Friday 31 October 2008

Campaign Overview Map

For my slightly 'imaginary' ECW campaign I've taken my map of Wiltshire and changed the name of two places
- Malmesbury has been renamed Wallingborough, held by the royalists
- Salisbury has been renamed Sarisbury, held by the parliamentarians.

Wednesday 22 October 2008

List of my ECW Reference Books

General History of the Period:
  • The English Civil War, by Maurice Ashley
Military History:
  • The English Civil War - by Peter Young and Richard Holmes
  • Beef, Bacon and Bag Pudding; Berkshire in the Civil War - by David Disbury
  • Travellers Guide to the Battlefields of the English Civil War - by Martyn Bennett
Uniforms etc:
  • The English Civil War 1642-1651, an Illustrated Military History - by Philip Haythornthwaite[Good book with plenty of uniform info]
  • The English Civil War Armies, Osprey Men-at-Arms series
  • Soldiers of the English Civil War (1) Infantry, Osprey 'Elite' 25
  • Soldiers of the English Civil War (2) Cavalry, Osprey 'Elite' 27
  • Matchlock Musketeer 1588-1688, Osprey 'Warrior' 43
  • Ironsides, English Cavalry 1588-1688, Osprey 'Warrior' 44
  • English Civil War Artillery 1642-51, Osprey 'New Vanguard' 108
  • English Civil War Fortifications 1642-51, Osprey 'Fortress' 9

Also a film worth watching to get the flavour of the times - Cromwell

Haselrig's Lobsters - Standard

This is shown in one of my reference books as being carried by Haselrig's Lobsters at Edgehill and indicates it may have been different later on (?).

Setting up a Campaign Map

To try and give some structure to my ECW gaming I decided to use a map of the imaginary county I've invented. But to save me some time I'll use the county of Wiltshire in southern england, changing the names of some of the main places to match my imaginary ones (eg Wallingborough).


Since I can get detailed maps of the area I'll use these for terrain info. I'll have to generate a map for movements. Wiltshire in the period had a number of castles/manor houses so opportunities for sieges etc. The roylalists will hold the north of the county and parliament the south.

Dragoons ?

I've been mulling over the size of a possible unit dragoons. Nominally the same size as an infantry regiment with a paper strength of ~1000, this was rarely achieved in the field however - so I've decided to make it the same size as the number of musketeers I use in a foot regiment. Initially I'll have one regiment of dragoons and may be add another later.

I've decided on;
Mounted - Officer, Ensign and 9 troopers (11 figs total)
Dismounted - 9 foot figures, the Officer and Ensign remain mounted and represent the horse holders.

Figures to be used will be from Irregular Miniatures 42mm renaissance range:
LRE5 Dismounted Dragoon.
LRE10 Dragoon

Better go and see how much is in the warchest before I place an order for the metal.