The League of Augsburg

Great choice for a wargaming force - The Enniskilleners

Enniskillen companies forward!


It is an ongoing personal mission to make available as much information as possible about the fighting men participating on both sides during the war in Ireland 1688-1691.


Enniskillen infantry in action against Jacobite chevaliers!


Over many years of digging, I have read, compared, sifted, interpreted, dismissed and compiled little bits and pieces of information in an...

New PDF release: Protestant forces in Western Ireland 1689-1690





This PDF will I hope, provide much sought after information on the Protestant volunteer units which kept King William's cause alive in Ireland during the uncertain first years of his reign. 

I have drawn on multiple sources to put together the information contained here and Clarence has delivered his usual excellent standard of illustrations. 

Of course, we had to use some conjecture for flags in...

The Armies of the Ottoman Empire 1645 -1719 - a review




It is difficult to know where to begin in describing the importance and value of this book. Bruno Mugnai has created what may become the definitive reference work on a remarkable military machine. The legacy of its achievement echoes across the Balkans and central Europe even to this day.

The Ottomans engendered terror in Christendom. Absorption into their cultural, economic and religious orbit was...

An excusable digression.. Waterloo Day


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Five years ago today I was in the privileged position to have witnessed one of the two mega events at  Waterloo 200. Little memories include watching Charles and Camilla sweeping up with their entourage as UK representatives, literally almost colliding with Mr Farage as he made political capital at




Hougoumont and, hailing a bunch of HLI drilling in a field near the chateau in my very...

Great work

The return of Piet van der Valk ...as a brigadier



I have the privilege of seeing the creative work of some of the 17th century gaming community now and again and am happy to share that with Blog members. This post shows work from Nick in New Zealand, Gareth in Wales,Yuriy in Russia and Charles in England. 




Dutch brigadier from Gareth... Warfare Miniatures WLOA20


Below you can see a fantastic piece of...

4Play and 4PlayX scenarios available for GNW

I am delighted to announce the release of the first 12 GNW scenarios including six 4PlayX games. 

All are centred around the Poltava campaign. Two have 17 pages and the other two 27 pages.

Here they are



Scenarios:

1. Man down - Masuria 1708
2. Bloody Baturyn! Ukraine 1708
3. Veprik. Swedish attack on Russian town. 1709



Poltava Part 1

1. Attack! Roos's battalions attack the redoubts
2. Rehnskiold take...

Queensbury or cage fighting?




The last couple of weeks has been consumed by intensive gaming and writing about the Great Northern War. The 4PlayX format which covers larger games on a 4 x 4 table, requires longer to set up, play, photograph and validate but oh boy, has it been worth it! I have been  utterly consumed by the twelve scenarios completed so far. 




What has struck me is the contrast in the gaming intensity...

Redoubt redux



Set up for Scenario #2 The Guard's passage the lines.

Submerged deep in the man cave with literally a dozen box files of figures open at any one time I have been forensically exploring the wargaming options with redoubts for the Poltava series of pdfs which is now nearly complete. 

Although I have been gaming the Great Northern War for nearly thirty years, it is a long time since I gamed Poltava,...

Summer cheer.. pick up that Warfare Miniatures book you've been meaning to buy


17th century rules sets


The lockdown has had a very practical impact on Warfare Miniatures... our casters have stopped working during the self isolation period and consequently, with lots of games stuck at home and ordering figures, we've run out of stock of a huge number of items. This is very frustrating as can be imagined. Of course, the situation will be temporary but it is a king sized pain in...

Working in the man cave...



It is not the hot weather which has slowed down posting over the last couple of days. I have been hard at work on various separate projects - a long term, large slower burner which will begin to rear its head visually over the summer, writing work on the Naval rules based on play test feedback and an expansion of scope, the Helion title and the second series of PDF scenarios for 4Play and 4PlayX.

R...

Now here's a thing..



I have been delighted by the number of mails and comments I have received regarding my burgeoning interest in 1/2400 - 17th century ships. As always during a surge of enthusiasm for a period or new strand of wargaming interest, I scoured the internet to find alternative options to the Tumbling Dice models of which I have now painted 150+.





Finding such, is not easy. Of the rare options uncovered,...

4Play quo vadis?



Firstly,  a big thank you to those who have bought some 4Play scenarios. They got off to a good start and I am happy with the response. Of course, the rub will be the play feedback but on format and content, they seem to have hit the mark.

With the first releases I wanted to try and avoid the common trap of re-hashing what is already out there in some form or another. By focusing on different...