Test using the New Blogger

I thought I would take a test drive of the new Blogger to see how it would affect me posting. This post is just a trial run and only has some news.

The current version of Blogger is going to be replaced at the end of June, apparently, although this been highlighted for a long time and as you'll see, or possibly already know - it doesn't work properly.

Using the new interface, I found that I can type more text than I could in the past without being unable to scroll down far enough on the page. I had to use BlogTouch to do this in the past.

The big problem is that the upload image button, the really important one, doesn't work. 

My blog is very much  a diary of what I do and holds pics of my games. It hosts a couple of downloads and an order form for my book. Like a lot of bloggers I can upload images from my iPad or iphone, taken during a game or at a show for instance. So continuing to be able to do so is a critical feature for huge numbers of users I imagine. I'm not impressed!

I had to go back to the legacy version to finish this post, but I think I will be able to keep going using Blogger for text and BlogTouch to add in the pix and general editing if things are not fixed.

So, what have I been up to in recently. After dealing with the outbreak and its impact at work I began working from home. That didn't last long and I was made redundant due to a restructure. Brilliant timing! I decided to use the time to work on something different since we were in different times. Thus started my 16th Century diversion, which started as a plan to do a local battle during the Marian Civil war and feuds between the Gordon's and other local families. It's ended up with me researching the 80 yrs war and painting enough Irish for a small army for the Tudor campaigns in Ireland!!!

Recent amazon purchase - excellent!

On the personal front my job situation turned around again a lot quicker than I expected and I start a new job last week. My wife has submitted her thesis and completed her viva and after a hectic few weeks her NHS training placement is settling down too. Suddenly I found my self with a lot more headspace and over the last week have picked up the sequel to the Sugar Islands Campaign and added bios of the British and Spanish commanders, organisation charts for both sides for Cuba & Manila and sketched out roughly some scenarios for the latter. I've also done some background on give away scenarios, like that I did for the Maroons for skirmishes with the Spanish in Georgia. 

On the actual gaming front I've been taking part in online games using Tabletop Simulator with my local club. Some of these have worked better than others. I particularly like the WW2 bombing campaign and the Chariot racing game but felt that others were too fiddly and were restricted by the game engine, internet connection and individual computers. Zoom has been used to stay in touch with my club mates and gamer chums from the area, and that's helped keep my gaming itch in check. We even managed Monday night D&D games via Zoom too. 

So what's coming up in the next few months? Well I shall be settling into my new job and won't have any international concerns or trips (which I might miss strangely enough). That means weekends and evenings will be free for the important stuff. Family and hobbies. The Spider needs woken up, taxed and serviced and I will be pushing on with the invasion of Cuba and then the Philippines. Two boxes of Wars of Religion figures need painting and there's been some discussion on 40mm shiny toy soldiers with some of my mates. Oh and I need to paint some rowers too.

Manila anyone?

With lockdown easing however I managed to get a game in the garden, observing the 2m social distancing rules of course. 

That went well, even though the Russians under "Grigory" McGee managed to take Lament Ridge. I have made the Russians 16 figure Large units but treat them as poor shots with a 12in range. Thus they can soak up the damage and in terms of men outnumber the smaller British units who get the Minie. They needed it. The Russian infantry took heavy losses as they moved across the exposed slopes. However they kept coming and brought up their guns on the flank of the British and saw off two squadrons of Hussars before firing on the infantry, but the time we ended the game it was clear the British didn't have the manpower left to force the ridge. It was a good game and great to throw some dice again after a long long time. 

I've ordered British artillery and rifle brigade! 🤣

And to bring everything right up to date I received a package of some 3d printed bell tents from my mate Graham. These really look the business and the layers are very tight and only noticeable up close. I can't wait to get them painted, they'll do great service for several armies and periods in my collection. 

Keep staying safe folks. 

Across the Pond Podcast

Oldmeldrum Wargames Group, of which I am part, were invited to take part in a podcast by Gary and Collin from Across the Pond Wargamers and we recorded our part last weekend.

I have to say Gary and Collin made us feel very relaxed and at ease and we were soon chatting away about the hobby, new and shiny things, how to keep things going in lockdown and what got each of us started in wargaming. 

This has now been released and is well worth a listen. Check out the other podcasts they've done too - I'm a convert and I'll be tuning in on a regular basis. 

Across the Pond Podcast 3 - Keeping Relevant

Across the Pond Podcasts

16thC Distraction - Huntly and Family

I received my Border Reiver figures from Timeline/Hoka Hey. These are the ex Graven images Jim Bowen range and are a chunky but wonderfully sculpted and were a pleasure to paint. They're not the cheapest, but neither are Foundry for example and sometimes you pay for what you get. I'd certainly buy more of these.

I have painted them up to represent the Gordon Family. 

The Earl of Huntly is described as being overweight and older. He died of a stroke or heart attack immediately after the battle. I tried to give him a flushed skin tone, but am not sure if that came out. He is dressed in expensive black clothing and wears a gilded breastplate. He is bareheaded, so his men and his foes know him, and perhaps so he can breath a bit better!

His son John, flanks him in his morion and black clothing, he is armed with a pistol and sword.  He is in a world of trouble and probably knows that whatever happens to his father he is most definitely in for the full wrath of the Queen and Regent and has nothing to lose.

Huntly's youngest son, Adam, is also a hothead, like his brother John. Songs will be written about the terrible Edom O' Gordon and his deeds, but he will survive and become a faithful servant of James VI. 

Around around them are other members of the Gordon household and they will be fighting under Huntly's banner.

I now have enough figures painted to refight the battle. Some basing needs done. I purchased some movement trays but due to a tolerance problem of base size to slot size these needed to be modified and sanded out. Not a problem I've had before. I will be going back to my normal supplier Warbases and ordering some custom bases when they reopen, I've never had problems with those. What I'd really like is some irregular shaped bases that are textured with a slot. I've yet to see such things, but if anyone knows of them, let me know. 

16thC Distraction - Huntly's men

Huntly's Men.

The Earl of Huntly was the preeminent nobleman in North East Scotland. He controlled or had influence over most of what is now Aberdeenshire, parts of Moray and Badenoch. Until however his family began to fall from favour. 

At Corrichie, Huntly led between 500-800 men. Some were drawn from his family heartlands around Strathbogie (now itself called Huntly), some from Donside and Deeside and some from further afield. However despite being associated with the "clan" Gordon, Huntly's force should not be considered as one made of Highlanders. 

The most populous parts of the areas under Huntly's influence and the areas where he was able to draw his men were not the highlands. Some were only a few miles from Aberdeen. It's probably that only the men supplied by the Earl of Sutherland and some of the more distant tenants from Huntlys own lands around Ruthven and Badenoch were Gaelic speaking highlanders. The rest were lowland farmers and tenants, servants and liege men who owed too many favours or were too closely involved to say no to being called out without worry about the consequences. 

What did a 16thC Highlander look like? In the furthest west amongst the isles they probably looked much like the Irish with whom they shared a common culture and close language. They wore a saffron or undyed linen tunic called a leine. To say it's simply a shirt isn't doing it justice. They probably had a cloak, mostly likely plaid or tweed patterned, which they may have belted about their body and pinned over the shoulder. The redshanks who fought in Ireland at this time probably looked most like your typical highland Scot. The more contact they had with lowland Scots the more this style of clothing would have been mixed with doublets, hose, beret like bonnets, etc. Their language would have been the main differentiator and as time went on, religion began to differ too. 

This is a great source of images for Scots of all varieties - http://warfare.cf/Scot.htm

These chaps http://www.claiomh.ie/16th-century-c-1504-1607.html and this guy in particular are good impressions of highland warriors. 

Mark Hanna - from the Redshank blog 

(http://theredshank.blogspot.com/2013/04/redshank-dress-in-1500s-and-early-1600s.html)

For modern illustrations of Scots of the period, specifically the lowlanders, have a look at Border Reiver 1513-1603 in the Osprey Elite series. It's illustrations are excellent and the photos of reenactors particularly good.

How to represent this in the table top. 

Wargamers are well used to the concept of Jacobite clan units comprising a front rank of gentlemen and a rear rank of humblies with everything else in between the two. Huntly's men should be portrayed similarly. The front ranks of his units should be lowlanders wearing normal clothing, equipped with a pole arm , long spear, or sword and targe (no basket hilted claymores though) . Border Reivers and Elizabethan English are best for these. The ex-Vendel castings D'Arlo /Thistle and Rose figures Hoka-Hey Miniatures sculpted by Jim Bowen and English Tudor ranges from TAG are the best. 

The rest of the unit, depending on its origins should be more lowland foot from the same ranges, or some leine wearing caterans preferably draped in a plaid cloak. This isn't easy as no one does highland Scots for this period in 28mm. Elizabethan Irish, kern and possibly a few lochaber axe, bow or spear armed ECW Highlanders would have to do for the rear ranks. Perry and Antediluvian do very nice Irish and Eureka and Foundry have a few ECW Scots who would suit. 

Perry WOTR Kern mixed with ex Vendel figures. One or two of my units for Huntly's force will have highland Scots amongst them the others will be lowlanders

16thC Distraction - Corrichie

The Battle of Corrichie.

In 1562 Mary Stewart, Queen of Scots, had given her protestant half-brother, James Stewart, the title Earl of Moray in order to reward his service to the crown and to counterbalance the power of the conservative catholic Earl of Huntly who controlled most of north east Scotland. Huntly was not at all in the Queen’s favour due to his family’s feuds with other lords, but he squandered whatever chance he had to regain it by failing to appear before her in Aberdeen and submit and then allowing one of his son’s to shadow her progress to Inverness with a large band of armed men. At Inverness matters worsened when the Queen was initially refused entry to the castle which Huntly controlled. Huntly was called to account and ordered to give up the family castles at Findlater, Auchindoun and Strathbogie and appear before the Queens privy council. Huntly did not like the odds. He sent his wife to bargain for him. By now Mary had taken her full of him and had him declared an outlaw. She dispatched riders to take him at Strathbogie, but he managed to escape over the castle wall without so much as “boote or swerde” and made off for another of his holdings at Ruthven in Badenoch on the other side of the Cairngorms.

There he schemed and called his family and supporters to him, hoping to raise an army of 20,000 as he had boasted that he could a couple of years before. However, the winds had changed and many of his former allies sensed this and when the chips were down, failed to come out for him.

He set out from Ruthven towards Aberdeen in late October. He may have hoped that some would rally to him on his march and that his army would swell as it moved east. However only his sons Lord George, Sir John and Sir Adam Gordon, his cousin the Earl of Sutherland and some of his Gordon kin followed him – Black Alistair Gordon of Abergeldie, George Gordon of Blairdinnie and William Gordon of Terpersie. Others such as Abercrombie of Pitmedden, Douglas of Tilquillie, Irvine of Drum, Bisset of Lessendrum and Menzies of Pitfodels also joined. A glance at a map of the lands around dee and donside quickly gives the impression that none of these men were great landowners and even in a time when the countryside was more densely populated most of these others would have contributed only a few dozen men at best. Many stayed away and some, such as Gordon of Haddo, even joined the Queen’s forces. Thus, with between 500-800 men, Huntly reached Garlogie, about 12 miles from Aberdeen and camped not far from the loch of Skene.

Moray had not been idle. Whilst Huntly had been in the hills, he had summoned pike and shot from Lothian and Edinburgh to supplement the militia from Aberdeen, of which he was sheriff. He also had a unit of horse, bringing his total to near 2000 men. Learning of Huntly’s approach he sent the Earl of Errol, Lord Balqhuain and Lord Forbes with his mounted men to beat up Huntly’s camp at Garlogie in a dawn raid on the 28^th of October. Moray himself brought the foot from Aberdeen.

The raid forced Huntly to realise he did not have the strength to take on Moray and he began to retreat, back the way he came. He stuck to rough ground, hindering the cavalry and pikemen of his foe and made for high ground a few miles from his camp. He crossed a burn and turned at bay on a spur of the Hill o’Fare, probably around the Meikle Tap, which rises steeply above the surrounding country, hoping this would favour his troops and even the disparity in numbers.

Moray was now at hand, having followed with his foot. By mid-afternoon it was time to fight – there was little daylight left. His shot drove the Huntly’s men from their position, down the hill and to the west into the Howe of Corrichie. He sent his horse up to deal with them, his pike following.  The horse could not finish them off due to the boggy ground along the burn. But Huntly was now pinned, with steep ground at his back and his enemy close by. Moray sent in the Aberdeenshire men first, but perhaps due to former loyalties, perhaps faced by desperate men or even simply because of poor training and bad ground they broke and fled back and around the Lothian men. Huntly led his men forward, determined to follow up this small success, however the Edinburgh pike were steady and the Gordon’s could not get within range to use their hand weapons against the closed ranks of pike supported by the horse and shot. Now it was the Gordons turn to break and with nowhere to go they had little chance but to surrender and take their chances or die.

Some 200 or so of Huntly’s men lay dead amongst the heather. Over 120 were taken prisoner. The rest, dead at Garlogie or fled in ones and twos into the October gloom. The battle had lasted for under an hour. Huntly himself surrendered his sword and was taken before Moray. As he was led away he “sodenlie fawleth from his horse starke dedde…” succumbing to a seizure or heart failure. Bar the recriminations, it was all over.

Tomorrow… refighting the battle.