lucky losing casualties in the melee to add to those suffered from the artillery. This however was not the end of British woes. Over on the British right the Rifles had been successfully fighting off the voltigeurs but had not been watching their right flank.This had allowed the Polish Lancers time to get through an unoccupied village and smash into the Rifles flank.  Virtually wiping out the  first company. Added to this a second French cavalry unit- more Dragoons  made their way   behind the British right. With French infantry pressing his centre there was little for the Britisdh commander ot do put  pull out .

Die hard gamers might have wanted to carry on with the dice rolling but it really would have been pointless as once the British flanks had gone it was all over bar the shouting Now I need to paint more British before these fellas come out again later this year. 

As for the rest of the day  all went well. The food at the Blue Bell is rather good with an eastern mediterranean bent. We shall - all being well- be back there next month when it shall be time for some tanks. 

When is a book not a Book

By no means all of the Military Book market  consists of wargamers . Indeed, experience would tend to tell me that the 'wargaming end'  is only a small part of that market. Other sectors might include Militaria collectors, military modellers and simple student of military history, by no means all of whom spend their leasure time fondling little metal and plastic men .... and tanks.

This caused me to wonder how many wargamers actually collect 'serious' military history books. I know plenty who do  but I also know  of chaps whose main source of 'knowledge' is a rulebook or an army list.  Though  all of the Tantobie Warfare and Tactical Society have respectable libraries of their own. Now in the current climate are  games rules and army lists  'books' in other than  mere physical appearence? Ater all their function is closer to that of an instruction manual!

 Army lists can be the  worst- and I speak as someone who has written a few. At their worst they are like the instructions in a box of flatpack furniture with bits missing on the instruction sheet - despite the fact that you have one of those bits in your hand but no idea how it fits in. You know the army had unit A in it but the author of the list has either denied it exists or had missed it out, yet you have one there in front of you. Worse yet is when these lists are tailored to a specific 'game', as we are now seemingly supposed to refer to rules.Now just to be clear I am only talking about historical wargaming here where the parameters are the  specific historical period (or should be)  rather than some game designers flight of fantasy here, should he so choose said designer can go completly off piste.

 This train of thought was begun as I re-read a  rather useful 2 volume set  from my collection of regimental histories. This one being the Gordon Highlanders. I picked it up at a show about a decade or so ago and it is very detailed about such useful stuff as regimental strengths on a given date- so you are not in the least tied to the so-called 'standard' unit'  if you choose not to be, as many such histories have that kind of detail. This history also covers the services of the regiment including some of the lesser known battles of the Peninsular War  , especially those of the later stages in the Pyranees and southern France. Oman of course also covers them as does Napier and while I have both on my shelves Oman consists of seven or so large volumes and Napeir 6 smaller ones. The print in the latter being a bit on the tiny side these days ! 

One of my smaller bookshelves in what I laughingly call my 'studio'

There is also the point that Rules and Army Lists have very little style about them and none of that all important- at least to me- but indefineable, atmosphere. Why should they? They are instruction manuals. They do not try to conjour, in the minds eye , the sight of the Scots Greys and Gordons on that day in June 1815 or Piper Findlater winning his VC 82 years later and half a world away ,as his regiment stormed Dargai heights (that bit is in volume2). No, that is not their function, they are simply the bare -often very bare- bones of what we do. Instructing perhaps but not really informing and certainly not entertaining.

This does not mean they are without use- of course we need the rules and some may choose army lists rather than actual history.  They can be a very useful starting point , though I can't recall any set of army lists I have including anything as useful as a bibliography. 

I'm told that there is a part of the hobby known as 'list building'. It seems to pertain to those fellas who use  arcane points systems as part of the intruction manual in order  to build their armies- something I have not done since about 1984. Too dry and fiddle-farty for my taste, though I appreciate it has its uses especialy  if you are a competition player. To be fair an injection of eye-candy  into rules and army lists had had something of a beneficial effect but even the prettiest can only at best graduate  from instruction manual to 'picture book'.

Another one in the 'studio' 

The current fashion for publishing multiple army lists for a given set of rules can be somewhat annoying especially when the core rules are 30 quid a pop and army lists a similar price-  I wonder if  you have the cash to buy the armies after that little lot. If you are not careful you have dropped a ton  or two without noticing. I say that speaking as a bloke who has done exactly that with real books but never with mere rules or army lists. After all if you have the books you don't need the army list , you can make your own using actual history. It might be a bit harder in parts but it is a lot more fun.

Another boolshelf- with regimental history and other useful stuff.

So no they are not really books. They are a useful adjuct to them perhaps similar in physical form and sometimes even vaguely attractive but without the depth or life of the real thing.

And you know ... one day I will get around to putting them all in subject order.. one day. 

A Big Shiny One.

  It has been some time since I did anything of any comsequence to my 'Shinyloo' project though I have been adding a figure or two here and tthere and even aquiring  a few lots of 'pre-loved' items- in some cases very pre and not very loved. Best of the lot - and in good nick was a lot containing 10 Minifigs 30mm French Guard Chasseur a Cheval on Minifigs 30mm horses.  This little lot, when finished will double the size of Napoleon Shinyparte's Chasseur regiment- and unlike those I already have will be on the correct horses. 

A bunch of recently finished shiny additions Left to right 30mm Minifig, Connoisseur Mameluke on Willie horse Connoisseur Mamluke  on Stadden horse, Minifig 30mm Chasseur on the correct horse and Minifg Chassuer on Stadden Horse..
 Comedy caption - 'You can't shoot at us - we have posher trousers than you!'



Next a short video clip showing the 44th Foot. Mostly Stadden 30mm with a couple of Minot 30mm in there as well. Still a tiny bit to do. Another drummer and perhaps a fifer and Drum Major. Most urgent being to make all the sabot bases the same colour- the paler green, and add a new phinial to the Kings Colour. These have been in their boxes for a few years.

Hoping to get the whole collection out for a game or two this year- maybe even at a show. We shall see. 

First of 2025.

 So I did manage to get a few things completed over what might be loosely termmed the holidays.  There are some additions to 'Shinyloo' which need to be photographed but here are some 40mm Thirty Years War French cavalry with a matt finish - to prove that I have more than one bottle of varnish! 

 The models are a mixture of Sash and Saber and my own Romanoff models and one of the troopers is a Drabant model on a Sash and Saber horse.  There is a fair amount of bits swapping here too, pistol holsters are my own and the cornet finial is a 28mm Front Rank item. The actual cornet is a slight repaint of an oversized 28mm paper item .

These represent the Queens Cavalry regiment in about 1643- though the cornet may be a little later.still more of these to do though including a trumpeter.

Next up for this slowly growing collection will be some artillery I think. But then again I might do some more cavalry as I like painting horses.