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.

Legendary Wargames and Potential Projects

 A busy weekend from a Wargaming perspective. 

The butterfly has been gettign itchy wings again and I have finally caved and got hold of some reference material for a couple of projects I have fancied for quite some time.

This lot came a few weeks ago, I have read Skinners book which is full of really good reference material and scenario ideas. Lakes Campaigns I have brought with me for my week in a cottage in North Wales.

Following on from that and recycling some of the cash I made selling my WW2 20mm desert collection (Most of the foot gone but lots of vehicles to go) I have invested in some more reading material. These all look great with lots of reference material in Talon and Claw for my Great Northern War collection, a bunch more for Wellington and Lake in India and also a couple of great looking books for the Mexican or Maximillian adventure or if you prefer the Frnech intervention in Mexico.

I have picked up some figures for Mexico from various sources to do some paint and figure testing and will share the results with you. The Napoleonic India timeframe I am less well informed on. Of course a great many of my Irregulars for Sikh Wars will translate straight over. My initial interest was sparked by the Perry figures from the Napoleon in Egypt range so hopefully the books will tell me how I can best employ these in India.

On Saturday I popped over to Richard and Andy's Legendary Wargames Cabin in Bronte Country (only half an hour away from me in Bradford)

This was a big refight of Borodino for Jerry Millers delayed 60th birthday, I wasnt intending to play just to catch up with everyone after 18 months of  lockdown and take in the sight of the big game. I have to say that impressive hardly covers it. Below we see Andy on the front table as the French move on to deploy.

There were masses of beautifully painted figures, mainly from the collection of Chris Flowers, these Poles are amongst my favourites.

The rear table is pretty empty as the Russian reserves have yet to arrive and the French are just deploying so have pushed nobody back and broken through no where but as you can see there is 24 feet by 12 feet of gaming table being played on here. Smashing stuff. 

This lovely Russian command vignette is a Chris Flowers peice painted by Jerry Miller.

A glance along the table from the other end reveals long lines of Russian guns facing massed columns of Bonapartes finest.

Built by Jerry specifically for this game the Russian Grand Redoubt is pretty impressive, as is the massive French Column.

I wouldnt want to be in one of those French columns. 

And just starting to arrive on the rear table are a few Russian Cavalry. Cracking figures. Like much of Chris's collection I believe these are from the talented brush of Steve Shann.

I only stayed long enough to say hello, take lots of pictures and pinch a sandwich. A proper sight for sore eyes though this one. Anyone interested in playing at Legendary wargmes should contact Richard and Andy via the website  https://legendarywargames.com/

I think the next game we are planning there is a huge late Roman vs Gemranic tribes game, Should be fun.

There are bound to be more pictures on the website, thanks for reading see you soon and stay safe!