Parliament Organises; the Royalists prepare for action ..

At Sarisbury in the south of Wiltshire Sir Warwick Hunt was in discussion with his officers. 

They were satisfied they had achieved their initial objectives to keep the route south-west to the coast open; with their main garrisons in Winchester, Stockbridge, Sarisbury and Romsey.  In addition Blandford, Dorchester and most of Dorset including the coastal ports was held for Parliament

Now they needed to take the fight to Royalist in the north of the county, they were short of troops. They decided to raise two more regiments of foot from the local area to release the better quality troops currently in use as garrisons for field duty.

---oXo---

 Meanwhile on the outskirts of Wallingborough in the north of Wiltshire, the royalists have mustered two regiments of horse and one of dragoons.  Sir William de Willoughby has one final chat with his brother who will lead the troops.

They will head south to Pewsey where they will rest up for a day and then proceed south to raid into parliamentarian territory to beat up the quarters of outposts and destroy supplies.

The garrison at Pokesay ....

The King's army has been ordered to muster at Marlborough, this has meant that two regiments of foot quartered in his area have left leaving a hole in his chain of key garrisons.

After moving a few companies of foot about he has just enough to make do. Now he has returned to Pokesay near Wallingborough to check on garrison there.

 [new items: a couple of extra pikemen, musketeers, plus command - drummer, officer and ensign]

Wiltshire clubmen ....

In the small town of Amesbury north of Sarisbury, locals are meeting to discuss forming opposition to marauding troops from either side - to protect their crops and livestock.

 [The clubmen are done for now, may add a few more. I've tried to make them as generic as possible so they could be re-used for vignettes in story lines or as part of raw or militia units

The ground surface for the 'market place' is a sandstone effect acrylic floor tile from Homebase].

return via Collingbourne .....

A small body of royalist horse and dragoons had been sent out to scout out potential routes to attempt to get relief to the besieged at Basing House.

On their way back they had blundered into a body of parliamentarian horse, although the royalists had seen them off they had lost some men and worse half of their horses. They made their back skirting to the north of Ludegershall, then across country. On their last leg back to safety they would have work their way round a parliamentarian outpost at Collingbourne Ducis and then over the downs to the royalist garrison of Pewsey; they had been riding double but are now dismounted leading the tired horses ....

---oXo---

At Collingbourne a parliamentarian officer is out trying to bag some fowl ...

Meanwhile at Fulcher's farm, on the main road south-west, a small picket guarded the road.

The royalists cross the fields ...

then make a dash across the road ....

they are spotted by a sentry who calls out the garrison at the outpost ....

As the royalists cross the heathland they capture the parliamentarian officer ...

As they approach the road by Fulcher's farm, the parliamentarians are closing in .....

close pistol and musket fire ensues ....

some of the men dash across the road ...

they try to get the horses across, losing some ....

a small group of royalists managed to get round the back of farm and force out the parliamentarian picket...

as the main group of royalists dash towards the downs (still with the captured officer), the parliamentarians fire a couple of parting shots; the other royalists get a spare horse from the farm....

then head for the woods and up on the downs. The royalists meet at the top of the hill and make their way to Pewsey without further loss.

Running hard ....

a small number of royalist troops are in the fields to the south of PokeSay not far from Wallingborough (in northern Wiltshire)....

The petard team, ran hard across the open field, with the officer bellowing 'Move it' ...

 they got to the barn and set the petard up against the door; then moved off a bit and fell to the ground to catch their breath. Good work my lads said the officer, have a rest.  They'd been practising for about half an hour and this was the first time the petard had stayed up against the door.

Sir William de Willoughby and his brother check the petard setup...

Sir William is pleased, he turns to the men and tell them that will be enough for the day.  Sir William and his brother walked back through the town to Pokesay castle. On arrival he checked for news of a scouting party sent east towards Basing house - still not back, maybe tomorrow ......

ECW Campaign restarts ....

I've got a timeline for 1644 roughed out and some scenarios sorted; so with my ECW modelling and conversion surge finished - the campaign restarts .....

Working on some clubmen...

I have been working on some clubmen (brief historical overview here and some modelled in 1/72 here ; some nice ones in 28mm here). Using up the last of my spare figures I have eight so far, I'm aiming to have about 15-20 altogether.

Will need to get some more suitable figures and make up some pitchforks and short pikes before I can do the next batch.