Irish Brigade

by **uber tool** » Thu May 20, 2010 3:33 pm

With the new Irish Brigade minis coming out, I'm lookin at getting a force together to run them. My question is, what kind of support units were available to them (firelocks, artillery, dragoons, petards, etc)?

Cheers!

by **John at Warlord Games** » Fri May 21, 2010 8:47 am

Hi Uber!!

good point. What DO the Oirish Brigade have??

Heres my take!

3 units of Irish (there were 3 regiments).Led By McColla, "The Devastator" (well known loonie of seven foot tall and nasty sword fame,)

1 regiment of plastic Covenanters who will be the splendidly named Strathbogie regiment.

2 boxes of Scots lancers . out next month These would be the veteran Gordon Horse who fought well.

2 units of the metal Highland Clans , out in about 4 weeks.

Montrose himself out any day now...

2 frame guns he had a few guns at differing times..

He also had some Irish musketeers mtd on horses, so you could add a Scots Dragoon unit too..

and that would be a great Montrose army!!

just mt take.. john s

by **uber tool** » Sat May 22, 2010 7:49 pm

Do you know if the Brigade got their hands on any firelocks or petards?

by **Guest** » Sun May 23, 2010 5:03 pm

I reckon Montrose, who had good connections, if unreliable, could have acquired petards, he had his own armoury before the civil war and could well have had firelocks too...he was not short of a bob... won a silver arrow at Edinburgh university archery championships...

Cheers js

by **Dale Yates** » Tue May 25, 2010 7:08 am

Hi Folks,not read anything on petards in records to do with the montrose campaign,will do some delving around,as regards firelocks again nothing mentioned,but will double check for you.

Cheers

Dale.

by **uber tool** » Tue May 25, 2010 11:09 am

Thanks to all. Where do you get your information? I've been trying to find stuff on the ECW for quite a while. Course, being on the other side of the pond probably has something to do with that.

by **Parus Ater** » Tue May 25, 2010 11:51 am

Just a question John, are these Highland Clans going to be in belted plaid or unbelted?

by **BigMike** » Tue May 25, 2010 12:02 pm

Uber - As regards where people get information from, John literally wrote the rulebook on the ECW and along with some others has been a civil re-enactor for years, others of us just plough through as many books on it as we can get hold of! There have been a few threads about good books and information, most of which can be got off Amazon or somewhere similar, and of course the miracle of Osprey books!

Mike

by **Paul @ Warlord Games** » Wed May 26, 2010 3:56 pm

Next week we'll have pre-order details for the Montrose Irish and Scots Lancers boxed sets.

Both are released later in June...

Cheers,

Paul

by **Guest** » Wed May 26, 2010 4:04 pm

Hi Uber and others .Yeah Big Mike has it mostly covered.. Info on the Irish Brigade and Montose's boys is not easily available really You get a bit here, a bit there, and often I freely admit, its best guess and general common sense.I am told by the amazing dave Ryan and Steve Laghan , who re enact the Oirish Brigade that a lot of info is actually in the Vatican papers...how cool is that...

We will never I suspect REALLY know wether they had pikes, half pikes or NO pikes ... but lots of people , inc myself think they know the best answer(and it often differs).

Did he have petards? Well, there is no account of him having any, but we dont know for sure if he had pikes in the irish Brigade in quantity,,, so who knows,, he wasnt big into sieges of course, he was a hit and run man..BUT, could he have got one two some? I suspect so,,, he was a well connected man, and twice came from abroad with weapons and captured more weaponry from his foes than was funny,, Did the arsenal at Aberedeen have petards? Possibly ? Would he have taken them if they had, who knows,,, he had two cannon to start off his camapign and a hundred horse from the Marquis of Newcastle.. he also must have captured cannon/frames from his 10 successful battles and takings of enemy towns, and was also recorded as looting some ships of their cannon(though presumably on small ship wheels).

My point is , anything is possible when I wrote my ecw rules I had done some serious work on Montrose ,,,but had concluded he had at most A cannon, and that was me adding it as an option... more recent reading suggests he had a few , at different times,,,But never really used them to effect.. I think had two at Philippaugh....

I see NO record of firelocks, but again, he hit the Covenanters so hard, so often, all and every firearm could be available to him,, As Dale suggests, there is nothing saying he HAD a unit of firelocks, but we also dont even know what colour, if any , the 3 Irish Brigade regiments were clothed in ,,green is the wargames and re enactment fall back position, but I imagine its a romantic nod to "Oirishness" rather than fact, but its as good a colour as any and may even be correct.

As for the Highland mob Parus, they are in many and varied kit i would say... We have done 32 models, so the plan is that folk can sort the fellows they like and build units of those as Highland dress is a minefield for me,,all models will be in a box, BUT all will also be available seperately too, so you can find the look you are after... We have tried our best to do montrose types, and hope its mostly acceptable to all, but we know, like the Oirish Brigade , people have their own views...Bet you like most of em!!

We have just taken delivery of a fine Mc Colah too...Oh dearie me,,, him and his bodyguard will make some waves I can tell you...

Best place to get info though Uber , i would say mate is to phone or better still, email caliver books in nottingham,,thier pamphlets are cheap as chips and have as much info as is out there, and Osprey , though impossibly dont have a Montrose book,have some great books on supporting subjects whish make working out our man Montoses' likelyhoods, easier...

hope that helps... john stallard

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