Well, it's no secret that I've been looking a bit at historical wargaming and miniatures, and here they are -
Charles Gerard's Regiment of Foote, in service to God and much in employ of the King:They're from Renegade, a small firm from Paignton in Devon. The scale is pretty much GW. They're well sculpted - very atmospheric and well done, but a few of the moulds are a bit iffy (watch out for the eyepatch I had to paint on one musketeer - his eye had moulded funny!).
Still, they cost £10 on ebay for 24 models, and would only have cost about seven quid more to buy the whole regiment brand new.
They're Royalists (hence the red sashes) from the earlier stages of the war (Battle of Edgehill), circa 1642-1643. They have the standard pike block with two 'sleeves' of musket in a 2:1 ratio (some of the early royalist regiments had a 1:1 ratio, but I've not modelled that here).
Detail of the pike block with command. The standard displays Gerard's colours. The red cross of St George indicates that it is a regiment of a lieutenant-colonel.:
(one thing I've noticed is that the way I have painted them with Army Painter (see more below) has left a small amount of gloss that seems to reflect through the matt cote on the pictures. IRL, they look very flat coloured and alot better TBH).
Detail of the first musket block, with a portly serjeant:
And the second musket block:
PaintingI painted them using the Army Painter 'system'. I say system, as that's what it is - the dip to shade and gloss varnish, the dull spray to flatten the colours, the battle sand which is already coloured citadel's scorched brown/Vallejo's Burnt Umber, ready for highlighting, the flock and the tufts (although I later found out that all flock, tufts and grass and plants for army painter and GW are supplied by a railway model firm called Silifor (Min-A-Taur in the US), that is just repackaged into smaller and more expensive tubs, so I went to source to get them). In short, everything is provided for speed.
Really pleased with Army Painter. It's quite expensive and there were a few disasters along the way (especially with the dulling spray), but it definitely gets good results when you know what yer doing. I might pop up a guide/review to the Army Painter techniques over the weekend and share my hard won experience!
The HistoryPart of the fun has been doing the research - got meself a couple of books on the English Civil War and some Osprey guides to help with the background.
Charles Gerard was born into a well known branch of minor aristocracy in Lancashire in 1618. Like alot of noblemen of the time, he was educated in the Netherlands and learnt soldiering in Holland's tussles with Spain and the other wars on the continent.
Gerard raised a brigade of horse and foot in the name of the king at the start of the Civil War. He was at Shrewsbury with the King when Charles called his Council of War (this local link added a bit more interest to me) and led his brigade under the King's banner at the battle of Edgehill in Leicester on 23rd October 1642. Gerard's men held the centre-right for the whole of the battle, facing off against the brigades of Sir Thomas Ballard and Sir John Meldrum.
After the relative stalemate of Edgehill, Gerard went on to claim victories in the first battle of Newark and at Newbury.
He was appointed the chief command of the royalist forces in South Wales, where he earned himself a reputation for brutality in successfully pushing out the parlimentarians. He so ravaged South Wales (another reason I picked him!), that the king struggled to raise new men anywhere in Wales. Charles was left no choice after the battle of Naseby but to relieve Gerard of his command, in the hope of raising a new Welsh army.
Gerard continued to fight for Charles, being retained in command of the king's guard during Charles' march from Wales to Oxford, and thence to Hereford and Chester in August 1645. Gerard, having been severely wounded at Rowton Heath on 23 September, reached Newark with Charles on 4 October.
On 8 November 1645 he was created Baron Gerard, of Brandon in the County of Suffolk; but about the same time he appears to have forfeited Charles's favour by having attached himself to the party of Prince Rupert of the Rhine, with whom after the surrender of Oxford Gerard probably went abroad. He remained on the Continent throughout the whole period of the Commonwealth, sometimes in personal attendance on Charles II, at others serving in the wars under Turenne, and constantly engaged in plots and intrigues. For one of these, an alleged design on the life of Cromwell, his cousin Colonel John Gerard, was executed in the Tower in July 1654.
At the Restoration of Charles II, Gerard rode at the head of the king's life-guards in his triumphal entry into London; his forfeited estates were restored, and he received lucrative offices and pensions.
In 1668 he retired from the command of the king's guard to make room for the Duke of Monmouth, receiving, according to Pepys, the sum of £12,000 as solatium. On 23 July 1679 Gerard was created Earl of Macclesfield and Viscount Brandon. A few months later he entered into relations with Monmouth, and co-operated with Shaftesbury in protesting against the rejection of the Exclusion Bill, which would have prevented James II becoming King.
In September 1685, a proclamation having been issued for his arrest, Macclesfield escaped abroad, and was outlawed. He returned with William of Orange in 1688, and commanded his body-guard in the march from Devonshire to London. By William he was made a privy councillor, and Lord Lieutenant of Wales and three western counties. Macclesfield died on 7 January 1694. By his French wife he left two sons and two daughters.
Samuel Pepys, in his famous diaries, denounced Gerard as a " proud and violent man " whose " rogueries and cheats " were notorious and of ill-repute.
Elrington Ball in his book
The Judges in Ireland comments that although Alexander Fitton was not a suitable character to be Lord Chancellor of Ireland, however bad Fitton's character it cannot have been as bad as Gerard's.
So he's the perfect scoundrel, cad and bounder to lead my Royalist forces!
Colonel Charles Gerard tiptoes through the tulips to lead his forces!
Hmm, another bit of shine through the matt dull cote, but it must be the flash as it can't normally be seen to the naked eye.
The figure is from Bicorne and is actually supposed to be Charles Gerard.
Bicorne are slightly more expensive than Renegade but only a little dearer - he cost me a fiver. You have to be careful buying historical figures, especially English Civil War - there appears to be two 28mm scales - the 'larger': Renegade, Warlord, Redoubt and Bicorne and the 'smaller' figure manufacturers: Perry, Foundry, Hinchliffe, Trent.
The smaller figures are not compatible in scale to the larger ones and look daft when mixed.
The GameI did a bit of research into what system to use. I'm glad I did as so many of them have different basing requirements.
I checked Warhammer's ECW rules, and they have had terrible reviews amongst historical wargamers. Most see it as an introduction with nice nice pics in the rulebook and that's about it. There was a lot of compaints about spending ages setting up nicely painted men, only to have to take them all off again from one cannon shot. Most were also of the opinion that the rules make melee too quick and to OP and that you needed to roll buckets of dice for everything (my favourite part!).
So I looked around and found two free rulesets that are very highly recommended: Victory Without Quarter and A Very Civile Action. Both of these are use units based in blocks of 4 or 6 men per stand.
In the end I went for 6 men on a 60mmx60mm mdf square. It meant less stands than if I'd gone 4 men, but I like being able to make them look a bit more dynamic and dioramic. They look alot more realistic than individually based models that's for sure and there's more scope to have the model's intereacting.
In the end, I DL'd a Very Civil Action, which seems good, but I've decided to rewrite it into my own ruleset, called.... A Very UN-Civile Action!
Not only is this a decent basis for a ruleset, but you also get loads these natty stat cards for your men, examples of which are below:
Another key feature I like about the rules is that each regiment is led by an officer who has random abilities, so you can end up with an officer leading cavalry who is a bit of a coward. It's all about managing the risks and using officers and their units to do different things.
Still, I'm a long way off finishing the rules yet and I need to do some playtests before they're ready.
So, all in all, I'm very pleased with my first regiment and using Army Painter. I think I've said it in every thread I've posted on here but they do look better IRL - there's something about cameras (especially mine!) that doesn't quite give the full effect as live figures do.
Anyway, next up - a saker cannon and Henry Tillier's 'Shrewsbury' Regiment for the Royalists. And one day I'll get some cavalry done!