Naseby

It is always greatly exciting to plan a new project.

I am looking at how feasible it would be to put together Royalist and Parliamentary armies for the English Civil War.

My primary inspiration is the wonderful old (1978) Osprey on Wargaming Naseby. Indeed, how could one not be inspired? With text by Asquith and plate after plate by Gilder, the book is a feast for the eyes and the imagination. I have loved this book since I was a young fellow impecuniously browsing my local bookshop.

What shape then is this project to take? Well, as an indulgence, I feel that all I can do is try to tread the path of the great man. If you pop over to the marvellous Unfashionably Shiny blog and read Gilder's article on building a wargame army, you will see that he advocates using historical orders of battle to yield details for one's wargame units. This is good enough for me.

So then, which battle? Stick with what you know, I think. I shall go with Naseby. Both armies are reasonably small and will be not too onerous to build up over the twelve to eighteen month timeframe I'm currently envisaging. They are also fairly diverse; all arms are represented and there is plenty of scope for making vignettes and building the assorted bits and bobs we like to add to our collections. Furthermore, If I decide to slightly broaden my scope, I feel that the siege of Leicester might become a part of things and complete the picture.

So that decided, which figures? Hinchcliffe seem pretty well mandatory, I feel. Shall I try to emulate the "Gilder style"? We'll see.

How many figures? I'll work on that, but I think about 1:20 might not be too bad. Most of the cavalry units ought to be in the 6-10 figure range.

Next time... I'll start working on an Order of Battle.