The Loose Association of Wargamers

With my interest in the ECW sparked by this rule controversy (+ 2 weeks' school holidays), I've dug through my metal & plastic mole-hill to unearth the figures for a planned but still shiny metal Royalist Dragoon unit.

The figures are Tumbling Dice & will end up as 2 bases of 4 dismounted and 1 mounted dragoon each. I have long a completed unit with my beloved but easy-beat Covenanters.

I have a pile of potential heads to glue on with a variety of headgear.

So, has anyone a similar unit? A variety of brimmed & unbrimmed hats, I think? Coats in a mid-blue? Is a flag compulsory?

donald

Sounds like a classic FoG:R dragoon unit. I bought a load of Peter Pig heads in "Monmouth caps" (ie beanies) to create a New Model in Ireland dragoon unit, as I believe this was the most common headgear for dragoons by then. The mid-war Royalist Oxford Army would have had monteros, of course. Otherwise, pretty much put them in whatever you want. Ditto with flags - often dragoons were drawn from several units and served together on a particular part of the battlefield as and when needed.

Two bases seems like a very weak unit (in fact, I can't recall any FoG:R army that has a two-base dragoon unit). I would reduce the dismounted figures to three per base and make the unit at least three bases, just to give it a bit more "oomph".

Helion has just published a book about dragoon operations in the ECW - might have a flick through it at the next show I attend just to see whether it's worth buying.

The FoG;R army book put them at two bases for the religious loonies known as Scots Covenanters. My Covenanter dragoons were at this strength & really fairly ineffectual - so they fitted well into the Covenanter army. I was tempted to increase them to 3 bases but after my experience at tweaking the 95th Rifles (Napoleonics ) & creating what only can be described as a C19th SAS, I was hesitant.

But FoG is, probably, now old hat (a montero?). Victory Without Quarter also stipulates 2 bases. From my reading of the rules, this also looks like a weak unit.....unless you give them firelocks. Which is my next question. Is this type of armament likely?

donald

Everything useful is stored (once again) so this is mostly from memory. Dragoons in the ECW varied enormously in quality, some of the better units being used as a 'fire brigade', particularly on campaign - raiding supply columns, beating up encampments, storming parties etc. Others were at best mounted infantry, with the disadvantage of having no pike elements for obvious reasons, mounted usually on fairly rubbish horses.

There were lots of independent troops of dragoons around, of varying quality. It wasn't unusual for a troop of dragoons to be attached to a regiment of horse, to give some fire support, probably in the dismounted role. Full regiments appear to be rare entities, so the 'weak' wargames formation may well be accurate. (the ECW definition of a regiment of course being fairly flexible). The New Model Army had one regiment of dragoons (Okey's) to 10 of horse, so make of that what you will.

I can't recall a description of firelock equipped dragoons, especially as firelocks were thin on the ground anyway, but that doesn't mean that they didn't exist. They would be rare though. The better equipped ones probably carried the 'Snaphaunce', a precursor of the flintlock, but most probably had the matchlock.

There are few if any surviving dragoon standards, so it's not entirely clear whether they carried square or swallow tailed flags, although the latter are traditionally what they were thought to have carried.

FWIW I've got a few troops of dragoons in my armies, who normally get attached to Horse units in the role described above. I wouldn't expect them to stand up to Horse in a cavalry fight, mounted or dismounted, and their relatively small numbers mean they lack staying power against Foote.

As with most things ECW, there are few hard and fast rules, and the rivet counters are unlikely to be able to catch you out on dragoons!

As an aside, I've just come upon this on the BCW site, a reproduction of the series of ECW articles from Military Modelling in the 1970's which always provided inspiration. http://wiki.bcw-project.org/_media/note ... rticle.pdf Since I'm struggling to find the articles in the crypt that's a real bonus! Pg 28-29 covers the dragoons.

Thank you for the link and the site, most usefull!

ET - my computer does not like you.

The ECW article (like the BKC rules, earlier) did not come through.

donald

ochoin wrote: ↑Tue Apr 04, 2023 9:13 pm ET - my computer does not like you.

The ECW article (like the BKC rules, earlier) did not come through.

donald

Donald PM me an address and I'll put them on a memory stick for you.