Devizes [Tues 11th July 1643 - Morning]

After midnight the Royalist horse left Devizes

and rode for Marlborough, avoiding detection by the parliamentarian patrols.

Waller tightened his grip on Devizes by posting some horse and companies of foot to the north at Rowde and to the south at Potterne, blocking the roads to the north and south.  The Parliamentarians were not idle and they were seen engaged in activity on Coate hill to the east of Devizes.

Too soon the Royalist found out what they were doing, a battery opened fire on the town..

and foot and horse were seen assembling in the distance .....

Devizes [Mon 10th July 1643]

After a rearguard action at Rowde on Sunday, late that evening the Royalist army entered Devizes (campaign map).

 ---oXo---

The next day the ordnance was taken into the castle via the postern gate ..

Meanwhile barricades were erected across the roads into Devizes...

Waller had drawn the main body of the Parliamentarian army to the north-east blocking the road to Marlborough (on the way to Oxford).

In Devizes Hopton held a council of war in the evening where it was decided that the horse should break out and seek aid from Oxford.

Under starter's orders ...

Rounday campaign is just about to take off again; will have series of posts with key events and will have game report on Parliament's attack on Devizes and following that the battle of Roundway itself.

I have taken some piccies already and I'm setting up the Devizes game at the moment

Mounted Officer: No time for drinking now - there's work to be done !!

A film worth a look (not ECW though)..

Not ECW, however 1612 is a nice film to watch when you get the chance - with some good action sequences, especially the siege of a town; story line wanders a bit but in my opinion definitely worth watching.

Barricades for Devizes (2)

Barricades from previous post all painted up and static grass applied as needed ...

Trial setup, royalist infantry defend an entrance into a town ... 

Barricades for Devizes (1)

For the siege of Devizes I need to have barricades of three access roads, into the quarter of the town I'm representing. So I've been collecting up spare bits and had a tryout play.

I eventually decided on 3 inch lengths, enough for 2 musket stands. But the barricades had  look like a supply stash or possibly useable with 28/30mm figs. I made up 6 bases,

some painting to do - will post piccies when finished.

Devizes - trial layout - part 2 - market place

I had forgot when setting out the buildings for Devizes that I had a range of buildings I made for Pokesay castle; adding this in just about pads things out.
I was left with one big gap which was the market place - the idea I had was to use some simple low relief buildings; I had a search for some images online I could doctor and found two of buildings in Lavenham (Suffolk), I also found a couple of book illustrations that were suitable. After some scanning and scaling of images I stuck them on thick card and touched in and altered them as needed.

I arranged the buildings I had and then fixed the low-relief flat houses to my gaming table backscene - the marketplace:

A lower down view, more front on ...

I am well pleased with the result.