Sunday, February 27, 2011

Warre without an enemie!

Well it has taken a couple of years (I do get distracted now and then :) ) , but I have finally been able to put some men on the table for the English Civil War. My fellow NWA'er has taken on the role of the Royalists while I am for Parliament. We had about 5 units ready on each side so we decided to give them a run.

We have several rulesets we are considering including WHECW, 1644, Without Quarter and Very Civille Actions by the Perfect Captain. We had heard good things about civille actions so we gave them ago ably assisted by fellow club member Greg who had actually played the rules once before.

The Parliament forces were 3 regiments of foot, a dragoon unit, cannon and a troop of horse. The Royalist were 2 regiments of foot, 2 troops of horse and a unit of dragoons.

Here are the initial deployments. The terrain has all been scratchbuilt by me.



The Parliament forces formed up with the two larger regiments taking the center and right wing with a further regiment of foot in the rear in reserve. The lone Saker cannon was deployed on the small hill that looked over the village. The Dragoons were over the bridge deployed behind hedges to protect the extreme left flank. The troop of Harquebusiers were on the left wing where the village would not restrict their movement.

The Royalist forces deployed in typical ECW fashion with both regiments of foot in the center with horse on both wings. The Royalist Dragoons took up position opposite the Parliament dragoons.






The battle began with the Royalist dragoons moving to occupy the small copse of trees on their right flank and opened up musket fire on the royalist dragoons behind hedges next to the bridge.



The Parliament cannon spoke loudly but had no effect on the approaching royalist forces. The two opposing lines advanced and the royalist oxford regiment opened up a musketry duel with Colonel Samuel Jones regiment. The green coats got the better of the fight and the Oxford boys clearly did not have the stomach for the fight and turned and ran leaving a gaping hole in the royalist center.



The Parliament commander Sir William Waller sought to exploit the sudden disappearance of the Oxford regiment and swing the green coats onto the other royalist regiment, however the royalist cavalry prevented this action so in a optimistic move the Parliament cavalry charged up hill to attack the Royalist horse.
In the ensuing fight the Parliament horse pushed back the royalist horse but neither side had won the fight.



The Royalist horse on the left flank tried a manuever around the village but were frustrated by Sir Ralph Weldon's red coats who kept them bay with musket fire and the ploughed field prevented the horse from charging home. The other royalist foot moved into the village to force out the red coats.




At this time the Royalists received reinforcements with another Oxford regiment (looking just like the last one *wink*) arriving to plug the gap in the center. Again the green coats fired on the Oxford boys but this time it was the green coats that turned tail and ran!



Sir Arthur Hesselriggs regiment of foot in blue moved forward to plug the Parliament line. The Parliament horse repulse a charge from the Royalist horse with the pistol fire but decided they were too exposed and pulled back to protect the left flank of the Parliament blue coats.



The foot started a musketry duel in the village but neither side gained an advantage.



At this point with the night drawing to a close the two commanders seemed satisfied with their efforts and both forces were withdrawn with the battle honours being shared.

The figures used in the game were Warlord games plastic for all the parliament forces. The Royalist foot were also Warlord Games but the Cavalry were from Renegade Miniatures.

The game was quite enjoyable and moved at a good pace considering we didn't know the rules. Both players were excited by the prospect of future games and will be busily painting to finish off the last of our starter armies.

We received a lot of good comments on the game and several other club members seemed keen to take up the cause for King or Parliament.

Cheers

Neil

New Year's Resolutions

Hello all and welcome to the wargamming year of 2011!

As I suppose you all did, I sat down at the start of 2011 and thought about my gaming plans for 2011.
So many periods to play, so little time to paint is the continual dilemma of the wargamer. As with all things, it is a case of setting priorities for the year and with hand on heart and the best of intentions I set out my objectives for the coming year.

2010 was a period of good progress in several areas. I entered a whole new period for me i.e. WWII with Crossfire in 15mm, painting up a company of late war germans and Brit paras. I finally finished my tripod and martian designs to have the models released commercially through Eureka miniatures. I finished my British Gaslight VSF forces and did a lot of scratchbuilding 28mm terrain including european buildings for ECW, North African buildings for VSF/Sudan and other bits and pieces.

I also entered the gaming business with my own wargamming business Ozbattler selling Old Glory miniatures in Australia. Other bits and pieces included WWI and WWII planes for our dogfight games and the slow process of painting up English Civil War regiments and convincing other club members to take up the period in "God's own scale" 28mm.

So for 2011 my main focus will be:  

English Civil War: Finally I have enough forces to take the field of battle! What's  more I actually have an opponent as well! Expect the first battle report shortly :) I still have a another regiment of foot, a cannon and three troops of horse to paint but that will complete my starter Parliament army (William Waller's Southern Association).

Zulu War: I am planning a display game for our club's open day featuring the battle of Rourke's Drift during the Zulu War of 1879. I need to paint up 270 more zulus and about 80 Brits. I will be using a mix of Wargames factory and Empress minatures for the game and I need to scratchbuild all the terrain and buildings. It is a lot of work but I am looking forward to it. I am also going to try another rule set " Washing of the Spears" by David Bickley where all the players take on the Brits while the Zulus are controlled by a movement generator.

War of the Roses: I have finally given in to my fellow club members and succumb to the scourge that is Field of Glory! Our club has actually got organised where we are planning our armies with the view to play historical games (amazing!!). WOTR is a popular period for all, so it is the first period that we will focus on.
So over Christmas I coughed up the money and bought the first figures for my starter 600 point WOTR army based on Henry Tudor's army at Bosworth ( I am Welsh after all!) 15mm Musuem figures.

World War II: I will build on my progress from last year and start adding some armour and antitank guns etc to our games. I may also paint a Russian Company. I also need to make more 15mm terrain.

So that is my priorities for 2011. Of course I may get distracted with the odd WWI or WWII plane, maybe some bits and pieces for Gaslight but I am determined to stick to this plan for the year.

We will see how I go!

Happy Gaming!
Cheers
Neil