Looking back, looking forward

 A wee review of '22.

I was lucky enough to get to the Ray Harryhausen exhibition in January, turning into big kid whilst taking in the wonderful models and illustrations. 

February saw the sudden passing of my very good friend and fellow member of Oldmeldrum Wargames Club Mike Travis. A sore loss to his family and to our club. We miss you big guy. 

Against Spain was released in February and has been selling slowly but steadily since then.

Some 40mm games set in a fictional offshoot of the Valley.

Restarted the Gordon- Forbes feud.

Met some Wild Geese.. again.....Hi lads!

Changed jobs....thankfully ! 

Got Covid

Gamed Sikh Wars and 16th Century Scotland

Celebrated 30yrs of Marriage

Visited the Royal Armouries

Sold some figures and bought some to game the Indian Mutiny

Had to look for a new home for the club.....and then not had to move!

Had more more 16th C Scottish games with the Oldmeldrum and Banchory guys and collected and painted figures for the Canadian Rebellion and Afghanistan.

Wrote an article on the Marian Civil War with Angus Konstam and had it and another on Corrichie published in Charles Grant's Wargames Annual. Thank you both!

Got some lovely Xmas Loot.....a paddle steamer, a big windmill, the History of Numenor, and 3 cracking books from Leakies in Inverness purchased today - Wheeler's Santiago Campaign 1898, Carrington's Battles and Battle Maps of the American Revolution and Das Deutsche Bundesheer by Eckert and Monten

It has been an odd year - at times disjointed, at others a steady run. I've more or less completed two full painting projects and written another book. Not done much 18thC gaming but have really enjoyed my forays into the 19th and 16th. 

So....looking ahead

Kicking off the new year with game in Forres with Graham H

Publishing Feud 

A new role at work

More Wargames shows!! 

Gaming the Patriots Rebellion, and "The Recent War with Russia" and some "Spanish in the Isles"...more on these latter later in the year. 

Getting back into the swing of a normal and full wargames year, without the disruptions of covid and job hassle.

Turning 50?!

Going back to Memphis and onto Nashville with my lovely wife and her much delayed graduation.

More writing.

Oh and a few other bits and pieces, both planned and fluttery like!

Have a happy Hogmanay when it comes folks......see you in '23.

Wargamers Annual - Wars of Mary Queen of Scots

 

The Wargamers Annual is now available from Caliver Books. As mentioned in previous posts this includes an article by Angus Konstam and myself on the period and figures which can be used as well as an article on the Battle of Corrichie written by me.

More 16thC - Glenlivet

Although not part of my series of Gordon-Forbes feud and outwith the scope of the Marian Civil War we fought the Battle of Glenlivet, 1597 at the club tonight. 

The battle was fought between the Catholic Earl of Huntly and his allies, primarily the Earl of Errol, and an army representing King James VI, led by the young Earl of Argyll. 

Argylls army was made up of levied Campbell foot armed with pike and shot and highland clansmen and was not a well motivated or well led force. The clansmen were the most effective troops but were no great fans of Argyll and his own men couldn't wait to get to get home. 

Huntly and Errol's force was about 50% light horse m the rest was fairly well motivated foot from north east Scotland, mostly Gordon's and their allies but also a battery of 6 guns.

The battle seems to have been an encounter, but Huntly seems to have been aware of Argyll's movements as he was able to deploy his guns in what is not the best terrain for such armaments and use them to effect. 

It was Errol who opened the battle, his horse charging the van of Argyll's force - his hand gunners and archers, at high cost while Huntly deployed to some high ground. Argylls levies were hopeless and the only troops to have much effect were the clansmen, the McLeans in particular. The battle went the rebels way and Argyll was defeated, but it changed little. Huntly had to spend time in exile and Errol's castle of Old Slains was destroyed with gunpowder on order of King James. 

Our game got off to a false start as I'd allocated levies to Argyll and they melted away without any effect. So we reset things and tried again with them as light foot. The second game was closer. Errol's horse were in the thick of it, but then the Gordon foot became to close and Argyll fell in action bringing a courage test for his battered army. The results were not good and several units broke and fled and what was left wasn't enough to be in any state to continue the game....victory for Gordon and Errol.

A bad day for Forbes.....Tillyangus and Corgarff

 Today I had a couple of games today with some friends to test scenarios from my next book, Feud, which covers the Gordon - Forbes feud and the Marian Civil War in the North East of Scotland in the 16th century.

Having played out Corrichie and Craibstane previously, Tillyangus and a fictional scenario involving the burning of Corgarff Castle were on the table today. 

We used Lion Rampant 2nd edition with few of the amendments suggested in the Renaissance Rampant mods which were in Wargames Illustrated, written by Oli of the rather excellent Camisado Blog. I am now quite happy that Lion Rampant and not Pikemans Lament make for a better set of rules for this period - perhaps it's the minor changes to second edition or that these skirmishes between rival families are more suited to a medieval style of warfare despite being set in the latter half. of the 1500's

We opened with Tillyangus - here a band of Gordon's led by Adam Gordon, brother of the Earl of Huntly, and on their way to Edinburgh were attacked by the Forbes's under Black Arthur Forbes of Balfour. 

I have a different view of the battle from the presented in Marren's Grampian Battlefields and wrote the scenario based on the points I set out in the book following a visit to the site and a review of the sources, archaeological findings and some practical considerations too! But to the game...

The Gordons came down the road from Auchindoun through Clatt and bumped into the Forbes men. Both sides tried to find an open flank but it was the Gordon hackbutters who caused the damaged to the Forbes foot and softened the way for the Gordon's to drive the Forbes out of their position and back towards their castle of Druminor. The melees were sharp and bloody and Black Arthur fell not far from the Forbes position, instead of during the historical rout, but otherwise the outcome was the same and the Gordon's won the day.

After a spot of lunch and a catch up we played my Corgarff scenario. 

After defeating Forbes again at Aberdeen, Gordon now had control of the North East and set about making sure his enemies were completely subdued. To this end he rode to lonely Corgarff castle, high up on Donside where he found Lady Forbes of Towie and her family. As is told in the traditional Ballad Edom o'Gordon, Lady Forbes did not surrender and barred the tower door against Gordon, (or his henchman Kerr). Frustrated by this, a fire was set and the tower burned down, with the unfortunate Forbes family inside. In the scenario I have Forbes of Towie riding to the rescue with horse and local foot, racing to drive of Gordon and Kerr before it is too late. 

In our game the Forbes's arrived and drove Kerr and his men off,  but Adam Gordon proved more difficult and with his horse cut up first one and then a second unit of his foes, ultimately breaking and routing them from the field. There was to be no rescue this day! It was a close game though and the had the dice gone the other way it would have been Adam Gordon routed, so the scenario was balanced. 

Two good games with John and Eric taking the Forbes's and Bill taking the Gordon's.

I have a few minor tweaks to make to the scenario's as I've written them and then the last few paragraphs to write before proofreading and off to the publisher, ready for printing in the new year. 

16thC Irish Cavalry

These figures from Crusader Minis were inhabiting a drawer and needed to be painted. So out they came last weekend and I finished them off the morning. The flag is a design I found online and dropped into ms paint to remove the white background. No need to be really neat at this scale when it gets reduced down any unevenness is lost. The three horse design are probably a bit pagan, and would bring the local priests displeasure, but it makes a fine flag for cavalry. 

My Renaissance Irish now have 3 units of Kern, 2 gallowglass and 2 each of shot and bows, plus these horse. A nice compact force which I think I will put on the table on Tuesday at the club.  We played lion rampant with the Renaissance mods from WI and once the players got their heads round the differences in initiative and styles of combat, it made for a good game.

Patriots Rebellion & Retreat from Kabul - Artillery Crew

 Artillery crew. The fellow in the fine helmet is a Bengal Horse Artillery gunner. 

He won't be serving in Canada but will be on the retreat

I also rebased my 16thC Irish/Highland Scots to match my other 16thC stuff. A mix of Perry and Scheltrum figures left over from when I painted figures for the Harlaw anniversary game. Currently flagged up as Irish I can switch them over to Huntly's missing allies from Badenoch and Sutherland should I please, or even the highlanders who fought against the 6th Earl at Glenlivet. 

Patriots Rebellion - the British and the Patriots

The Patriots Rebellion was an uprising in1837-38 by discontented french speaking Canadians who wanted to maintain their heritage and culture in the face of anglicisation and who sought a wanted to restore a French speaking Canada or a least part of it. As the uprisings were dealt with in Canada, some of the leaders crossed the border to the US and, pushing on an open door, managed to recruit support which led cross border incursions into Canada between American sympathisers and the British army. Now that's a greatly condensed and simplified attempt at a summary that leaves out a lot of details, politics and subtlety. But this isn't a history lesson it's just an introduction!

The British deployed elements of several line and militia regiments to deal with the situation. As many of the actions were fought in cold weather 1830's British in greatcoats from Iron Duke from Empress and Studio, now from Bicorne can be used. The Militia are a bit more difficult, but as they tended to follow regular uniform or wore civilian clothes, some assumptions can be made. The European figures in Empresses various 19th ranges are a good start. 

Below is a picture of the British Troops I'll be using.

Artillery, Scots and Militia still to come.

The Patriots and their American allies are more difficult to represent and ranges for the SYW, War of 1812 and Alamo have to be plundered to come up with figures. Happily though these ranges have some great sculptors and similarly scaled figures. I used North Star Musket and Bayonet figures and some Artizan Texans. The blanket coat was a popular and practical winter garment and the hunting shirt was commonly worn too. The only thing I tried to avoid was Indian style leggings. The only thing which I've not been able to find -and my modelling skills are too poor to allow - is the folk who didn't have firearms and were armed with pikes and agricultural implements. 

Below are my Patriot figures. 

These were painted for me by Stuart Foley and rather good they are too. 

Scenery and terrain are easier - stone or timber buildings from the AWI are perfect. Rail fences common and north American scenery in general is spot on. I'll be picking some fences up from Emperor Toad who makes some nice winter scenery.  There is one iconic building which I need though and that's a large, tall stone windmill. I may have to get that custom built - we'll see!

19th Century....some Mutinous Chaps....and a familiar Character

I've finished basing my mutiny figures now. A mix of Iron Duke and Foundry - the latter on a cardboard shim to lift them just a little bit higher to match the slightly taller Hicks sculpted figs. 

These are a unit of the Iron Duke mutineers - with  flag I found online. They'll take the field on Tues evening at a club game.

I also came across a 19thC civilian who reminded me of a well known whisky logo.... Meet Sir James Walker, Her Majesty's Agent At Large and commander of the Moray Militia in the recent unpleasantries with Russia*. Also known as Johnny to his friends. 

*more of this to follow at a later date!

Feud - 2 more local battles - Tillyangus and Craibstane

Following work to finish off my shared article with Angus Konstam on the Marian Civil War and the Battle of Corrichie I had a chance to review my existing notes and maps for two other encounters between the representatives of the factions fighting to control the throne of Scotland and settling their own scores into the bargain. 

At Tillyangus Black Arthur Forbes tried to stop a band of Gordon's from getting to Edinburgh by blocking  their route south - it didn't go well for them. 

At Craibstane, the Forbes family with professional troops tried to drive Adam Gordon from Aberdeen, which he was holding for the Queen. The fight took place at the edge of  the town and once again it didn't go well for the Forbes family. 

What makes these two battles interesting is that neither is a pitched battle. At the former the Forbes's tried to physically block the road and destroy the Gordon's against their position. At the latter Adam Gordon's men were of variable quality but many were defending their homes, fighting amongst the gardens and plots that made up the towns unfortified boundary. Tillyangus is fought hand to hand whilst Craibstane has lots of firearms and bows. The area around Clatt near which Tilllyangus was fought is still mostly open farmland, however Aberdeen has long since overrun the area over which the Gordon's and Forbes's fought at Craibstane - even the stone itself has been moved. It is possible to trace the line of the original road into town from the medieval Bridge of Dee. 

So earlier this week I drew the maps for each game and had a chance to test one scenario which seemed to go ok.

As a wee taster, here are the maps for the two games.

Holidays - Leeds Armouries

On holiday in York for a week. Very relaxing. Visting old haunts as this was the first place my wife and I went on holiday together before we were married and it was our 30th Anniversary this week.

The weather has been wonderful and we have been out and about. York is a wonderful city and there is plenty to do, but we also made time to go a little further afield, to Leeds, as I wanted to see the Royal Armouries. 

Plenty of excellent exhibits all both well labelled and contextually described too. I sat through a talk on Flodden (hmm well not much about the battle just a bit on being in the fighting, and from a archers perspective - I think a missed opportunity there!) and a rather more lively swordplay demonstration. The Medieval and Renaissance galleries cover tournaments and battles and have lots of shiny gear to see. Upstairs the Oriental gallery covers the Ottomans to Japan with some North African material too. The Indian displays and most especially the Samurai armours are the most spectacular I have to say. Such craftsmanship!

I was, of course, particularly interested at the moment in the 16th Century gear.

It's well worth a visit. I took lots of pics. 

English Equipment 2nd half of 16thC

Foot - although the Jack could equally have been worn by mounted types.

Horse

Some Updates

 Sugar Islands and Against Spain 

Prices for these have gone up, as mentioned previously. Details are on the Buy my Books table at the top of the page and now of course you can also get them from Caliver Books and also from On Military Matters in the US.

Feud 

If you're a follower of the blog you'll know I've done some stuff for the Marian Civil War and more specifically the Gordon Forbes Feud in 16th Century Scotland. I have been working on this on and off for a while and it will form the subject of my next book. 

However prior to that some of it will hopefully be popping up in a well known wargamers seasonal book as part of an article with a gentleman from the northern isles. Watch this space for more details.

Feud will be released in January 23. 

19thC Indian Mutiny, etc

I have been building up a collection of Indian Mutiny figures as the extension of my Afghan and Sikh Wars collections. I swapped my seldom used ACW collection for some lovely foundry Mutineers and British infantry to which I will add a few more units to bring it up to TMWWBK sized forces. I've added some pictures below. To lift the foundry figures to the height of the ever so slightly taller Iron Duke figs I slipped a shim of card under the formers bases, I think it does the trick. 

I've really liked painting up more baggage units - this time a dhoolie and a bheestie. 

Finally and staying on the 19th C I have also acquired some lovely Retreat from Kabul figures. Now that the old Studio Miniatures range is available from Bicorne Miniatures, together with the Empress Range,  I can add a good variety of cold weather clad figures to my Afghan war stuff....and use them for the Patriots Rebellion in Canada. 

It's all go' round 'ere.😁

Against Spain - Now available from On Military Matters

 Further to the last post On Military Matters will be also now be carrying "Against Spain"

Dennis still carries "Sugar Islands" too, so now you have three places to by both books. 

Direct from here. From Caliver Books. And now from On Military Matters. 

Right....now there's no excuses!😀 

Against Spain - now also available via Caliver Books

 Sales of Against Spain have been picking up a bit recently - possibly as the wargames show circuit gets underway again. I handed over some copies to Dave Ryan at Caliver Books and he will now be stocking them, alongside Wargaming the Sugar Islands Campaign. 

I still have copies for sale directly, see the separate tab on the blog. The price and postage from me will be going up slightly at the end of August because I will need to order new stock, so if you want a copy at the current price please get in touch quickly!

The next book progresses well - this won't be an 18thC book but something closer to home. It will probably hit the shelves in January.  

For Sale - Figures

 After clearing out some books I decided to take a look at some of the armies I have not used for some time. 

First of these is my late medieval "Army of the Archbishopric of Hoegaarden" actually a mix of late 100yw figures from Perry and Citadel (ex Bretonnian Halberd and Spear) with few Front Rank figs added. These were professionally painted and the level of detail in them, especially the command figures is quite high. There are 208 pieces (cav and guns as 2pcs). 

I'm asking £475 for this army inc Uk postage.

The second set of armies which I am selling in my ACW collection. I have not used these for a good while. But there are two decent sized forces here -

There are; 

168 pc confederate army

124 inf, 12 cav, 2 guns and 4 crew ea, 4 casualties and 2 mtd command

169pc union army

121 inf, 12 cav, 14 dismounted cav, w/8horse and horse holders, 2 guns and 4 crew, 4 casualties, 2mtd commanders

Total of 337pc 

Plus Confederate ambulance and union prisoners vignettes 17pcs

Grant total 350pcs @ £2 per pc = £700 inc Uk Postage. More pics available. 

ACW STUFF NOW SOLD

Sikh Wars - Follow up

 Thanks for the kind comments regarding my last post.

I tested positive for covid on Sunday but between sweats, sniffs, coughs and splutters I have managed to do a little bit of painting and basing.

First up were some old glory Sikh's. Not as nice as the Foundry figures, nor the Studio miniatures range, but the same height as the former and so able to fit in and flesh out my my army. I painted these almost exclusively with citadel contrast paints, (trousers and metalwork were normal acrylics). I think they've come out pretty nicely. 

OG Sikhs, with Foundry Officer

I also managed to do some baggage camels. These are Empress Miniatures and very nice indeed. They too were given the contrast paint treatment - aggaros dunes as the base, with iraqi sand from Vallejo to lighten them up. Baggage was a mix of contrasts and acrylics. This give me 8 elements of baggage in total for my NWF/Indian armies. I think I will add a buffalo cart and bheesties which will make it a fair size and appropriate for the location - trains were often as large or larger than the armies they accompanied and in several cases were not large enough even then to provide the food and fodder required. For this reason they are an essential feature of armies in these areas. 

Whist raking around for more bits to add, I came across a signed copy of Donald Featherstone's book - The First Sikh War - on evil bay, so that got snapped up. He responsible for me taking up wargaming as his book "Wargames" was in my local library as a kid. I've never looked back.  It's nice to have this connection.

I have started to paint some of the Empress/Iron Duke sepoys. This will give me a further unit in shakos and also a unit of deserters....or mutineers. Sepoy uniform didn't change at all from the 30's to the Mutiny and that means I have a ready made army to start cover the first outbreaks and battles around Delhi. For the British units in shell jacket and cap from Sikh war ranges are fine, but even that semi formal uniform quickly gave way to improvised affairs. The Mutiny seems another period crying out to be gamed using TMWWBK - so I will!

Size Comparison - LtoR - Perry Afghan, OG Sikh, Empress Sepoy, Foundry Sikh, Empress Nz War 

(Although the foundry figure is smallest, his base is very thin and with a shim underneath there is next to no difference between OG, Foundry and Empress)