Keep Your Powder Dry

Rules wax and wane in popularity, the release of a new set of rules usually makes the gaming community giddy with excitement and a rush of buying ensues. For King And Parliament is a fairly recent addition to the ECW rules library, and looks like it will be a popular ruleset for quite some time. Another set of 'pike and shot' rules that have grown out of a popular set of ancients/medieval rules - in this case To The Strongest ( henceforth TtS!). The difference between For King And Parliament (FK&P) and those rules that have taken the same path, is that FK&P is not a generic pike and shot rulebook, they are specifically for the ECW. Game mechanisms are quick to learn, and once you are familiar with the rules, gameplay is fast and furious. The rules are very well written, and have clearly had a lot of play testing. The rules are well explained, you don't need an old hand, an explanatory video or a thesaurus to understand them. The rule book is spiral bound, has full c

Once again, I pen the words 'who'd have thunk it?' KeepYourPowderDry still exists and I still find stuff to write nonsense about. Oh dear, the Saturday boy shows himself up again at the work's bloggiversary 'do', and Derek from accounts looks a bit angry - think HR might need a word... At the risk of sounding like an awards ceremony acceptance speech... Thank you to everyone who has supported the blog via BuyMeACoffee , your support really does help the blog keep existing. Particular thanks, and honorary board memberships go to @BirdyTheolProf and @Clubmen1645. Regular reader numbers have swelled to almost ten (hello everybody), a number that mainstream social influencers can only dream of   scoff at. Page hits don't actually matter, as I wrote 5 years ago. This blog is a receptacle for lots of little bits of paper, hopefully laid out in a slightly more sensible and understandable order; it is primarily for me, if it helps anyone else, even better. But I can

You've seen the armies of Montrose, the King, clubmen, and Solemn League... so just one army outstanding. That of Parliament. So here they are... the army consists of the following: Regiments of Foot  - 18 units, each 34 men strong Combined Shot  - 3 units, each 24 men strong Regiments of Horse  - 21 units, each 16 men strong (1 unit are cuirassiers) Regiments of Dragoons  - 3 units, each 21 men strong Siege Engineers  - 10 men Assault party  - 6 men, and 4 petard teams Train of Artillery: demi-culverins  - 2, each consisting of a crew of 4 men and a limber Train of Artillery: sakers  - 3, each consisting of a crew of 4 men and a limber Train of Artillery: minions  - 6, each consisting of a crew of 4 men and a limber Baggage Train  - 15 assorted pieces of baggage Command  - 19 individually based 'generals', Essex, Waller, Fairfax and Cromwell are based with an ensign. One chaplain. Any old excuse to post lots of pictures... In its entirety   Lots of dragoons Some 'eavy

Almost three years after the launch of their Kickstarter, I take a closer look at Steel Fist's ever expanding new range of 'true 15mm' ECW figures.  I must point out that it is inevitable that I will hold them up against Peter Pig's offerings for comparison (because my armies are almost exclusively PP). I'll be very honest; my armies are pretty much complete. I'm only really looking for a few extra figures here and there: characters, specialist figures, certainly not in the market for another 100 or so foot or horse. Steel Fist are unlikely to be able to retire on the profits made off my purchases - sorry . Update August 2023: I've just taken delivery of two packs of the new dismounted harquebusiers. They arrived securely packaged in a small box, wrapped in bubble wrap. I am pleased to report that all figures arrived intact (see my comments below). I regularly see advertised new 28mm figures, and look on somewhat jealously at the breadth of inter-range comp

An update on Which Figures: Size Matters, this time looking at horses.  I have had a few readers complain that my size comparisons have excluded certain manufacturers. Fair comment. I pay for all of the figures, paint, books, rules, scenery shown on this blog (I have received some items gratis for review, if this is the case then I clearly state this in posts). I'm not going to purchase stuff that I know that I am not going to use.  You can find my earlier Which Figures? posts here: Part 1 Part 2 But enough of that, for those of us at the 'true' end of the 15mm spectrum let's look at horses. Again, with the caveat that my benchmark are Peter Pig figures . 15mm figures are not anatomically correct, with perfectly in scale weaponry. They can't be. Figures need to be robust enough to be cast, posted, painted and then used. So as a result, figures are sculpted in slightly strange proportions. Horses are no exception, and I long held the view that the stylistic differenc