Collecting a Wargames Army 103

Finally I have been able to get photos of my second unit - Col. Ralph Weldon's Regiment. This unit was part of the Southern Association Foot Brigade along with Col. Samuel Jones' Regiment in William Waller's army. As I mentioned in the last articles, with a quick change of the flag this regiment could easily be one of many that fought on either side (although the orange sashes of the officers mark the unit as having loyalty to Essex). I am still not happy with my flags and I'm currently experimenting with other looks. Since there are no finials on the standard poles, I designed the standards to slide on and off for easy replacement (i.e. I did not glue them to the poles). Next up will be the Kent Trained Band. The unit is a third of the way through and should be on these pages in the next few weeks. I have found very little information on this unit. I believe their flags were blue and white stripes in a pattern held over from the TYW. I haven't found any details about their coat colors, however, being as they are from the same area as Weldon's regiment and coats were usually made from commonly available local cloth, I have decided to paint them red as well, but give them blue lining (really only seen on the cuffs of these models) to tie in with the flag. One account of the battle of Copredy Bridge listed two "Kent" regiments for Col. Weldon in Lt-General John Middleton's Division. Other accounts list the Kent Trained Band instead. Fielding both units in red could account for the discrepancy. Any way, as most ECW gamers, I find myself having to make a leap of logic to fill in the details, but the freedom to make these decisions is part of the fun of the period. There will be at least two more foot regiments to follow: Sir William Waller's and the White London Auxiliaries. The first regiment seems to be smaller than my other units (at least in the battles I've researched - regimental strengths change quickly from one battle to the next) and I intend to field them on three 60x45mm bases rather than the 60x60mm of my other units. Each

stand will also have one or two less models. I have almost decided for certain to use Piquet as my ruleset and in that event this small unit would start as "1down" for all game calculations (apologies to those who don't have the game - just figure the unit has some combat and morale penalties). The regiment will have veteran status so this may make up for some of the penalties. The London Auxiliary units were generally large but poorly trained. I am going to model this unit with four 60x60mm stands. In Piquet terms, this regiment will be able to suffer the loss of one stand with no subsequent penalties. The unit will also be classed as militia or raw. While we are talking about stand loss, I should point out that I intend to have none of it. Lost stands will be shown by the placement of casualty markers (I am eagerly awaiting the release of Bicorne's casualty figures). In real battles, regiments tried to maintain a frontage that would keep them from being easily flanked. While this would result in less depth (a weaker unit, combat penalties for stand loss, etc) the frontage would be relatively the same if possible. Once all five foot regiments are finished, I will start on the horse. I am planning two or three regiments of horse (one of which will be Waller's), one unit of cuirassiers (Heselrigge's "Lobsters"), and a unit of Dragoons (represented both mounted and foot thanks to Bicorne). I also plan to model a forlorn hope (five skirmish stands - one for each foot regiment), an artillery section, and enough generals to divide the army into three or four brigades. I'll probably add the Yellow London Auxiliary regiment while I'm at it so I can field a proper "London Brigade". Finally, here's a photo showing the three step process I described in the last article that I use for all of my models!