More parliamentarian troops move towards Sarisbury....

Passing through a small town ....

Dragoons move forward down the road....

Sir Warwick Hunt and his officers discuss the route forward ....

while the rest of the troops pass through the town...

Sir Hippisley-Cox's regiment of foot.

Sir William de Willoughby has been busy re-organising the royalist foot. With his own regiment mustering at Pokesay, he has come up to Wallingborough to inspect Sir Hippisley-Cox's regiment of foot.

[This grey coat regiment is the first of my re-organised regiments of foot that I've completed - with some repainted additional figures left over from combining other regiments].

Both sides start to gather their forces ....

Sir William de Willoughby checks out his recently formed small body of cuirassiers.... this will strengthen the royalist horse.

---oXo---

 

Meanwhile in the south of Wiltshire, Sir Warwick Hunt with some cuirassiers and horse escort parliamentarian artillery from Southampton to Sarisbury.

Re-organizing - work in progress ....

I've been busy reworking my ECW collection over the last couple of weeks. All the single based figures, dragoons, artillery and wagons have had their bases refreshed with static grass. I've been focussing on the horse regiments - one regiment of horse and a couple of officers done

 The rest of the horse regiments have been re-done in units of 12, they just to have the static grass added to the bases ...

To have a rest form messing about with bases I've done a first set out of an enlarged foot regiment ....

initial idea is 8 pike / 16 musket with three command stands: commanding officer & ensigns, two off drummer & officer with partisan.

Will be carrying on with the re-organisation over the next couple of months. Will try and fit units as they are finished into the campaign 'story line'.

Royalist dragoons on patrol....

Both sides are gathering their forces to gain control of Wiltshire.  Sir Warwick Hunt for Parliament in Sarisbury in the south and Sir William de Willoughby in Wallingborough in the north.

Sir William has re-formed his dragoons and they are now out on patrol .....

---oXo---

I'm currently re-organising my ECW collection; trying to get more flexible unit sizing for battles and smaller skirmish games. 

One problem I have is the basing scheme I used; the scatter material has lost its colour - and is rather dull; so as part of the rework is static grass for all bases - the first done is the dragoons and they look much better.

The horse regiments will be 12 figures strong, and two of the regiments will be based as singles to be used in skirmish games; the foot regiments will be increased in size - still finalising the size and basing.

Back at Pokesay ....

Sir William de Willoughby had reached safety at Wallingford, once he had ensured the local area was secure he had ridden round northern Wiltshire checking the state of the garrisons under his control and returned to Pokesay.

News from southern Wiltshire and Hampshire was not good. Sarisbury and Winchester with its nearby garrison of Bishops Waltham had fallen to Parliament; Basing house is still held for the King.  The main focus of the war in the south seems to have shifted north towards Berkshire.

Sir Warwick Hunt, for Parliament, has returned to Sarisbury to use it as a base to move north - however he currently has few troops at his disposal.

Sir William discusses matters with his brother while walking in the courtyard of Pokesay castle ...

Sir William heads for home ...

After Cheriton the Royalist forces had been scattered - most of the horse remaining had gone north with Hopton and Forth to Oxford; of the poor foot, most had either surrendered or been cut down - however some had made it to Winchester and sought refuge in the castle and city.

There were Parliamentarian horse patrols all over the place; Sir William de Willoughby with what was left of his regiment of horse and dragoons plus a few stragglers had decided to return home to northern Wiltshire - they went by the back ways to the south of Winchester....

before turning northward to make for Hungerford, Sir William sent a couple of riders ahead to Salisbury to warn the garrison there and order them to fall back north to Devizes.

Waller was driving the royalists out of Hampshire; most of the army was on it ways to Winchester, part had been detached to root out the remaining garrisons - Bishops Waltham was put under siege.