Scottish Pike Block Finished!

 . . . and now to do 2 stands of muskets!

The Grand Muster: The King's Forces

I have finished Phase 3 of my English Civil War project and like any normal person who has a day off I decided to line them up for review by His Majesty.  My forces are mounted for Victory Without Quarter and are very much a "generic" army as I have painted regiments that I like and to me give the flavor of the period.

Newcastle's Lambs in the front rank and Talbot's "The War Poodles Own" in the second rank.

Close up of Talbot's Regiment.

Phase 1 consisted of painting 6 regiments of foot as well as a few cavalry and command stands.  Phase 2 (shiny new toy syndrome!) happened when I noticed the Warlord Games Highland clansmen and I also received a box of Irish Brigade from Warlord Games.  Phase 3 was completing 4 more Infantry regiments for both sides.  Phase 4 will be the addition of 3 more cavalry units when I get around to "recruiting".

 The Kings Lifeguard of foot with support from Prince Rupert's Regiment of Foot.

Another view of the Lifeguard and Rupert's Regiment.  About 98% of the figures in my army come from Warlord Games with a few Foundry and Perry Miniatures thrown in for variety.

The Royalists consist of 4 Regiments of Foot, 2 Irish Brigade Regiments and 2 to 3 Highland clansmen (depending on how they are deployed) and one lonely Regiment of Horse.  The army is heavy on forces from Scottish theater but heck, it's my army!

The clans charge.  Brittle in battle but if they can close with the enemy they are devastating.

Yes that is "Norm !" from the TV show Cheers.

The Irish Brigade advances behind their Gaelic cousins.

Another view.

 The lone cavalry unit is Rupert's Horse.  Cavalry are Perry Miniatures while Prince Rupert and War Poodle are from Warlord Games.

The animation of the Perry figures is phenomenal. 

 His Majesty Charles I.

The Brigade commander for the Highland Clans.

 Both mounted officers in front of the line are Perry Miniatures.

One last view before heading into quarters.

Lord Saye & Sale's Regiment Regiment of Foot

A momentous occasion as Phase 3 of the English Civil War project is complete.  I now have 14 regiments of foot complete and mounted for Victory Without Quarter.

I had originally purchased 4 boxes of Warlord Games plastic English Civil War infantry.  They come with a wide variety of headgear but I ran out of helmets as I wanted the majority of my pike men to wear.  Fortunately Warlord Games sells extra head gear and I purchased a packet of 4 which came with a bonus wide bream hat!  I soon discovered that the helmets and hat did not quite fit which is easily solved by carefully slicing the top of the heads off!

 Sergeant converted from pike man figure.

 The beautiful flags are from Wargame Designs.

 

Arthur's Knights for Dux Bellorum

First of all since I am not working in an academic environment I will steal a good idea in a heartbeat; I'll give credit but steal it non the less.  Before I go any further I must point out as I build my Dux Bellorum forces how inspirational the following blogs have been:  Paul Scrivens-Smith at the site Scrivsland and Steve Jones at Steve's Paintingshed.  In fact Steve has an excellent Dux Bellorum article in Issue 62 of Wargames Soldiers & Strategy which is where I was inspired to use 120 mm as my base width for Dux Bellorum.

Here are the first 3 units for my Roman-British Army featuring Arthur and his "knights" which are a mix of Wargames Foundry and Old Glory.

In the lead are the Mounted Companions of armored cavalry with Arthur himself.  Had to put my new trees in the background!

The other 2 stands are Noble riders which are 2 units of armored horseman.  I may do another unit of Noble riders if I can convert some other cavalry.  The banner with the religious icon of Mary and Jesus was downloaded from Wargames Designs and I made the pole with 2 plastic pikes from Warlord Games' ECW infantry box.  I just notched the back of the pike to make a snug fit for the cross bean and instant banner pole.  I really like the trend of hard plastic miniatures.

Arthur's army for Dux Bellorum will of course have the Imposing Horseman special rule!  I am still working out the composition of the rest of the force and that will have to wait until I am done with my Late Roman army and Saxons (Early era).

Army Command for the English Civil War

Honorable Son #2 will be departing for his officer basic course with Honorable Daughter-in-Law #2 in about 5 weeks so of course he wanted to have one more game before he goes.  Since I've been working on my English Civil War project (hint, hint) we decided that Victory Without Quarter would be the perfect send off.  For the game we are going to draft Honorable Sons #1, #3, #4 and #5 to be subordinate commanders during the game.

Just in time (I will be doing no painting, repeat, no painting leading up to the wedding in 9 days) I finished the army commands for both the Royalists and Parliament.

First up is King Charles I from Warlord Games with the Royal Standard carried by a hard plastic infantry officer from the Warlord Games ECW infantry box.

Flag from the wonderful site Wargames Designs.

The foreshadowing on the back of the command stand is an accessory from GW's Bretonnian Archers hard plastic box.

For Parliament we have the Earl of Essex by Warlord Games being cheered on by a Wargames Foundry officer.

The cuirassiers providing a Lifeguard for the Earl and the mounted officer are from Perry Miniatures.

ECW Army Command WIP

Here are my two army command stands that are almost complete for Victory Without Quarter:

First up for Parliament is the Earl of Essex and one of his officers.  Essex is from Warlord Games and the foot officer is from Wargames Foundry. The wagon wheel is from an old Games Workshop wagon.

For the cause of King and Country is King Charles I from Warlord Games. The officer holding the Royal Standard is a hard plastic figure from the Warlord Games plastic infantry box.

The Royal Standard is available for free from Wargames Designs.

Sir John Lambert's Regiment of Horse

 . . . and another unit is complete!  This time Sir John Lambert's Regiment of horse.  Figures by Perry Miniatures and the flag once again free from Wargames Designs.  

 Once again I chose a unit because I think they have a cool flag!

 

All of my cavalry so far have come from Perry Miniatures.  The photo below demonstrates the great animation that went into the sculpting of the figures.  

When the first Civil War broke out John Lambert he first proved his worth in Lord Fairfax's Parliamentarian Northern army, showing his tactical ability and bravery whilst fighting at Hull and Nantwich.
His reputation as a soldier steadily increased, and he was second in command when he led his regiment of horse at Marston Moor in 1644. In 1645 he took over Fairfax's position as commander of the Northern Army, but was wounded at Wentbridge later in 1645. 

 He was second in command to Cromwell at Preston when they crushed the northern resistance at Pontefract. Promoted to Major General, Lambert was Cromwell's second in command when he marched into Scotland in 1650 and temporarily took command when Cromwell fell ill in spring of 1651. Later that year he helped slow the Scottish advance at Preston, before going on to attack Worcester.

The end of the wars found him involved in politics and Parliament nominated him Lord-Deputy of Ireland, but then abolished the post and he refused a lesser position. He supported Cromwell when he dissolved Parliament and wrote the Instrument of Government, Britain's first and only written constitution, to be applied when Cromwell became Lord Protector in 1653. He was a prominent supporter of the Army's power and the creation of the Major Generals who ruled England in 1655. A rift started to form between Lambert and Cromwell and he refused to take the oath of loyalty to the Lord Protector or countenance him as King in 1657. He resigned his commission and retired to his house at Wimbledon with Frances and his ten children to "grow flowers".