Scots Regiments of Horse-Victory Without Quarter

 

Last week we considered mission creep. This week we see it. Lord Leven's Regiment of Horse in two squadrons.  From Essex, in miniature that is.

The original first squadron here. Flags on this page by Wargames Designs.

Sir John Brown's Regiment of Horse, first squadron. Full strength below. Figures from Essex.

Next Irvine's Lancers, Borderers who turned out for Montrose. The Border Clans had been pretty much destroyed by James 1st of England, 6th of Scotland. Their society was still in a state of flux during the Civil Wars. Note, your left to right Peter Pig, FK15 and Naismith.

The Gordon Horse next. From Matchlock. I might give them a second squadron. I think Matchlock got the look right.

Ogilvy's Horse. A single squadron for these lads I think. Second from the left an Essex figure. Matchlock for the rest.

QRF Lancers below. These are small figures that might do as youths in a wider mix.

I was interested to read that in the fighting before Dunbar the Scots Lancers gave Cromwell's Ironside Cavalry a hard time of it. We must look at lances again sometime.

QRF Dragoons. I very much like these figures. I have enough to do another unit.  You may think I should have cut the guidon to a swallow tail shape. I did wonder, but the white is patterned and so part of the flag.

Next two command figures, Brigadiers in fact. 

The first is FK15's Sir John Hurry. Sir John got about in the War of Three Kingdoms Fighting for Royalists and Covenanters. It is a nice little figure and I nearly made him the centre of a General's stand.

Another Commander from the same stable. Stylish and evocative alas I have no idea who he is supposed to be.

One of the lads on LAF enquired if a Scottish Supplement was available for Victory Without Quarter? Not to my knowledge but we can have a go at producing one in the interim.

We will be south of Berwick again next week

Victory Without Quarter Mission Creep

 

There are words for it. “Mission Creep” for the military and “Project Drift” for civic ventures. That tells us it is something humans do. So it is no surprise to find that I’m painting Scots units when I intended to major in English ones.

It could be worse. I have five English Regiments of Foot done and three squadrons of Horse. Also I have done a One Man and His Dog by way of command. 

Here he is.

 

He (Rupert of the Palatinate) is a Frei Korps 15mm miniature bought just before the Deluge. Next White Coats with red flags, yellow flags and white flags.

All Matchlock 15mm, or nearly so.

Note each company (base if you like, stand even) has its own flag. I feel this is period feel stuff and I like the look of it. 

Apparently standard practice was colours front on encountering the enemy for the first time. Then colours to the rear before the fighting began. I need to credit the fellow gamer and blogger who made these fine flags. Investigation will follow.

Let’s horse around starting with Cuirassiers with a black flag.

 

Next red flag horse. It is too small to see but the flag ridicules a notorious cuckold on the opposing side.

The blue flag boys have a nice white heraldic device. They are also getting a second squadron.

All the Horse are Matchlock 15mm.

A moments pause for the Dead. These are important as a tracking device in Victory Without Quarter. Many more of these to come.

Caledonia here we come. First the Strathbogie Regiment. The flags are from the magnificent Project Auldearn.

Some Highlanders from QRF as was. The great thing about Highlanders is by substituting flags they can represent any Clan Host. Below we see QRF, original FK15 and Peter Pig. Mix and match.

 

Now the latest Cards. Sealant has yet to be applied. I'm waiting until I have the set.

I am enjoying this project a great deal. Bigly in fact. I’m enjoying it bigly and you cannot say better than that.

A “Victory Without Quarter” Story

 

A long time ago I read books about the ECW and of course the non "E" Civil Wars . I even bought the odd edition of ECW Notes and Queries. Of real knowledge of the ECW I had not so much. The last stand of the Whitecoats, the massacre of the  women and children,mistaken for Irish. Fierce Cornish Regiments made an impression. 

Battles at Corbridge and Newburn too. The Scots put a gun in the Church tower there. That puzzled me until I learned of Frame guns. Two centuries ago quarrying in Millfield nearby disturbed a mass grave of the Scots dead slain at Newburn.  A Scots victory.  The English slain would have been buried on the other side of the River Tyne.

Little vignettes of courage and desperation. That’s about it.

All the same I downloaded and printed Clarence Harrison’s Victory Without Quarter rules for the period. It looked good and looked even better when the rules for Highlanders appeared. I’m currently interested in English Battles. Though an attempt at recreating Dunbar has real appeal. 

Regular Readers know I’m much given to the League of Augsburg style of gaming and Clarence is a key collaborator of Barry Hilton. I happily knew what I was in for.

I had very few painted figures, English that is. I do have Covenanters, Highlanders and Irish in good supply. Where were my English to come from? For some years I have been collecting Matchlock figures from eBay. The idea was a future 30 Years War Project. I must have saved a fortune. Also the figures obtained were cast when the moulds were young.

Today I counted. I have 10 regiments  (18 figures each) of Foot and 8 (12 figures, 2 squadrons each) of Horse.  It looks as though we are in business.

Now I have to paint them. Looking at the cast on flag poles of the standard bearers I can see this is going to be a little flag project. Fine, 3 flags a unit then. 

I also need to make some cards in order to play the game. I will show them here as they are done done. Unit Cards require painted figures as the front image. Naturally, it will take a while to complete the set. When that is done I will spray the whole deck with sealant. That's ink jet print sealant. There are, I have learned, sealants galore. They may not all be for the likes of us.

Oh, and casualty markers too. Ditto.

Anyhow, we are off and you see my progress on the page. Having sat in King Charlie's Chair (not the current Charlie) I'm beginning with the Marquis of Newcastle's White Coats- a Brigade no less.