STOKE LANE - 1 July 1643 After Action Report

Beating Up Quarters it was called, William Waller sent out his own horse troop and Dragoon force to hammer a sleeping Major General Sir James Hamilton's, newly raised, horse troop.

whole view of the table setup

Our campaign in the west, of the 1643 Campaign for the South-West by Robert Giglio, had another installment this past weekend.

This time we were using the Star Wars Miniatures Battles system from 1991 to 'game out' the large skirmish action of horse forces 'beating up quarters' of other horse forces.

table setup as my son and I finalize camera views and positioning before starting broadcast

Rob did loads of work on new cottages an town-houses for there to be more than enough buildings in Stoke Lane

It was a debut for my new grass mat covering and a return to the table for a church (seen to the left here) which had been damaged years ago and now recovered by Rob's fantastic terrain skills.

another long view of the table setup as we got started

Parliamentary horse arrived along the north road

Royalist sentries rushed in the streets to alert their sleeping fellows!

Parliament horse also broke out to the south road

even more of the sentries rushed to awaken their fellows!

for a moment both Parliament Majors were in a view

nice shot of the arriving Parliament horse, townhouse to the left and church to the right

Parliament began grabbing pegged out horses in the fields to the west of the Knatchbull Arms (Coach house Inn to the right in the image)

alternate view of the arriving horse

the breakout, both south and north at the same time

wider view of table - we did have a couple of little rain showers go by - all was covered though

the north barricade photo in opposite view of the above photo with the blue hand troop in the foreground

players view of the south wing cavalry troops (Blue Hand) about the same time

Major General Sir James Hamilton storms out from the Inn to attack Parliament horsemen who were about to grab horses

Off in the south Royalist Horse were mounting up to manage to escape!

While Lt.Col Carre was manning the south barricades to halt more Parliament horse from getting into the fields west

players view of the south barn field

Royalist troopers escape the village westward

a double line of Parliament Dragoons formed behind some townhouses where shouting could be heard ...
the forward troop dismounted and both prepared to fire firelocks into the north most townhouse in a massive volley

in the west of the inn, more skirmishing melee was taking down both sides

south of the barn, Parliament swamped the slower reacting force of troopers and some were captured

The massed volley of dragoons killed 1/2 one troop - woke another as they stormed into the cottages from all sides

alternate view of the storming parties

Maj Carr, the Parliament Dragoon officer directing more action to the west fields

last desperate stand at the barricades as the sentries rushed to awaken the last men still out cold ... sacrificing themselves in the process

one troop of Parliament horsemen, who had captured a number of horses, staunchly REFUSED to charge in again to engage or capture any more horses or fight anyone - three times "1" rolled in the charge attempts!

Major General Hamilton, with the remnants of the men from the Inn, charge out one more time!

the field, seen from our 'mid-table' camera, showing most of the action, looking north to south

escape in the south

A final stand at the south barricades, Lt Col. Carre must escape now or not at all!

having to use two heroic 'dodge' maneuvers Lt.Col. Carre was just able to exit to the west and join those other troopers that had already fled

leather covered wooden 'dice roller' tray has come in great value during the broadcast games

yours truly waving farewell

 

I have created a 4 minute long video of the 4 hour game, hope you enjoy it.
 

I want to thank Chris & Jeffrey for taking the time and running as players in the game, Rob for co-hosting the table with his buildings and Royalist forces.  Most of all I want to thank Alex for producing the games over the past few months in this live format.

Comments most welcome.

We have more in this war in the west campaign to come.

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.

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.