STOKE LANE - Battle quick update

We did the Stoke Lane battle today, using the table in the garden, under 'pop up' covers.

Broadcast was on twitch.tv and the recording worked!

Here is a fast image of a pivotal moment in the battle.

screen capture from the recording of the live game broadcast

Great that we now have all the technology working, and the buildings from Rob looked awesome!

Now I have the tale to tell of the battle, some more pictures to process and a set of some video to see if we can turn it into something intelligent.

wider shot of whole table at the moment when the dragoons were lined up

Thank you Alex for producing and putting up with out little tech hiccups, thank you Rob for coming out with the buildings and doing the church repairs.  Thank you Jeffrey and Chris for taking on the slow roles of running the Parliament attack force.

Only a few raindrops fell on anything and all was dry before coming back inside - only a couple of tiny parts were lost when the minis fell into the grass - nothing major.

All in all a great game day!

Playtest STOKE LANE - Star Wars Miniatures Battles used

The STOKE LANE battle for our ongoing English Civil War campaign game will be tomorrow!

Today, we did a playtest of the masking of Star Wars Miniatures Battles system onto the English Civil War era.

Parliamentary Dragoons press into a town, catching the Royalists sleeping

We laid out a quick tabletop, only 1/3rd of the size for the coming game, and went through game mechanics for SWMB.

Rob did not have any large-ish, skirmish level battle rules for the black powder era.  I had used SWMB before with some success in mixing modern era units with the slower-loading black powder ones, to show the effects that the slow-loading have when compared to the single-shot yet faster loading percussion cap weapons.  It was some militia vs redcoats stuff in the late 1990s.

I was familiar with SWMB from that time as being quick yet effective for the 1-1 sort of skirmish scale that the battle of Stoke Lane calls for.

table at game start

put through about five turns quickly on the small table to get the 'kinks' worked out - I will be single basing all the horsemen in the final game - I tried having a few on double bases (2 per base) no good, since the skirmish nature calls for up to 1-1 match ups when in close-combat

four dragoons that overwhelmed a lone horsemen from the Royalists

Parliament started a fire in the oak (coaching inn) and here we see the Royalists forced out into the street without arms

more dragoons ready to lay down fire

burning building

the Royalist commander (in the vest) actually stumbled out of the inn without arms or much of anything on as he failed multiple 'waking' rolls

The playtest done, now onto the main event tomorrow!




Next game is planned to be in support of HMGS "Cyber Wars" of Bussaco from 1810, on July 25, 2020.

Game Play via remote - ACW

Did a miniatures game today via remote.

I see now more why it is good to have the 'flying camera' that we have used.

These are 15mm miniatures and it was based on a historical situation that I could look up online.

battlefield of Glendale, looking to the south - Union on the left, Confederates on the right

My command  was Kearney's Divison, mostly veterans with exceptional commanders, I simply swung one brigade out to the far right of my line and delivered fire into the otherwise open flank of advancing Confederate brigades.

view up the road from the crossroads looking west, Kearney's Division is to the right of the woods in this picture

The rest of the battle was holding ground as long as possible.

first major encounter Confederates pushed back Burney's brigade, though only one stand lost

a much clearer picture of the situation (I did not get to see this until after the game)  - thank you Chris for the photos and the use of your laptop for the game!

this was the 'freeze frame' after 5 hours, when a data stream problem happened at the broadcast location - thank you McLean for hosting at the War Dungeon

Final action was a big push back from the Union lines of Kearney's Division and the Confederates never got within a full move of the crossroads.

McLelland continued his march south and began the evacuation of the Peninsula.

Command & Conquer crazy fun

My youngest son and I have connected in a way not expected in playing the remastered Command & Conquer.

Tonight we re-enacted a scene done long ago in the 1990s  where a line of flame-throwers was crossed by an APC:

The image of death walking from a pulp collection of images that I use as changing wall paper was just too good a bonus in this screen shot from the game replay.

I like that we can re-watch the games this way also.

Now, back to painting and preparing for Stoke Lane.

Coming up also in July, in support of another online games event will be Bussaco, played in 25mm, using SHAKO II rules.

Stoke Lane - minor changes

The coming Stoke Lane battle in our Campaign in the West is now in clearer focus.

We will be using a 4:1 ratio to make the battle more manageable giving 10 sections of 5 minis each, total 50 minis plus two 'hero' commanders, for a grand total of 52 for the Royalists.  86 minis in 6 sections of 6 minis and 5 sections of 5 minis, then two 'hero' commanders for a grand total of 88.

The 'awakening' problems will remain for the Royalists and the Parliament may end up being played by a team of players that will not be able to 'co-ordinate' actions - due to being separated by distance and gaming over the web ... more about that later.

For now the troops are sorted out.

one of the five troops of Parliament Dragoons

one of the eight (sleeping) Royalist Horse troops

one of the two (sentry) Royalist Horse troops

I'm looking forward now to a busy day on the 12th of July!

Stoke Lane ECW skirmish battle

More details are coming to light on what needs to be available for the coming Stoke Lane battle.

William Waller's Brigade of Horse is on the attack and Waller's own Regiment is leading the way with six sections and Waller's Dragoons with five sections.

I have set up 10 miniature models as a Dragoon 'section' and the two Majors as 'heroes' from the 1991 Origins Award winning Star Wars Miniatures Battles system.

Major Francis Dowet commands the 'horse' and this attack

The cards are designed to be folded over and put into a thick card protector so that game data can be recorded using grease pencils or other wipe off markers.

Major Carr commands the Dragoons

I have more of the 'teddy bear fur' to do up now for these troops before the game and to organize some more photo sessions, for now I have the first four of the five troops of Dragoons done.

Then I have also done up the first of the Royalist cards in preparation for Rob's contribution of more photos of the 'dismounted' troops for use in the game.

Sergeant Major General Sir James Hamilton was in command of the green troopers of his own Regiment of Horse

Lieutenant Colonel Lewis Carre was the General's second-in-command at Stoke Lane

More photos and more preparations to make yet for this major skirmish game coming in just over a fort-nite.

ECW Game Preparation for Stoke Lane

When Rob and I started down this campaign battles road for the War in the West country of the English Civil War, we only took a glance at the battles and figured we had the miniatures we needed to run the battles (possibly with a few mix'n'match from our sets or making a few new ones) then I read Stoke Lane battle in detail.

The battle is set at an almost skirmish level with 200 +/- dragoons and horsemen per side.

The scenario book broke it down to 1:2 ratio, yet even still it will be a challenge to come up with that many mounted and dismounted dragoons.  So the numbers will still be under consideration.

Also, Rob did not have any rule sets for such a skirmish, and I had always wanted to adapt the 1991 origins award winning Star Wars Miniatures Battles to a different era from the sci-fi world it was made for.  So the plan was now set.

Here we are with 20 days to go until the planned battle and my musings and preparations are coming down to something more concrete.

I have liked the effect that the pulp games have had with our card systems to help control things and did not want to use the original b&w 'worksheet' version of things that came with SWMB (Star Wars Miniatures Battles) as the imagery that I could use to help identify troops on the battlefield is of great value I have found.

Here is my first draft of a control card for a 'sleeve' of shot for a pike&shot unit.
 

Fusileers

The concept is to print out the card and then fold it in half, slipping it into a rigid card sleeve for easy use at the table.

More detailed cards are planned for the Dragoons (mounted and dismounted) and the 'hero' leaders that the units will have for the tabletop game.