Late 17th Century Wargaming Part 9

 Having planned to recreate forces for the battle of Sedgemoor, then finding that I could include my fascination for the battle of Killiecrankie by expanding the collection, as collections often do, it ended up being more than I originally envisioned. Then with the prospect of combining with friends’ collections, Ireland beckoned…

The scale of the Williamite vs Jacobite conflict in Ireland would allow us to play much larger games than the Sedgemoor campaign could offer.

Above are some dedicated Williamite units for Ireland.

There you have the Ordinance Regiment aka the Royal Fuzileers. A worthy addition just for Barry Hilton’s lovely flags, but being all in caps, lacking pike and armed with flintlocks, they’re just markedly different from anything else I have.

Next to them are the Scottish Foot Guards, an eBay purchase which I’ve already written about. Least said, soonest mended!

The last photo above shows two French Huguenot regiments, de la Meloniere and Cambon. The left hand unit is an eBay purchase (painted by the seller as Austrians but it just takes the new flags and hey presto they’re French) and the right hand painted by Steve Shann (the Bionic Man of our hobby!)

This was the final unit to come off Steve’s painting table; a generic unit of Williamite cavalry. In their buff coats and lack of finery they easily tick the versatility box. If I’d made do with the cavalry present at Sedgemoor (I decided it wasn’t worth having specific figures to represent the small number at Killiecrankie), it would have seriously restricted my gaming possibilities. You want about one squadron of cavalry for each regiment of infantry.

I’ve experimented with an A4 print of a landscape photograph as the background. Sort of works.

Next we have some dedicated Jacobite units.  By the way the Vauban walls are from More Terrain. I thought they’d work well for Ireland, Derry walls and the like.

Here we have Clanrickarde’s, repurposed from my old pirates collection (Foundry and Warfare figures, painted by me, with Flags of War flags), Lord Louth’s with their unusual brown facings, and Lord Clare’s dragoons resplendent in yellow. These last are Warfare Miniatures. Just lovely. 

And finally there’s Dudley Bagnall’s regiment. This unit is a mix of Warfare Miniatures and Dixon Miniatures. They’re armed only with pikes, poor fellows, and copied from photos on the Warfare Miniatures web store. Again something just a little different (and the polar opposite of those fancy pants Royal Fuzileers). Lacking in versatility certainly, but I just fancied including such a unit and using some Dixon Miniatures. They don’t mix with the Front Rank figures which make up the bulk of my late 17thc collection, but do mix well with Warfare Miniatures.  

Oh and I mustn’t forget there’s a unit of generic Jacobite cavalry. These figures have already seen service as Spanish Horse in Tangier. It’s sometimes the case that little is known about uniforms during this period. So I’ll happily use units as other nationalities without shame. Not sure Louth’s infantry will fit in anywhere else though! Brown facings, what were they thinking…?!

There’s ample versatility in other units. The above command bases allow me to enter units into Williamite service in Ireland.

And late to the party is a command base that allows me to repurpose Purcell’s Irish Jacobite foot for Killiecrankie as the third French Huguenot regiment, Caillemotte. Seemed worthwhile stretching to include all three Huguenot foot since Barry Hilton does such lovely flags for them. I painted these figures myself, as I’d miscounted the extra command bases I needed, but Steve kindly did the basing so it matches Purcell’s.

Then there’s a whole raft of command bases to repurpose units for the Jacobites. The majority repurpose Monmouth’s infantry from the Sedgemoor collection.

In the foreground of the bottom photo are two command bases for James’s Irish Guards. I drop these in with the rank and file of the First Foot Guards at Sedgemoor and they’re ready to fight again for James in Ireland.

It’s not the cheapest way to repurpose units, but it’s easy.

If that wasn’t enough versatility in the collection, these last three command bases allow the Williamite Huguenots to be fielded as Scottish militia (left) or Covenanter rebels (centre and right). The two Covenanter bases use leftover eBay Austrians. I can’t abide waste!

This Covenanter rebel flag was an illustration in a Helion book. I manipulated the image in Word and printed it out. Decent enough quality. It only lacks the movement lines of Barry’s flags.

And that’s the collection complete and just to play with and enjoy. Happy days. 

Cheers for reading!

Chris