BLB in Ireland 1689-1691

barr7430 · **Posted:** Tue Oct 25, 2011 11:55 am

Currently I am working on a lot of stuff related to the War in Ireland.

My first WARFARE MINIATURES army will be Jacobite Irish and I have 3 regiments finished so far. As equipment and uniformity are both themes which recur often on the forum relative to this theatre and it seems, will remain somewhat shrouded in mist forever, there is some room to introduce additional options within the rules.
This has prompted work on variant Foot units as follows
Early in the war equipment was scarce for both sides particularly amongst recruit/volunteer units. I have created two optional Foot unit types which could be applied to Williamite or Jacobite Irish recruits. It could also I think be applied to militia units elsewhere.

The first is:
ALL PIKE.
This means the unit is equipped with very few or perhaps no muskets. They may be newly mustered, have a colonel with little money etc.
Of course they have no shooting capability. They have a modest additional close combat bonus in the charge but their opponents will take an additional variable minus in close combat. Such a unit is likely to be Recruit and with no distance fire capability could be somewhat of a liability. Providing it with these advantages makes it fun to field and with the capability under certain circumstances to pull off a 'spectacular'.

PIKE & SHOT
A variation on the above but with a much higher proportion of pike than the normal line battalions. These may be Recruit or Drilled. They will represent poorer equipped units of either side. They will have the additional modest close combat bonus but not provide the enemy with the variable minus. They will look rather like my old TYW units with central pikes and 2 wings of shot. Again there are applications in other theatres for militia.

There will be more specific theatre variant rule mods and these will tie in with the now underway BLB Jacobite Wars book which we have started work on now. My hope is to make this a very comprehensive guide to battles major and minor, uniforms, flags and orbats.

Churchill · **Posted:** Tue Oct 25, 2011 12:55 pm

Hi Barry,

Great to hear that your making a start on a BLB supplement book.
I know you will give a unbiased account on troop classifications for the war in Ireland, but watch out for the stone throwers

Ray.

john_de_courcy · **Posted:** Tue Oct 25, 2011 1:00 pm

Sounds exactly what I am looking for.

Especially interested in uniforms and flags and the like. Will be good to gather all the known uniform colours in one place.

flick40 · **Posted:** Tue Oct 25, 2011 1:53 pm

Perfect Barry. Since accounts of some Irish units at the Boyne and elsewhere say they were armed only with short pikes and farm tools.

Put me at the head of the line for this supplement.

barr7430 · **Posted:** Tue Oct 25, 2011 2:02 pm

I was slow to turn on to actually revamping my collection but now that I have started and see the WARFARE stuff on mass I am really enjoying it. I will probably hang on to the remainder of my other stuff.. sentimental value and all that but with the expansionof this range and a few of the new sculpts I have in mind my interest has been.. reborn so to speak

Some photos of Irish Jacobite 'Pikeys' later today!

Juan Mancheño · **Posted:** Tue Oct 25, 2011 2:25 pm

Perfect, Barry, perfect! It is the information I need for this interesting period. I expect to buy this supplement as soon as it is in the Shop.

Cheers,
Juan

Redmist1122 · **Posted:** Tue Oct 25, 2011 2:48 pm

Spot on Barry! I'm sure the supplemental book to BLB will sell-out in record time...chalk me in for a copy.

I just recently caught the bug again to paint...same as you re-vamping most of units;different figures, fresh looking flags, correct uniform colors, ect.

barr7430 · **Posted:** Tue Oct 25, 2011 3:00 pm

Yeah, that has been fun!

Redmist1122 · **Posted:** Tue Oct 25, 2011 3:19 pm

Didn't notice a couple of uniform hic-ups until my friend here in Tucson, Arofan, and I were planning for an "epic" game scheduled for tonight and were preping our ORBATS. I notice that my Garde Francaise had a grey uniform and his were blue...I was puzzled a bit...and realized I had read their uniforms were grey, when I had originally painted them up, but way earlier than the periods we're playing here...so had to do a uniform make-over so to speak.

I've been wanted to spuce up a couple of units anyways, now that I bought quite a bit of figures recently and wanted to give them that certain look.