The Battle of Carrickfergus 21 February 1760

As mentioned in the previous posting Battle of Carrickfergus was a French invasion of Northern Ireland during the Seven Years War one of the most interesting aspects of this action was that three of the regiments involved had actually been involved in operations in British North America on the French side we had the Regiment going and going to be both of which had served in the Garrison of Louisbourg during the siege of 1758 and the 62nd regiments which is served in the siege of Quebec in 1759 furthermore this campaign is very easily adapted to the wargaming table due to its small size and also to the fact that I have most of the figures already in order to fight the battle within Wargames Illustrated magazine (July 2019) the figures used are from the author's collection however within my own collection I have better suited civilian type militia figures for the Seven Years War. Which at 1/72 scale it really doesn't matter the style of clothing however the Caps being worn or probably better than Irish Rebels have 1798 where the newer style clothing started to come in at the end of the 18th century as well there are several armed civilian types I have in my collection in metal from rafm miniatures.

The French force for the battle

Carrickfergus with castle and garrison

The Irish Loyalist Militia man the walls.

Defending their homes against a foreign invasion 

French begin  advance

They begin to try to breach the walls

My son Ian and I played out this game as we hadn't had a Black Powder game together in some time. In this game, he acted as the British-Irish commander while I took the French.

The French troops attempted to bombard the town. In the process, they were successful in taking out most of the Royal and Royal Irish Artillery. However, as the French Infantry advanced, the Irish militia held firm better than their historic counterparts. The British Grenadiers actually broke morale several times! Quite the scandal! 

However, in the end, despite the French breaking over the forward wall of the town, they could not overcome the defenders. They quickly departed the area before being defeated in detail.

War games Illustrated issue 381 July 2019 3 18th century campaigns

This issue consists of invasion scenarios with which cover the period of my Irish Highlander blog we have the Battle of carrickfergus 1760 the French attack on Ulster there's also the American invasion of Canada 1775 there is also the  Civil War of 1793 in Revolutionary War France.

I have previously done some of the 1775 invasion of Canada but this one adds to it.
I have the figures of this period so let's party!

Seaports and towns, HO/HO scale card stock buildings

• Back in the 1990s, I had purchased 2 books of New England themed buildings for a town, and a seaport.

I lovely built them and used them for my many battles. Until I moved to South Korea for my first teaching job. And I haven't been able to find them since 1997.
So I made my last hobby purchase on my card for a VERY long time and will be slowly building them.
Oh and that includes a 3d puzzle of Hogwarts castle which is currently scattered on my sons bedroom floor as he has the space for.
So my North American theater scenery will be fine.
Hmmm, New England seaport, 1770s raids or War of 1812 battles.

 starting to get them built in January 2020

Back about 1992, I had a copy of both the New England village and Seaport books, but due to university, moving and living in Asia for 19 years and a my parents divorced and selling of the family home, these models were lost.

My dad still had the original books with the models I hadn't built. However about a year ago I bought the books again and have finally got around to build them again.

Some of the bits I will leave out and use wooden bits for railings and steps

Another new idea, Hudson's Bay vs Northwest trading company Battle of 7 Oaks, 1821

One of the interesting scenarios and conflicts which I have read about was the violent rivarly between these 2 fur trading companies.
The Northwest Company had been built by investors in Montreal, and may have had a prevelance of French speaking members while the Hudson's Bay company were an English speaking company, and who had a longer established relationship with the first nations peoples in the region.
I have several metal and plastic figures which could be used as fur traders.

Warlord Games Plastic Colonial Militia

As part of my subscription to Wargames Illustrated, I received a free sprue of figures or kit as a promotion. This month, is an 18th century spruce of American Colonial militia. This means I have figures for both 1775-84 & War of 1812. I could even have them for the 1750s.
I will try to build and paint them this summer.
I have a few heads from one of the WW2 sprues with bonnets, so I may see if I can paint a few as rangers/highlanders or as Brant's White Volunteers. (these eventually went to the Black Watch in Korea 1950s troops I built)
A few of the heads also have round hats with one brim up so I will also paint a few as Virginian troops.
The round hat types will be made into militia/frontier types which can be used from 1750-1820.
The package arrived on my son's 14th birthday, but he wanted an iPhone instead, so all is well.
So far I have built 3 of the figures
More to be done once I know my days off on new job.
As of July 2019, all the figures have been built and some basic paint has been applied. I shall have to get some pictures soon.

typical 18th century militia 1720-90

these will be used from 1775-1840

to be painted as North Carolina troops

Battle of Lake George, 1755

 Baron Diskeau's force made up of Regiment La Reine and Regiment Landeauc

 the Anglo-american force of Sir William Johnson's force

half of the Amerindian and Colonial force

and the other half

the French advance towards the Anglo-american camp

the French fire

and the British Artillery fires back

the French regulars begin to take casualties 

The French continued to fire into the camp and unlike the historical outcome, the Amerindian force rushes the camp for a chance at the spoils of war. 

The English Colonial militia, loose faith and flee towards their boats in the lake. The colonial regiments charge into the woods to clear the right flank, but may have doomed their position as when the Amerindians rushed the camp, the defense collapsed. Sir William Johnson was able to flee with a portion of his force.

My version of Culloden April 16, 1746

My first 18th century game of the season.

The Jacobite line forms up

the government forces take position near the old farm.

rather than wait for the British to open fire, the Jacobites begin their charge

the Jacobites attempt to take both enclosures

but fall into a pincer movement

the British right consists of a combined Grenadier battalion

the Jacobite casualties add up

the Jacobite smash into the front line of government

and the Irish Picquets take position in an enclosure

the government horse flank half of the Irish picquets and the only Jacobite gun

history repeated itself by having the Jacobites cut down in a crossfire, the rest of the Jacobite army under the command of Lord Lovat, flee, the 45 is over, now the chase for charlie begins

The collection I have is to stand as is.

I have come to the realization that I may have to not increase my collection of my main hobby collection.
Around 2004, I took a count of my collection and came up with the figure of 10,000 figures and about 1000 vehicles for my others.
I have to be satisfied with what I have and game and play with what I own now.
That or I need to get my spending in control.
As of July 2019, the collection is roughly 7120 figures however this may go up when I take a more accurate count.
The only new additions have been either through trade, or by my subscription to Wargames Illustrated which are providing a free spruce of products this year.

So far, I have been able to get a few figures from Wargames Illustrated which fit my Black Powder Era gamming. I am also going to tackle painting up some of these as the summer turns to fall here in Nova Scotia.

Barrosa 1811 will now be New Orleans 1815

As some blog viewers may have noticed, I had a rather large blog posting about an upcoming battle I had planned to do. However, over the last few months, I have been reconsidering my collection.
A new friend I have met has been trading parts of his collection for bits of mine. One of the latest bits he asked for was a Napoleonic French force. So, after consideration I traded my Napoleonic French force for several modern/cold war and WW2 kits. If I want to get back into Napoleonic, I can always buy newer kits.
I had taken the collection with me to Japan for 11 years, but my heart has always been in North American conflicts between 1620-1820.
So, when I can find some time, I will be doing up the New Orleans campaign.
Or, this book could be sold, most of my interest for the War of 1812 is confined to the Canadian side of the operations.
But it seems that no one is taking me up on the offer of my book, and after my tax return came in, I may be able to weather the storm.

Warmer weather coming, so garage will be back in business

I was puttering around in my garage between work, sleep, shoveling snow and slush and then water issues.
I should be able to get two tables going this year.
Stay tuned.
I spent the day airing out and sorting off both my gaming tables. I'd like to try to run both, one for large games, the other for smaller skirmish ones.
However, with the influx of new kits, and reductions of my other collections, my project table will stay cluttered for a while.