Keep Your Powder Dry

Enough of new stylised plastic figure ranges, time for another review. This time Andrew Abram's new book on 'Dragoons and Dragoon Operations in the British Civil Wars 1638-1653' (Helion Books). Hopefully this review won't unleash a torrent of abusive messages... but then the cut and thrust of academia can be quite vicious so I believe... Before I begin I must state that I received my copy from Helion free of charge, due to my image of dragoons from Sturt's Naseby being used as the background of the front cover. Dragoons, Civil Wars, everyone knows that they were the fellas who lined the hedges at Naseby. You'd be correct, but after that,  general knowledge of the role of dragoons is a bit lacking in the general wargaming population. Dragoons certainly had a habit of being deployed to give fire from hedgerows, but they were much more than that. Dragoons were the original mobile infantry (a phrase that unfortunately brings to mind imagery from Starship Troopers).

Unfortunately I have had to temporarily disable comments and the contact form. Why? It appears that my pictures of the Warlord Epic cavalry sprue have upset a number of members of the 'Epic community' who have taken it upon themselves to bombard the blog with foul mouthed spam. All I'll say in response is: you do know that these are just toy soldiers? To all my regular readers, normal service will resume at some point.  

Bonus points to those of you who got the 1970s children's TV reference in the title. Having run out of things to paint, I was, as you do when you can't fall asleep, trawling a certain auction site in the wee small hours and happened across a small wooden box. I won the auction with a bid of £2.50.  An idea germinated... A little project came to pass. The box was an ideal size to store all my gaming ephemera (dice, measuring sticks, arc of fire templates, All Rolled Up folding dice trays, dice pouches). But it would need a little bit of corporate titivation first. The inside was sprayed Liquitex raw umber, and a print of Streeter's Plan was sized, cut and glued to the inside of the lid. Several coats of satin varnish sealed everything. Everything fits neatly, and snugly inside. The lid had an inset piece of navy leather; now that would never do. An engraved 'brass effect' plaque was sourced from an online trophy shop for £4. And there you go, I'm now Mr Fancypant

As a follow up to my review of Warlord's Epic P&S foot sprue  here's my thoughts on the cavalry sprue that came with the latest (April) edition of Wargames Illustrated. April's WI: the Epic cover art reminds me of the Letraset style action picture scenes of the 1970s First off, let's have a look at the sprue as a whole. An 'interesting' choice of components for a 'cavalry' sprue, but I understand that the commercial need to 'have everything on just one sprue' dictates what is and what isn't on the sprue. I've already seen quite a few people asking which figures are which, on various forums and FB groups.  So here is a 'button counter's' view of the sprue. The un-identified figures are generic 'harquebusier type' cavalry. I note that there are two figures that look a bit more officer material than the others, and a cornet who could double up for either the dragoons or the regiments of horse. The major missing elemen

What's this? Thin A5 booklet of 'skirmish' rules written by Pete Berry? Haven't I recently reviewed a set of thin A5 skirmish rules written by Pete Berry? Well yes I have. But these are slightly different from "Once Upon A Time In The West Country".  Whereas "Once Upon A Time" are for 1:1 skirmishes, "File Leader" is designed for slightly bigger engagements at 1:10. So you might field a troop of horse to take a bridge from a detachments of dragoons, and there may be up to 50 figures, in total, on the table. Those of you who worry about basing requirements, well there aren't any. If you have been around the block a bit, these rules will feel in many ways familiar. The morale tables are a direct copy of WRG 1685 - 1845 Rules. The move sequence is "I Go - You Go". Troop classification is entirely normal, with no fancy twists. The firing system is simple and effective, but the close combat rules are a bit too labour intensive. The

Today's post is geared squarely to newer readers of KeepYourPowderDry (who might, coincidentally, have just ordered boxes of new shiny things from Warlord Games); regular readers may find this post a useful virtual index page. Latest figure from the production line nears completion  If Epic doesn't float your boat: you are going to have to decide on what size* figures you want to use; or more importantly work out a trade off on how much detail you can be bothered painting, or even if you can actually see the figures to paint them. Another consideration is what sort of games would you like to play and how much space do you have to play in? Those of you wondering how to tweak, and supplement the look of your Epic figures might find parts 2b and 3b of my Which Figures? posts. Here are links to all of my Which Figures? posts: Which Figures?  - the original post, where I ruminate about what I want from figures, and what led me to choose Peter Pig. Which Figures? What is Available

A snow day here, so a bonus post for all the new to the period people who are excited about the boxes of shiny things that they have ordered from Warlord. Having seen some beautifully painted examples of Warlord's new Epic foot figures, I have noticed that some details on the figures have been misinterpreted. So here's a guide to what all the bits of soldiers' paraphernalia are on the new Pike and Shotte Epic figures. But first a note about musketeers' hats: all the musketeers are wearing either a brimmed hat or a woolly hat (of either a Monmouth or Montero design - a Monmouth cap would now be described as a beanie, a Montero is a bit like the 1950s-1990s scratchy woollen hiking balaclavas that fold up into a peaked cap). One looks like he is wearing a cabascet helmet - it's a felt hat. Thinking about Newcastle's whitecoats? A good proportion of them wore Scottish blew bonnets - a beret like hat. The standing musketeer strip with officer A coloured scarf (often

No Monday post this week; in celebration of International Womens' Day let us investigate some more women of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. But first, a little about the title of this post... The longest post title on the blog award goes to this one, courtesy of His Majesty Charles I.  In 1643, a draft proclamation was drawn up, setting out required standards of behaviour for Charles I’s army. It included a hand-written memo in the margin from the king stating: ‘lett no woman presume to counterfeit her sex by wearing mans apparall under payne of the severest punishment.’ For balance, I toyed with a different title, courtesy of Old Knoll  'a youth of so fair countenance'. So far, on the blog, we have already met some strong women:  Captain Frances Dalziel/Dalyell/Dalzell (alias Mrs Pierson) ; Trooper Jane of Ripley Castle; and  the Countess of Derby resolutely defending Lathom House. It's about time we met some more... Cromwell's ' youth of so fair countenance

Jings and crivens- another bonus post! (This isn't this week's normal Monday post, this week's normal post is scheduled for Wednesday, International Women's Day - could be a mahoosive clue to what it is is about there.) Having seen a number of 'how to paint...' tutorials on YouTube, and having painted just a few Wars of the Three Kingdoms/British Civil Wars/ English Civil War (delete as you see appropriate) I thought I'd have a crack. Once again, I need to say thank you to Warlord for sending me a preview frame of the new range. The examples that I have seen all utilise speed/contrast paints, and strange things such as zenithal priming. So here is a different style of painting to consider. Caveat: they look pretty rubbish until they are finished - some would say they still look rubbish even when finished.  I freely admit not to being a brilliant painter, at best I'm average. My painting style is firmly planted in the following routine: undercoat (if I r