Warlord Games ECW Pike & Shotte Regiments

Finished three more foot regiments. Lord Brooke's in purple coats, Talbot's in yellow, and Essex's in orange.

There are now 9 foot regiments, and I hope to someday add 3 more for a total of 12 - which should make for a good 4 to 6 player game, with cavalry and artillery.

The pikemen and command are on metal washers to help ease their placement on movement trays - the pikemen with levelled pikes take some consideration of where to place them. Also, the flag bearer can be swapped out for different units, if needed.

For the record, this is the look I tried to achieve with the blocks of shotte - from period illustrations below.

Plan to start on the artillery set soon, however, it'll have to wait until next week since my son will be stopping by later this week from his Army assignment in Italy. He's actually coming to his friend's wedding, but will be staying with us while coming and going. Until next time, hope you all are doing well!

Warlord Games ECW Musketeers

Finished the shotte for three new regiments, pikemen and command to follow. Essex's orange coats, Brooke's in purple, and Talbot's in yellow.

They're in my preferred basing for shotte - 3x2 ranks on 60x40mm rectangles. I like the look of the shotte being more of a block formation when flanking the pikemen.

I only gave them a little highlighting after the Minwax staining as they're in close, rank and file formation.

Thanks for checking out the blog, and wishing you all the best. Oh, and I think I'm getting over my slight cold - abstained from alcohol and had a lot of chicken noodle soup.

Warlord Games Pike & Shotte Cuirassiers

Although the Royalist were not known to have many fully armored cavalry units, went ahead and gave them a conjectural Royalist flag. Hope to get a box of Scots Lancers to oppose them someday.

They painted up fairly quickly being mostly armored, except for the musician. 

In keeping with the rest of the Royalist cavalry, their saddle cloth are painted blue with white trim. This simplifies identification of units on the table.

I've been using a brown spray paint to basecoat the horses, and then brush on varying browns over it. This really speeds up painting cavalry. I vary horse tails and manes with black and buff.

Building back up my ECW collection is a longterm project, which I am not in any rush to finish. It's enjoyable, and a sort of hobby within a hobby.

Thank you for your visits and kind comments as always. Best regards to you all.

ECW Pike & Shotte Project Update

The project is up to 6 units each of pike & shotte and cavalry, thanks in no small part to my buddy kindly gifting me back two units each of those - including my dear Scots! I had kept my King Charles vignette and Prince Rupert and Boye command stand. My buddy is into Thirty Years War, specifically the Swedish phase, and not into the ECW, anyway.

In addition to these painted figures, I just received a couple more  boxes of foot from ebay, as well as a big order (for me) from Noble Knight Games. The Noble Knight order includes the Ordanance battery, cuirassiers, another box of foot, a saker gun, and several mounted commanders. I will have to hold off on painting them for a few weeks, as I'm heading to Hawaii in a couple of days to visit my family. 

I may update the blog while in Hawaii if I stumble into any hobby-related stuff, but I'm actually going to help out my brother whose been taking care of our 94 year old mom by himself. Until next time, wising you all the best.

Warlord Games ECW Cavalry

These are the two units from the second Army Starter box. Although I painted the coats (where visible) in green and white to match the earlier Manchester and Newcastle foot units, respectively, they have different unit flags. The guys in white have Prince Rupert's flag, and the green guys have one for the Earl of Essex. If I ever obtain the correct unit flags, they'll replace the ones here.

They're based in pairs on the 50x50mm bases that came with the box.

Kept with painting the saddle cloths blue for Royalists and red for Parliamentarians - just to keep them easier to ID on the table.

Incidentally, my buddy who I had sold off my ECW collection actually gifted me back two units of pike & shotte and cavalry each. I didn't ask him, but was willing to pay for them, but he said he had more than enough already. I plan to rebase the shotte on 60x40mm bases.

Thanks again for stopping by and wishing you all the best.

2 More Warlord Games ECW Pike & Shotte Regiments

 Finished the Marquis of Newcastle's Whitecoats and the Earl of Manchester's Greencoats.

I made magnetic movement trays for the pikemen and command which are based on metal washers. This helps with the arrangement of the guys with the levelled pikes.

Unlike my earlier shotte units which were based 4 figures per 40mm square, I opted for 6 figures on 60x40mm rectangles. I like the "squarer" look when they are on the flanks of the pikes, and form a better looking hedgehog with the pikes as well.

The pike and command figures. The standard bearers can be swapped out for different units.

I now have 4 foot regiments, and plan to have a total of 8 once done. This will be half of the number I had earlier, but should still be enough for decent Pike & Shotte games, especially with cavalry regiments and artillery. I also made magnetic movement trays for the single based shotte earlier painted.

Thanks again for stopping by and checking out the blog. Wishing you all the best.

Warlord Games Pike & Shotte ECW Cavalry

Here are the last of the figures from the Army Starter box. Actually, there are 4 spare unarmored pikemen (no powder bandoliers), but no arms for them. I suppose it's just how they made up the sprues. I might see if I have some spare arms from the Landsknecht sets that might work.

As mentioned in the previous post, I went ahead and added highlights, mainly to the cloth sleeves, sashes, and hats. Otherwise, the hybrid staining worked out pretty nicely. That is, Minwax was only used on the horse flesh. Agrax Earthshade used on the gloves, boots, belts, and very sparingly on the folks of the buff coats since I wanted a cleaner look.

I was reminded how much I like these figures, along with the earlier foot. They paint up nicely without lacing and piping.

The guys in blue are Prince Rupert's, and the ones in red generic Parliamentarians. I got the flags off the internet.

This project was actually was a bit refreshing, and has renewed my interest in the period, as well as the exploits of Prince Rupert in particular. I might even do something with Blood & Plunder wtih the prince since he became a sort of buccaneer later in his career.

Otherwise, taking a slight break from the painting table, and will be concentrating on refreshing myself with the "At The Height Of Battle" Imjin War naval rules. I plan to run a game next month at the Veterans Memorial Museum game day with the ships I inherited from David Sullivan's collection. My buddy who gave me the Blood & Plunder set also gave me a nice neoprene sea mat which will work nicely with the game too. Anyway, thanks for stopping by, and best wishes to you all!

Warlord Games ECW Foot Command

These are the commands for Parliamentarians and Prince Rupert's Bluecoats. Also a couple of spare figures to be leaders for Firelock units.

Luckily I had spare flags from my earlier work on ECW figures.

There are four more "extra" pikemen figures, which I may make a couple of sergeants with halberds.

Only the cavalry are left from the starter set - they'll be worked on next.

I also just received a copy of the Warlord Games Pike & Shotte "The Highest Throne" supplement for the Ottoman wars. Here it is with my modest force of Ottomans - which were originally used for a Napoleon in Egypt project.

Besides my Italian Wars figures, these ECW figures can also be used against the Ottomans.

I plan to use the scenarios and background info for smaller skirmish games using The Pikeman's Lament or something similar. Thanks again for your continued visits, and wishing you all the best.

Warlord Games ECW Battalia Starter Army - Foot

 Except for the command figures, the foot are completed.

They're in two units represented the New Model Army in red, and Prince Rupert's Blue Coats. Interestingly, Prince Rupert's Firelocks were supposedly in red coats, but for simplicity on the table, they'll be blue like the rest of the regiment.

For use with The Pikeman's Lament, a few of the pikemen will be swapped out for command figures, as the units are 12 figures each including command.

This is actually the second time I've painted up these two units - the first time was back in 2020 https://wabcorner.blogspot.com/2020/10/warlord-games-pike-shot-battalia.html . They were sold along with the rest of the ECW collection to my buddy a couple of years ago.

Also, another gaming buddy gave me his Blood & Plunder stuff. He said he wasn't interested in it anymore and that I could have it. Besides the resin ship, there are two more in plastic kit form.

Until next time, thanks for stopping by and wishing you all the best.

Enfilade 2022

Just got home after attending our annual "big" convention, Enfilade. This was the first year we've gone back to the usual Memorial Day weekend time-frame since 2019 (pre-Covid). Our friends and allies from Canada showed up in force since border crossing requirements have eased up. Attendance was up from last September's ad hoc convention - there were about 300 attendees and around 120 games. A bit less than our record high in 2019 - around 400 attendees and 140 or so games. I was able to host four games: two Black Powder La Haye Sainte games and two Pike & Shotte Marston Moor games. There were 6 players for each Black Powder game and 8 players for each Marston Moor game. I managed to retain most of my voice through Sunday morning's game. Pints of Guinness Stout during and after games (except this morning) helped to fortify my resolve. Here are some pictures from the games I ran and also some of the great games others hosted. 

From the first La Haye Sainte Game. The KGL quickly moved into the farmhouse and stables and took pot shots at the approaching French. This allowed to French to return fire - the mechanics allowed them to shoot back once the KGL fired out of buildings.

French infantry and engineers approach the main gate of the complex. Hanoverians and 95th Rifles providing support to the beleaguered KGL inside. In both La Haye Sainte games, the players running the 95th and Hanoverians were both aggressive and had good die rolls. Unlike history, the 95th quickly moved out of the safety of the sandpit and advanced to engage the French. Providing devastating fire with their longer ranged rifles and Sharpshooter rerolls.

French infantry broken into smaller detachments shooting and fight around the barn. The scenario had units represented by two stands once they reach the outside of the farm complex.

The farmhouse and stables on fire. The GM (me) rolled a D6 at the start of each to see if the farmhouse, barn and stable would catch fire from off board artillery. On a 6 it would catch fire and then another D6 roll would determine it's "ferocity". The KGL inside could attempt to put out the fire with a higher roll than the "ferocity". It not put out in 3 turns, the structure would burn and not be able to be occupied by KGL. The KGL successfully put out the fire in some of the structures in both games. In both games, the French were not able to destroy the required number of KGL occupants in both games. They needed to destroy half of them.

One of the two Marston Moor Pike & Shotte games - view from the Royalist side with Rupert's Bluecoat regiment of foote to the left of Newcastle's regiment of foote. The Marston Moor games were held on Saturday night and Sunday morning. I was able to leave the table set up in the gaming hall overnight. It would've been painful to reset the game with the amount of figures used.

Royalist cavalry led by Prince Rupert on their right wing. A unit of Rupert's red coated commanded shot screening their advance.

A view of the Royalist left flank. Their cavalry facing the Parliamentarian cavalry led by Thomas Fairfax.

Center of the Allied army with regiments of Scottish foot holding the line.

Royalist cuirassiers supported by cavaliers charging into Parliamentarian commanded shot.

 Cromwell in the background with his Ironsides.

Royalist foot arrayed along the hedges and ditch running the center of the battlefield.

Dismounted dragoons from both sides engaged in the rough.

Parliamentarian right attempting to advance.

Cromwell with his remaining Ironsides. It was a close Royalist victory in both games.

Next up are pictures of the others games which I will endeavor to caption (hopefully correctly) once I go through the events listing.

Aspern-Essling - General du Corps

Ancients game hosted by White Rock Gamers from B.C. Canada.

Skirmish at the Walnut Grove Mill - AWI - Muskets & Tomahawks

Lena Lamont and the Jungle Fortress - Congo rules

Battle for Richmond, 1862, ACW, 28mm, White Rock Gamers

Chain of Command "Serafimovich 1942:Battle of the Sunflowers"

Alpine Fury -Tyrol 1809 - The Third Battle of Berg Isel - Black Powder

The Sand Pebbles

Gnome Wars

The Fall of the Philippine Republic: Battle of San Pascual - The Men Who Would Kings

Pulp Alley: La Playa de Parador

Circus Maximus - Chariot Racing

Black Seas

Duel of Aces - Wings of War WW1

Con Sonar

Kursk - The Second Day

Wagram using Shako 2. This was the last game being played on Sunday - most of the players were from Canada and were staying until Monday.

Well another great convention - almost, but not quite, like old times. Thanks for stopping by and hope you enjoy the pictures.