Twitter/X

-

Apologies to those of you who followed KeepYourPowderDry on Twitter/X, you may have noticed that @KeepPowder has disappeared.

Over the last 12 months I've seen posts dwindle from 6-700 views within 24 hours to just 35 in 48 hours. Accounts that @KeepPowder has followed, whilst still posting, no longer appear in my feed. My feed has been replaced with 'my grandma taught me this' videos, and ladies who really should put a jumper on (as they'll catch their death of cold).

Twitter was a great source of information, and there were many distinct communities over there. Now, it's just a series of short videos crowding out the good stuff. Not to mention the dodgy politics...

You can still find KeepYourPowderDry on BlueSky, which has some of the original Twitter sense of community.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Coat Colours Part 1: Parliamentarian Regiments of Foot

-
Image
When I first started my Civil War gaming project I relied upon the many ECW coat colour tables on wargaming websites. As my project has progressed, my library has got bigger, my research has gone back to primary sources rather than relying upon second and third hand sources; and I have noticed quite a few errors in these lists for wargamers. I have also noticed the same errors appearing in multiple lists.     As a result of continually seeing 'the London Trained Bands and their Auxiliaries wore red coats' (there is no evidence supporting this at all, the evidence, whilst not explicit suggests that the London Trained Bands wore civilian clothes - some of the Auxiliaries might have been issued with blue winter coats) I decided to write my own list.  So here it is. If your allegiance lies elsewhere you might want to look at  Introduction   Part 2  Royalist coat colours Part 3  Scots coat colours Part 3B ...
Read more

A Furtle in the Spares Box

-
Image
Having just had a reorganisation of my storage boxes, and realising that my two Scottish armies now had space... I resorted to going through my spares boxes in order to work out what purchases would be required to fill the newly vacant space. A Freikorps Covenanter officer Might as well paint them up whilst I await the postie bearing packets of lead and freshly layered MDF. Inspired by my attention becoming very Scottish-centric over the last year or so, I have decided upon some more Covenanters. Command figures found for a new regiment of horse, and company of firelocks. Great, that saves a tenner. But what are these, lurking in the Celtic spares box? Two pack horses (for frame guns) and horse holders and a civilian woman.  Montrose's artillery park gets a 200% expansion, with just a pack of Scots artillery crew and a pair of custom casualty markers from Warbases needing to be purchased. Only problem was that the 'woman' is actually a monk. Something I only realised when I...
Read more

Warlord Pike and Shotte Epic Battles: the infantry sprue

-
Image
Firstly a big thank you to Warlord Games who sent me a sprue of their new Pike and Shotte Epic Battles infantry. (You can see how I got on with the cavalry sprue here. ) I will try and look at these figures from three different angles: the first impression of someone completely new to the period, the button counter’s standpoint, and then from a seasoned wargamer’s point of view. In all cases I'm looking at these through Wars of the Three Kingdoms spectacles. (Wars of the Three Kingdoms is a more accurate name for the conflicts that were fought in the British Isles in the mid seventeenth century. The English Civil War was just one of these conflicts.) The obligatory next to a ruler picture (the ruler is lined up with the soles of their footwear) The 'new to the period' view This one sprue provides enough figures for one unit (a Regiment of Foot or RoF). Figures look very detailed, moulding is clean and crisp with no flash and only minimal mould lines. The pikes look a bit d...
Read more

Coat Colours Part 2: Royalist Regiments of Foot

-
Image
Continuing my therapeutic blogging (write rather than rant) antidote to incorrect English Civil War coat colour tables for wargamers, I give you the Royalist Regiments of Foot. For all of my coat colour articles see: Introduction   Part 1  Parliamentarian coat colours Part 3  Scots coat colours Part 3B  Montrose and the Irish Brigade Part 4  Dragoons, Horse and the New Model Army coat colours The Trained Bands London Trained Bands Auxiliary regiments Scarves   Same rules apply here, as they did with the Parliamentarian coat colours: Regiments often got renamed when command passed to a new colonel - these regiments are listed under their first name e.g. Jacob Astley's Regiment was originally Richard Fielding's Regiment. Coat colour notes refer to contemporaneous references and some of the deductions made by Reid, Spring,  Peachey and Prince. You will also notice that some regiments have several coat colours listed. Where there is some question aro...
Read more

A Regiment of Foot

-
Image
The question arises, what did a Regiment of Foot actually look like? As wargamers we happily put a collection of thirty figures together and call it a 'regiment'. How many men were in a 'regiment' in real life?   I'll try and have a go... One of the problems that arises with the English Civil Wars/ British Civil Wars/ Wars of Three Kingdoms is the use of language and terminology. Many military terms start becoming more widespread in their use. We start coming across uniforms, regiments, companies, and battalia. From our standpoint in the 21st Century we have very specific views of what these terms mean; but in the 17th Century such terms, like spellings, had not been standardised. Throw into the mix large holes in our knowledge, due to a lack of records and documentation, and the best we can ever hope to achieve is a 'best guess'. With these caveats I set out on my quest. The London Trained Bands and their structure is probably our best data mine for evidenc...
Read more

Coat Colours Part 5: The Trained Bands

-
Image
As I was about to post about the Tower Hamlet's Regiment of the London Trained Bands, and about to go down my usual ranty rabbit hole about coat colours I thought it better to write a general post about Trained Bands. This got out of hand a little and became the coat colours series, without even touching upon the Trained Bands.  When I first started my ECW project I took at face value lots of information from what I believed to be 'trusted' sources: it only took a little  cursory reading to quickly realise that many of these 'trusted' sources replicate the same errors. Which is why my original Tower Hamlet's Regiment wore red coats and carried the 'wrong' flag. They were quickly given the correct flag, but the red coat issue was slowly nagging me. They have since been rechristened John Birch's, and the Tower Hamlets LTB has been raised anew. This post is a bit more than  Coat Colours Part 5 Introduction   Part 1  Parliamentarian coat colours Part ...
Read more

Clubmen

-
Image
When we think of the British Civil Wars we think of everyone belonging to one of the warring camps - there was another group of people who wanted no part in the war, wanting instead to live a peaceful life. When the war visited them, or more precisely soldiers foraging or looting, they rose up and banded together to protect their homes and property. "Peace and truth" Clubmen risings took place in Shropshire, Worcester, and most notably in Dorsetshire. In Bradford citizens rose up and sided with Fairfax, at Adwalton Moor, in defence of their home. The most significant clubmen rising was in Dorsetshire: for a fuller history of the Dorsetshire clubmen might I suggest the following article at Fontmell Magna village , and of course the Clubmen 1645  website and blog. For those of you who like physical reading material might I suggest that you get a copy of this? Written by @Clubmen1645, Haydn is a long time supporter of KeepYourPowderDry, and the author of t...
Read more

Coat Colours Part 4: Others - NMA, Dragoons & Horse

-
Image
Welcome to part 4 of my coat colours series. I had originally planned to write blog entries on the New Model Army, Regiments of Dragoons, and Regiments of Horse but, as you'll see those pages would be pretty sparse and barren. The rest of my coat colour posts are here: Introduction   Part 1  Parliamentarian coat colours Part 2  Royalist coat colours Part 3  Scots coat colours Part 3B  Montrose and the Irish Brigade The Trained Bands London Trained Bands Auxiliary regiments Scarves   And if you are stuck wondering how to convert this information into what colours to use and what model paint colours , the links might help you start. Parliamentarian Regiments of Dragoons Colonel Richard Browne Red November 1642 ( National Archive SP28/144/pt2/28-35 ) Grey 1645 (National Archive 144/2 f30r; British Library MS Add 18982 f409v) Parliamentarian Regiments of Horse   There are a number of records detailing the issue of helmets, back and breas...
Read more

Painting Guide - Artillery

-
Image
 So I have pontificated about clothing colours (in general)... What Colours To Use? What Colours To Use Part 2: Paint ...regimental coat colours (or not)... Coat Colours Part 1: Parliamentarian Regiments of Foot Coat Colours Part 2: Royalist Regiments of Foot Coat Colours Part 3: The Scots Coat Colours Part 4: Others - NMA, Dragoons & Horse The Trained Bands ...and equipment... Painting Guide - Equipment Only time before I looked at artillery. So here it is. A re-enactors' cannon ready to be fired Artillery pieces were expensive to produce, heavy and difficult to move around. The idea of using artillery in battle (rather than in a siege) was still in it's infancy. Guns were placed before the battle and pretty much stayed there win, lose or draw. Gunners were highly skilled individuals, many having learned their art on the continent during the Thirty Years War, and were often described as mercenaries employed by whomsoever paid the most rather than whose cause their hearts s...
Read more

KeepYourPowderDry has made it to 8!

-
Image
Happy bloggiversary*! 8 today. Cue elderly relative asking how it feels to be 8. Jings and crivens, never thought I'd be able to keep this up. This year saw the blog clock up over 1 million views, and receive its 500th post. Both statistics I find slightly bonkers. Just checking the 'supplies' for the KeepYourPowderDry bloggiversary party This year has seen a big jump in views, just shy of 400k in 12 months. The top 20 performing posts list makes interesting reading: five of my coat colours in the top 10 (this year sees the Royalist post out performing the Parliamentarian post for the first time); my Epic posts and Which Figures posts also continue to be viewed a lot. Good to see some ECWtravelogue posts rounding the top 20 out too. Best performing 2025 post was my Irish Catholic Confederacy command. This year's blogging highlights: Amusingly someone plagiarised my blog and then tried to 'internet-one-up' me using my research. They were quite rude, then went sil...
Read more