British Irregular Horse

After rummaging through my books I searched the net for information.  The results were not of a gigantic magnitude.  However here are the fruits of my labours:

  "In the foreground 'Northern Horse' in mail charge the typical Irish cavalry."  [Derrick print 1581]   RA p42

To me the English are reminiscent of certain Late Roman cavalry with their mail and shields.  The Irish have strange helmets (or helmet covers) more like Sassanids.  I need to raid my 'spares' box.

 

"Carberry Hill - forces of the Scots Confederate Lords." RA p45

"Carberry Hill (1560's) - Mary Queen of  Scots' troops."  RA p46

The illustrations don't help much - the descriptions are as follows:

"A very small component of most Scots armies....the ordinary gentry would wear corselet, jack or brigantine, bascinet helmet, gorget, 'splints' for arms and upper legs, and mail hand and knee protection.  Great nobles could have full plate armour....basic weapon would be the lance."  [RA p45]

"The cavalry had helmets and sleeveless buff-coats (though jacks were also permitted) and were supposed to carry either pistols and broadsword, or light lance."  [RA p45]

 Osprey book - 'Border Reivers' - which I must acquire asap.

 "Usually the chief mounted troops of Scots armies were 'Border Horse' armed with light lance, sword, and, by 1600, one pistol, with 'steel bonnet' - often covered by a cap - and corselet, mail or jack as protection: leather breeches and boots.  They were distinguishable, if at all, from their English counterparts only by chequered plaids and the saltire of St Andrew on breast and back."  [RA p45]

"The borderers who fought for their respective countries at Flodden were armed and equipped in a very similar way.  the man shown here wears a jack of steel plates covered in red cloth, mail sleeves, long leather riding boots, and a fine sallet with an articulated neck piece.  He is armed with a sword, an eight-foot lance, and a small hand-wound crossbow called a latch."  [Flod p24]

Sources:

RA = "Renaissance Armies 1480-1650" by George Gush
Flod = "Flodden , The Anglo-Scottish War of 1513" by Charles Knightly

It looks like my "Scurrers" can indeed be used as irregular light horse for Scots-English conflicts but not (sadly) for the Irish.  After Vapnartak I will, hopefully, be in possession of the Osprey book and able to fill in more details.

New Arrivals

On Wednesday I received a package from Hatfields:
                             
                             2 x  HaT 8192 Natal Native Contingent (64 figs, 8 poses)
                  1 x Red Box 72046 Scurrers (12 horses in 2 poses / 12 riders in 6 poses)

After 'chemical processing' I cleaned the bases of enough figures so that they would stand to be photographed.  I then had to wait for a non-grey day.  This afternoon there was a brief gap between deluges when the sky was actually blue.

The scale is similar to the 'Call to Arms' Zulus - that is on the small and delicate side.

The last 2 figures could find themselves being converted to Hereroes/Hottentots.

The Hat site has some pictures of painted figures:
 http://www.hat.com/currentM.html
(scroll down to 8192)

                             A mixture of armour and headgear - most armed with spear/light lance.

             I can't help feeling that the guy on the right
                             has a real hangover!

The horses - the flash is bad in some places.  Cutting the figures free of the sprue wasn't easy either particularly getting between the rider's legs (ouch!).

Although these are Wars of the Roses figures I am looking at them to supply irregular cavalry contingents to Scottish, English & (maybe) Irish armies of some 200 years later.

I look forward to the PSR reviews.

Progress Report

....Or Lack Of!

My music project is still hampering me - I haven't been able to do any painting for weeks.
However, with a Monday off I have time to sort out some of the mess and write a quick blog note.

Last week's DBM game was Ghaznavids v Nikephorian Byzantine.  The terrain fell to my liking with a marsh to left and some rough going to my right.  Placing my  (allied) Qarakhanid command in the centre I hoped to hold off the opposition whilst attacking on the left versus their (allied) Georgians.

My sub-general ably handled his troops defeating the Georgians.  The Qarakhanid Cv(S) helped against the enemy Kn(F) but this left the Lh(S) pretty exposed.  It was touch-and-go in the centre with only one casualty needed to break that command.  On the right nothing much happened.  Still we turned out 6:4 winners (unlike the previous weeks drubbing).

On the plastics front I see that PSR has taken some proper photos of the Polish Paholki (see their 'Awaiting Review' section).  I'm waiting for a delivery from Hatfield - more on that later.