Keep Your Powder Dry

  After much prevarication I finally took the plunge and purchased the Steel Fist commanders packs to boost my command figures representations. Steel Fist list their Royalist command figures (pack ECWH 22) as King Charles I, George Digby Earl of Bristol, Sir Jacob Astley, officer with telescope, aide delivering message and standard bearer. The standard bearer would come in handy as I depict 'senior' command with an ensign on a larger base.  I had long thought that I needed to represent some other army commanders other than just Charles and Rupert. But first I needed to work out how much space there was in the storage boxes. I worked out that the boxes could accommodate two more 'senior command' stands and lots of 'normal' commanders. Hopton and Maurice would be elevated to having senior command stands. Prince Maurice and ensign Prince Maurice is a Matchlock figure, the horse is a good match for Peter Pig horse, but the figure is a little plump. Looks okay but hi

I must not write "don't tell him your name Pike".  I must not write "don't tell him your name Pike". Oh damn! Pikemen figures come in two varieties, with cast on pikes, and open handed. Having previously owned 6mm ECW pikemen armed with pikes which quickly turn to overcooked spaghetti, I went the open handed pikemen route.  For those of you who choose this path, open handed pikemen raises two questions: how long should a pike be?, and where can I buy pikes from?  All this gives me an excuse to have a closer look at the 'queen of weapons'. How long should a pike be? You'd think that this question would be fairly easy to answer, it is in fact more than a little problematical. Pikes were between 15' and 18' in length, which should be quite easy to scale down, or so you would think. Sir James Turner  (Pallas Armata p.176) and General Monck (Observations p.26) both stated that the proper length for a pike should be 18'.The 1639 Direction

As I have recently reviewed Field of Glory: Renaissance , it is only right and proper that I review FoG:R's forebear De Bellis Renationis (henceforth DBR) DBR grew out of De Bellis Antiquitatis (DBA) a hugely successful set of rules for ancient and medieval game play. DBA has spawned a whole host of variants which are collectively referred to as DBx. The rules were originally written by the Wargames Research Group (WRG).  It has been hugely influential in wargame rules development, as so many rules clearly show that they share DBA DNA.  For the English Civil War gamer the DBA variant volumes that are relevant are:- De Bellis Renationis - the core rules DBR Army Lists Book 2 De Bellis Civile 1642-1643 - scenarios for the English Civil War De  Bellis Civile 1644-1645 - a second book of scenarios Both the scenario books are published by Keep Wargaming (no relation), who regular readers will know have a few remaining packs of Naismith ECW figures listed for sale on their website. The

As I appear to have run out of things to paint, I have started revisiting stuff to make things look better. Or should that be 'slightly less worse'? Every ECW/BCW/Wo3K gamer should own a sconce. It is the law. Some time ago I took the easy route and bought two halves of a 'star fort' from Magister Militum. And it was okay. Had a few problems, but was generally okay. But deep down I knew that it wasn't. For a start it was built of stone. Had two entrances, and was much too Vaubanesque. So, as regular readers will imagine, it has been bugging me for a while. So after a good coat of thinking about it I set to work. I took the plunge and removed it from its base. A quick Dremel cutting session would remove one of the entrances. But my Dremel appears to have magically been broken - I think somebody might have some explaining to do when they next come home from uni! So I decided to use my angle grinder. Not the delicate implement I would have chosen for the surgery I had