First though, a massive thanks to all those who continue to comment - either here or on other forums - and offer support and praise. It's all very humbling to get nice feedback about the figures and scenery I paint and create, and I'm glad that people are getting pleasure out of my efforts. I enjoy modelling and painting, as well as sharing my work, and if it continues to inspire people in the way that other bloggers have inspired me, then I'll keep going! Thank you!!!
First up then, the completed NMA Faction for Donnybrook. It's worth 4 points with a hero, so it works well for the basic version of the game.
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| The completed faction, with Activation cards and shaken makers. |
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| Major Robert Hawkins |
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| The Shot |
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| Gentlemen of the Pike |
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| The Horse |
A few words about the soldiers in this faction. They represent troops of the New Model Army, formed by The Committee of Both Kingdoms on 6th January 1645, and coming into practical existence around April of that year. It would appear that the term 'New Model Army' might only date from the 19th century, but judging by contemporary records from 1646, the term 'New Modelled Army' was in use, describing the way that existing regional forces had been used to form a centralised newly modelled or organised army. There are existing contracts for coats or 'cassacks' and breeches that date from August 1645 and February and March of 1646 (the old style calendar meant that these contracts were drawn up in 1645 - the new year in the Julian Calendar began in March), that show that certainly from this time onwards (ie late 1645 - early 1646), the new army was equipped in its famous red coats. However, as many of the soldiers from the three armies - Essex's, Waller's and Manchester's - that were used to create this new force were probably wearing red coats issued earlier, it's likely that by the time of the Naseby Campaign in 1645, many of the soldiers were already in red, even without the issue of the new uniforms. Certainly by 1650 and Dunbar, this army would have been in the famous 'Venice red' that began the 'legend ' of the British Redcoat.
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| A Tawny orange 'montero' hat....a veteran of Essex's army, perhaps?... |
Breeches were of 'grey or some other good Coloure'. Regiments were distinguished by different coloured 'facings' or cuffs, and 'tapes' - the ties that held the coats together in place of buttons; 'ye tape to bee white, blew, greene, & yellow...orange'. I decided to paint mine yellow, as I can use these figures to represent another regiment with yellow facings from earlier in the Civil wars, though not all the figures from Perry Miniatures are sculpted with cuffs. Charles Fairfax's regiment had blue colours, and thus are likely to have had blue facings, but this is the only English regiment for the Dunbar campaign for which we have a sense of what colour facings or standards were shown. My figures could arguably come from for example, Colonel Alban Coxe's or Colonel William Daniel's Regiments.
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| 'Blow off your loose powder' |
Musketeers were equipped with bandoleers, with bottles or 'Boxes' '...to bee coloured blew with blew and white strings....'. I've chosen to paint a few of my shot with these blue bandoleers, to give a feel of the New Modelled Army. I did draw the line at blue and white strings for the bottles though! There aren't any contracts as far as I can tell, for armour for the Army, so my pike don't wear any, though doubtless some might have held onto helmets and possibly some back and breast.
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| 'Order your pike...' |
Pike were 'of good Ash sixteen foote long wth steele heads at three shillings Xd a pike...'. Interestingly, it would appear that by 1645, a ratio of 3:1 of shot to pike was more likely, instead of the more familiar 2:1, and this leads me on to the composition of my New Model Army Faction, in light of my recent reading.
The book on the right - 'Cromwell hath the honour but...: Major General Lambert's Campaigns in the North 1648' (P.R.Hill and J.M.Watkinson) is slightly off topic, but gives a good feeling for the character and experiences of one of the Parliamentarian commanders, John Lambert. Lambert was a major figure in the later years of the Civil wars, heavily involved in the defence of the north against the Scots and the Preston Campaign in 1648, and the Siege of Pontefract Castle; as well as being one of the Army commanders in the Dunbar Campaign. He seems to have been a good leader, popular with his men, firm but fair, and generous in his terms with prisoners and the public. He was injured in a skirmish on 30th July 1650, as he led the rearguard of the retreating English Army, and his horse was shot in the neck and head, whilst Lambert was 'himself run through the arm with a lance...' and was captured, although quickly rescued later in the action. He seems to be an interesting character, and if I ever get deeper into this campaign and paint up a model of him, I'll write a fuller post about his life and career. I picked up this book at the Partizan show in spring of 2015.
Last week, the other book (on the left) - 'Dunbar 1650: Cromwell's most famous victory', by Stuart Reid, dropped through the letter box. It's one of the Osprey 'Campaign' series (No.142), and has given me food for thought about my Faction composition. Judging by the performance throughout the campaign, it seems as though I'm (just about) justified in giving my New Model Horse their 'Elite' status, although this is based purely on the numbers of veterans and battlefield performance. If I was running a campaign, they'd probably be merely Regular or 'trained', as the Scots often got the better of them, especially the Covenanter lancers.
The same would go for the foot - certainly by the time of the battle, the infantry were in dire straits, having lost many men (Reid suggests as many as 4-5000!) to sickness and malnutrition, caused by atrocious weather and a shortage of supplies. Having crossed the Anglo-Scots border on 22nd July, the English Army had to wait until mid August to have any tents! Only 3 out of the 8 regiments of infantry came directly from the 're-modelling', and one - William Daniel's - had only been recruited earlier in the year, intended for service in Ireland! So a 'trained' status for the infantry might reflect the impact of the arduous conditions and experience, in a more realistic way. In terms of how this impacts on my faction, for the future, I may consider having 16 regular shot - worth 2 points, a unit of 4 elite pike (1 point), 6 elite cavalry (2 points), and a regular unit of 6 Dragoons (1 point). It would appear that 2 companies of Okey's Dragoon regiment were equipped as regular horse, but 4 companies acted in the 'usual style' mounted infantry role during the campaign. For now though, expansion plans are to add another 3 elite cavalry, and another 4 elite musketeers. This gives me a 6 point force, with 6 cavalry, 4 pike and 12 shot - more realistically reflecting the 3:1 ratio of musket to pike, and reflecting overall battlefield performance of the New Model army from 1645-1651. On that note - I'm going to keep my cards saying 'New Model Army'. Anachronistic, it maybe, but people feel familiar with it!
That is for the future though, so the next few posts will be about buildings, and livestock - including chickens and sheep! Then it's the turn of the Scots.....See you soon.
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| The Scots are coming..... |
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| Baaaaaa! |
