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| Bracing February weather at Prestonpans! |
A surprisingly rewarding and pleasant experience awaited DOB, Gerry and myself at The Goth, Prestonpans on Saturday 20th February 2016. The event, organized by the Scottish Battlefields Trust was bijou but proved very enjoyable.
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| Gerry Bailey sizes up the Braes of Killiecrankie |
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| Another angle (looking south west) |
The pub has some political history which escaped me but being less than a mile from the Prestonpans battlefield and possessing a wonderful aspect onto the Firth of Forth, it offered a quirky and appealing location for a show which commenced at the very gentlemanly hour of 1100.
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| Behind the Williamite line |
Johnny Cope would have approved of this start time I have no doubt!
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| The Camerons are stopped before hitting Leven's Regiment |
The theme was thoroughbred - Scots military history and nowt else! We chose that iconic Highland victory Killiecrankie 1689 which satisfied the Scots theme and my desire to put on something directly related to our pet period.
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| second run - Ramsay's have wheeled in to flank the Jacobites |
I confess to pulling this game together mostly from existing items in my collection. The only really new items apart from the addition of various unit flags was to finish two clan units with Warfare Miniatures new Highlanders. I very much enjoyed painting these sculpts.
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| view looking south east and behind the Williamite left wing |
We used this opportunity to further playtest the 'rules with no name' which are my new set aimed at smaller battles with variable sized units between 60 and 60 models. You can see from the game that unit sizes were pretty conventional (mostly BLB sized). We used roster sheets so some units actually had strengths less thank the number of figures and some more.
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| some of the very attractive new Warfare Highlanders |
We ran the game twice and it has to be said the Jacobites had a really hard time. In the first game despite several charges to contact the Williamite line held firm and the Jacobite attack fizzled out.
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| Dundee's ride! Kenmure's are about to collapse! |
In the second game the Jacobites experienced a more severe version of the first game with every single unit routing with the exception of Dundee's Lifeguard. With the great man attached they managed to initiate a derring do charge which swept away General Mackay who had attached himself to Lord Kenmure's Regiment. This break was infectious and took with it Leven's and Ramsay's regiments too.
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| The Williamite centre swept away but only the Jacobite Horse are around! |
Was it a victory - pyrrhic I would say! DOB salvaged some wounded pride and Gerry chuckled a lot!
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| Mackay about to die at Soldier's Leap! |
It was great to see many of the gang at the event and the Stovies were absolutely fantastic!! Stovies are peasant food from Scotland - high calorific value, stodge factor - intense, probably too much salt and processed meat but oh, what a taste.
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| one of the many paintings of Prestonpans in The Goth |
