The Raising of the Clans

When I first started gaming the English Civil War in the Early 1990s my army of choice was Early Royalist. I always remember those early engagements with a Montrose Scots Roylist army as hard fought affairs (under the 1644 rules by Rick Priestley and published by Wargames Foundry), in particular the resilience and hard fighting Irish. Coupled with the fact that James Graham, 1st Marquis of Montrose (1612-1650) was one of the pesonalities from British history that held my imagination as a child, it seemed I was always destined to own a Scots Royalist amy of my own. Although I liked at the time, and still do the majority of the Wargames Foundry English Civil War range, the Highlanders they produce just didn't seem to appeal. Then when Warlord Games released their Highlanders and Irish figures for the English Civil War my fate was sealed, and I immediately purchased several boxes. Strangely (or maybe not so for those who know me) I then added them to the unpainted pile and there they have sat, languishing until I recently dug them out and decided to do something about it, and that something was to get them painted and start playing the army I always wanted (well for the ECW at least).

Below are pictures of  the first batch of ECW Highlanders for my Scots Royalist army.
The figures are 28mm from Warlord Games. The yellow and black flag of the MacDonald Clan is from Wargames Designs, and the yellow and blue of the Gordon Clan is from the Warlord Games Highlanders box set. The tufts and static grass are from MiniNatur.

These should give me two units of 24 for my starter army. I decided to base the miniatures individually for a number of reasons. Firstly I wasn't  happy about the way the miniatures ranked up on the 40mm square bases I was intending to use, and secondly I wanted to use the figures for different rule sets/skirmish games (thinking Donnybrook skirmish rules by Harrison and Hilton). I'll be looking at getting some large movement trays made once I can decide on size and layout.

Click on any picture to enlarge