Following on from last week

When I posted a thematic Blog entry focusing on my ACW collection and encouraged by the many positive comments it elucidated, I decided to reorganise the photos I had stored on Photobucket of my 28mm English Civil War collection and make a second thematic Blog entry.
Actually, its the third collection I have owned over the years, starting in the 1980's with a small Minifigs army, for Parliament of course, and then a 28mm scale Covenanter army made up of figures from manufacturers such as Essex, the long gone Sussex Miniatures {I really liked their pikemen}, and even some Lamming figures with the separate heads! The present collection I began when I retired from teaching in 2001 and comprises mainly Wargames Foundry and Perry Miniatures figures with a few from Warlord Games, notably the personality figures Matt sculpted for them.


We play now a days with my own rules,
"A Crowning Mercy", available from Caliver Books

My allegiance in the Civil War has always been to Parliament, I'm a republican to the very core of my being, detesting the monarchy, its fawning advocates, and the aristocracy in general. The end of the Commonwealth in 1660 signalled the end of any chance of true meritocracy developing in our country. So, "Death to Kings! Even 28mm ones!" will be our small scale battle cry! Our forces are lead by ~

Oliver Cromwell by Warlord Games

The Earl of Essex by Warlord Games

Obadiah Bykleigh, our local Parliamentary Hero, by Wargames Foundry

Of course, I've had to put my strong feelings to one side and paint figures for a Royalist Army as well as for Parliament. They are commanded by that staunch monarchist, Sir Marmaduke Gaylord Robinson, later Lord Rawnsley and by Lord Walton of Stafford ~

Sir Marmaduke Rawnsley by Warlord Games

Of course we have historical personalities too in the form of the Kynge {'God bless His Majesty!'} and that arch Royalist, Prince Rupert of the Rhine ~

Prince Rupert by Warlord Games

We mainly game a series of imaginary battles in a semi campaign format ranging over South Staffordshire, where Phil, Jon and I live ~

Obadiah Bykleigh and his 'Council of Warre' plan their next move

In recent years for this period I've moved away from 40 x 40mm bases and the like to larger bases for ease of storage and movement on the tabletop battlefield. The favoured size for the ECW armies has evolved to be 80 x 50mm. This enables a Regiment of Foote to have three bases, one of pike and two of shotte. I've also added a circular command base, an idea I lifted from Dave Imries's ECW armies on his blog ~

Essex's Tawney Coated Regiment of Foote



Sir Marmaduke Robinson's Regiment of Foote

A Troop pf Horse or Dragoons can be represented by a similar 80 x 50 base, usually with three mounted figures on it ~

Parliamentary Horse advancing to the fight!

I've added a few of the ephemera of battle over the last few years as well as a number of guns of various manufacturers and calibre ~

By Perry Miniatures

Baggage ~ an essential element of the ECW army

On a table 6'6", or 7', by 4' large scale battles in my preferred choice of 28mm figures are not always feasible. But, even on a smaller table the visual impact can be pleasing I think ~

A clash of horse on the army's flank

Or a push of pike in the centre ~ figures by Perry Miniatures

There's a good reason to collect those ephemera figures in the visual appeal of any game ~

The Rev Jeremiah Bykleigh invokes the Lord's blessing
on slaughtering those Godless Papists fighting for the King!

While Solomon Drinkswelle takes a more laid back approach

To finish then, some shots of the other units which have graced our games ~

Prince Rupert's Regiment of Foote

The Oxford Foote

Some action scenes from our battles ~

A shameless plug for my rules to finish off this second thematic post ~

I shall be interested to see what, if any, feedback and comment this Blog post produces. If it is mainly encouraging and folk would like to see more then I shall persevere with the reorganisation of my photos and post a third Thematic Blog entry, probably of one of my Colonial Collections...

Because I felt like it

I have been reorganising my photo libraries on Photobucket of late, having realised that things were getting increasingly difficult to locate quickly due to the lazy way I had uploaded pictures in the first instance. For example, I had no library dedicated to my ACW collection; odd that as its always been my real interest in gaming, and in research and writing down the years! Having reorganised this one file I thought I'd celebrate my progress with a little blog post. Its also a post which confronts the reality that nothing I game seems to be 'popular' at the moment if I judge by the paucity of comments beyond a few friends and diehards. Plenty of visits here, and on various Forum Boards I frequent, but very little in the way of feedback or comment. I have at last come to terms with that state of affairs and will continue blogging in my merry way and the fashion followers in our hobby can... well, you get my drift I'm sure. So, some pictures of my ACW collection in action, and in close up too, to encourage others who like me perhaps are not as good a painter/modeller as they aspire to be. First up are two bespoke figures sporting my personal likeness, which heads Matt sculpted for me as gifts. Each is based on a Redoubt Miniatures' body and mounted on a Dixon horse. {As you'll see, if you did n't know already, my ACW collection is almost exclusively Dixon Miniatures.} ~

Useless S Bykleigh



 

 

Jubal E Bykleigh

 

I've realised in sorting out the pictures, and confirmed by sorting through the drawers in GHQ, that I have far too many Generals to ever deploy on the tabletop. My excuse? Well, I enjoy painting them! Here's a selection ~

Joe Johnson

Meagher & Father Corby

Jackson & his Staff

As 'regulars' here will know I'm not a very good painter, though I do try hard, and I'm even less of a modeller! I have over the years though made several scratch building and modifying efforts for my favourite era. A few samples of those now ~

Observation Balloon set

The intrepid aeronaut!

The balloon was picked up in a 'tourist tatt' shop on a day out in Shropshire. The waggon is from the Days Gone By range and the figures from Dixon and Redoubt. With Phil's help I've made several buildings to grace our battlefields over the years ~

Rawnsley Farm and associated out buildings

Fencing of various types ~ by the yard!

I've been painting and collecting my favourite Dixon Miniatures figures almost since they were first available, so both the paints I used and the style I paint in have changed and evolved of course. A few shots of my figures might illustrate that better than many words though ~

The Dixon Miniatures ACW bandsmen ~ I have two bands!

Rebel artillery

From the Irish Brigade

146th New York

Louisiana Tigers

South Carolina's finest

Finally in this piece of blatant self indulgence, my figures in action across the table top battlefield here in GHQ. Phil made the terrain boards, as I'm sure you'll know by now, and the trees and stonewalls are from The Last Valley ~

The Rebs advance!

Union troops on the march

Steady Boys!

Rebel artillery swings into action!

As a postscript: 'General Robinson' perusing the first copy of Bull Run To Gettysburg, my ACW rules published by Wargames Foundry ~

The calm before the storm...

Well, I hope some of you have enjoyed this self indulgence on my part. Now to reorganise the next file...

Those whom the gods love...

Recently Phil and I managed to fit in a game, despite a number of real life interventions which had disrupted both of our families in one way or another. As we had a limited time window available we opted for a further run out with Neil Thomas's Ancient and Medieval rules, to which we have been steadily adding developments to suit our own views of the period and the nature of the game we like to play. Once more it was a Late Roman Civil War game: Pompus Maximus, complacent after recent victories {see earlier posts} finds himself forced to fend off the superior numbers of the usurper, Huttus Baldinus. Pompus draws up his forces around the ruins of an earlier civilization, his right resting on thick woods and his left on marshy ground ~

Pompus has fewer troops at his disposal, so his right is held by the newly raised heavy cavalry unit, the Equites Pendorus ~

On the left flank, Pompus finds his heavy cavalry harassed by Huns armed with bows and light spears. They need to be dealt with before the cavalry can turn on the usurper's main line ~

With the Huns largely dealt with the infantry moves into contact with the enemy's line, while Heavy Cavalry begins to move around their flank ~

On the right flank meanwhile, the enemy's cataphract unit ponderously moves forward against the nervous new unit and their archer support ~

Things are going well on Pompus' left flank. The Huns are driven off in disorder, while the infantry are also vanquished. Things are looking very serious for Baldinus' Saxon mercenaries ~

Meanwhile, back on the right flank of the army, the cataphracts finally engage the heavy cavalry. This proved to be a long and ultimately futile struggle for Baldinus' men as they failed to break their opponents and threaten Pompus' flank ~

In the centre the main lines now clash, while Baldinus' remaining Heavy Cavalry make a brave show of halting the enemy's attempt to roll up the line ~

As the fighting intensifies, Baldinus' infantry are having the worse of it, while Pompus' Heavy Cavalry continues to frustrate the cataphracts ~

With Pompus' right holding on and the enemy infantry destroyed, things look on the up for the rightful Emperor ~

However, things are not always what they seem in real life or on the tabletop battlefield. While destroying a large part of Baldinus' army, Pompus' men are themselves badly mauled and unable to press the advantage. After 12 turns we decided that the battle had ended in a draw. Both Pompus and Baldinus live to fight another day!
The figures from my Late Roman collection are all from Wargames Foundry, while the trees are from The Last Valley. I have been painting more figures up lately: the already mentioned Heavy cavalry and several Generals' bases are finished, while I'm working on two bases of Horse Archers at present. In addition the Lead Pimple features two units of infantry. Speaking of bases, as I was a moment ago, you may have noticed that I've rebased the whole force on Impetus sized MDF bases, from Warbases of course. We plan to try those rules out over the winter too, although we both think that Neil Thomas' rules produce an excellent game in their own way and are easily modified to suit our tastes even as I type...

Hurrah! Hurrah! We'll ring the Jubilee!

Have you ever noticed how in life the unexpected can often bring the greatest pleasures? Real life, holidays and such have meant that Jon and I have not been able to get a game in together since June. A sad state of affairs which was unexpectedly rectified when we were recently able to meet up at the Midland Wargames Centre, in Stafford Games' premises, for a Black Powder ACW game. Even more unexpectedly, given the early moves of the game, Useless S Bykleigh emerged triumphant over the broken army of Jubal E Whyte! Hurrah!
The table was 12' x 6', sufficiently large to give me agoraphobia when I saw the Reb masses moving against my gallant, but rather smaller, force. The figures are all from Jon's excellent collection, being mostly Redoubt and Renegade figures in the main, while the buildings are from Hovells and Architectural Heritage, the latter quite clearly my favourites! Now for the action ~

Rebs swarm forward threatening the Union flank

The Union Centre is the first to come under attack

Just in the nick of time Union reserves arrive,and in the right place!

In the centre the New York boys are in trouble!

On the Union left the Rebs are reluctant to advance

The Reb attack in the centre gathers itself for the assault

Rifled artillery shells the Rebels' attack in the centre

The Napoleons add their fire in the centre

On the Union right the Rebels are hurled back, their Brigade broken!

In the centre the attack goes in peacemeal

While on the left the attack is met with a determined stand

With half the Rebel army now broken, Jubal E Whyte was forced to withdraw from the field, leaving the victorious Union cheers ringing in his ears! A great game lasting 10 turns in two and three quarter hours: a great advert for Black Powder as a system I feel. Many thanks to Jon for arranging the game at short notice, and for providing the refreshments when they were sorely needed!