Thursday 16 September 2021

The 16th Dragoons : AWI

The temporary pause from blogging is over as we have now settled back in from our Hadrian Wall walk. First up though we are planning our next AWI game the Battle of White Plains, I haven’t quite completed the scenario but from my reading the British 16th Light Dragoons played a small part in the battle. Having previously done some American cavalry it was a chance to balance things up.

16th Light Dragoons
These of course are Perry Miniatures (minus the vent runs πŸ™‚) I do have the dismounted figures but I haven’t got round to them yet

As I have previously mentioned we spent last week walking Hadrian’s wall, the weather was fantastic, plenty of beautiful countryside, a good amount of excellent beer, exercise and an abundance of military / Roman history that kind of sums up the week. For those of a technical preference the wall is 84 miles long although the walk is according to my sons Strava record closer to 95 miles including the wiggles I guess. We took 6 days which was tough but manageable as I do quite a bit of mountain walking anyway. We carried our stuff but stayed in hotels etc along the wall. The heat was our biggest challenge as day 4 saw temperatures up to 29 degrees and the nature of the wall is water is only available at certain locations. But we survived and although I had walked  chunk of the central section before it gave a different experience to travel the full length in one go as it were.

I don’t plan to share all the photos (there are lots) in one go and will instead drop them in over the next few posts. Here are just a few to share I will happily discuss any aspects of the walk for those interested. Whilst not complete it is the most magnificent tribute to the Roman Empire and still quite inspiring.




Hopefully back to gaming this weekend.πŸ‘

Matt


29 comments:

  1. Splendid looking cavalry, Matt! Let's see if they can fight.

    Beautiful photos of your walk. I did not realize you were taking on the entire wall. Good for you and your son. Must have been a delight.

    Looking forward to White Plains.

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    1. Newly painted troops they may have to stand at the back ! The wall walk was great fun πŸ‘

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  2. Didn't realise you were walking the wall. I'm walking it next Easter. talk about it next time we play

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    1. Yep and we had the weather happy to share our plan πŸ˜€

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  3. The Dragoons are very nicely done. I inevitably manage to overlook a worm or two on my Perry figs, not noticing them until ‘after’ the primer has gone on!

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  4. Great work Matt. I chuckled at the 'minus the vent runs" comment. It can be quite frustrating getting stuck into the figure and finding you've missed a couple of the vent runs in the preparation, but I don't mind that small inconvenience when they are such terrific figures at a good price.

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    1. Perry metals are beautiful figures no doubt in my mind but we all struggle with the prep πŸ˜€

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  5. Great looking cavalry. Love walking along Hadrians wall

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    1. Thanks Neil the wall is a an inspiration especially when the weather is good πŸ˜€

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  6. Nice figures!
    Your walk sounded good somethings I’d like to try one day. Thanks for posting the pictures. I did laugh though when you mentioned the hot weather at 29 degrees reminded me summer is on the way here and to prepare myself for some 40 degree days πŸ˜ƒ...

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    1. Thanks you sir……the walk is well worth it and a must for anybody interested in Roman military history I guess πŸ€” not sure I would be walking far in 40 degrees !

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  7. Those do look rather nice Matt and I love the helmets that the cavalry wore during the AWI. Great to hear that the weather was good for you, but I'd rather have one hot day than it wet and windy and no views at all.

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    1. Thanks Steve overall we weren’t complaining about the sun, but we aren’t used to it up here in the north !

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  8. Lovely looking light dragoons Matt…
    I’ve only ever been on parts of Hadrian’s Wall but the full length seems to be a popular holiday with a few people I know.
    All the best. Aly

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    1. Good beer, great landscapes and military history, hard to beat it really πŸ‘

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  9. The whole length, have only done bits (by carπŸ˜‚) I see you got that tree in too. Nifty looking dragoons too.

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    1. Thanks Phil yes we have walked sections in the past but wanted to do an end to end walk for a while and the stars lined up this time πŸ‘

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  10. Great job on the 16th LD. THE Waaall pictures bring back happy memories from my visits over the years. Thanks.

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    1. Thanks David glad the pictures bring back memories πŸ‘

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  11. Nice job on the cav and that sounds like a most excellent trip to the wall. πŸ˜€

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    1. Thanks Stew, the walk was a brilliant week πŸ‘

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  12. Nice looking AWI Light Dragons Matt. I am quite jealous of your ability to do that walk, living in NZ for 30+ years, its not likely I would ever be able to do it - even if we have another trip to the UK in years to come, I would not have six or seven days to put into one part of the visit.... Offa's Dyke is another "military" inspired walk that I think would make an interesting multi day tramp. Looking forward to seeing some more of your images soon.

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    1. Thanks Keith. You can visit the ‘best bits’ of the wall in a couple of days which a lot of people do with limited time. We are now pondering another walk for next year ? The Offa’s dyke is on the possible listπŸ€”

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  13. Great looking dragoons, Matt. Love the Tarelton helmets - so iconic for the period. Nice landscape and historical ruins too.

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    1. Thanks Dean I guess at some point I will have to paint some iconic British cavalry in their green but they can wait πŸ‘

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  14. Great looking dragoons, when I walked the wall,I cheated and didn't carry the gear! Talking about walking it with my wife at some point, might go the other way,west to east?
    Best Iain

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    1. Thanks Iain, we didn’t carry too much stuff alThough we were feeling it after 6 days. We enjoyed doing the wall in one go although I don’t think I would walk the section through Newcastle again ? I’m not sure the benefits of east vs west but for us it was like walking home back to Cumbria

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