ECW Books (holiday purchases)

Three nice little books picked up on or just after my recent little holiday in Kent

the books on the Grenvilles are interesting and includes info on the ECW in Cornwall and Devon. The Airfix booklet is a little gem.

Great Book - European Weapons & Warfare by Eduard Wagner.

Received as one of my Xmas presents, a book well worth adding to your library,

Although nominally for the TYW period in europe the bulk of the content is relevant for the ECW as well. It comprises ~290 pages full of illustrations covering cavalry, infantry, artillery, supply train, camps, river crossings, fortifications etc.

I have the one published by Partizan Press, available from Caliver Books; Warlord Games also publish it, see their Pike and Shotte books section.  These are both paperback reprints, the original hardcover can be obtained but is a tad expensive.

17C Coach completed....

Here are a couple of pictures of the finished coach...

17C Coach, Work in progress - 2

Stages in making the coach body. First a simple cardboard shell..

 Adding the basic roof...

 Detailing, with some strips and pieces of cardboard; plus some round pin-heads. All done ready for painting, shown below with some horses from Irregular Miniatures 42mm marlburian range.

An End ... and a Beginning

An End

The fictional Wiltshire/Hampshire ECW campaign now comes to a close. The battle of Tufton in effect was a deciding engagement.

After 8 years of this blog focusing on the ECW I've decided it is time for a change. I've found the campaign to be most enjoyable and have re-fought two historical battles and associated actions,

• 1643 - Roundway
• 1644 - Cheriton

plus all the local back and forwards between to the two sides. The final phase of the fictional campaign events dovetail into the historical timeline for October 1644 rather nicely - historical events in italics:

October 14th: Battle of Tufton
October 15th: The Kings Army arrive at Salisbury (aka Sarisbury), returning from the campaign in the west country.
October 16th: Sir Warwick Hunt having withdrawn to Stockbridge to reform after Tufton, hears of the approach of the Kings Army - he sends his brother Herrick Hunt with a regiment of horse to join Waller's army and takes what is left of his command south-west to Romsey.
October 17th: Hurstbourne Manor capitulates to the royalists after the gatehouse is mostly destroyed by artillerie fire. The manor house is slighted - the curtain walls being blown up.
October 18th: The King's Army reaches Andover,  where a skirmish occurs with Waller's rearguard.
October 19th: The King's Army reaches Whitchurch
October 20th: Sir William de Willoughby and his troops join the Kings Army
October 21st: The King's Army reaches Kingsclere
October 27th: The Battle of Newbury

So goodbye to the ECW for now .....

A Beginning

The Battle of the White Mountain - 1620

The blog will continue with Pike & Shotte but in a different setting.  The ECW collection will be re-used and re-purposed for a contest between two Imagi-Nations set somewhere in central Europe just after the thirty years war - sometime about 1650.

An opportunity for some swashbuckling - somewhat like the four musketeers. Maybe something a little different as well - a Polish army with winged hussars ?

So I'll be tinkering with the blog layout/look slightly and will post a starter for the post-TYW in due course.

The Battle of Tufton ....

continued from the previous post...

Both armies started their advance,

(move the 1st) 
the royalist cavalry impetuous as ever charged and caught the parliamentarian right flank horse at the halt ...

the foot in the centre closed to musket range

while on the other flank both side's horse started forward ....

(move the 2nd) 
On the parliamentarian right flank the other royalist horse regiment hits home

after the initial vollies, the royalist blue foot and parliamentarian green foot fall back ...

the horse on the other flank are now engaged ...

(move the 3rd)
On the parliamentarian right one of their horse regiments breaks and routs

the blue royalist foot advance back into musket range and the grey royalist foot move forward, fire a stiff volley at the centre parliamentarian foot who break and rout ...

the horse melee on the other flank continues with parliament having the edge...

(move the 4th)
the royalist horse and parliamentarian horse break off to rally and reform,

the other royalist horse regiment didn't follow their routing opponents and turned on the flank of the parliamentarian foot, the red parliamentarian regiment looses their nerve and rout ....

the horse melee on the parliamentarian left flank is a draw, both sides get set to pursue their routed opponents ....

with the parliamentarian foot in total disarray and running from the field the battle is over

A VICTORY FOR YE KINGE

Tufton - the armies deployed

By the late morning both armies had disposed themselves ready for battle,

 the right flank

 the centre

the left flank

The royalist commander Sir William de Willoughby makes one last check of his dispositions...

The parliamentarian commander Sir Warwick Hunt issues the order for the artillerie to open fire ...

Tufton - the Royalist army deploys

After spending a rough night encamped around Tufton the Royalist army starts to deploy in front of a low ridge...

Just in time as the vanguard of the Parliamentarian army has arrived......

Parliamentarian army sighted ...

As Sir William de Willoughby returns to the town of Whitchurch after checking the progress of the siege of Hurstbourne manor a dragoon rides up .....

He reports that a parliamentarian army has been seen in the vicinity of Sutton Scotney about 10 miles to the south. Sir William orders all available troops to muster at Tufton a couple of miles south of Whitchurch.

the parliamentarian army marches ...

the campaign continues ....

Sir Warwick Hunt is at Stockbridge, while checking the state of supplies he is informed of the eastward movement of the royalists...

He sends orders for the army to muster near Stockbridge; the muster was completed the next day as most of the army was quartered in nearby villages.. The following day the parliamentarian army set off across the downland along the London road ....

 

they planned to turn north at Sutton Scotney and intercept the royalists.

Artillery Interlude (2 of 2) - a couple more Artillerist Conversions

I had two more artillerist conversions planned, a man carrying a barrel on his shoulder and another pushing a wheelbarrow.

I was checking the amount of spare metal I have for casting when I spotted a couple of Creartec SYW figures which hadn't quite cast properly - they seemed just right as base figures.  Here are the base figures with their new ECW heads ready for fixing on

Here are the finished conversions, quite a bit of green stuff used

• belts done using strips of black insulation tape
• the wheelbarrow is made from offcuts of plasticard and cardboard, the wheel was adapted from a near circular tab from an old Brita filter jug I was taking apart.

The two chaps all painted and hard at work unloading a wagon....

Artillery Interlude (1 of 2) - Ordnance in Action

To cover a short interlude in the Hurstbourne/Whitchurch campaign while the Parliamentarians get organised to make their move; some extra photos of the artillery and the mortar in action with new/converted crew..

 A new cannon, this is a Sash & Sabre falconet ....

 the 'downsized' Call to Arms 54mm cannon, still a tad large but much more useable ...

 the mortar , with the chaps carrying the mortar shell painted up ...

Royalists move towards Hurstbourne Manor

continued from the previous post ......

The Whitchurch parliamentary town garrison reformed by the manor farm. Reinforced by some men from the manor they then lined the hedge rows and a setup a barricade across the road ....

The royalist foot start their advance towards the manor ....

As they near a small wood the parliamentary musketeers open fire ....

The men manning the barricade fall back after coming under fire from some dismounted royalist horse...

The parliamentarians fall back under fire from the royalist foot .....

The parliamentarians retire back towards the manor farm ....

The royalists close in on the manor farm .....

A stiff volley from the parliamentarians blocking the road force the royalist pike attack to fall back...

However the men in the manor farm fall back after taking heavy casualties from musket fire from the advancing royalist foot ....

the parliamentarians from the manor farm make a run for the manor house, while the musketeers blocking the road attempt to hold some royalist horse ....

The royalist horse break the musketeers and they turn and run for the manor ....

The royalist horse try and get behind the barricades by the gate, but shot from the cannon and musket fire from the wall deter them ....

The royalist foot take control of the manor farm ....

---oXo---

The main body of the royalist army arrived a couple of hours later.  They set patrols of dragoons to the east and south-west to detect any move by parliamentarian forces ...

to be continued