Keep Your Powder Dry

I finally return to painting Irish Confederate regiments of foot: is the delay down to the fact I ordered the wrong figures, so now  have to carefully cut away cast pikes and drill out hands; or, is it because I can't face researching regiments due to inconsistent spelling of names, and the fact that Irish gentry thought it would be a jolly wheeze to give every male in the family the same name? It matters not. Ladies, gentlemen, and everybody in the middle... I proudly present Sir Phelim macShane Ó Néill's Regiment of Foot. And there's the start of my woes. Sir Phelim Ó Néill. 'Cheife Traytor of all Ireland'. Apparently. Known for his flamboyant colourful clothing that 'set off his red hair'. Phelim, sometimes Felim, Phillom, Féilim; O'Neill, Ó Néill, sometimes O'Neil, Néill, and all combinations of the two. I'll stick with Phelim macShane Ó Néill, if it doth offend thine eyes - sorry. Phelim was born on 1604, eldest son of Turlough Ó Néill of th...

Erm, 1494-1698? Surely the wrong dates for the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, I hear you ask. You'd be correct. 'Pike and Shot: Campaigns 1494-1698' is the title of a computer game that, amongst other things, covers the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. Produced by Slitherine, one of the co-producers of the Field of Glory stable of miniatures rules, they appear to have shifted completely to their computer game business, leaving the FoG miniatures rules for others to pursue in the process. Field of Glory lives on with Slitherine, but in a different guise - with a whole raft of computer game titles and variants. Slitherine offer two games that cover the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, this one is very reminiscent of real time strategy games such as Dune 2, and Age of Empires. However, rather than everything happening all at once there are game phases, very reminiscent of FoG:R. This very definitely feels, and plays like a computerised miniatures game. The game package covers the Thirty Wa...

Reading books doesn't half cause problems, and I don't just mean finding shelf space for yet another book. Glenn Price (Soldiers and Civilians, Transports and Provisions) argues that a significant hindrance to the Scots armies manoeuvring in Scotland, was the quality of the roads - their baggage and supplies had to be carried on pack horses rather than carts in the main part, roads were often impassable to carts. Which ultimately means a bit of a rethink on my Scottish and Irish baggage trains. My Covenanter army has a couple of pack horses (one hander to one horse), and a four wheel heavy cart. Fine for the lowlands and their excursions south of Hadrian's Wall, but no good for campaigning in Scotland. Throw into the mix Magister Militum shutting up shop, I decided to pick up all the remaining packs of pack horses. I also purchased some two wheel carts from Museum Miniatures. With a little reorganisation, this gives me a slightly more appropriate baggage train. Each of the ...

A somewhat dark and dour postcript to the Battle of Naseby. War is a dreadful thing, amongst all of the horrific things that human inflicts upon other human in the name of 'war' there are some events that stand out as atrocities:   o ne such atrocity took place in the aftermath of the battle of Naseby.  There are many atrocities attributed to one side or the other during the Civil Wars, but when you look into most of these atrocities, hard evidence can be hard to find to support the hyperbole of the pamphleteers. An oft recycled pamphlet image of an atrocity: originally used for an event in the south west, then Leicester, then York . The events that befell the Royalist baggage train after Naseby are fairly unique in that both sides report pretty much the same story, and a 1660 Petition to Charles II supports the story. Naseby is  all but lost and panicking Royalist troops start fleeing north towards Market Harborough, and the baggage train flees too. Anyone who has ever w...

Jings and crivens, a bonus post on a not-Monday. Be still my beating heart. Once again the leading British talk radio station dips its toe in the preserve of North Derbyshire's premier Civil War blog. Cromwell's Statue at Parliament BBC Radio 4 has a series on dictators. Four of the latest batch of episodes cover Lord Protector, Oliver Cromwell. So just shy of 3 1/2 hours on such issues as the origin of the story of his abduction by a monkey as a baby. I've not ploughed my way through the three episodes currently available, but what I've listened to so far is very good, balanced and accurate.  Just ignore the inevitable gaffs such as the description of regiments of foot at Edgehill at the start of episode 2; the description of Boye; Rupert's lobsters; and that old nugget of Cromwell banning Christmas. A reasonably balanced 'take' on a very divisive figures; my only real issue is with the image the series paints of the Army Newly Modelled. Whilst the New Mode...