More Scots, and my first NMA character.

Hi all - just a quick update amidst the pre-Partizan painting frenzy!

Firstly, the next unit of Scottish Shot has been started - four done, and four more to go. When those are completed, that will give me two basic  4-point factions for the project. I'm aiming for larger of course.....



The Scots shot - start of the second unit.

These chaps are all Perry miniatures - after the Partizan show, I'll add more posts about them, concerning colours used, which packs they were from and so on.

Here they are in a different setting, and more detail of the rear rank.



Even the grey-haired veterans are called to the ranks...

Here they make a bloody last stand - maybe some of this in a few weeks time?

Stand firm, my lads!....

I also decided to give myself a break from painting Hodden grey (or variations of it), this week, and painted up my first character - Master Thomas Playwell. He's a Perry Miniatures fifer, from one of the command packs in the ECW range. I quite like him! He was quite quick to paint up, given the lack of equipment, and is something a bit different. I'm lucky enough to be married to a re-enactment drummer/fifer, so a few questions her way about paint colours for the fife, and I was away. He has a morale-altering capability in 'Donnybrook' - again, more details and a longer post after Partizan. Here he is with his activation card from the playing deck, and in action.

Hope you like 'em! See you soon. Apologies for the brevity, but.....just under three weeks to go!!!! See you soon.

'The worst picket duty EVER!! Looking after the hay wagon, keeping an eye on dinner, and now a chap learning to play the fife comes and stands next to me......great.....'



My first Donnybrook Hero - and the naming of Bobby 'the Bob'!

 The next entry for the 2015 Donnybrook Diaries, introduces the Hero character for my English Civil War project New Model Army Faction.

This is Major Robert Hawkins, a fictional name I plucked out of nowhere, yet one that sounds suitably virtuous and inspirational! Every Donnybrook 'faction' or force has a 'Hero', who acts as the leader or commander - your personification on the table. He also acts as a 'character' for your faction, but is cost free when it comes to working out the amount of points you have to spend on your faction. Heroes use a d12 die to determine their ability to carry out actions such as firing, or landing a blow in close combat, and succeed in both on a 6 +. They therefore have a 7 in 12 chance of managing this, only right for such fine upstanding fellows......or evil, dastardly rapscallions - take your choice!

They can also act as the final checking point for faction morale when forces reach 50% of their original strength, a trigger point to see if the game is coming to an end. A die is thrown that matches that of the highest surviving characters' ability die. 7+ means that the force is able to carry on. So if your Hero is unhurt and still fighting, then he uses his d12 die to test against. Pretty useful!

Robert Hawkins comes from Perry Miniatures pack ECW2 Foot Command, and I knew straight away  that he would be a good Hero figure. I've decided to base all my character figures for Donnybrook on hexagonal bases (from Warbases). My heroes are based on 30mm diameter ones, as opposed to 25mm for my other characters, just to make them slightly easier to pick out on the table. He's painted up in the usual manner from a black undercoat, using GW/Foundry paints. Madder red trousers (again!), with green piping, and a Slate grey doublet. His sash is painted up using the Wargames Foundry No.23 Tomb Blue triad; ECW re-enactors tend to portray New Model Army officers and sergeants wearing this pale bluey-grey coloured sash, and I like the contrast with the other more earthy colours.

Major Hawkins has had a dramatic life already in our Donnybrook 'test' games, and is starting to develop something of a character. Whilst he always seems to be one of the first to have his activation card turned up - meaning he gets into action pretty quickly - he has so far swung between being foremost in the action, to vacillating nervously at the rear! In our first game, he was shot, and eventually dragged from the field by his own retreating pikemen as his faction crumbled around him. He subsequently recovered, only to spend a subsequent game keeping out of harm's way behind a rather substantial stone Celtic Cross. Some might say he was seeking Divine inspiration, muttering psalms and prayers to inspire him and his men. However, the image of him bobbing back and forth nervously from behind the cross to see what was happening,  was one that stuck slightly firmer in the mind, and it wasn't a gigantic leap to get from Robert Hawkins to Rob the Bobber, to Bobby 'The Bob!' Not quite 'Seamus an chaca', but a nickname that could have slightly less favourable connotations than just ducking and diving! We'll have to see what the future holds for Major Hawkins!

Out from behind his cross.....but for how long?......

Major Hawkins'  Activation card.

Donnybrook Diaries.....Part 3

Off we go again! The thing that really grabbed me about Donnybrook, apart from the small forces needed and the fun 'feel' about it, was the idea that it was a card driven game. I've recently got hold of 'Muskets and Tomahawks', and 'The Rules with no name', both card driven, and having been a Igo - Ugo rules man for many a year, this seemed a refreshing change.

Although card driven games - where units on the table are activated by a corresponding unit card picked from a shuffled card deck - have been around for ages, it's seemingly only recently that they have come back into favour. Many people don't like them; a unit can hang around for ages on the table top, their card not picked, and thus units are left inactive. Sometimes players don't get a go for a while, if a consecutive run of the opposition side's card are picked, by chance, one after another.

However, I like this random element of not knowing if your side will be activated or not. This is much more realistic in smaller, skirmish-based games, where units and characters act in a haphazard, chaotic manner, and it's harder, more challenging and, arguably, greater fun(!) to play these style of rules. What these type of rules have, is a strong narrative feel about them - your musketeers can't fire? A sudden squall of rain has passed over the battlefield, and extinguished their match. (I know this is an absolute bummer, from bitter experience as a re-enactor, and entirely realistic!) Your pikemen lurch forward in an unwanted manner that will get them shot at straight away? They've been out of action for so long, and they are desperate to get into a scrap. A constant run of cards for one side? Then they are merely more on their game than the opposition that day! A real story-telling element to each wargame can come through.

Donnybrook works on a pack of cards - one card for each unit, and character/hero; and two other cards - the 'Reload' card which allows units to reload their firearms (they usually only fire once per move), and a 'Turn over' card, which allows those cards which have already been played to be collected back into the pack and re-shuffled. The next turn begins after this.

Arguably, it might be possible for a unit to fire after its card has been activated. Then it won't be able to fire again until the reload card comes up. Imagine a situation that sees other units activated, then the 'Turn over' card is activated before the 'Reload' card appears again, and the move begins again, with this unit still unloaded. Its unit card is turned over, and it still can't fire! People might not like this, but again to me, this acts as part of the story of the battle - the unit has run out of powder and is waiting for supplies, or it has an incompetent officer, who has momentarily forgotten to issue the order to ' cast about and reload your pieces!'.

With this in mind, I've created my own cards, each card showing the Unit, type of soldier, quality, and weaponry etc. There's also the 'Turn over' card, and 'Reload' card. I hope you like them! Next time, it'll be more painting, and some scenery!