Skirmish at Littlecote

The royalists having concentrated their forces at Ramsbury continue their push up the valley towards Hungerford. 

A body of  royalist horse have reached Littlecote house, they caught the small garrison by surprise and pushed them out of the house. Skirmishing continues in the nearby enclosures between  royalist horse (some dismounted) and parliamentarian dragoons who eventually mount up and ride for Hungerford.

to be continued ...

Ready, steady, but not quite go ...

I've finished the rules upgrade and have got back to painting. All ready for the brush, two regiments of horse (9 figs each), plus bases and flags.

Tweaking the Rules ...

For the ECW games so far we've been using Charge yr Pikes! rules with a few markups and minor revisions.

During the last battle in my Wiltshire campaign at Ramsbury we tried out an alternative in the rules for determining casualties from musket firing (by using a casualty hit table); these seemed to 'flow' better than what was in use before. So I'm currently in the process of writing up a set of 'house' ECW rules for our own use including the new method for casualties for melee and firing.

Meanwhile the two regiments of horse required for the 'Battle of Hungerford' have been prepped for paintingand are still waiting to be painted;  I'm busy finishing of a few 18C bits and bobs at the moment.

New Command figs

For the next scenario in the campaign there will be a battle at Hungerford, for this I wanted to be able to have command staff for each wing of horse and the centre foot. I was short a few figs, so I've made up two more command groups, of officer + trumpeter.

[figs Officers: Jacdaw TYW; trumpeters: Irregular Miniatures on Sahs & Sabre horses.]

New regiment of Foot - Green Coats

Another regiment of foot finished, one left to go to reach my target of the army sizes of the Battle of Roundway. This one in green coats, based on the uniform of Earl of Northampton's regiment - should have had a green flag, but I liked the yellow one with the dog on it.

[Figs: Officer and firing musketeers: Jacdaw TYW; Ensign: converted Eureka Planchet character figure;  all the rest Irregular Miniatures with an assortment of heads]

I'm currently painting up a couple of regiments of horse for the next battle in the ECW campaign. So piccies to come when they are done.

Encounter at Ramsbury

After their defeat at Axford the parliamentarians retreated up the valley to their outpost at Ramsbury. Sir Warwick Hunt continued on to Hungerford to find a place for his army to give battle to defend the town; he left his brother Herrick with his Lobsters (cuirassiers) at Ramsbury to hold off royalist advance.

---oXo---

The royalists advance up the valley towards Ramsbury ...

At Ramsbury the parliamentarians have taken up defensive positions by the bridge over the river. Herrick Hunt's Lobsters wait on the side of the river with the most open ground ...

The royalist horse charge impetuously up the valley and are met by the Lobsters ....

The Lobsters hack their way through the first royalist horse regiment and follow up, throwing the rest of the royalist column into confusion ...

The next royalist horse regiment make an attempt to hold off the lobsters and are beaten back with heavy casualties; Herrick Hunt manages to control his regiment and the Lobsters regroup...

While the Lobsters regroup and retire back to Ramsbury the royalist infantry on the other side of the valley exchange some vollies with the defenders....

As the light fades both side draw back, the parliamentarians withdraw towards Hungerford, covering their movement with their horse. The royalists move into Ramsbury in the late evening and make camp and wait for their artillery train to catch up with them, they will need its escort of two regiments of horse if they are to advance further.

to be continued ...

New Foot Regiment - grey coats

I've started back into the lead pile, fed up with painting horse so for a change did a regiment of foot. The uniform is that of Sir Thomas Glemham's Regiment, although the flag is not, should be red but I liked the white/black scheme it seems to fit with the uniform.

The figures used are a right mixture, this regiment was cobbled together from the spares box - so there are Irregular Miniatures, Romanoff, Jacdaw mixed together with arm and head swaps. I had to convert some Irregular Miniatures 'Soldier with flaming torch' into pikemen, plus a couple of engineer figures into musketeers as well.