Royalist Commander Selected

In the rules that I'm writing for my in-house ECW battles, all Generals and Brigadiers have a "personality" (Aggressive, Steady, Careful and Political).  Each personality has differing advantages/disadvantages which will affect the Brigadiers under him as well.

Before each battle we will roll to see which personality our General and Brigadiers will have.  There are thus four possible Generals (one of each personality) and eight different Brigadiers (two of each personality).

Originally my thought was to fit various historical figures to each of the C-in-C's personalities (as I expect my Roundhead opponent to do).  But in researching various commanders, one leaped out at me.

The Earl of Forth (Patrick Ruthven) had battle results all over the map (some great, some terrible, some where he wasn't there, etc.); and he had a very strong reputation as a "hard drinking man" . . . viola!

He will be perfect for me.  He will always be in command (unless killed, in which case I will revert to the "traditional" four general solution).  I will simply roll to see which of his inebriated states will come to the fore on the day of battle . . . Aggressive, Steady, Careful or Political.

Fun, eh?

Now to pick the eight Brigadiers (who will also be rolled for on the day of battle to see who is there).

-- Jeff

Some Decisions to be Made

Beside my Warlord plastics and Perry lead for my English Civil War project, I acquired a fairly substantial number of lead figures from a fellow down island.  The price was great, however the figures had not been treated kindly.

One specific problem was with the cavalry.  There were lots of sword-waving troopers most of whom had broken off swords.  Now Murdock has kindly offered to come down with his dremel tool and help me replace them with pins . . . (this is something I've never done although I've read of folks who have done so).

Now one of my problems is how well this will look with the unbroken swords of my Warlord and Perry troops.  Will I have to replace them as well?  I will have to wait and see.

Another issue has to do with the muskets of the Warlord plastics and the Perry lead.  I had planned on mixing them up within each unit . . . but while the sculpting of the two lines matches very well, the musket lengths are noticeably different (with the plastic being much longer).  Now I have to decide whether to simply use them in separate units or to snip the ends of the barrels off from the plastics.  I'm currently leaning toward the former but might well change my mind.

On a positive note, I did manage to make a hundred 80mm pikes from the mild steel welding rod I picked up last week . . . and I have finally assembled the arms and hats for way too many plastic foot and glued all of my plastic horses together.  However I still have swords to glue on the foot and pistol holsters on the horses.

I am getting very tired of all of the fiddly little bitwork needed to assemble all of the Warlord plastics.  They look good and the price is great but I have to pay for it in time in putting them together.

Nothing is painted yet (nor will it be soon) but I do continue to get things prepped.

-- Jeff