Soggy Bottom 1643 Scenario available!

In case you missed it on the TtS! newsletter, I've recently published Andrew Brentnall's super "Soggy Bottom 1643" scenario. Soggy Bottom is the large battle that I took around the UK show circuit this year, and very fine it looked, too!

Set in the county of Borsetshire, the scenario follows the Parliamentarian defeat at "Lessie's Moor" (another splendid scenario by Andrew, available for free download). Aid arrives for both factions, and a battle to decide the fate of Borsetshire is fought near to the usually quiet village of Soggy Bottom.

Both scenarios have been written for use with the popular "For King and Parliament" rules, but could easily be adapted for use with other sets of English Civil War rules. You can download them for free from here!

Spare Flagdude flags

I have a load of beautifully animated ECW flags from Flagdude in the US, that are surplus to my needs.  They are quite lovely- they look like silk flapping in the wind.  There are 18 flags which would cost USD108 plus postage (and duty); £48 including UK postage? Or I'd consider swaps for painted ECW, Williamite or WSS minis, or open to other swaps.

More horseys!

I promised to add a couple more units for Sunday's SELWG For King and Parliament game, and here they are (clickable, of course).  These two regiments were relatively quick to recruit, since I just needed to paint up four minis, from scratch, and retouch another fifteen or so, to match some pretty minis I bought on eBay. The front regiment is Skinner's Kentish Horse and the rear regiment, Twistleton's, all cropheads.

You can see I'm using my cavalry Batbases, each of which take 6 minis, which I like to think of as a troop of around 70 horse. I've used my patented BigRedBatGunk basing material; the next step will be to flock it, later today, and then I can add tufts later in the week. These two give me a total of sixteen regiments of horse, representing some 4,000 ECW horsemen. I need at least ten more regiments for my projected Salute game. :-/

In other news I seem to have started an entirely new project in a different period, of which more, anon!

Soggy Bottom is coming to SELWG!

Advancing Royalist foot- love that Gyronny!

Various chums will be helping me to bring "Soggy Bottom, 1643", the TtS! For King and Parliament demonstration game, to SELWG at Crystal Palace on Sunday 21st October. If you'd like to play in either the morning (11:00AM start) or afternoon (1:45 PM start) please drop me a line at simonmiller60 at gmail.com. 

Essex's regiment- or the "Smashing Pumpkins", as mate Shaun calls them.

Here are some more pictures, taken by chum Ian Notter at Colours. All the images will expand if you click on them.

Two battalia of the King's Lifeguard of Foot advance, with clubbed muskets. Salveeee!

Sometimes, the larger ECW regiments would arrive at the battlefield in enough strength to form more than one 5-600 man battalia. Above are two battalia of Lifeguard, which have some of the finest flags of the war. On other occasions several under-strength regiments might have to be combined to form a single battalia.

The Parliamentarian line

I confess to a regrettable preference for painting Royalists. Nonetheless, my Parliamentarians are gradually catching up in numbers, and, next year, I hope to double the size of some of the regiments so they can each form two battalia. One day I'l love to do Naseby, and recent research indicates that there were a heck of a lot of New Model foot.

Thomas Ballard's Regiment

Above, one of my newer regiments, mostly painted by Shaun McTague. As with all of my units they are mostly Bicorne with a few Renegade and Redoubt mixed in.

Parliamentarian "Dutch" horse

If you come to SELWG, you'll see that I am experimenting with teddy-bear fur. One can achieve some very realistic effects with it, especially with my wobbly-edged bases which sink right into it.

Each time I run the game, I try to add another unit or two. This time I plan to add another regiment of horse, as part of a big expansion of my ECW cavalry over the winter, for a planned Salute game. The ratio of horse to foot in the ECW is astonishingly (and inconveniently!) high, especially for the Royalists- consequently I find that I "need" another 200 mounted minis for my planned game.

Anyhow that's it for now- I hope to see some of you at SELWG! It's always a great show, and my last of the gaming year. Not too crowded, but crowded enough, with some cracking historical games and one of the last of the "Bring and Buy" stands.

Soggy Bottom - the Royalist Right

Here are some pictures of the other wing of our recent game at Colours. Again, these were taken by Ian Notter. All the photos will enlarge when clicked-upon.

Above, Colonel Skippon directs his command from a field outside Soggy Bottom. Skippon (close-up below) is a splendid mini painted, I believe, by David Imrie. 

His wing included four regiments of "Dutch"-style horse, including Sir Arthur Hesilrig and his famous London Lobsters, below.

The red-cornetted "Dutch" regiment, above, seem to be focussed on the mobile rations to their front. The flock of sheep absolutely stole the show, I hope that 1st Corps sell a load of them! Below, they are charged by the more-aggressive Royalist "Swedes" of Sir Horatio Cary’s Regiment of Horse. "Cuckolds we come, indeed!" I was delighted with the Sherpa grass I used on this wing- the scalloped edges of the bat bases sink into it and are rendered almost invisible.

Finally, here's a shot along the Royalist line - that's Sir Jacob Astley's Regiment in the middle ground and Henry Tillier's, beyond. The eponymous marsh of Soggy Bottom is on the right, defended by Major Undertaking's commanded shotte (below), a hard-fighting bunch of n'er-do-wells, if I ever saw one.

That's all for today! Photos of the centre are to follow in a few days time. If you missed the photos of the left wing, you can find them here.

In other news, I have just re-supplied the shop with lots of things that have run out. In particular, I include a new mat that I am calling the "The Ginormous One", which is designed for those playing "For King and Parliament" on a 12" grid in the grand manner.

Soggy Bottom - the Royalist left

On Saturday, Andrew Brentnall, Tim Thompson, Ian Notter and I took Soggy Bottom to Colours. This is the demo game for the For King and Parliament rules, designed so we can use all my completed units. Above is a (click to enlarge) view of sundry Royalist regiments advancing on the eponymous village, taken from the Royalist ridge. All the other photos are of the Parliamentarian right wing and Royalist left.

Here are Colonel James Wardlawe’s dragoons, who held the Parliamentarian extreme right in both games. During the second game, half of them even tried a mounted charge, a la Okey, but with rather less success.

Above, Oliver Cromwell led the famous (but newly painted and consequently ill-omened) Ironsides to their doom, in both games. In the first he was killed, in the second merely wounded. Below, you can see the six troops on the left, these were recently painted for me by Steve Spence. Grahame Black of GMB very kindly made up the flags for me (I was one short, so used a Northern Parliamentarian flag) you can buy them here. Facing them are the front two regiments of the Royalist Northern Horse.

Above is a closeup of one Ironside troop and the flag of Captain William Packer. The new flags are lovely... Below are the King's Lifeguard of Horse, left, and a third regiment of the Northern horse, right.

So that's it for today, more photos in a day or so and there . Both games were great fun and at times there were twenty or so people round the table. If you are interested, the rules can be found here.

Lord Hopton's Regiment

Here is Lord Hopton's regiment. Raised in Somerset in 1643, this blue-coated regiment fought for the King at both Newburys, Cheriton, Cropredy Bridge and Lostwithiel. There's more about them on the invaluable BCW site. Photos are clickable.

These Bicorne minis were, again, painted by Chris Meacham and based by me. The flag is by Flags of War. I plan to make alternative command stands for this regiment, so that the pike and shot can also depicts Rupert's Bluecoats and, perhaps, other units. Eventually I hope to have lots of alternative command stands.

They will be at Colours on Newbury on Saturday. Please drop me a line if you'd like to book in for the big For King and Parliament game.

Sir Charles Vavasour’s (Matthew Appleyard's) Regiment

Sir Charles Vavasour's was an English regiment, raised for service in Ireland, that returned to fight for the King under Hopton and later within the Oxford army. It was present at a pleasingly large number of the battles of the war, including Cheriton, Cropredy Bridge, Second Newbury and Naseby. Earlier, too, it had seen action in Ireland. There's more about them on the invaluable BCW.

The Bicorne minis were painted by Chris Meacham and based by me. The (conjectural) flag is by Flags of War, I felt it went well with the primrose tunics. This is my second yellow-coated Irish regiment; in fact I now have four regiments that fought in Ireland.

If you'd like to see them in action, they will be at Colours on Newbury on Saturday- you might even get to command them! Please drop me a line if you'd like to book in for the big For King and Parliament game.

Old Noll

Here's Oliver Cromwell, not yet Lord Protector, but already a Lieutenant General of Horse. Cromwell is looking out for the arrival of his Ironsides, who are presently in the flocking queue. Pics are clickable.

I think David Imrie painted him, it's certainly a lovely job! I painted the cornet and fount the other rider in my bits box. The base is from my circular command base pack. The minis are mostly (all?) Bicornes. The simple white flag is from a new pack from GMB, who have kindly also done flags for the Ironside troops, to follow.

I must apologise for the desultory nature of posts on this blog. I have at least a dozen regiments of foot and horse that are finished and awaiting photography, and several more on the basing tray, along with other officers. More pics to follow!

Colonel Thomas Ballard's Regiment of Foot

Here's the second regiment I mentioned yesterday. These are Colonel Thomas Ballard's Regiment of Foot from the Earl of Essex's army. All pictures are clickable! I'm really pleased with the command stand- both the layout (a sort of wedge) and the look of the miniatures with their tassets and sashes. 

The 42 minis were beautifully painted by Shaun McTague, and are Bicornes with a modest admixture of Renegade Miniatures. The flags are Flags of War. The bases are, again, my Batbases- I did the basing and the flags.

It's not very clear in the photo but there's a dead horse on the pike base- I modified this from a Bicorne horse and they very kindly cast some up for me.

This gets me up to 18 battalia, not I need to add some more regiments of horse- oh, and some artillery!  I'm considering building towards the OOB of one of the historical battles- Cheriton, perhaps.

Sir Charles Gerard’s Regiment of Foot

I've been very slack with the blog posts recently but will hopefully catch up in the coming weeks! This is Charles Gerard's regiment, from the King's Oxford army. They fought at Edgehill and First Newbury- there's more about it on BCW. NB all photos will expand if clicked!

The miniatures are all Bicornes, painted by Chris Meacham. The lovely flags are GMB- Gerrard's has a gyronny design, the finest ECW flag style in my opinion. 

The bases are my FK&P batbases for a 30cm grid, which can now be bought from the BigRedBatshop. I'll shortly be adding bases that will work with a 20cm grid.

In other news.... I have lots of ECW regiments that are finished but I've not had time to take photos- I will try to catch up in the coming days!

Warfare miniatures for sale

Apologies for this brief commercial break!

I have a few Warfare (League of Augsberg) late c17th minis for sale- 64 minis plus two guns (including one large positional gun) and two limbers. These are mint and mostly in the original baggies. List of packs: WLOA2 x 3, WLOA4x2 (1 mini missing), WLOA7, WLOA10, WLOA11, WLOA12, WLOA13, WLOA14, WLOA17, WLOA18 and 2 x Limbers. RRP around 107GBP- I’ll take 65GBP + P&P or swap for 100GBP-worth of minis from the North Star 1672 range or the Front Rank c.17th or WSS ranges. 

I also have 17 dismounted miniatures (below) which I think are dragoons and 15 mounted miniatures which are charging cavalry in hats and mounted command. They are all primed grey with some of the cavalry painted in red tunics. I think there are around GBP80 worth of minis here- I'd either take GBP50 plus postage or swap for GBP80-worth of minis from the North Star 1672 range or the Front Rank c.17th or WSS ranges.  

Hold your horses!

Reinforcements for Sunday's Partizan game. These are horse holders for Colonel Washington's dragoons and will sit behind a hedge, all day, doing absolutely nothing except for looking pretty. Minis are super Bicornes, which a few Redoubt horses for variety, painted by Shaun McTague.

There are enough horses to mount one of the units of dismounted dragoons. Next I'll need to ask Shaun to paint 18 mounted dragoons. Dragoons are a harsh mistress!

Andrew and I hope that some of you will see our Soggy Bottoms at Partizan on Sunday- we still have slots for players for the afternoon game- drop me a line if you'd like to play!

Salute For King and Parliament close-ups

Alan and Elaine Daniels very kindly took some in-action shots of the Saltue "For King and Parliament" game at Salute- they came out very well! Here are a selection. All of the photos will enlarge if clicked on.

Above are Apsleys, I believe, and below one of the Royalist Irish regiments, in their smart yellow jackets.

Toiling gunners!

Essex' regiment, or, as Shaun McTague (who painted them) refers to them, "The Pumpkins."

Above and below- one of my two Lifeguard battalia. Sometimes the larger regiments, with a nominal strength of 1000 or more, could field two battalia of 500. The Lifeguard are from the Oxford army and many wear montero hats.

 ...and finally, above, John Hampden's Parliamentarian regiment.

It was very nice to see Alan and Elaine again- they do very well to get such photos during play and in the harsh lighting conditions at Salute!

I am please to report that the For King and Parliament rules are sellling very well- I'm over half way throught the print run, to the relief of my family, as the high and tottering pile of boxes of books in my hallway is no longer life-threatening. ;-)

PS We will have the game at Partizan on Sunday 20th May - please mail me if you'd like to play!