FK&P AAR: Plumleigh Common

/

Those of you who have been following Rob and I’s play through of the Siege of Norchester campaign will know that so far my Parliamentarian have not been doing very well: I’m currently ten victory medals behind overall, so really needed a decent win at Plumleigh Common to put me back on track.

In this scenario, the Cavaliers are trying another assault on the Roundhead siege lines, but this time the Parliamentarians are ready for them, resulting in an all out battle.

The picture above shows the view from behind the Parliamentarian lines, with Norchester itself being top left. My plan was to advance my Borders Horse on the far right around the flank of the enclosed fields, block any advance of enemy infantry out of the enclosures, and strongly advance in the centre and win the battle there.

The Battle of the Enclosures

The first part of my plan was to drive the enemy horse back on the far right flank. Although our forces numbered the same, my troops were mounted on nags rather than the sleek chargers of the oppositiom, so I knew I needed to win quickly or have my cavalry blown for the rest of the game.

The Royalists helped my cause by attacking piecemeal, and soon I had the advantage:

Unfortunately that didn’t last, and the situation devolved into a back and forwards encounter that neither side seemed likely to win until Rob sent some infantry in to reinforce his cavalry.

This gave him a temporary advantage and, for the moment it looked as if that flank would be lost to me.

Back in the Centre

Meanwhile, back in the centre, I had advanced quickly forward. On the right side, I had no wish to advance against the Royalist infantry safe behind the hedges of the enclosure, so was happy just to block their exit. In the centre centre, I advanced forward quickly in order to gain the initiative. Both sides avoided moving troops into the ground between Norchester and my works: too swept by artillery to be safe!

Battle was soon joined, and a general melee broke out:

All was going well until a squadron of Royalist cavalry threatened the left flank of my line. Fortunately I had a unit of the Puritan Horse there against just such a move, so charged the enemy horse downhill, confident of victory.

Unbelievably, Rob’s cavalry made four saves against the attacks on them, meaning my men swept downhill and literally bounced off the enemy. To add insult to injury, the Royalist cavalry then counter-charged and sent my men fleeing from the field!

Luckily I had reinforcements I could move to protect the flank…well, to be honest, it was a battalia of infantry that had got stuck, unused, behind the main battleline, so it was good to actually have something useful for them to do!

The fighting in the centre was now intense, and I had already had to recyle one of my Scots Battalia: it was all going to be down to whose troops could last the longest.

My left flank was also looking problematic, and even moving some of the pioneers out of the siege works to help didn’t make a huge difference. In the scenario, pioneers are represented by Highlanders: very much a one-shot weapon and useless against the cavalry they were facing!

Endgame

The main line finally shattered in both directions at once: with one of my Puritan Horse units fleeing the field whilst another broke through. At the same time, the Pioneers distracted a squadron of enemy cavalry so much that they were pinned in place, unable to take advantage of their position.

It was still neck and neck but, suddenly, gloriously, my cavalry on the right wing, long forgotten about, decided to intervene and win the day.

Freed from the cavalry melee by the intervention of one of my Borders infantry battalia, who head soundly beaten the enemy infantry that had kept my horse pinned in place, the Scottish lancers crashed into the flank of an already disordered enemy infantry battlaia and smashed them from the field.

This, combined with all the losses taken by each side so far, and the fact that two of the Royalist cavalry squadrons left the field in pursuit, reduced Rob’s pile of victory medals to zero, giving me the victory.

It had been carnage on both sides: checking my pile of coins I saw that I had gained a four-medal victory, so combined we had lost 28 victory medals between us: the equivalent of around nine units or a third of the units depoloyed at the start of the game.

So, after five games, the Parliamentarians now trail by only six victory medals overall, and it’s on to Dick’s Tower for the next encounter!

FK&P AAR: The Battle of Stour Road

/

Friend Rob came up from Andover-area for the fourth game in our play-through of the Siege of Norchester scenario book for For King and Parliament. So far, my Parliamentarians have won one game and lost two, so I’m a few medals behind overall.

Today’s game features a Royalist attack on nascent Parliamentarian siege lines. The Royalists have got around the flank of the Roundheads with their cavalry and now prepare to sweep all before them…

The outskirts of Norchester can just be seen top left, parliamentarian siegeworks are top right

Royalist outflanking force

Parliamentarian mobs work the siege lines

As the Royalist infantry and cavalry moved in, the Roundhead Mobs moved into the siegeworks, and the ‘corner’ battalia of Border foot went into hedgehog:

moving in for the kill

moving in for the safety!

The first action involved two of the Royalist cavalry units combining to drive a Parliamentarian battalia from the field.

Unfortunately for the Royalists, as one of their cavalry units followed the fleeing infantry in pursuit, the event triggered the arrival of the Roundhead’s cavalry reserves, who promptly charged them in return, driving them from the table as welll.

roundhead reinforcements arrive: it’s the puritan cavalry brigade

The action then switched to the ‘corner’of the Parliamentarian line, where the battalia of foot were holding their own, unlike the pike-only battalia behind them, who were crumbling fast:

the corner of the parliamentarian line

in hedgehog

The Puritan cavalry had effectivly dealt with one Royalist regiment of Swedish-style horse, but didn’t seem to be able to polish off the other.

Meanehile, the action was hotting up at the ‘corner’ and, in the distance, you can see that Royalist infantry have now engaged and are beating up the Roundhead mobs (armed only with picks and shovels).

Puritan cavalry engaged…

…and in pursuit

The action at the ‘corner’ hots up

As my infantry was now under so much pressure, I really needed the cavalry to intervene.

Unfortunately, although one unit of Puritan horse continued their pursuit and swept the Royalist commander’s small unit of cuirassiers bodyguard from the field, it then disappeared off into the distance, never to be seen again.

Almost worse than that, my other unit of Dutch horse was still trying to deal with almost the last remaining Cavalier Swedish horse regiment: no matter what I did, the enemy horse just woudn’t break, leaving my men pinned in place!

With my cavalry thus neutralised, finally the pressure on my infantry became too much and they began to break.

A last ditch attempt by the chaps who had been digging the siege works failed to achieve anything either - their shovels and picks being no match for pike and musket - and the Parliamentarians were forced to retreat, leaving the Royalists in possession of the field.

A great game but another defeat for Parliament. Rob is now ten coins ahead overall: just about a whole battle in hand!

Onto to Plumleigh common: where we’ll see if these Royalists can stand up to the might of siege gun Titan!

FK&P AAR: Cadmore Hill

/

Time for the next installment in the Siege of Norchester English Civil War campaign that friend Rob and I are playing through. The Royalists beat my Parliamentarians in both of the previous games, so I could really do with a win.

The situation is thus: the Parliamentarians are bringing up their sige artillery in order to properly invest Norchester. The Royalists have discovered this and have laid an ambush: if they can destroy the guns, then Norchester survives at least until another siege column can be raised.

Unfortunately for the Royalists, their ambush is triggered early, and that is where the action starts…

The infantry contingent of the Parliamentarian siege train executed a neat right turn to face the oncoming Royalists, but the Dutch horse at the head of the colmn got into all sorts of bother trying to sort themselves out. Finally, one unit of Borders Horse managed to get forwards and prepared to clear away the Royalist Forlorn Hopes.

Meanwhile the Royalist infantry headed forward to engage the enemy, although some confusion in the ranks meant that this advance was staggered rather than co-ordinated.

Meanwhile, at the tail of the Parliamentarian column, not much was happening. Both sides seemed reluctant to move forward, especially the Roundhead commanded shot, who quite frankly disobeyed orders to occupy the nearby farmhouse for three consecutive activations.

In fact, the only units seemingly willing to engage the enemy were the Borders Pioneers right at the back, who steamed up the far left hand side of the table towards some Royalist horse who were apparently having breakfast, then second breakfast, then third breakfast etc.

Back at the proposed ambush site, and some Borders horse swept one of the Royalist Forlorn Hopes from the field, but were then served the same coin by the other. Nothing very conclusive happening here!

Back to the tail end, and much to everyone’s surprise the Borders Pioneers had passively seen off the now-fully-breakfasted Royalist horse: I say “passively” as the Pioneers had no guns, only pikes, and if the Royalist horse had left them alone, each side would have cancelled the other out, but the Cavaliers couldn’t resist the challenge, and effectively charged themselves to death on the Pioneers’ pikes!

That left them free to attempt to curl around the Roundhead left flank, potentially helping their comrades in the centre, who were by now engaged.

Now, however, the Borders Pioneers had realised that they were indeed pioneers, and elected to stop moving towards the action despite a rather inviting flank charge opportunity: presumably waiting for someone to tell them where to dig a hole or two.

The battle was, however, always going to be decided towards the front of the column, where both sides had their main forces, and where a general combat had broken out over the hedge row.

The Royalist had managed to sneak a horse unit around onto the Roundhead flank, using it very effectively to dash some Dutch Horse from the field. This gave the Cavaliers the impetus they needed to push the Parliamentarians back from the hedge, following up to take the battle into open ground. Unfortunately for the Royalists, however, the Roundhead horse then generally rallied and began to fight back.

Both sides were also now quite weary (down to just a couple of victory medals each) so it was all going to be down to who won the next few combats and, on a roll after their fight-back, it was the Parliamentarians who, with a good run of cards, got the bit between their teeth (well, their mounts did!) and sent some enemy Swedish horse fleeing from the field.

This proved the final straw for the Royalists, and the day went to the Parliamentarians.

Aftermath

It had been a very close run thing, with my Roundheads narrowly avoiding a third defeat! As it was, I managed to claw back a couple of medals towards the campaign totals, but that still leaves the Royalists ahead.

On to Stour Road for the next thrilling installment in the campaign.

Epic Scots Painted Up

/

I stopped buying Wargames Illustrated shortly after it turned into the Battlefront catalogue (a pity, as I have every issue of the old style magazine and still dip in and dip out of them on a regular basis) but, when I saw they had a free Warlord Epic ECW Scots sprue as part of the package, thought I’d take the opportunity to (a) give the new-look WI another chance and (b) try out the Warlord Epic Scots.

I hadn’t really interacted with any Warlord Epic figures up to this point: my collection is nearly all 15mm and thought of buying Napoleonics that were slightly but significantly smaller that what I have (the admittedly larger, more like 18mm AB range) didn’t appeal.

In fact, I’d always wondered what on earth Warlord were thinking when they introduced another unique scale into the wargaming world. Why not go 10mm or 15mm rather than something in between? Or were they trying to create a Hobby like GW?

Anyway, reading around, the Epic ECW ranges were supposed to be larger than the Epic Napoleonics, more like 13.5mm, so I was happy to give them a go. I duly bought my copy of WI and settled down to have a read and a look at the free sprue.

First impressions were good. A nice lot of detail on the figures and they certainly seemed a good size. They also looked like they would be quick to paint: no picking up lolly sticks with 3-4 figures on them, just bases of 10 figures a time…plus the fact that a percentage of each figure wouldn’t need to be painted as it was hidden by their neighbour next door.

The 10-figure blocks were a pain in one way, in that they don’t fit with my existing basing system, but I don’t have any Commanded Shot bases for my Scots yet (in fact, the army is positively short of muskets having several Pike Only battalia) so I thought I’d give four “shooter” blocks a go as an oversize Commanded Shot unit.

So, what do I think?

Yes, very nice really.

They were easy to paint: really detailed relief takes Contrast Paint beautifully, and they were as quick to paint as I thought they would be.

I added a command figure from Blue Moon’s 18mm range that towers over them a bit, and a standard bearer from Alternative’s Furiosa range who fits nicely. And a dog just for laughs.

The $64m question, of course, is how they would fit in with my other figures: mostly Peter Pig and Hallmark 15’s.

Well, the photo below shows the Scots and a battalia of English pike and shot side by side for comparison:

The height difference isn’t noticeable at all. In fact I think the Epic figures are 15mm from top of bonnet to foot and that the 13.5mm measurement is to their eyes.

They are obviously a little more densely packed than my usual basing system, but that won’t be a problem providing I’m consistent with deploying any Scottish Commanded Shot like this.

One thing: they are a bit slimmer front-to-back then their metal equivalents, almost on their way to being flats, but I’m going to put this down to a diet of good Scots’ porridge rather than anything else!

The price is also good. The sprue also contains four pike 10-man blocks and a smattering of singles, horsemen, artillerymen etc. Would certainly work out much cheaper than buying everything in metal.

Will I buy more?

Probably not…but only because I have loads of Scots already.

I do need some more Commanded Shot, however, so if anyone would like to donate a sprue they received with WI but don’t want, Comment or PM me at the usual address and I’ll quite happily take it off your hands!

Would I buy Epic if I didn’t have any ECW figures and wanted to get into the period?

Yes, I would.

I’d have a basing system that suited the 10-man blocks (FK&P is a very forgiving rule system basing-wise) and would quite happily have built a large collection of Royalist, Parliamentarian and Scots figures up.

So a big recommended from me, and I will certainly look at the other Epic ranges provided they are also 15mm equivalents.

They look even better from behind: the only direction I will ever see them from of course!

FK&P AAR: Munce's Wood

/

Friend Rob and I are playing through the Siege of Norchester scenario pack. After narrowly losing the first game, Tounton Bridge, my Parliamentarians would face the Royalists at Munce’s Wood.

A pack of Royalist-sympathising Clubmen have been caught by a much larger Roundhead force. Fortunately for the Clubmen, there’s also a Cavalier army in the vicinity. The scene is set for a clash at Munce’s Wood.

Royalists on the left, Parliamentarians on the right (Clubmen in the middle!)

With the opposition a bit fragmented, and with superior quality cavalry on my left, my plan was to advance strongly on my left and centre, holding back my weaker right flank. Hopefully the Roundhead cavalry would quickly beat the fewer Cavaliers in front of them and then be able to surl around to take the enemy centre, by then presumably locked in place by my central advance, in the flank.

That was the plan, but unfortunately my cavalry just couldn’t beat their Royalist foes back. The enemy was defending a hedge line, and a particularly sticky unit of Swedish horse just plain refused to give way despite overwhelming pressure from my Dutch troopers.

Not only that, but my troops in the centre fought so badly that I was forced to pull some cavalry from the left to reinforce my centre. Things were not going well!

Meanwhile, much to my surprise, my commanded shot and artillery on the right flank were holding their own against the Royalist horse.

My three weak units held up Rob’s stronger three units for the whole of the battle and, although I would eventually lose all three, that sacrifice was worth it to keep his horse off my right flank.

On the left, my Dutch horse were still trying to get over the hedge, but just couldn’t do so in the face of continued opposition from the Royalists.

With that flank stalled as well, the game would be decided in the centre.

Things were beginning to thin out now as various units on both sides had broken and fled the field. In the end it came down to who could keep fighting for longer, and unfortunately it wasn’t my troops!

The final act was for one of my few surviving battalia of Border Foot to smash through the enmy opposite them, but then be hit from all sides by other Parliamentarians. As a final act of humiliation, it was actually a unit of Clubemn - the very people we were trying to surpress - that dealt the coup de grace, and my command generally collapsed and routed.

So a second defeat for the Parliamentarians in the campaign to take Norchester. Let’s hope I have more success at Cadmore Hill, the site of the third clash!

FK&P AAR: Transylvanians vs Swedes - The Re-Match

/

As we still had plenty of time left after our last game (Transylvanians vs Swedish, a narrow victory for me) Si and I decided to play again.

I offered a change of sides, but Si said that now that he’d taken the Swedes for a test run, he’d like to use them again “for real” this time. That was fine by me, so we re-set the table and both re-deployed.

Both sides placed their infantry facing the small village on the far side of the picture, above. I faced my Elite National Cavalry off against the Swedish Cuirassiers and cavalry in the centre, with my light horse on the left wing hopefully enough to slow down or stop more Swedish cavalry facing them.

An advance by both sides rapidly saw the two battle lines come together in the centre and on my left in a series of cavalry melees that swung backwards and forwards in terms of advantage for both sides.

Although I managed to hold the left flank, my center had to give ground and soon all I could see was my own horse thundering back towards me!

Fortunately I had troops available on my left to bring into the centre as reinforcements, and the battle broke up into a series of individual melees as units that had disposed of one enemy looked for another opponent to engage. In the confusion, one of my light horse units also managed to sneak through and take the Swedish camp, a much needed boost to my fortunes at that point!

Meanwhile the two infantry lines had slowly advanced towards each other and begun exchanging long range fire, with the Transylvanian militia troops getting the worst of the deal.

At this point I stopped taking photographs as it was neck and neck as to who would run out of victory medals first. In the event, it was me: giving Si and the Swedish a narrow victory.

A cracking couple of games decided by very narrow margins.

FK&P AAR: Transylvanians vs Swedes

/

Friend Si coming round for a gaming session provided the perfect excuse to get my new 17th century Cuirassiers onto the table.

Si would field the Swedes (with said Cuirassiers) and I would play the Transylvanians:

The Swedes

The Transylvanians

My plan was to hold his superior infantry on my right whilst my better cavalry rolled over his centre and his right.

Originally I had planned to sweep my light cavalry around the left, but realising that he could block that move with his horse, my first action was to try and reposition my lights so that I could use them either as general reinforcements or to bolster up my right. You can see them moving across the rear of the battlefield in the pictures above, and here’s an even better shot:

Grand tactics!

The two main battle lines then came together with a crash, with the Transylvanians definitely getting the advantage as their elite cavalry went in. The Swedes reeled backwards, apart from one unit of Cuirassiers that stubbornly refused to give way, and a period of jostling backwards and forwards ensued.

This continued until the relentless pressure from the Transylvanian horse finally proved too much for the Swedes to bear, and their centre began to crumple (their right had given way much earlier).

Meanwhile, there had not been a lot of activity on my right flank: my infantry had indeed advanced forward and then stopped to hold the ground, but the Swedes had been too busy elsewhere to worry about them.

Just as the Swedes thought they might have to do something on their left, their centre finally gave way and the game was mine.

FK&P AAR: Muscovites vs Transylvanians

/

With my Transylvanians having lost the first game by only one Victory Medal, it was time to swap sides for a re-match: this time I would take the Muscovites, with Bevan playing the Transylvanians.

As you can see in the picture, above, both sides have deployed very traditionally: infantry in the centre, cavalry on each wing. You’ll also see that my horse on my left flank considerably outnumber their mounted opponents, so my plan was very much to punch through there and then roll the Transylvanian line up.

With that in mind, I opened the game by advancing forward on the left as hard and fast as I could.

As you can see in the bottom two pictures above, on the far left, left of the woods, I didn’t manage to punch through the enemy lights quite how I had hoped, but did manage to open up a bit of space just to the right of the woods. The question now became whether I could exploit this advantage!

Meanwhile, elsewhere on the field, the two battle lines had generally come together, with a series of fierce melees taking place:

Now was the time for my troops on the left to curl inwards and roll up the Transylvanian line: something I really needed them to do as they represented a good proportion of my fighting strength, and my lesser-quality centre wouldn’t hold for ever!

Above you can see a couple of pictures showing how I was trying to get my horse back into the action: but they do seem to have an awful lot of ground to cover!

And all that ground proved my downfall, with my centre and right flank giving way before I could get the cavalry back into the game.

Regular readers will know that I lost the first game in this two-battle series by one Victory Medal…and so it was again in this game! If I had survived one more turn in the centre/on the right then my cavalry would have made it back into the action in time to win the game for me, but victory evaded me by the smallest of margins as one unit too many fled the field.

So that was four games with Bevan in two days…and four defeats. Ouch! But, as Michael Jordan once said:

“I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed.”

Good to know that I’m secretly a success at this wargaming thing!

Very secretly!

If you've enjoyed this post, please do consider "buying me a coffee" : you can be sure that all proceeds will be channelled back into wargaming, leading to even more content for you to enjoy!

ECW Infantry Battalia

/

Regular visitors will know that I recently bought the new ECW casualty figures from Alternative Army’s Furioso range (and very nice they were too).

Never one to miss an opportunity to buy stuff, at the same time I also ordered enough figures to make up a standard ECW infantry battalia in the way that I configure them for For King & Parliament. Seemed rude not to really!

I hadn’t bought any of the Furioso range before (mainly using Peter Pig and Hallmark via Magister Militum for my ECW collection) so was curious to see how these would fit in.

The first thing to mention is the excellent way in which they were delivered, especially the pikemen. I don’t usually like figures with integral pikes - the pikes always seem to get bent out of shape in transit and then never go back to how they should be - preferring to add my own using rigid wire spears, but these arrived absolutely and beautifully straight, taped to a piece of cardboard to make sure they remained so. Well done to AA!

Secondly, the figures paint up very well indeed. The detail is crisp, and takes Contrast paints very nicely indeed. The pikemen come in breastplate and helm, and it’s nicely sized breastplate that is easy to (after the undercoat) re-paint in black and then highlight with a dull steel colour. Likewise the musketeers: the detail (the apostles, the feathers on some of their hats) highlight clearly and easily. Great stuff.

Finally, their sizing is comparable to the rest of my collection. Yes, the pikes are considerably more solid than the wire spears I’ve used elsewhere, but this is a minor gripe: height-wise they work very well.

So, all in all, I am very impressed with the Furioso pike and shot from Alternative and will doubtless find myself browsing the rest of the range in the very near future! Highly recommended.

If you've enjoyed this post, please do consider "buying me a coffee" : you can be sure that all proceeds will be channelled back into wargaming, leading to even more content for you to enjoy!

FK&P AAR: Tounton Bridge

/

Friend Rob came over for a game of For King & Parliament yesterday and we ended up playing through the first scenario from the Siege of Norchester campaign pack.

For this battle, the Royalists need to keep possession of a bridge near the hamlet of Tounton, with the Parliamentarians obviously needing to wrest it from them.

Tounton Bridge is to the left

The Royalists, under Sir Edmund Dexter, were in four brigades. There was a small brigade of Swedish Horse on each wing; and two brigades of foot in the centre, one of which had not seen battle before. Out front was Rankin’s Forlorn Hope, at back were Miller’s Guns.

Facing them were the Roundheads under General Thomas Dread-Naught. Core to his force was a large brigade of Puritan Horse under Colonel Kill-Sin Rhapsody: you can see God’s light shining on them as they enter the field in the picture above! The rest of his men were trawled from the border regions: a brigade of foot, one of horse mounted on steeds really only fit for the knacker’s yard, and a small brigade of tartan-clad men from further north. A rag-tag force maybe, but plenty powerful too.

The action opened with a general Parliamentarian advance against the largely static Royalists.

In the centre, the Royalist Forlorn Hope was dealt with fairly easily, but on the Roundhead right wing, one squadron of Royalist horse dispersed the Border Lancers without difficulty. This left them facing a wood full of Highlanders, but their blood was up and they charged in regardless of the terrain. The Highlanders, supported by some Mounted Pistoliers resisted the charge and that left a stalemate around the wood that lasted for the rest of the game!

Behind this action, however, another unit of Pistoliers had flank charged and dealt with the other squadron of Royalist horse, leaving the Scots to head north towards the rear of the rest of the Cavalier lines and the bridge, albeit on blown horses.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the field. Colonel Rhapsody was leading his Puritan Horse to disaster. Two of his squadrons tried an outflanking manoeuvre on the far left wing, but the Cavalier horse near them proved too fleet of foot: one unit neatly hopping the hedge, turning to face, and then charging furiously into the Puritan’s rear. Two squadrons of God-fearing cavalry got to meet their Lord sooner than they expected!

Onto the centre, where the Parliamentarians had moved forward and thrown their line into a general engagement. The Royalists moved to meet them, then retreated, then moved forward again, musket fire and the shouts of charging pikemen drowning out the cries of the wounded, and this indecision allowed the Roundheads to open a gap in the Cavalier line.

Ideally they would have had cavalry ready to exploit the hole, but the rest of the Puritan Horse was stuck on the left so it was up to some commanded shot to move forward and begin to outflank the Royalist line.

Meanwhile the Roundhead Borders/Scots horse that had broken through on their right had slowly (blown horses puffing and panting their way forward) managed to get around the rear of the Royalist position. Trotting past some enemy Commanded Shot who were happy to keep hiding in Tounton (the unit just wouldn’t activate despite the fact that the Roundheads were a sitting duck!) the Scots, much to their surprise found that they had taken the bridge. Surely the battle was now decided?

It was not, however, as simple as that. Yes, the Royalists were reduced to one coin, and the Parliamentarians technically had the bridge, but the Roundheads had lost an awful lot of cavalry and were also down to one coin. It was sudden death time!

Earlier in the game: the roundheads advance to contact

The Roundheads were pretty convinced that they could destroy the Royalist unit on the right - it was already disordered and surrounded on three sides - they just had to survive the next turn in order to do so. This was when the Royalist Commanded Shot that had been skulking in Tounton finally got their act together, moved out of the houses they had been sheltering in to a position from which they could fire onto the flank of the Scots horse, who had moved off the bridge to cut down the Royalist gunners from behind.

The double-shotted volley rang out and the Scots horse disintegrated! This was too much for the rest of the Roundheads, and rather than push forward to victory, they began to retreat. Moving back onto the bridge, the Royalists had won the day!

Enemy horse? What enemy horse?

The bridge taken.

Enemy horse? What enemy horse? All we can see is two lone scotsmen officer-types!

Totting up the points, the Royalists had won a narrow victory 16:14: snatching victory from the jaws of defeat! It had been a cracking game, with the advantage swinging backwards and forwards throughout. On to Munce’s Wood for the second game in the campaign!

Untried Royalists (the yellow meeple) await the Parliamentarian onslaught!

FK&P AAR: Transylvanian Double Act

/

I recently spent a bit of time properly marking up my 17th Century “eastern front” Transylvanian and Muscovite armies: by “marking up” I mean putting identifiers on each unit that allows me to remember which are which! That done, it was time to get them onto the tabletop.

The Transylvanians were a bit of a mish-mash. Their core Household troops (heavies and lights) were supported some more light cavalry and two brigades of infantry, one of foreign Commanded Shot and one of Szekley Pike & Shot (represented by Scots!).

The Muscovites were similar: a core National Cavalry and foreign Reiters supported by a brigade of Tartar horse-archer allies, with two brigades of foot, one Cossack, one Soldat (foreign-trained foot).

Game One

Our first game was very short. My opponent, Kavan, had forgotten how important it is in For King & Parliament not to lose your commanding general (as valuable as a couple of camps in To The Strongest) and blithely sent his CinC forward with the first wave of attackers.

The Transylvanian Household Cavalry were, however, having an exceptional day: their first charge smashed the squadron of enemy cavalry led by the Muscovite CinC from the field (meaning that Kavan lost about half his Victory Coins in one go) and then charging again to KO a second unit as well.

Combined with losses elsewhere on the field, this was enough to break the Muscovite morale and send them fleeing back to “the first throne” in some disarray!

Game Two

As the first game had been so quick, we decided to re-set the sides and play again, but this time with the Muscovite CinC safely at the back of his troops rather than leading from the front!

Two key differences in this game. Firstly, the Transylvanian infantry had to fight for possession of the small town on their right flank; and secondly the Transylvanian Household Cavalry didn’t achieve the same success on their initial charges as last time.

This meant that the heavier Muscovite cavalry had time to drive back the Transylvanian light horse, particularly on the Transylvanian left wing, and then curl around to threaten that entire flank.

A combination of steady foot and charging horse put the town into Muscovite hands and that, plus the combination of lost light units and the usual battlefield attrition in the centre, meant that the Transylvanians were gradually ground down and, after a series of reverses in the centre, were forced to retreat.

Aftermath

Two great games of For King & Parliament/Eastern Front Edition and honours even with one win for each side.

Success for the Transylvanians has to come from understanding how to make the significant numbers of light horse work. I didn’t manage it in either game really (the first game was the Household cavalry’s show!) so something to work on for next time!

FK&P AAR: Widbrooke Common

/

Played a second game of For King & Parliament with friend Fred, this time using scenario #02 from the Marlowe to Maidenhythe scenario pack: Widbrooke Common.

I didn’t have my camera with me, so not many photos, and those that there are are from my mobile, but one thing that did stand out about the game was the power of a well placed unit of Forlorn Hope.

For those of you who know the game, Forlorn Hope are the weakest possible units: usually acting as no more than speed bump as they get overrun by better quality battalia. Not in this game however!

Placed occupying a farm house in the centre of the table, Fred’s Forlorn Hope held up two of my full strength standard battalia for the whole game, constantly rendering them Disordered when I got too close, meaning I never really got a chance to properly assault them.

I still won the game, I hasten to add, but would have won it a lot more quickly and effectively if it hadn’t been for the Forlorn Hope.

Here are the other shots of the game that I took:

FK&P AAR: The Attack on Marlowe

/

A long, long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, I was at school with a chap that everyone called Fred. Not sure quite why, as that wasn’t his name, but I’m thinking it might have been because he just looked like a “Fred” in that he was very large and very strong and had a difficult to spell surname. Or it might have been because he bore more than a slight resemblance to the Scooby Doo character, assuming that Fred Jones lifts, that is!

Fred and I used to wargame at school - mostly Ancients using WRG 6th - but lost touch after he swapped to doing the real thing and joined the army. Flash forward many years and he was now out, had seen me on Linked In, and made contact again. We met up shortly afterwards for a drink or three, and from there it was a very easy transition to arranging a game.

Gaming is very different now to what it was then. In those days, the early to mid-eighties, nothing was quick and nothing was small: a battle was a whole day or weekend affair, minimum, with thousands of 25mm figures on the tabletop and an allowance built into the session’s timetable for colossal, life-threatening rules disputes involving such matters of importance as fractions of inches or degrees; the definition of charging in a straight line; or line of sight arguments that could only be settled by the hiring of a theodolite! Fred used to paint 25mm Minifigs’ Napoleonics with a syringe needle, for God’s Sake, in order to make sure the regimental numbers on the cuffs were legible!

I had no wish to return to those days, especially the “life-threatening rules disputes” as he was still a very large person and now presumably trained to kill, so decided upon a game of For King and Parliament, the English Civil War version of To The Strongest. FK&P is a cracking game that, to my mind, really captures the look and feel of the period to give reasonably realistic results with fast-play mechanics. It’s grid based, obviating a lot of the disputes about measuring, and driven by drawing playing cards.

We used the first scenario from my Marlowe to Maidenhythe scenario pack, with both sides acknowledging that this first game would be a training session more than anything else. Fred took the Royalists, on the attack versus my Parliamentarians.

Fred’s first question: where was the grid? It is there, but indicated in a way that doesn’t interfere with the look of the game.

I won’t describe the battle in detail, but suffice to say that it was a grinding win for the Royalists.

What was interesting, however, was seeing Fred reacting to the different challenges he faced, drawing on military rather than wargaming experience. My battalia were to be “located and fixed in place” before being destroyed by an attack from the flank, so Fred immediately understood the concept of a Zone of Control or ZoC, and proved very good at the fixing and destroying bit.

An advantage was to be “immediately followed up” with the emphasis being on a series of consecutive hammer blows rather than necessarily conserving damaged units. It was all very interesting, and we both enjoyed the game immensely.

Here are some more shots of the battle:

FK&P AAR: Muscovites and Scots

/

John and I fancied a game of For King & Parliament, but I didn’t fancy using straight ECW armies. Eastern front was a possibility, but I didn’t fancy using the Cossacks, which meant my only complete army was the Muscovites, but who to fight against them? Step forward the Scots and we were good to go, albeit for a rather odd if contemporary mash up!

I would play the Muscovites and, incredibly considering the amount of horse I had, immediately lost the initiative and had to start deploying first. My plan was to put most of my cavalry on the right and win there whilst my infantry held the centre and left, then swing my victorious cavalry into the rear of his infantry once they were fully engaged with mine.

Only potential problem was that I didn’t have much infantry, so had to use a brigade of Reiters (heavy horsemen) in the middle to fill a gap.

The Scots read my cavalry deployment superbly, and placed their large cavalry brigade opposite them, meaning that not only were my Tatar light cavalry immediately wrongfooted (I wanted to sneak them round the flank but their way there now led through some Scots Pistoliers) but my National Cavalry were squashed up behind a windmill! C- could do better for deployment!

Lots of lovely Muscovite horse, but they’re not quite in the right place

As battle commenced, the Scots hung back: advancing only their Highlanders on my left and their cavalry on my right. I quickly led my entire army forward except for the Servant Cossacks and Border Dragoons on my far left: I didn’t fancy mixing it with some mad Clansmen!

I also attempted to sort out the mess on my right flank by getting one of the brigades of National Cavalry to swap places with the Tatars: what a mess!

The aforementioned mad clansmen

Swapping two brigades of cavalry over is not easy

Fortunately John’s Scots had a fit of the slows, and I was able to get my horse sorted out and push forward to start the engagement that should sweep the Scots cavalry from the field and thus fulfil stage one of my cunning plan.

Meanwhile in the centre, the main body of Scots infantry had finally started moving forward. My Reiters headed out to meet them, but as I didn’t fancy charging well-ordered pike blocks, my cavalry turned around and retreated before any significant action took place.

The enemy were now effectively advancing in echelon towards me, which suited me fine as it gave my National cavalry more time to win on the right. The only trouble was that the Scots horse were proving hardier than expected!

The cavalry melee on the right went on and on, and I just couldn’t seem to break the Scots donkey-wallopers!

This meant that the Scots infantry were able to advance on my line and a series of sporadic firefights and melees broke out. My Reiters were still able to outpace the advancing Scots, but my Soldats and Border Dragoons were not so fortunate. A good thing, however, was that my Tatars had now managed to slip through the enemy line, going over the crest of the hill through the grounds of the windmill.

Finally, however, the Scots horse broke, and my cavalry were able to turn and head to the left. The Tatars led the way, forcing the nearest Scots pikemen into hedgehog. My heavier horse cantered past the spikey beasts and then curled round and slammed into the rear of the units next to them. At the same time my Reiters now charged forward meaning the Scots were caught front and rear.

Once the surviving Muscovite heavy horse got into a position on the flanks and rear of the enemy line, the battle was really all over for the Scots. I won’t describe every moment of the roll up: suffice to say that it got very bloody very quickly, and once one or two of their pike blocks had broken, the domino effect soon had all their troops fleeing for the safety of the Glens!

It hadn’t quite been a text book victory: too much had gone wrong with my initial deployment, meaning that my left and centre had only just held out for long enough to let my right wing do what they did. Had the Scots been even a little quicker off the mark on their left and centre, then I would have lost the battle there before my National Cavalry had even dealt with the Scottish horse.

FK&P AAR: Fire Over Barsetshire, Round 2

/

This was the return match of Rob and I’s clash of Elizabethan English and Spanish forces in a fictional encounter in the equally fictitious county of Barsetshire.

In our first game, I had played the Spanish and achieved a decent win, so now it was time to see if I could do the same thing playing the English.

The Spanish Tercio: veterans all!

I was a bit nervous about the Spanish Tercio, so determined to avoid it for as long as possible. I therefore placed my Militia on my left flank, opposite the Tercio, determined to use the walled enclosures as a fortress from which to fight from. That left my Hunting Party longbowmen and commanded shot in the centre; and the contingent from the Royal army on the right.

As mentioned above, my plan was to hold the Militia back and push the Royal Army forward as fast and hard as possible, hopefully winning on the right flank before turning to roll up the Spanish once I’d done so.

As the battle opened, I therefore pushed forward my right, but the Spanish facing the Royal Army didn’t come forward. In fact they moved slightly sideways into the centre of the field, leaving my best troops hanging facing no-one to fight!

Meanwhile, on the left, the Tercio moved forward ponderously, but it was in the centre that we would first see action as the Spaniards’ Irish contingent, led by some Kerns, rushed forward towards the Hunting Party troops.

As the Kerns came forward, the English longbowmen did their thing, and the wild Irish were soon sent packing. This left the Irish pike, commanded shot and swordsmen to contest the centre: a fight that would continue for some time without clear resolution.

Meanwhile the Tercio were still ponderously heading for my refused left flank:

But it was on the right flank that things became very intense very quickly.

As mentioned above, my Royal Army contingent had marched forward as quickly as possible, determined to win the battle before the Spanish Tercio could get stuck in. They were facing the left hand edge of the Irish brigade and a brigade known as the Volunteers consisting of swordsmen and mounted arquebusiers. My veteran troops should have carved their way through them nicely but actually ended up effectively losing the individual melees that followed!

Besides costing me my best troops and about half my victory medals, this let a unit of Spanish mounted arquebusiers slip through my line to threaten the Royal Artillery.

Now those of you who play For King and Parliament will know that artillery is usually not very useful in open battle. Rarely do you have the equivalent of a Grand Battery to blow huge swathes out of the enemy line: the standard is to have one or maybe two slow-firing pieces that are as useful as battlefield dressing. As the arquebusiers charged in, therefore, I resigned myself to losing another unit and another victory medal!

I had obviously underestimated the Royal gunners, as rather than being run down like rabbits, they sent the arquebusiers routing off the field!

A nice success, but now the Spanish Tercio arrived.

Choosing to drift into the centre of the field, the enemy pike and shot launched an attack on the two walled enclosures defended by the Militia and the remnants of Sir Fitzgerald Percy’s Hunting Party.

Although my troops survived this first wave of attacks, it was a costly business. Admittedly the Militia were relatively unscathed, but they were under severe threat from the front and flank; and my centre had taken a hammering and was still faced by an unbroken line of enemy pike and shot.

I was also now down to only two victory medals (meaning the loss of one more unit would cost me the battle as my men lost their morale and fled) and although my opponent was in the same situation, his units were mostly much healthier than mine and, as you can see in the pics above, in a far better tactical position.

I had the initiative, but if I didn’t win the battle this turn, then that would most likely be it as the relatively fresh Spanish troops hit my tired and disordered troops in the flank.

You remember how I said that artillery was mostly useless in open battle? Well the Royal Artillery were about to prove me wrong again.

Up ahead of their position, a unit of Spanish swordsmen threatened the flank of some already-disordered English pike. Unbelievably, the Royal Guns managed to not only fire three times in the same turn but, with their last round of ammunition, they also managed to score three hits on the Spaniards…sending them from the field and costing Rob his last two victory medals just before he could finish me off!

I really did feel that I had managed to snatch the narrowest of victories from the gaping jaws of defeat!

It had been a great game that showed how flexible the FK&P engine is: able to cope with the peccadilloes of the Elizabethan era as well as it does the English Civil War and Eastern Front.

One final picture, if only to showcase Rob’s beautifully painted troops and terrain. Here is the Spanish Forlorn Hope: the crew of the Sao Martinho happily taking no part in the battle as they loot a nearby farm!

FK&P AAR: Fire Over Barsetshire

/

Friend Rob came round today and brought with him his collection of Elizabethan era English and Spanish for a 16th Century dust up of some kind.

Difficult to decide which rules to use, as we wanted to employ the TTS engine but the Elizabethan era sits neatly between the end of To The Strongest and the beginning of For King & Parliament.

In the end we plumped for FK&P, but with a few minor variations very much like the Eastern Front variant that we use for 17thC warfare in eastern Europe.

The Scenario

Rob had worked out a simple scenario involving some Spaniards “left over” from the Armada launching an invasion of England from a base in Ireland…

Spanish Briefing

When the Armada was driven north into the teeth of storm and gale, England believed she was saved. You, Captain General Velazquez will prove the heathen English and their she-devil Queen wrong.

Fortuitously as you limped south through the Irish Sea, you came upon the remains of the Squadron of Portugal also making their way slowly back to Spain and safety. Inspiring your fellow officers and the commandantes of the much-reduced fleet, you came up with a cunning plan. Landing with what force you had remaining on the coast of Ireland, you recruited a brigade of good Irish Catholics to your cause, rallied by the patriotic songs of a passing group of folk singers who conveniently agreed to lead the Irish forces.

Spanish Pike & Shot with Captain General Velazquez

Making a dash for the western coast of England, the Lord has finally blessed your endeavours, your landing was unopposed and, with what forces you have left, you have marched inland, hoping to rouse the English Catholics to your banner and still snatch victory from the jaws of disaster. So far, they have been less than forthcoming. One real victory, though, should inspire a rising across southern England.

You have made good time and have reached the county of Barsetshire, a hive of Protestant scum and villainy. As you ready to advance on a small farm just to the south of Uffley, you sight a ragged band of English soldiers: this is finally your chance to claim revenge for all the wrongs the English have done to Spain and God’s true cause.

The Irish Brigade

With you, you have the “volunteers” from the fleet, being a mixture of ships’ crews and what cavalry you have been able to raise using horses liberated on your march east. The least motivated, at least they will distract the English! Your core troops are your four battalia of Spanish infantry, the terror of Europe and veterans all. Finally, you have a brigade of Irish volunteers: untried, but ready for plunder and true to the faith.

Seize the farm, rout the English, and the road will be clear to Barchester itself!

English Briefing

The Godless Spanish don’t know when they’re beaten…but it’s time to show them once and for all that they are.

You are Lord William Harding, the Duke of Barsetshire. It’s a proud name, and you are determined to honour it. Unfortunately you missed the battles at sea, and thought all the glory would got to privateers like Drake, but God has given you the chance to feast upon one small part of the Spanish pie!

Sir Mark Proudie’s Pike from the Royal Army

Word of a Spanish landing in the west reached London and at first none believed it: the Spanish had been defeated weeks ago! As, however, reports of Spaniards marching inland grew, the Queen has dispatched you and a (concerningly small) force to deal with what are surely just some remnant Spanish brigands who’ve been blown ashore.

As you neared your home county, however, you became aware that what faced you was not a band of weakened, dispirited sailors but the core of a Spanish army, supported by Irish rebels. So be it: whatever the odds, God is on your side!

Sir Bernard Crosbie, a venerable old gent, has not been inactive either, and the West Barsetshire Militia have been raised, accompanied by some welcome artillery and the Reverend Crawley, rumoured to be in line for a Bishopric and certain to inspire the men. Most of your troops are lightly armed and untried, but you have strong cavalry, and every stout yeoman of England is worth at least two Papist wretches!

You intend to make a stand to the south of Uffley, not least because you own farmland there and would rather it stayed that way! Defend the road, save Barchester, and show the Spaniards once again that God is an Englishman!

The Silverbridge Gunsmiths Guild artillery: part of the West Barsetshire Militia

The Game

I would play the Spanish, Rob would play the English. The Spanish set up with the Irish on their right, the Tercio (their best troops) in the centre, and the somewhat dodgy “Volunteers” on the left. The English had the Militia of their left (i.e. opposite the Irish), the Royal army in the centre, and a locally raised mixture of musketeers and longbowmen, with a bit of light cavalry, on the right.

My plan was simple: advance my flanks forward as fast as possible then bring up the Tercio in the centre to finish off anything that was left!

The Battle Begins

View from Behind the English lines

English light horse advance to their doom

On the Spanish left, the two units of Mounted Arquebusiers faced off against a unit of English light horse and soon, with a combination of shot and a quick charge, sent them fleeing from the field. Despite instructions to the contrary, the arquebusiers who had actually charged home (Los Dopicos Horse) then pursued the fleeing cavalry: rapidly disappearing into the distance!

On the right, the Irish brigade moved forward as fast as possible towards the English Militia in their walled enclosure.

A unit of English light cavalry with lances and pistols hit the untried McKenna’s Kern and dispersed them, but they in turn were blown away by musketry from the right hand unit of the Tercio coming up from behind. This left the rest of the Irish free to assault the Militia in what turned out to be a series of hard fought melees with bill-armed troops but, as the battle ended, the Irish definitely had the advantage.

Meanwhile, in the centre, the Tercio had been steadily advancing towards the English Royal Army. Both sides were veteran infantry: the Spanish consisted of three pike and shot battalia and a unit of commanded shot; the English one pike and shot battalia, two commanded shot, and the Royal Gallowglass.

My Tercio managed to shrug off the fire coming from the enemy arquebusiers and get stuck in with their pikes, and the English centre began to give way. This allowed Juanitos’ Pike, led by General Tapioca, to burst through the line and then head off to the left flank to help out Volunteers.

Before we come to the climax of the battle, a quick interlude.

The English Demilancers, Robart’s Horse, had punched their way through the Spanish line earlier in the game, but also pursued their fleeing enemy right the way to the other end of the table. Eventually rallying and forming up again, they actually found themselves next to a farmhouse in which the crew of the Spanish galleon, the Sao Martinho, were sheltering: the crew counting as a Forlorn Hope, presumably because there was only a forlorn hope of getting them into action!

English Demilancers and the crew of the Sao Martinho line up next to each other!

The sailors fired off all the ammunition they had at the English horsemen…who utterly ignored them and trotted off, untouched, to see if they could get back to the main battle in time to influence its outcome.

Right, back to the main action.

The Spanish were definitely winning, but still needed to deliver the coup de grace to the English and, as anyone who plays FK&P knows, the fortunes of war can turn in an instant. A good example of this was about to happen.

The other unit of mounted arquebusiers, the Nuevo Rico Horse, charged into the flank of some enemy commanded shot. This should have led to a glorious victory but, instead, the Englishmen took the charge, turned and blew the Spaniards away with fire.

not, as many predicted, the End of some commanded shot!

This left the enemy commanded shot and two units of longbowmen holed up near or in a walled enclosure: not a suitable charge target for the remaining Spanish mounted arquebusiers even if the archers were all out of arrows.

Fortunately General Tapioca and Juanitos’ Pike were on hand and, still fresh after chomping through the English in the center, went in over the walls to skewer the longbowmen on their pike.

Over the walls the pikemen go!

The lonbowmen crumbled and fled the field and this proved too much for English morale to withstand. With their Militia on their left about to lose to the Irish, the Royal army in the centre under extreme pressure, and the loss of their right, they decided that discretion was the better part of valour and fled for safety. Victory to the Spanish!

Aftermath

Although the Spanish had gained the advantage early on in the battle, it had been a great and hard fought game. The rule modifications we used worked well, although we had needed to clarify a few bits and bobs as the game progressed: can Kerns use their javelins as part of the charge sequence, for example.

The figures (all from Khurasan) had looked very good indeed and all that now remained was to have a quick bite to eat before setting up for the return game where I would play the English…but that’s another post!

FK&P AAR: Cossacks & Transylvanians versus Muscovites

/

After the Cossacks got so badly hammered last time out against a Muscovite army, it was time to reinforce them with some Transylvanians: the Cossacks would provide the war wagons and foot, the Transylvanians some fairly decent cavalry.

The Muscovites were, again, mostly Sons of Boyars or Reiter cavalry supported by two small brigades of infantry.

View from behind the Muscovite line

Muscovites

Transylvanians & Cossacks

Muscovite Reiters

Elite Transylvanian Cavalry

As the battle began, both sides advanced forward smartly, with the terrain meaning that the game divided into three sectors: my left flank, the centre and my right flank.

On My Left

On my left, some scummy looking Border Guards had appeared in front of me: the perfect target for the Transylvanians!

Apparently not, as rather than running over them like a badly dressed speedbump, my horsemen got impaled on their pikes. This flank then turned into an uneasy stalemate as horse and foot units milled around charging each other with little effect. The battle would be decided elsewhere!

On the Right Flank

On my right flank, I had some Transylvanian Enlisted Light Cavalry supported by two Haiduk units sheltering in the woods.

The plan was to send the light cavalry forward to soften up the three units of Reiters coming towards me so that the Haiduks could wipe them out from safe amongst the trees.

This did not work: the light horse were swept away almost immediately, and then the Haiduks were charged from the flanks and front and, despite the bonuses for being in cover, were swept away as well. The final unit of Haiduks did hold out for some turns, but eventually succumbed, leaving my centre now vulnerable to flank attacks.

Meanwhile in the Centre…

Meanwhile in the centre, the main body of Muscovite Reiters steamed towards my line: a mixed line of raw Moloitsy short-pike-and-shot and tabor war wagons.

My tabor fired valiantly away with both their light guns and musketry, but because I only had two of them rather than my usual four, I couldn’t get the concentrated fire I needed to halt the enemy Reiters heading towards me.

The Moloitsy were charged and gave way, leaving the tabor as islands of resistance amongst a swirling sea of Muscovite horsemen.

By this stage, I was also getting very short of victory medals…

The End

As my right wing collapsed, the loss of one unit too many caused my army as a whole to collapse: the Muscovites had won the day!

This wasn’t a hammering, I hasten to add: the Muscovites had been losing units as well, but it the Cossacks and Transylvanians who crumbled first!

Another great game, through, even if the Muscovites are currently proving unstoppable!

FK&P AAR: Cossacks vs Muscovites

/

Time to get my new Muscovites onto the tabletop and into action, with their opponents being the Zaphorogian Cossacks. Russians verses Ukrainians: who would have thought!

I played the Cossacks, daughter #1’s boyfriend, Kavan, played the Muscovites. The rules used were For King & Parliament with the Eastern Front adaptations taken from the Tales from a Wargaming Shed website.

This turned out to be a fast and furious battle with what seemed like an endless wave of Muscovite horse crashing onto the Cossack tabor and infantry.

Here a gallery of the set up so that you can see the two sides:

The battle opened with a brigade of Muscovite Reiters thundering forward on the Cossack right flank, held by a brigade of Moloitsy and Registered Cossacks. The cards were with Kavan, with a couple of consecutive “10’s” ensuring that he actually charged home on his first turn!

The rapid charge had, however, obviously exhausted his cavalrymen, as they bounced backwards from the Cossack infantry, losing one squadron in the process.

The Muscovites also advanced another brigade of Reiters on my left flank, but not as fast, so I sent my Tartar allies out to deal with them whilst I advanced the tabor forward and prepared to deploy.

I almost came a cropper at this point, as his Reiters were once again quick off the mark, and hit one of my tabor wagons before it had a chance to deploy. Fortunately, I managed to survive the charge, but there was definitely now a weak point in my line!

Even worse, my Tatar Nobles (the best troops I had) had obviously been bribed by the Muscovites, as they left the table, along with some of their horse archers, without achieving anything!

I was now in quite serious danger of being outflanked on the left!

Fortunately I had a reserve brigade of infantry that I could deploy to face this threat, and the battle became a series of Muscovite assault on a fortress of Cossack tabor. Again and again, the Reiters and elite National Cavalry charged home, and again and again the Cossack line held.

My artillery was overrun, two of the tabor wagons were overrun, my Registered Cossacks on the right were wavering, but still we held, and the relentless assaults were costing the Muscovites dearly.

Kavan also wasn’t helped by a run of bad cards, including what you can see in the last picture, above: an absolute dead-cert winning flank charge on the reserve unit holding my left flank foiled by a couple of Aces drawn in a row.

This gave me the chance to get the last remaining unit of Tatars in on his flank and, finally, the Muscovites had had enough and retreated. A very narrow escape for the Cossacks!

It had been a terrific game, with everything coming right down to the wire. I had lost half my army, but had just managed to hold on long enough to get the win. Roll on the next game!

FK&P: Lists for the Eastern Front

/

Whilst researching for my English Civil War armies, I came across the blog Tales from a Wargaming Shed. It’s author, Tim, had some rules and army lists for using For King & Parliament to fight pike and shot battles in 17th Century Eastern Europe as opposed to just the UK’s green and pleasant land.

Muscovites versus Cossacks, from a recent game

This, combined with the comprehensive miniatures for the theatre available from Wargamer.pl, inspired me to start a collection of Zaphorogian Cossacks to face friend Bevan’s Polish Lithuanians and then, as my collection expanded to include Muscovites, Transylvanians and others, to build on Tim’s work and the information provided in the By Fire & Sword rules by Wargamer.pl, to create more detailed army lists for For King & Parliament for the theatre.

On this new page on this blog, therefore, you will find pdfs of the army lists I have created so far. These are, I hasten to say again, hugely based on Tim’s work and the information provided in the By Fire & Sword rules by Wargamer.pl. All I have done is build upon their work, adding information taken from other sources (for example, the Steven’s Balagan blog) to put together enough information to get as many different eastern front '“pike and shot” armies as possible on the tabletop. Any mistakes are my own, and I welcome corrections or suggestions (send to admin@vislardica.com).

FK&P: The Eastern Front

FK&P AAR: Widbrooke Common Again

/

As Rob had not only come a long way but also beaten me fairly quickly playing The Attack on Marlowe scenario, it seemed only meet and right to have another game…and being logical chaps, we set up the table for the second scenario from Marlowe the Maidenhythe scenario pack: Widbrooke Common.

Scene from behind the Parliamentarian lines

It’s the Royalists on the attack: advancing against the Parliamentarians across the eponymous common. Although Rob had played the Cavaliers in the first game, we got switched around somehow, and now I would take the loyalists into battle against the Roundheads.

The Royalists wasted no time, and marched forward smartly towards the traitors opposite them. One slight worry was that a lot of my infantry were Untried (the yellow markers in the picture below) meaning that the first time they encountered anything battle-ly (were shot at, wanted to shoot, were charged etc) they would have to check their morale

Slightly to the left of centre, the two cavalry lines clashed, with honours really falling to the Roundheads: their bigger ‘Dutch’ units surviving the initial charges of my smaller ‘Swedish’ squadrons and then bashing me up in the melee that followed.

In the event, both sides cavalry effectively cancelled each other out, especially as one of my infantry units was able to turn and blast a Roundhead horse unit in the flank. The battle would end with each sides’ surviving cavalry manoeuvering for advantage in the open ground on my left wing.

Which meant that the battle would be decided in the centre and on my right.

As you can just about see in the picture above, the first thing that I did was to dispose of the Roundhead artillery with my small unit of Cuirassiers. A bit risky, but the cards were with me and the guns were silenced for no loss.

The Cuirassiers then went on to threaten the Roundhead rear, eventually destroying the unit of commanded shot that formed the Parliamentarian reserve.

You can also see, in the picture on the right, that my infantry have moved forward and begun to push back his main line. Here’s a couple of great shots of them going into action:

What isn’t shown in the pictures above, and the reason that victory was eventually mine, is that on the right flank my horse had moved forward and outflanked two Parliamentarian infantry units that were trying to evict a Royalist Forlorn Hope from a small farm building.

Here’s a shot from earlier in the game: the Forlorn Hope would keep the Roundhead infantry distracted for long enough for my horse to turn left and hit them in the flank…which meant that when I broke the infantry in the centre, Rob ran out of Victory Medals and I had won!

It had been a great game, fairly tight right until the end. The initial Roundhead success with the cavalry hadn’t turned into more mainly because his horse pursued my retreating horse for too long, which gave me a chance to re-group what I had left and at least keep him occupied while my infantry moved forward.

The Cuirassiers were, despite their small size, the stars of the game: punching a hole in the enemy line and then disordering the main Roundhead line by violently removing their reserves behind them.

Another great game of FK&P!

 

If you enjoyed reading this post, please add Vis Lardica to your list of favourites or, even better, to the list of favourite blogs on your own site.

www.vislardica.com