Wednesday 23 November 2011

My "Grand Alliance/1690ish" collection

I actually do have other collections than my War of 1812 stuff. Actually many more.  That is what happens when you have been at it for more than 30 years and love all eras of human conflict , have the crow's love of shiny new things, and have the attention span of a ferret.

I cleaned off the table of the terrain I set up for the previous War of 1812 fictional battles I played and decided to lay out my Grand Alliance/1690ish collection for a, well, grand review.  This collection started small but expanded (as all my collections tend to do)

It began as "the other side" for a friend's Highlander's force to do the historical Battle of Killiekrankie 1689.  This we did at the local convention. I based them as he did and continued, as it looked good. However I had more of the figures left over and thought to do the Battle of Sedgemoor of Monmouth's Rebellion of the same year - having many 'rebel' looking extras and all.  Then Mark Allen came out with a very nice series in Wargames Illustrated about James's Irish army and some other figures I had  from a club's failed pirate game were repainted to become non-red clad British units of the Glorious Rebellion and thus were added in William III's Irish campaign and ....well you get the picture.  It is a very diverse collection.

So here it is in picture:
The "Irish" horse of James' army in Ireland (back to front): James' Horse Guards; Lord Galmoy's; Sarfield's






James' Irish infantry ( below:clockwise from left top): Louth's; Grand Lord Prior's; Lord Bellew's; Antrim; Irish Guards; O'Neill's  [all figures are Dixon's]
The Monmouth Rebels (also will be used as poorly equipped Irish) This picture shows the three "regiments" of Monmouth's Rebellion fighting at Sedgemoor. The Blue (top), Green and Red Regiments respectfully.  In truth perhaps not even colored flags distinguished these formations historically.  Certainly nothing does in mine!




    
The British foot regiments of Sedgemoor (front to rear): Trelawney's "Queen's Consorts"; Kirke's "Queen's Dowager's"; Dumbarton's "Royal Scots"; The Foot Guards; The Coldstream Guards; Scots Fusiliers(they did not fight at Sedgemoor) 

Three units of the Dutch-Scots Brigade which fought (and ran!) at Killiekrankie: Balfours'(top); Ramsey's; and Mackay's. I painted them in a different shade of red than my usual for the British as they were paid by the Dutch.  Many of the Dutch became British again under the Dutch, now British monarch, William.  You will have to read up on the era yourself as the politics of this era is really hard to explain! 



William III's Infantry (from left bottom clockwise): William's Dutch Foot Guards (note: flag is incorrect and as it is but the only Dutch unit in my collection it might well get repainted!). Continuing up from the left: the white coated Huguenot* regiments of Metoniere and DuCambon, Tiffin's Regt (later the 27th Foot) [in the upper right of the photo]; Luttrell's (later the 19th Foot) and [lower right] Earl of Bath's Regt (later the 10th Foot).  These latter two are in their earlier un-red uniforms of the Glorious Revolution and may(?) be have been in red by the time of the Irish War. [*The Huguenot's were French fighting against Louis XIV reign and were in Dutch employ fighting in Ireland for the British...don't you just love the politics of this era!!]