Tudor Arte of Warre Volume 2

 To complement the work on my Elizabethan Ireland project I have been doing my research. The Twighlight Lords is a fabulous book covering the Elizabethan period and in particular the devastating Desmond rebellions and led me to want to learn more.

More recently I invested in Helions Tudor Arte of Warre book 2, looking at warfare in the age of Elizabeth, where book one deals with the earlier Tudors..

It was almost immediately apparent that there is far more to this period than I thought I knew. Davies shares a narrative for a period rich in military history that is often over looked.

He challenges the often shared narrative that most Elizabethan military ventures were failures due to Elizabeth's fiscal parsimony and fickle mind changes, although there is ample evidence for some of this.

Instead we find the leaders of England's armies often woefully unable and misleading of their monarch inevitably leading to spiralling costs, negligible results and a massive wastage in man power.

As you would expect the book is full of portraits, maps and colour plates in  this case in the form of re-enactors with period costume and weapons.

The Politics, characters and events are skillfully told with the military campaigns themselves broken out and individual key battles having their own chapters.

Scotland, Flanders, France, Brittany, Spain, Portugal and Ireland are all thoroughly covered as is the potential for a land battle via the Spanish Armada.

Interestingly in his analysis the Spanish troops are defeated and unlikely to have beaten the English. As much by the poor logistics and inevitable disease as anything.

Whilst I was aware that disease and poor supplies brought on by inadequate logistics were big players in earlier campaigns the stark numbers presented by the author are chilling and another new factor to consider for me, one letter to the privy council from a general in Ireland baldly stating that the 6,000 troops sent a few months earlier were now "all used up".

The author shows that England's opponents in regular warfare suffered similar fates when fighting on foreign soil, the Spanish at Kinsale being a good example.

All told an excellent read and very interesting, I recommend to anyone interested in the period and I look forward to the release of volume 3 covering the troops themselves.

Flags of War 1745 Last Hurrah Kickstarter Review

Its funny how it creeps up on you, its seemed ages away when I put my Kickstarter order in back in November and now they are here, Huzzah!

I actually have quite a lot painted for this project but stored away in boxes waiting for the extra few castings to finish units off units so hopefully a little flurry of finished units to follow in due course.

The previous Kickstarters from Iain at Flags of War were really proffessionally handled and the figures just lovely so high hopes for this last one for the 1745 Jacobite Rising. Iain has not disapointed.

You will of course see the finished figures as they come off the painting table but for now I thought I might just give you a flavour of whats come with particular focus on the new figures.

First of all what greets you on opening the parcel always puts a smile on my face. A shipping list with a little personal thank you from Iain is a nice touch, as is the little pack of Haribo, sweets are always the way to my heart. Also on top of the figures and flags are a couple of free stickers. Iain loves his stickers and I was initially a bit stuck for what to use them for. However as there is a British Grenadiers mitre and a highland bonnet I think they would be best used to mark the storage boxes I will be keeping the figures in for quick reference.

I have partiallyused the kickstarter to pick up a bunch of figures already released but for the purposes of this post I will concentrate on the new castings yet to be released. Each pack of figures arrives in a little plastic bag typically with four foot figures and the card "Flags of War" backing.

The first pack I opened was the dismounted British Dragoons, these will be my skirmishers and fought dismounted as well as mounted, at Clifton Moor in fairly large numbers too. 4 packs of these allows me to create either 2 units of 6 skirmishers or 2 units of 8 line depending on how I choose to use them. I will base them in pairs I think to allow me to use them in either role.

This very dynamic Seargent is a free figure for hitting one of the funding goals and will be based individually as a leader character. Particularly like this.

One unit I was particularly looking forward to was Baggots Hussars, these guys are depicted with carbines fulfilling their scouting and skirmishing role, I have 3 packs so a unit of 8 ideal for Sharp Practice with one spare figure.

Here is a closer pciture of the riders.

As part of the Kickstarter I also get a free Flag with each batch of packs giving me 4 free flag sheets, the first one I picked up was the Argyl militia, I am likely to do these troops without uniforms when I get around to them, but with uniformed officers seconded from the regulars.

Two lots of Highland flags essentially giving me enough for 3 clans McPherson, Appin and Bannerman.

For the lowlanders we have the Duke of Perths regiment.

These in particular I was looking forward to, a pack of loading Royal Eccossais to add to the firing troops, two packs of these will complete a 24 man formation of 3 groups of 8. Its likely these will be the first figures I tackle from this release it will be nice to see finished units rolling off the workbench and to the basing department.

These were released in a previous Kickstarter but they are the first of the Government Highlanders I have picked up, bloody lovely and the standard bearers I plan to use as Seargents with halberds.

I also picked up 3 mounted officers, the first one is a generic British Officer which I particularly like and has the added advantage of a slightly different horse to the cavalry packs.

Then the General Hawley Character in great coat with Pistol on a rearing horse, pistol at the ready.

Lastly the Bagotts Hussar Officer, this is straight out of the penequick drawings and I love the rakish hat. He looks suitable Hussary and ready to plunder. Looking forward to painting this character.

Over and above these I have a bunch of British regulars and mounted dragoons from the last Kickstarter to flesh out the earlier units and a few more packs of Jacobites too. There is room for a few more additions, lowland militia for both sides in particular, but that is the bulk of the figures bought, now I just have to paint them!

Of course there were more releases in the Kickstarter that I didnt partake of this time, characters, casualties and British regulars defending, all are lvoely just not what I needed for now. I am sure they will be on Iains site in due course.

Thanks for reading, until next time stay safe.

Seelow Heights Scenario Book and Legendary Wargames Article

 Great news for friends of the blog Legendary Wargames and Steve Shann who have their names in lights just now, which is a little ray of sunshine in these difficult times.

Firstly I am delighted to share a little detail of good friend Steve Shann's new book. Encouraged and organised by Steve our little group of gaming chums put on a Seelow Heights game at the Partizan Newark show back in 2013, little did we know at the time that this would become the germination of a plan to create a gamers guide and scenario book around the 2 day battle between the Germans and Russians in 1945.

Here are a couple of links to Steves Nation in arms blog with more background and detail.

Nations In Arms: The Seelow Heights A Wargamer's Guide: A Few Thoughts (steve-nationsinarms.blogspot.com)

 

Nations In Arms: The Seelow Heights: Preview Copies. (steve-nationsinarms.blogspot.com)

 

Nations In Arms: Seelow Heights at Partizan II (steve-nationsinarms.blogspot.com)

Steve's book is in the lovely glossy softback with loads of great pictures we have become used to in similar publications. It retails at £18.50 and I understand is available at Caliver Books in the UK. I am sure this will be a roaring success and Steve is already working on another project I hope to share with you soon.

In other news Richard and Andy of Legendary Wargames ( A great Wargaming Holiday retreat in Bronte Country for those not aware) have an article out this weekend (30th January) in the Yorkshire Post. Richard from Legendary Wargames had this to say:

"In this Saturdays Yorkshire Post magazine there will be an article on the ‘ enduring popularity of tabletop Wargames ‘.

It features myself (Legendary Wargames) and also Steve Shann (Wargames enthusiast and figure painter).

I was surprised to be asked to do this feature but also very happy as it shows our hobby is still thriving!"

Well I was almost like a real reporter then, this is brilliant news both for the hobby, the hobby as an industry but in particular three of my long term gaming friends and who would have thought Richard wold be a magazine cover model? Please support Richard, Andy and Steve.

Legendary Wargames can be found here https://legendarywargames.com/

Steve's blog is here http://steve-nationsinarms.blogspot.com/

Very best of luck gentlemen.

Swedish Dragoon Workbench and Review

I did this post before I left for my cruise so posting now to keep you busy and will share some of the exciting other stuff I have over the next week or two.

Before I pass these on to the basing department I thought I might take the opportunity to photograph and review some of the figures from Warfare Miniatures new Swedish Cavalry individually.

Bit of a different approach  but I really like some of these as individual characters so wanted to photograph them singly before they are all based up as a unit which will lose some of that individual character.

So here they are above as a group as I varnish them.

Below is the officer. There are two different officers, I might do a second of these reviews with the other officer and the figures with shouldered sword.

The drummer is one of my favourite figures and is really full of character, cracking figure.

This cornet is really nice as well. lots of "GA PA" here, the horse is OK but my least favourite of the four.

The two packs of charging riders are excellent, I like all of them and as each comes with separate arms lots of room to create individual figures. The below rider is on another of the horses which is very nice indeed.

This figure is a favourite of mine, the right eye covered with a bandage which you cant see in this shot, I like this horse too and think this particular one came out really well.

Another aggressively posed rider from the charging pack.

This is the only figure for this unit using the older models, this is the original test figure for the Swedish horse, he fits in and fits the horses OK but his coat tails raise him up slightly and the sculpting is not quite as nice as the new ones.

This trooper is letting out a yell as he charges forward, very nice this one.

I really like this bareheaded rider.

Here they all are together, these will be Schlippenbachs Dargoons and make a very colourful show I think.

And here they are based up ready to pass to the basing department. I should have these back shortly to share with you.

Thanks for reading, more to follow.