Tuesday 29 March 2016

What a pair of Rejects - Miniature Wargames with Battlegames 396




Well I never??
Two Rejects make it into Miniature Wargames with Battlegames!!
BigLee called me a few days ago saying that both our blogs are featured as Blogs of the Month!
To say I'm chuffed doesn't quite cut it!
Cheers Henry!



Thursday 24 March 2016

AHPC 6 Bonus Round - The Duke of Monmouth


I had a few ideas for most of the bonus rounds, but the Gambler-Risk-taker was always going to be The Duke of Monmouth. Now I did consider this figure to be my Curtgeld as well and be the start of Curt's Nine Years War collection!!! but he's got enough on his plate at the moment, so he'll be added to my collection, with the Wild Bill Hickok figure from my previous post for my Curtgeld.

The figure is from Reiver Castings ,who make an excellent dynamic collection of NYW figures, they're a tad on the large side but still fit in well with Foundry and Warfare, but not with Front Rank!. I gotta admit I do much prefer Warfare minis, but I haven't managed to get any of their figures painted so far??


 James Scott, duke of Monmouth, byname (until 1663) James Fitzroy, or Crofts (born April 9, 1649, Rotterdam, Netherlands, died July 15, 1685, London, England), claimant to the English throne who led an unsuccessful rebellion against King James II in 1685. Although the strikingly handsome Monmouth had the outward bearing of an ideal monarch, he lacked the intelligence and resolution needed for a determined struggle for power.





Monmouth was the illegitimate son of King Charles II and Lucy Walter, who claimed to be the king’s wife; the two, however, had little contact after 1649. James was born in the Netherlands, where the couple had met as both sought refuge during the English Civil War; the conflict ended in 1651 with the defeat of Charles’s forces. Lucy and young James moved frequently, and in 1656 she took him to London. Within months of their arrival, the two were arrested and briefly imprisoned in the Tower of London by the republican government. After their release in 1656, Lucy and James journeyed to Flanders. In 1658 an agent of Charles kidnapped James and took him to Paris, where he was looked after by Lord William Crofts. Two years later Charles was restored to the throne, and in 1662 James was returned to England and installed at court as a favourite of the king. On February 14, 1663, Charles created him duke of Monmouth, earl of Doncaster, and Baron Scott of Tindale and made him a Knight of the Garter. On April 20, Monmouth was married to the wealthy Scottish heiress Anne Scott, countess of Buccleuch; they were created duke and duchess of Buccleuch, and he took the surname of Scott. Even at this early date some Englishmen viewed him as a possible successor to Charles. Since Monmouth was a Protestant, his political opportunities increased when Charles’s brother and acknowledged heir, James, duke of York, converted to Roman Catholicism about 1668.


Monmouth was made captain of the king’s guard in 1668 and admitted to the privy council in 1670. During the Anglo-Dutch War of 1672–74, he commanded English troops on the European continent. He became captain general of all the armed forces in England in 1678, and on June 22, 1679, he triumphed over the Scottish Presbyterian rebels at Bothwell Bridge, Lanark. Meanwhile, the succession to the throne had become a burning issue in England, where anti-papal hysteria had been aroused by rumours that the Catholics were plotting to seize power. Charles blocked all parliamentary attempts to exclude James from the royal inheritance, and in September 1679 he banished Monmouth from the kingdom. Nevertheless, the duke quickly returned in defiance of his father and set about building up a following. In this crisis Monmouth was championed for the succession by Anthony Ashley Cooper, earl of Shaftesbury, the leader of the anti-Catholic Whigs in Parliament. In 1682–83 Monmouth became involved in the Whig conspiracy against Charles and James, known as the Rye House Plot. Although pardoned for his part in this enterprise, he was banished from court and took refuge in the Netherlands early in 1684.



Upon the death of Charles II on February 6, 1685, the duke of York acceded to power as James II. Monmouth landed at Lyme Regis, Dorset, with 82 followers in June and quickly raised over 4,000 men, but he was unable to rally the gentry to his rebellion. On July 6 his army of peasantry was totally defeated on the plain of Sedgemoor, Somerset. He fled but was soon captured and beheaded.

Sunday 20 March 2016

AHPC 6 Curtgeld - Wild Bill Hickok




The plan was to start Curt's NYW collection off with the Duke of Monmouth as my Curtgeld, but at Cavalier last month I spied this great figure from Knuckleduster and as Curt collected Cowboys in a previous Challenge, I thought I'd add to the collection.
I was going to leave the figure unbased, but in a mad 5 minutes, he got added to the must base pile and before I knew it I was painting the base???
Wild Bill is only my 4th entry into the Challenge!


James Butler Hickok (May 27, 1837 – August 2, 1876)—known as "Wild Bill" Hickok—was a folk character of the American Old West. Some of his exploits as reported at the time were fiction, but his skill as a gunfighter and gambler provided the basis for his fame, along with his reputation as a lawman.

Hickok was born and raised on a farm in rural Illinois. He went west at age 18 as a fugitive from justice, first working as a stagecoach driver, then as a lawman in the frontier territories of Kansas and Nebraska. He fought (and spied) for the Union Army during the American Civil War and gained publicity after the war as a scout, marksman, actor and professional gambler. Hickok was involved in several notable shootouts.


He was shot from behind and killed while playing poker in a saloon in Deadwood, Dakota Territory (now South Dakota) by an unsuccessful gambler, Jack McCall. The card hand which he supposedly held at the time of his death (aces and eights) has come to be known as the "Dead Man's Hand".


Friday 18 March 2016

NYW Flags - Earl of Leven's regt




A request for fellow TMPer OhBugger

He was after some info on the flags carried by the Earl of Leven's regt, during the Nine Years War.
So here's my take on the flags, not quite sure why they were never posted when I made
 them a few years ago??
I can't find my original master copy flags so I've used the flag from my file, so I'm
 afraid it will blur slightly if you blow it up too big??

The flags in action!

Monday 14 March 2016

The Battle of Ludford Bridge 1459 - A WotR batrep


.....Or the Battle that never was
The Rejects got together on Sunday for our first War of the Roses game since 2011!!


Richard, BigLee and myself were the Yorkists, on the right, while John, Ian and Surj were the Lancastrians on the left.

Order of Battle
Yorkists

The 3 Dicks
Richard Duke of York (Rich)
1.Dismounted Men at Arms
2.Retinue Billmen
3.Retinue Billmen
4.Shire Billmen
5.Retinue Archers
6.Light gun

Richard Earl of Warwick (BigLee)
7.Dismounted Men at Arms
8.German Pikemen
9.Shire Billmen
10.Retinue Archers
11.Light Gun

Richard Earl of Salisbury (Me)
12.Mounted Men at Arms
13.Retinue Billmen
14.Shire Billmen
15.Shire Archers
16.German Handgunners
17.Light Gun

Lancastrian
HenryVI (John)
1.Dismounted Men at Arms
2.Retinue Billmen
3.Retinue Billmen
4.Shire Billmen
5.Retinue Archers

Duke of Somerset (Ian)
6.Dismounted Men at Arms
7.Retinue Billmen
8.Shire Billmen
9.Retinue Archers
10.Light Gun

Earl of Wiltshire (Surj)
11.Mounted Men at Arms
12.Retinue Billmen
13.Shire Billmen
14.Shire Archers
15.French Crossbowmen
16.Light Gun

Sir Andrew Trollope (Turncoat)
A.Men at Arms
B.Shire Billmen
C.Retinue Archers

Unknowingly (Postie kept it a secret) we were fighting a battle that should have been fought in October 1459, but Richard Duke of York thought better of the situation and buggered off very quickly first to Wales and then to Ireland...........perhaps we should have done the same????



The Yorkist line


Postie placed a river across the centre of the table, which was going to make it hard work for both sides. We decided to take the bull by the horns and try and get across the river, all along our lines.


We weren't to know but Trollope's men on the hill far left had already defected our side and chosen the Red Rose


My Men at Arms


and Shire Bill


Rich changed formation with his Dismounted Men at Arms ready to charge across the bridge.


We all had to throw a D20 at the start of the game.Ian threw a 1. Nobody but Ian knew the result, but in the first turn all his troops moved back a full move!!
After the game we found out it was a Treason Roll, Ian very nearly changed sides at the start of the game!!!!


Richard, Duke of York and Bannerman


Trollope sitting on the hill.....waiting??


We got to the river first, both sides lost many casualties to missile fire.


We took a chance with the troops on the hill, hoping they were on our side, but we just had that horrible feeling they weren't?
Concentrated fire destroyed Lee's archer unit that were on the left of the Pikemen.


 Things weren't looking too bad....


Richard and me entered troops in to the river, it was a little confusing??
It would take us 2 turns to cross the river, the first move would leave us in the centre, the next move just the other side. But we were not allowed to charge out of the river....but John moved right up to the river edge, which meant we could no longer advance??
  Postie reminded John of his orders and force-moved the Lancastrians to charge us in the river.


Hmmm? there's a nice gap there??


Come on Dickie!!


Richard moved his other Billmen unit in to the river as he was not allowed to charge into the river.


Rich makes contact with John's Men at Arms waiting on the other side of the bridge.


I had already taken a few potshot at Ian's troops with my gun when........


BOOM!!!!
The gun misfired and blew up killing all the crew!!


They were close but we lost all melee's, and were pushed back across the river.
Meanwhile to the left of the bridge, we had a disastrous turn, the Lancastrians slaughtered 2 units with missile fire, including archer fire from the now reveled enemy Trollope,  leaving us in a hopeless situation, with our left flank in tatters, we left the field.
Well done chaps!
cough!

Conclusion

This was a difficult game, they knew that Trollopes troops were their's from the start, we didn't. If we'd known we probably wouldn't have attacked, but that was the nature of the game. That's why York never fought the battle!!
Only 1 gripe about the rules, Postie needs to sort the crossing river rules out, (and it'd help if he would tell me I can't fire with an archer unit while crossing the river, before I do it!!) 



Friday 11 March 2016

AHPC 6 Donnybrook - The crew of HMS Ruby



Can't believe this is only my 3rd entry into the Challenge proper?? 
And NO, they're not the same figures I entered into the last bonus round!
The figures are  all Foundry figures, apart from the leader which is a Casting Room
figure, they were painted the same time as the chaps 
from HMS Badger Dragon and are the other half of the Foundry packs.

I did wonder why some of the figures in the packs I bought from ebay had what looked
 like tight curly hair??

Now I know why...Doh!

Pirates And Swashbucklers  - Balthazars Marauders - CUT032

And there was me, as I was painting the buggers up, thinking, perhaps I should 
paint one of these as a coloured chap??
Oh well?


 These rogues earned me 45 points and pushed me into 47th place, .And have a few things up my sleeve to hopefully get me up to my 500 point mark.....fingers crossed!!!



Sunday 6 March 2016

Rejects on Tour - Cavalier 2016




Me & Postie drove down to Tonbridge last Sunday for the Rejects first show of the year.
There we met fellow Rejects BigLee and Ian.I an then treated us all to a MackieD's breakie, which set us all up for the day!


Hailsham Wargames Club - Malplaquet 1709

My personal favourite game of the show. I belive they were all old school Les Higgins figures, well they may have been old but they still looked pretty cool!







We met up with loads of blogger, as soon as we walked into the main hall we bumped into 
Dave Crook,centre in the pic above,with Postie and BigLee.


Then not long after we were joined by Henry Hyde and Bob Cordery.
I was pleasantry surprised to be given £5 from Henry as payment for one of my photos he 
had used in Miniature Wargames!
(Pic pinched from BigLee's blog!)


 North London Wargames Group- Battle of Moncontour 1569




The Bring & Buy


Tonbridge Wargames Club - Chickamauga Day 2





Maidstone Wargames - Road to Homs 1982



Gravesend Gamers Guild - Warmachine





Not too sure who and what this game was?



Southend Wargames Club - Helmund Rescue





Society of Ancients - Trebia



The small hall


The League of Gentlemen Anti-Alchemists - Rommel: Our part in his downfall







Friday Night Firefight - Zulu! 1879




Deal Wargames Society - Prison Break 1945





Crawley War Games Club - Trench Raid