For about a year or so I have been building up the forces for the Battle of the Dunes (1658). What particularly drew my interest was that on one side you have French and English Commonwealth troops while on the other there were Spanish, French rebels and British Royalists. The wonderfully divided loyalties seem to me to capture the spirit of the age
Another attraction was that I could draw on the English Civil War troops owned by my friends while giving me scope to build the Spanish and French. Also the later ECW/TYW period has lots of scope for feathers, ribbons, lace and big floppy hats — just what I like painting up!
Now with enough troops for a critical mass (if not yet the entire forces at the Dunes) it was time to try them out on the table. For this I created a semi-historical scenario based on real people and real events but a battle — The Battle of Ardes — which did not actually take place.
An update on the project is at link
And the battle report in two parts is at link and link
For rules we used the 17th version of Close Files and European Order which can be downloaded free from my website at link
