English Civil War - Warr Without an Enemie

Cuckold Wee Come Parliament Horse Troop

Bluebear Jeff again hosted the wonderful Warr Without An Enemie ECW game on 26 June, this time the battle of Montgomery.

Rob P was to command the Royalists and Jeff took on the Royalist horse.

I was alone to command the Parliamentarians.

So this was the set up for the largest battle in North Wales ... with my building Royalist forces having a Welsh flavor I believe this battle may be re-fought again some day.

We set up via the historical lay-out as given in the scenario, this left the Parliament with smaller horse forces on each flank and stretched out line of foot.  While the Royalists had a double line of foot and a flank heavy in horse.

The Royalist troops were a mix of Rob's painting and Jeffs collection.

Parliament line looking from the far left

Meldrum in command

Horse on the Parliament left, facing twice their number in Royalist horse

Royalist command from the center looking to their left at the foote brigade

closer view of the foote brigade

Rob P's wonderful painted troops with their new laser cut MDF bases

Parliament center and command

Royalist commander Sir John Byron

The Royalist layout left one massive advantage for them to exploit, a cavalry charge on the Royalist right could sweep all the Parliament off the field.

field seen wide, Parliament is next to the river

Sir John Meldrum, Parliament commander

Parliament horse moved up to commence distant pistol shooting

Royalist dragoons moved to invest an enclosed field.

The Royalist line on the ridge top

The next few turns were shooting from Parliament and charges by the Royalist horse.

Turn 3 the Parliament horse foraging parties returned.

Turn 4 and the Parliament left flank is being chewed up by the Royalist horse

while on the Royalist left all those foote regiments were forming hedgehogs

and taking fire from many surrounding horse troops

an overview of the mass horse charge on the Parliament left, last time there were three Parliament horse troops

The Royalists drove back the Parliament horse on the left, by turn 6 only one troop remained, though for the benefit of the Royalists they were able to 'reign in' a pursuing horse troop with a high enough die roll.

the lines were stable for a moment

exchanges of feeble fire continued in the hedgehogs

Royalist lines came off the hill with some DPs due to poor die rolls

the final cavalry engagement that could hope to hold back the Royalist horse ... ultimately only one turn was able to be gained

More rallies were needed all over the battlefield, and it was here that the +3 strength of the Parliament commanders got to show.  For with a couple of good Command Points die rolls the Parliament forces were able to 'redress ranks' and build back into better ability than the Royalists could who had a couple of turns of below average Command Point rolls.

The moment of truth for Parliament, the forward hedgehog was at 4 DPs and two horse troops of equal number to the foote were in range to CHARGE!

Derbyshire were 1/2 of the charge

by now only one Royalist foote unit was still in line

all the others were in hedgehogs

Royalist horse was also worn down with 3 or 4 DPs on each unit and not enough CPs to recover all of them in one go

Parliament horse had kept one unit alive on the flank and now they were shooting away at the Royalist horse

while not 'secure' the flank was holding ...

The last turn we played out was 11, by then the hedgehog had been broken, though not run off in rout, they were still fighting; now a loosing battle.

tabletop at game end, Parliament had cracked a hedgehog and not lost all of their own horse to do it

Turns out we 're-created' the same results as came out in history at this battle, something that a simulation ought to be able to achieve.

Next up appears to be a re-fight of this battle, though this time using Black Powder rules with some ECW 'modifications'.

407 - 75th Anniversary TO HOLD ON HIGH

This past weekend was spent connecting with my old squadron, 407 "The Demon Squadron", in Comox.

face and reverse of the new 407 Squadron coin in enameled color

I was able to see the old (now called Block II) aircraft and learn that new (Block III) versions are busy out in the world.

There was a set of conversations about aircraft, issues of the past and present and an opportunity to dance with my lovely wife.

A new swag coin has been struck for the occasion.

I also had a few conversations with a veteran from the 1941-45 years of the squadron when the battle honors were earned.

sometimes the demon comes out in me

Perhaps I shall keep an eye out for the 80th anniversary.

75th Anniversary of 407 Squadron

Colours and awards of "The Demon Squadron"

This June 17, 18 & 19;  I shall be attending the festivities of the 75th Anniversary of 407 Squadron, where I served in 1989-1993.

Ideally I shall come away from the events with some more good memories.

Library games day - tabletop with Eagle Games

This past Saturday marked the final tabletop games day until the Autumn, probably September.

I took it as an opportunity to showcase some of the games that I have available for play.

only a sample of the games that could be brought out to the library games days

I had advertised that the Conquest of the Empire game was going to be the feature for the day.

As it was we had five fairly active players, sadly my middle son ended up with the unenviable position of being on the Italian peninsula having to face me and another older boy as adversaries.  My son did not 'reach out' for help in dealing with either of the sides (which could have pulled us back from a confrontation)  so my son ended up having to make other choices.

the digital world could not be contained

at the start of the conflict, we are all equal ...

The game was clearly going to end with Hispania as the leader, no final winner set, just not a clear way to stop me as Hispania.

Then a game of Napoleon In Europe was set out and a fast 'even Steven' game was run.

the gigantic map is always appreciated

deployment

just a little 'even Steven' followed by battles and territory grabs

This then ended the tabletop fun at the Library for the 2015-16 season, our first.

I am hopeful that many players will return and that we may see more in the Autumn of 2016.

Return to Afristan - The Sword and the Flame

On the mythical lost continent of Afristan the forces of Gran Bretan wage a series of campaigns to pacify the local populace.

This tale is of a Breton column that had the mission to destroy two rival native villages; the young Captain Davidson was to regret ever taking on such a task ...

The Bretons deploy, to take on the closer village first

massed in their red coats the right flank was tasked to escort a special wagon

though there were no visible native Dervish forces, the assembling red coats were being closely watched

the column moved through woods and slowly over open ground

the leading Ghurka formation was shot to bits and the Havildar was chopped down by a mob, which then rushed the next formation of colonial troops

another mob burst from the near village and again the rush was on, this time the mule teams were the target

Captain Davidson was unable to rally anyone from the head of the column, seeing even more native forces rushing towards is tiny force ...

this time the attackers were on camels

pouring over the hedges of the other small village

and on horseback pushing hard for the left flank of the Colonial forces column

the native mobs did take out 20+ in their rushing swarm

even more mobs showed up

the best troops kept moving too slowly to get into any kind of firing position

Breton die rolls for movement were atrocious ... could the tiny model men know more than the leader?

mobs, time and again were now holding back from closing into the kill

now though the camels were hammering into the flanks

and in the end the horsemen took the flank and rear of the Colonial forces

fleeing from their wagon-load of demolitions the red coats got away with only a dozen or so survivors from this column ... it would appear that Afristan was about to explode into open revolt.

Alex has decided that TSATF and the colonial game is not his 'cup of tea'.  It would also appear that there is more interest in larger black powder actions in the future for Jeff's table.