Keep Your Powder Dry

On a trip down to that there London, I popped in to the annual wargamer festival of mass consumption (aka Salute). Sadly no Civil War display games present this year - the one that was supposed to be there was a 'no show'.  So to 'justify' my visit I purchased the Polemos* ECW rules from the Baccus stand. Yet another ruleset from Pete Berry (he is co-author with David Heading and Edward Sturges) who was looking very hassled behind the till as the EPOS system wasn't working due to poor network coverage. The 76 page rulebook is split into five sections: set up, core rules, terrain and optional rules, army generators, and appendices. Set up and core rules taking up just 28 pages. So what do you get in the rulebook? Lots of tables; good written examples and diagrams explaining rule mechanisms; lots of art by the late Lesley Prince; copious B&W photos; and 4 pages of full colour eye candy to inspire you. All for just a tenner (which at the current exchange rate is le...

Those of you who have tried to visit either the BCW Project or Regimental Wiki will notice that it is 'down'. >>>>>>>>> Update May 2025: www.BCW-Project.org.uk is now live. There's just a blog entry explaining what's going on, for now! >>>>>>>>> Update April 2025: Those of you wondering what is happening with the site data, well real life has been throwing some massive spanners in the works, so progress on restoring the site has been, to be honest, none existent. Fear not, work on restoring the site has started, and will commence in earnest soon. Unfortunately GoDaddy have parked the BCW-project.org URL and are effectively holding it for ransom. So when the site returns it will be at a slightly different address  BCW-project.org.uk We will be asking for help with the funding of the website - so if you have missed the website, it would be a very nice way of remembering the founder of the site, the late Dave Plant, by...

Continuing the theme of figures becoming somebody else, I thought I'd steal the reveal from Stars In Their Eyes... I'm Oliver Cromwell, and tonight Matthew I'm going to be  Colonel John Okey.  Possibly my favourite figure from the entire range of 'characters'. This pose really lends itself to a vignette with the figure talking to a figure on foot. The perfect figure for this being the General Coaker collectable figure from PP. Originally these limited free figures were available for attendees at PP game days, but more recently they have become a wonderful way of remembering gamers and friends of PP who have passed away. Limited to one per household, I'd already utilised my General Coaker figure in a regiment of foot, but was fortunate to be a gifted another (thanks Will). Maybe the figure on foot has just climbed down from a tree at Naseby and is reporting the location of the King to his colonel? John Okey was a London merchant, and later an MP for Bedfordshire....

The current rash of 'new senior officers' continue. When will it stop? Pretty soon I'd imagine (the box of shiny things is now empty). So here is a senior officer apiece for the The Solemn League, Montrose, and The Catholic Confederacy. These are PP figures from their 'personalities section, who have been repurposed. As with previous figures from the PP personality section, major surgery was required to remove the vast majority of their bases. First up is  John Lindsay, Earl of Crawford-Lindsay , who is the Hasselrigg figure from the range in case you are wondering. John is resplendent in full cuirassier armour. John, born around 1598, was the eldest son of Robert, 9th Lord Lindsay,  and Lady Christian Hamilton. On his father's death in1616, he became the 10th Lord Lindsay of the Byres. 1633, he was elevated to  Earl of Lindsay. He also inherited the Earldom of Crawford following his cousin, Ludoivic, forfeiting the title in November 1652. He was appointed Treasurer...

It is only right and proper that the ECW travelogue turns it's attention to England's smallest County, and the home of 'England's smallest man', Captain Jeffrey Hudson. Purposefully, slightly wonky picture so I know who keeps nicking my pictures and not crediting me Jeffrey was variously known as the 'Queen's Dwarf', or 'Lord Minimus'; he was gifted, at age 7 to Queen Henrietta Maria via the medium of a large pie, from whence he leapt, dressed in full cuirassier armour, at a banquet at Burley-on-the-Hill.  Jeffrey's life was the stuff of a blockbuster movie script. Unfortunately much of what we do know about his life has been clouded by Sir Walter Scott's embellishments (bloody Victorians!). If anyone's life story did not need embellishing, it is Jeffrey's. He killed a man and was exiled to France; was kidnapped by Barbary pirates; enslaved in North Africa; and, imprisoned on his return to England in the 1670s for being a Catholic...

 Two more PP characters are re-appropriated to be somebody else.  I had thought long and hard as to whether I would actually use these figures, the ensigns quickly made their way onto fleabay, the personalities have sat in a drawer awaiting their fate. Each figure has a much thicker base than the normal PP figures, which accentuates the size difference. Figures also have their name in raised detail on the base. I needed to trim down the bases. Thinner bases would help blend the personalities into the rest of my armies. Henry Bard, 1st Viscount Bellomont ( This is the Charles I figure. PP missed a trick by not sculpting the figure wearing his Order of the  Garter riband. Thankfully, by not having a garter riband it makes it much easier to change who the figure is.) Henry has graced these pages before with his Regiment of Foot . Bard had travelled considerably, having visited Paris, and journeyed on foot through France, Italy, Turkey, Palestine, and Egypt. It is alleged tha...

Realising that my finished* Irish Confederate Catholics were lacking in the command stakes, I decided to utilise the Peter Pig characters that were sat in my spares box. The character packs are heroically sized in comparison to the rest of the PP ECW range, I had thought long and hard as to whether I would actually use these figures, the ensigns quickly made their way onto fleabay, the personalities have sat in my spares box for a very long time awaiting their fate.  Each figure has a much thicker base than the normal PP figures, which accentuates the size difference. Figures also have their name in raised detail on the bases. Thinner bases would help blend the personalities into the rest of my armies. The base trimmings from just three figures Next I had to decide who they were going to become... So here are my latest Irish Catholic command figures. Sir Ruaidhrí Ó Mórdha ( This is the Essex figure from the character range.) Sir Ruaidhrí Ó Mórdha, sometimes Sir Rory O'Moore, or eve...

Way back in the mists of time I painted some Freikorps 15 'camp followers'; as I decided I had far too few civilians I turned my attention back to this pack.  Partly inspired by a recent trip to Amsterdam, and swooning at the sight of the Vermeers in The Rijksmuseum, here's my latest batch of civilians. The colour palette for the clothing has been lifted straight from Vermeer's works. Mostly from the aforementioned Freikorps 15 pack, there's also a few figures from the Minifigs Hussite Wars camp followers pack 214X. Freikorps camp followers a single casting women with buckets women looking stern women with babies April 2025 update, there appears to be an issue at QRF/Freikorps concerning ownership of some of the ranges. Might be worth checking out the wargame forums before placing an order. Caveat emptor. Minifigs Hussite camp followers I particularly like the woman with the firewood bundle If you enjoyed reading this, or any of the other posts, please consider  su...

The original Irish Command post focused solely upon the spiritual leadership of my Connfederate Army. Although I really should have an Archbishop GianBattista Rinuccini figure, mounted on a donkey or on a litter. This post features the military leadership. Figures are gleaned from the Peter Pig Scots generals pack, number 40. General Eoghan Ruadh Ó Néill  was a talented soldier who learned his soldiering in Spanish service on the continent. His personality, and distrust by his contemporaries meant the seemingly natural commander of the Confederate Army was often sidelined. For a fuller biography see here . Eoghan Ruadh Ó Néill Eoghan's personal standard is the Irish harp on a green background, which was reported as being used by Eoghan in 1642. Prior to this the traditional background had been blue. As always, flag created for me by Stuart at Maverick Models. The ensign figure has been given  a PP Irish hat head. Sir Phelim macShane Ó Néill Sir Phelim macShane Ó Néill Phelim, ...

It appears that it is becoming tradition that successful 'medieval' wargaming rules have a follow up pike and shot version. And so it is with the very popular Nevermind the Billhooks, which has spawned numerous variants, and now gives us the pike and shot version Nevermind the Matchlocks. Just as Billhooks was given away with Wargames Illustrated, so it was with Matchlocks, which came 'free' with the November 2024 issue. Currently available to buy from WI as the ruleset (£5.99), or the mag and rules (also £5.99). Running at 32 pages, the rules are in a magazine format; pretty pictures courtesy of Richard from Bloody Miniatures, and just 5 simple tables to consult (6 if you include the quick reference sheet). Units described These are a seemingly easy to pick up ruleset, but I fear a hard set to master. Designed for small battles/big skirmishes of about 150 figures a side, lasting up to two hours. The game utilises six-side dice, and game specific tokens and cards. The r...

Be still my beating heart. A book on the supply of clothing and equipment that relies heavily, and quotes, contemporary documents.  Somehow, this book really ticks my boxes. Who'd have thunk it? What do you want to be when you grow up? Someone who gets excited at the mention of the Tangye Collection manuscripts, and any hint of SP28 (Commonwealth Exchequer Papers) has those close by reaching for the smelling salts. That last sentence wouldn't have been on the shortlist, or even the longlist. Authors writing about the New Model Army supply chain tend to limit their attention to what are known as the Mungeam Contracts, a 'sample' of the London Museum's* Tangye Collection which were transcribed and are easily accessible. As Dr Abram points out in his introduction, there is so much more source material. But enough of my peccadilloes... Dr Abram's latest tome homes in on the supply of the Army, Newly Modelled. Not just clothing, armour, weaponry, horses, horse furni...

Austrian mountaineer Heinrich Harrer spent seven years in Tibet, nice work if you can get it; his story was turned into a film, and Harrer was portrayed by Brad Pitt. In years to come who will portray me in the film version of this blog? When I started writing this blog it was a receptacle for bits of paper that didn't really have a 'home', so I gave them one; but the 'home' has grown and developed a life of its own. Almost.  Regular readers will be surprised to hear that the Saturday boy did not attend this year's KYPD staff mid-winter party - management's bluff of compulsory playing of 'Mould-my-Cockle-Bread'* obviously scared him off  I genuinely never expected anyone to read my ramblings, but read them you do.  Every year, sometime about October I do start to wonder what the viewing figures for the year will be: will it be 50k?, will it be 100k?, this year I started wondering if it would break the 250k figure. It passed that with ease in November...