SIEGE WARFARE! Playtest continues ... game 4! Last one before SALUTE!

The second day of playtest with the full terrain board included enough time to run a second engagement!

With an experienced pair of players we could get through a game in ~90 minutes!

All of the defenders officers with the dismounted Lacey Horse stood in the breach!

The commanders switched sides again, now Rob would try his hand again at defense, where he'd had the most experience.

for five days Rob stayed behind the walls, permitting the siege lines to dig closer

till suddenly on day 5 they blasted through the wall!

then day 6 was a muster for attack on the breach!

all attacking forces were arrayed for battle

the Lacey's had lost one gun in the wall destruction and moved the other out to cover the breach

It was to be an epic defense!

the first hour included a cannonade that took many lives on both sides

finally the attackers moved off to assault the flank of the defenders trench

while continuing pounding of the defenders Drake (cannon) in the breach

the death toll was massive

the first attempt at the trench was thrown back

While the Lacey's command poured even the civilian defenders out to support that lone Drake in the breech

The Lacey's seemed on the verge of holding the line ...

so the forces of Colonel Marsh ALL CAME OUT

the second line prepared to swarm the defenders

while the first was thrown back from the trenches with losses over 50%

The defenders did not get away unscathed though

... and command of the garrison was not certain to hold the line

indeed they were still likely outnumbered close to 3 to 1

The finale was to come down to the last few die rolls!

the assault was to take a total of 2 hours (simulated time) and we used maybe 2 hours to do the whole game!

long view of the action

Colonel Marsh did not go in the final assault, he did have a secret mine being built though ...

casualties were high

very high

there was a storming of the defender's trench

with it becoming something of a mass grave

which Lord Lacey and Captain Pike surrendered in

An epic final playtest.

Rob will be putting some finishing details on the terrain.
I have a one-page QRS to write up and some dragoons to flock for use in the game.

Otherwise we are ready to go for Salute 2019 in Burnaby!

SIEGE WARFARE! Playtest continues ... game 3

So a second day of playtesting was set for March 31st and now Rob had finished even more of the terrain.

an exciting moment during the first sally of the defenders, when they almost did enough damage to break the siege

My youngest son was in on the planning last summer and played on the chalk board.  After seeing the images from games 1 & 2 he decided to come out and take more actions himself.

the whole board

defensive side more finished with a stonework walkway in the back behind the wall

attackers

Parliament troops under the command of Colonel Marsh

with 'sappers and miners' for switching out the troops when they are unarmed and digging ...

Day 1

Day 2 (cards are laid out to mask the actions of digging in the dark)

Day 3 digging was done and now artillery started firing

close up of the foote now digging

the saps and trench system is looking great

Day 4 cards laid out

THE ASSAULT, when played by either side changes the time from day to 15 minute turns and initiates the tactical battle

This game Rob used the basic build out of trenches and second parallel for guns

deployed for battle, this sally was timed and set up really well to truly hurt the attacking forces, catching them with limited guards and no forlorn hope of commanded shotte

though there were still regiments placed to support the guns and defend the planned 'works'

whole regiments were set out to attack, while BOTH defender regiments were manning the trench they had dug

battle joined and Lacey horse were hurt badly

while two regiments of attackers were shot up

the sappers and engineer pulled back, abandoning the planned works for the day

more of the first clash of arms

Lacey horse take damage

Parliament troops move to attack the defensive 'ditch'

turns out it was MUCH MORE than a ditch

the attackers horse would pursue Lacey horse

field of action after only one hour of tactical battle ... the defenders could not break the attacking line

the sally assault sputtered to a halt and ended ... then three more days of artillery pounding broke the wall in TWO places at the same time

with all troops now called in from the lines to attack it was a full assault

guns were left silent

Lord Lacey had pulled in all the forces he could

even mustering the local townfolk and the artillery crews who had no more powder to fire

remnants of one regiment and the officers formed a center force

while the townies and artillery crew were planning to block a breakout

it was not to be though as the attackers outnumbered them all by a wide margin

So ended this siege, this time the Lacey's could not hold the defenses and were defeated, though it was a close contest.  Indeed a few higher rolls in the Day 4 sally assault and the attacking force would have been unable to muster a full attack on Day 8.