Clare's Dragoons

A few weeks ago I finally got my hands on some of the new Warfare Mounted Dragoons and finished my first squadron, Clare's Dragoons...

I decided to mount these models on individual 25x50mm bases so I can use them for Donnybrook as well as Beneath the Lily Banners. That actually makes them 10mm narrower than my standard cavalry units. Since they are on smaller horses, that will be ok (and we don't quibble about small differences in base size), but I may make a movement tray with a 5mm lip just to make them easier to move around in BLB.

They go with the foot dragoons I painted a while ago...

The second squadron is halfway finished, but I doubt I'll get the chance to finish before I head for Scotland on Wednesday! Now I need some extra ponies to make a horse holder stands... maybe while I'm across the pond I can grab some...

The League of Augsburg Weekender

In a few short days, I will be boarding a plane bound for Scotland. I'm going in part to participate in a League of Augsburg weekender - a series of linked games that take place at a hotel over the course of several days (see one report here). This Spring's event features Donnybrook and Beneath the Lily Banners and continues a fictional campaign started last fall based around the premise that St Rhue was not slain at Aughrim and a Jacobite victory forced the Williamites from Ireland. In the Fall weekender, the games featured the Jacobite invasion of England and saw further victories, forcing William to return to Holland with his Dutch and Danes.

But apparently, that's not the end of it...

Williamite forces still hold central England and Northern Ireland. No one seems to know what's going on in Scotland. And what the devil is Kirke up to in Jamaica?

One of the aspects that made the weekend so much fun was that each player was supplied with a character for the event and a personalized briefing, including several personal goals that character might have. There was apparently much scheming and back stabbing that arose from this with no hand from the umpires. It was such a success that the players asked if they could continue the campaign at the next event...

Spring 2017.

To say I am excited about this would be an understatement. Besides the whole traveling to Scotland thing, I am traveling to Scotland FOR A WARGAME! Early on, Barry asked if I wanted to play or GM and after some consideration, I chose 'play'. When will I get the chance again to participate in a game of this size (we are expecting fifteen or sixteen players last I heard)? I'll help out with the rules and set up and the early games on Saturday are slated for Donnybrook so I'll definitely be running some of those too.

As a player, my character was revealed to be Piers Butler, Lord Galmoy (I painted him for Historicon last year). While I won't share my briefing, I will share part of something Barry Hilton posted on the LoA blog last year...

Piers Butler, Lord Galmoy, was a character who polarized opinion. He is vilified in Protestant histories of the conflict as a brutal, duplicitous and arrogant man will little time for the niceties of war.

He was feared and respected as a dashing if bloody cavalry commander and his regiment of Horse were hated by the enemy. In certain accounts aspects of his conduct have been highlighted including the hanging and beheading of prisoners after he went back on a prisoner exchange deal. How much myth and post war propaganda have been built around him is unclear. 

I won't be bringing any models (EDIT... I had just enough room to pack my Lord Galmoy mini so I WILL be taking mine) as I'm traveling light, but the one above is Barry's excellent and haughty version. I am well pleased with my character (I wish I could share my brief because it is priceless, but I don't want tip off the victims, err.. enemies - maybe in the post report of the weekender)... he's been promoted to Major General of Horse by King James for heroic service and controls all cavalry serving His Catholic Majesty in southern England! I am looking forward to leading some suicidal charges against the traitorous rebels.

Besides the games (wait, there's MORE?), we are planning a three day trip to Ireland to tour most of the important battlefields that form the center of my League of Augsburg gaming - Derry, Enniskillen, Athlone, Aughrim, the Boyne, and a few others. I've been to lots of battlefields as you can't cross the street in Virginia without tripping over a piece of ground that someone fought over, but getting the chance to stand on the bank of the Boyne should fuel my wargaming ambitions for the rest of the year!

There will also be the chance to meet a score of people I've only been able to interact with through blogs, forums, and Facebook. Speaking of the last, I don't use Facebook much (normally restricted to sharing posts by others and occasionally sharing photos of minis), but I'll be posting lots of stuff during the trip. You can follow me there, Clarence Harrison, and I may get time to do another blog post at some point.

Anyway, I'm off to pack and rehearse some inspirational speeches for the lads!

The Lifeguard of King James II, 1690

Here's the second squadron! I actually managed to finish them last week, but I had to go out of town for work and didn't get the chance to take photos.

This is one of my favorite regiments in the collection so far and forms the nucleus of my Jacobite horse. My original goal was two squadrons of Lifeguard, three squadrons of Tyrconnel's, two squadrons of Parker's, and one squadron of Sutherland's. I'm halfway there!

I'm going to take a break from painting horse, sort of, and paint two squadrons of Clare's mounted dragoons over the next two weeks...

The Lifeguard of King James II, 1690

The Warfare Miniatures USA store opened today, I've finally had a bit of time with all my preparations for this to get in a little time on brushwork for my own collection with the first troop of King James II's Lifeguard.

The Lifeguard troops were as large as squadrons (not sure why they didn't just call them squadrons). As usual with the Jacobites, we only have sketchy info on uniforms. These are based on the uniforms of the Lifeguard when King James II was the undisputed ruler of England. I was going to paint white lace on the cuffs, but on most of the models the gauntlets nearly cover these and the result was that the cuffs looked white! The models were drawn from multiple Warfare codes with a mix of Enthusiastic Horse and Cuirassiers.

I'll have the second troop by next weekend with a white flag and white trim on their saddle blankets to distinguish them. I am determined to actually finish my 1690 project this year (no, really). I still need to paint 4 battalions of foot, 4 squadrons of horse, and 4 squadrons of mounted dragoons to finish the initial goal for my Jacobite army. I need two battalions of Huguenot foot for my Williamites too. I can easily complete one unit per week when I want to so there's no reason I can't get these finished by the end of summer even with interruptions and wandering off through other periods...

As if saying it out loud will make it happen!