A Diversion - The Battle of Barra - 1308

A slight diversion (Oh isn't always thus with wargamers!!).

As a member of Oldmeldrum Wargames Group I was asked to help out with a local history project by another club member Alistair Massie. A video was being put together which covered the history of the Garioch and Meldrum in particular and would we, could we, put together a demonstration of the Battle of Barra in 1308 as part of the film.

Luckily we had some medieval figure which would "do" - Crusader, Gripping Beast, ClannTara, Games Workshop and we were very very lucky to recieve a collection of Ebob "Rebellion" figures which we used for close up work.

As the group were busy putting together their participation game for Targe at Kirriemuir and everyone suffered from the usual family, work and hobby balance we were really pushed to get things done in time. However the figures of Robert and Edward Bruce and John Comyn, Brechin and Mowbray were painted, heraldry added and flocked just in time for the shoot.

Terrain was provided by Alistair, whose excellent hex system gave us quite a good representation of the landscape around the battlefield. The slopes of Barra hill and the road from Meldrum to Inverurie were particularly well done.

The filming itself was interesting to say the least! Not content with taking pictures of the set up, they wanted us on camera, talking about it.....oh great!! No script, but I think we might have just about got away with it - we'll see what the editor can do!!!

Anyway here are a couple of shots of the recreation of the Battle of Barra. More of the figures when I get them!

 Alistair giving live commentry

 

 

Part of the collection loaned from Ebob

My Project for 2014

Well I've decided what I'm going to do next. After a couple of years of shako's and having British, French, Prussian and Russian Armies (ok ok still to complete B, F, P & R armies..!!), I've decided that I'm going to turn to......

 

Seven Years War

 

The reason (justification?) for this is I've just taken ownership of an incredible limited edition privately printed book by a chap called John Ray called "A Military Gentleman" which tells the story of an officer in the armies of the latter half of the 18th C. It's photographs, drawings and paintings are just stunning and having hankered after something in Tricorns for a while I've decided to plump for that period. I toyed with doing AWI, but the armies are a bit more limited - I wanted bright colours and the ability to not only play larger battles but also smaller "kleinkreig" skirmishes, raids and the like using the Muskets and Tomahawk rules - just shifting their focus to Croats, Jaeger and Pandour instead of Indians, Ranger and Coueur de Bois. I'll use a version of the Neil Thomas Napoleonic rules with SYW Mods for the larger battles.

 

I'm going to collect three "armies". The first will be that of Ferdinand of Brunswick and will include British, Hanoverian and Hessian troops along with some Prussian Freikorps and Jaeger. The second will be a Reichsarmee force with some of the more colourful micro-nations to add a splash of vibrancy. Each of these forces will include a couple of units of light infantry and hussars based singly to take part in the skirmish games. The third force will be civilians, militia, hangers on, etc - set dressing to make the games look good and also, sometimes to defend their homes and families from dastardly raiders. The armies won't be huge - 8-10 units so they will be designed for a club night game.

 

I've decided to make use of the figures by Front Rank, Crusader and Redoubt Miniatures for the majority of my armies with additional figs from the likes of Perry and Foundry for civilians. The two main combatants forces will have a strong influence from our beer wars campaigns and so will be led by fictional characters with their entourage, coach, hangers on, baggage etc. I took a look at the excellent figures from Minden Miniatures and others, but these are not so easily and readily available and so I decided to use the less anatomically correct and more traditional 28mm figs. For scenery I will need some typical german looking buildings. At present I am looking at those made by PMC, Conflix and similar looking constructions. These arent the most archtecturally correct but they look good and are simple to modify.

First job will be to compile my army lists and pick the figs....

Some Pics from my Garden Game this summer. Austrians vs French 1798.

 

The French General gives inspiration before the attack.

 

 

Skirmishers to the fore, the French advance to the lane and give fire on the Austrians concealed by the hedgerow.

 

The Austrians blaze away in afternoon sun

But the French are relentless and break through. An attempt at a flank march is driven off.

 

 

Exit Austrians pursued by French!

 

My Napoleonic Rules

My evolving, simple napoleonic rules, based on those by Neil Thomas