A Scottish brawl: ECW action in the Battleroom

Well its still holiday time mostly in Australia and so, since its quiet, I can write a few extra Blog posts.

This weekend I had my first game for the year. It was time to get the Battleroom back in action and so with the promise of a fun game and a nice BBQ lunch, I invited my ECW buddies Tom, Richard and Jon for a game of Pike & Shotte.

Richard & Jon were keen to get all of their Scots on the table, so we came up with a fictitious Scottish brawl scenario where two Scottish forces, one Royalist (Jon & Tom) and one Parliament (Richard & myself) were opposing each other. Tom's royalist English and my Parliamentarians added a few regiments to bolster the opposing forces.

We ended up with three brigades per side consisting of two brigades of foot and one brigade of Cavalry.

Here are the opposing forces with Parliament on the left and Royalists on the Right.

 

 

 

Unusually for an ECW game, Richard commanding one brigade of foot and one of horse, chose to deploy his cavalry in the center to punch a hole through the enemy line. As it turned out the cavalry on both sides had virtually no bearing on the outcome of the battle.

A road bisected the battle field and it was obvious that this would be where the armies would clash.

Both sides advanced towards the road with the Parliamentarians winning the race and got off the first volley's of the battle.

On the Parliament right the Royalists had the better of it and held a defensive position on the road with two regiments of foot and a commanded shotte regiment. Poor command rolls slowed the Parliament advance with their dragoons inactive (they would do nothing for the whole battle due to poor command rolls).

Pretty soon a both sides were trading volleys across the road with Parliament having the better of the fight breaking a few Royalist units.

It was at this point that Richard decided to force the issue on his left and charged his line into the Royalists. This began a series of hard fought melees that went back and forth but Richard was slowly gaining the upperhand in the fight.

The Parliamentarians Scots break up the Royalist right.

Following Richard's example, I launched my own foot on the right and broke a Royalist shotte unit but mounting casualties were having their effect. My brigade command continued to fail command rolls requiring he Commander in Chief to come over and issue orders and rally units to keep them in the fight.

Richard finally succeeded in breaking Jon's brigade, although it was very close that both brigades could have broken. With the advantage now with Parliament, the Cavalry charged forward in the center but the Royalists calmly formed hedgehog and repulsed the cavalry. The Royalist cavalry had no room to move and were essentially stuck behind their own forces. They had also split the cavalry forces in two so in any cavalry fight they would be outnumbered.

The Royalist brigade opposing my forces was slowly losing to my units but they still had plenty of fight left in them but with the right flank broken, their center stalled and their left under heavy pressure they conceded the day to Parliament.

Of course with muso mate Jon (guitar) we had to have an impromptu play as a warm up to the battle.

All in all the day was an excellent way to kick off the gaming year with good company, good food and a good game. You can't ask for more than that!

Cheers

Neil

2017: That was the year that was,and looking forward to 2018.

Hello again and its time for my latest and rather belated blog update!

Gee time has flown since my last post back in August. While the blog was quiet (due to laziness and general disorganization on my part) my hobby and gaming time certainly wasn't. So rather than dwell on the lack of blog updates, lets dive straight into my review of the 2017 Hobby year and cast a soothsayer's eye to the year ahead.

First up: The painting tally.

Well this year, for one reason or another i was unable to match the output of the previous year with only 190 miniatures painted. I also yet again failed to reach my target of 365 miniatures for the year.

On the purchases front i was a lot less disciplined with 535 miniatures purchased although those numbers were given a massive upsurge with the arrival of a certain kickstarter (more of that anon!)

in reviewing my painted versus purchased tallies since i started keeping records (2015) i have managed to paint 666 miniatures while purchasing 1,468. That results in a 45% return on painted figures. I need to work on increasing that percentage this year!

This year my painting efforts focused in the following areas:

Superheroes -28mm
Bush Wars -20mm  - 80s Imagi-nations Africa
German 1/1800 predreadnought ships
Early Imperial Romans -28mm
Labyrinth boardgame miniatures
Gladiators - 28mm
Frostgrave miniatures
Napoleonic Russians - 28mm

So a fairly diverse range of periods and genres.

No major terrain projects were undertaken this year due to lack of time and available space in the garage.

Now onto the gaming:

My Top 5 games for the year:

Some favorites from last year were still popular but other games were a surprise appearance.

Number 5: Chain of Command

I really enjoy this game. I have played it in two different scales, 15mm for Eastern front and 28mm for North Africa. However i haven't played it as much as i would like with shorter games more commonly played on club nights. This is a game i certainly want to play more of in 2018.




Number 4: English Civil War

A regular favourite that gets at least 3 or 4 outings per year. We mostly play this period using the Blackpowder: Pike & Shotte rules but in 2017 I experimented with some rule writing and we playtested a few games of my rules. Some encouraging results but still a few bugs to work out. We will definitely play more games of ECW in 2018.

Number 3: Super System, 4th edition

I couldn't resist the lure of Super Heroes bashing each other and throwing cars. I painted up my own Superhero team and played several games of this fun and exciting game. The game is even better when played on a fantastic city terrain setup by clubmate James Wright (Check out his blog here: http://leadcapes.blogspot.com.au/ ) Another game that should occupy my gaming this year.


Number 2: Frostgrave

Last year's favorite game was still a game that occupied a lot of my gaming. This year will probably involve finishing off a few bits and pieces for my existing collection before branching out into one of the many expansions. I have purchased an MDF Dungeon set for "Into the Breeding Pits" scenarios.

Number 1: Striker!

Striker! is a ruleset for playing football games. Its written by a local chap here in Victoria who is a professional soccer coach. These rules finally gave me the impetus to paint up my soccer players from Eureka miniatures that i had lying around for several years.

The game is a lot of fun and really does capture the excitement of a soccer match. Several players at the club have teams now and one clubmate got really excited and built himself a nice stadium.
We have been working a fair bit with the author on the next edition trying to work out a couple of minor issues with the ruleset and developing some sort of player/team advancement table and a league/campaign system. The author does not appear to be much of a gamer so he doesn't necessarily grasp what appeals to gamers in a rule system. He developed the rules initially as a coaching tool for players.

This year i want to purchase a couple more teams to paint up. I currently have Manchester United and Chelsea, but I think I will add a couple of contrasting colored teams like West Ham Utd or Aston Villa and Totenham Hotspurs or Derby County.

Honorable mentions:

Sharp's Practice Another Lardy gem that I only got to the table a couple of times this year. I need to work on a French force to oppose my Russians and I want to also get into the ACW with SP.
I purchased a bunch of Perry ACW figures in 2017 exactly for SP.

Force on Force This is the rule set we are using for the Bush Wars Imagi-nations gaming in Africa in 1980s. I only managed one game this year but it has some appealing mechanics that I will be keen to try more of in 2018.

Boardgames:

I've never been much of a boardgame player, however over the past couple of years i have fallen to the lure of Kickstarter and backed several boardgames. I was able to play a few games this year and definitely want to increase the number of games played. The advantage of quick set up and pack away is a nice feature of boardgames. Unfortunately a lot of boardgames these days are supplied with gorgeous miniatures which are crying out to be painted which means that the unpainted pile isnt getting any smaller!

This year I have played:

Labyrinth the Boardgame 
  
A nice family cooperative game that does capture the feel of the film and the miniatures are simply lovely! The game is a race against the clock to save baby brother Toby from the Goblin King. In all our games it has gone down to the wire with us saving Toby on the 12th or 13th (last) turn.
I'll post a longer review soon.

Commands and Colors-Napoleonics

I picked this game up in 2016 and finally was able to play a few games this year. It is a really fun and exciting game that gives a nice Napoleonic feel although I am not really sure the firing mechanics reflect Napoleonic battles. However as a tatical challenge its a lot of fun. I am now keen to buy the Ancients version as I think that will work even better historically.


Battle of Britain

Another Richard Borg classic game reimagined by The Plastic Soldier Company via kickstarter.
The kickstarter itself was handled poorly by PSC with poor communication throughout and some serious issues with the plastic planes. There have been a lot of complaints of bent models.
I was able to fix my planes with some boiling water but to PSC's credit they have acknowledged the problem and have taken the massive step of remaking all the planes in a less flexible plastic.
This will be great as I ordered a lot of extra planes to use for WW2 dogfight games. I should recieve the new models sometime early this year along with a large scale map board so I can use croupier sticks to push planes around just like in the movie!

As for the games itself the game components are great quality and the game play is a lot of fun. This will definitely get played a lot more in 2018.

Kickstarters:

2016 was a huge year for backing kickstarters. 2017 was a bit more controlled. Here is what I backed.

Obsidian 3D Printer
 
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1403065126/obsidian-3d-printer-high-quality-sleek-and-afforda
 
I have wanted a 3D printer for a while and finally took the plunge with this little beauty. It will be delivered sometime in 2018.

Everlasting: The Best Wet Palette

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1061749597/everlasting-the-best-wet-palette-for-miniature-pai

I use a wet palette often in my painting. I have improvised one with a tupperware container but its not perfect. This product looks like it should work very well.

3D Printable Tanks by 3D wargaming

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/847988960/3d-printable-tanks-historical-and-sci-fi?ref=user_menu

Well since I will soon have a 3D printer, I need some models to print! You can get free models on websites like Thingiverse but they are usually quite poor quality. These models are extremely well sculpted and for a small amount of money i will get a heap of tank models. These models will probably cover the vast majority of models I will need for my WW2 gaming.

Mythic Battles: Pantheon
 
And finally I had a nice big package arrive just before Christmas. My Mythic Battles: Pantheon kickstarter. I had been so excited waiting for this game and it didn't let me down. The quality and volume of miniatures is simply some of the best I have ever seen! I havent had a chance yet to play it but this will keep me very busy in 2018.

 Lots of boxes! and the miniatures are stunning!

And so looking forward....

Well that was the hobby year 2017. A pretty busy year even if i didn't paint as many miniatures as i hoped.

So what are the plans for 2018? Well in short, consolidation. In my gaming I want to continue to play my existing games. Chain of Command, Sharp Practice and Lion Rampant are three games I want to get to the table more often in 2018. Frostgrave, Striker, Supers etc. will still get a regular outing.
If I do take on any new projects they should be small. Small in size and also small in the amount of time i need to invest to get it to the gaming table.

On the painting front I will still aim for my target of 365 miniatures. I already have several projects to work on which if i complete most of them will put me well on the way to meeting my target.

The current projects waiting in line for this year are:

Bush Wars. I have about a dozen vehicles to finish to complete my UmBongo force.

The UmBongo military expansion in full swing!

Early Imperial Romans. I am aiming to finish a sizeable Roman army to start playing Hail Caesar sometime in late 2018. In my painting pile I currently have about 70 odd miniatures to clear my current Roman stockpile.

SAGA Anglo-Saxon army. I have resisted the Dark Ages bug for a long time but this year I will finally paint a 6 point army. All the figures are bought and ready to go once I finish with the Romans.

Afrika Corps Platoon. I need to make an opposing force for my Desert Rats.

ACW Union army for Sharp Practice. In 2017 I picked up a bargain deal on a bunch of Perry ACW plastics and want to play some raiding type games.

And of course I have over 100 Mythic Battles miniatures to paint, some of which are huge!

On the Terrain making front 2018 will be a year of refresh. My European terrain is looking a bit tired. I want to make some new trees and hedges. Give my existing buildings a bit of a spruce up and make a few more buildings. I use this terrain in so many games so it is overdue for some maintenance.

Likewise my North African buildings are also in need of a refresh. Since we are planning to play a lot more Chain of Command North Africa games this year I need to breathe new life into these buildings.

As for new Terrain projects, I have three in mind. The first is new terrain mats for Europe and North Africa using Teddy Bear fur. I have seen some fantastic results using this material so I have picked up a roll of fur and some clippers and will get stuck into these early in 2018.

And finally my major project that will be useful for ECW and Lion Rampant is a castle!
I purchased a very nice castle from Old Glory but it needs a dedicated base with moat to really finish it off.

So that's it! 2018 already is shaping up to be another busy year. Please check back from time to time for an update.

All the Best!

Cheers
Neil

The Battle of Croydon Bridge - an massive ECW mash up!

Last weekend we decided on a big ECW battle to finish the gaming year. We have quite a few players now at the club fielding ECW forces. I am quite pleased with how this period has grown in popularity at our club since I first started my army way back in November 2009!

I was for Parliament, ably supported by fellow Parliamentarian Leith, and stoic Commander of the Scots contingent Jon.

On the Royalist side I was opposed by John with my arch nemesis Tom taking the centre :) and fellow "wrong but womantic woyalist" Ian commanding their left flank.

We decided on a huge "everything on the table" game and ended up with five brigades per side. I was in command of the left wing consisting of one brigade of pike and Shotte (4 units) and the main cavalry force of four units supported by two commanded Shotte units.

Here are the initial deployments with Parliament on the right and Royalists on the left. (sorry for the blurry photos)

On the Parliament right we had our Dragoons and some horse but the terrain of the woods etc. frustrated that flank with neither side really getting stuck into each other. Leith our commander of the right flank was also in charge of a pike and Shotte brigade which advanced into musket range and began a firefight with the opposing Royalists lined up on the road.

In our centre Jon commanding the Scots was tasked with pushing the Royalists out of the village. He managed to occupy one building but the fight here was a stalemate with neither side gaining the upper hand.

Opposing my flank was the imposing massed Royalist horse, eight units in total outnumbering my horse two to one. 

My strategy quickly evolved to delay any cavalry engagement for as long as possible to give time to my commanded Shotte and a supporting pike and Shotte regiment (which protected itself in the small copse of trees) to frustrate and whittle down the opposing horse.


Here you see my defended left flank against the massed horse. John the Royalist right flank commander advance his infantry on his left and began a firefight with my infantry brigade. He had the support of two medium guns which started to tear holes in my ranks. He then moved a cavalry unit to the left of the trees to charge my musketeers and punch a hole in our line.

 

His cavalry charged into my musketeers and in the ensuing melee destroyed one unit of shotte. The fight had reached a critical stage. Another round of melee would most likely destroy the remaining shotte unit and my brigade would be close to breaking.


It was at this moment that Sir William Waller commanding the brigade took the initiative and attaching himself to a pike unit issued a follow me order and charged in to the melee. The ensuing fight swung back to parliament and the cavalry were forced to retire beyond his guns out of weapon range shaken.

 

The cavalry was defeated but the infantry brigade was still perilously close to breaking. Waller was able to successfully rally his ragged lines and pulling back out of musket range saved the brigade from breaking.


On my left my commanded shotte and the infantry in the trees were quite effective in their musket fire causing many casualties among the Royalist horse and causing disorder. The fire coupled with the fact that John was new to command and probably a bit more cautious than you would expect outnumbering his foe two to one. Hesitated in his advance, even at one point pulling his entire line back out of musket range. His single supporting unit of commanded shotte lost the firefight against my two commanded shotte units and was shaken.

Meanwhile on the rest of the battlefield the Scots were stalled in the centre as was our far right flank. Leith commanding the right centre decided to force the issue and charged his line into contact with the Royalist foot. A mass melee ensued.

 

Finally John launched his cavalry forward against my commanded shotte. These stubborn men held their ground and gave a volley tearing into their ranks as they charged home. The commanded shotte fell back leaving his horse blooded and ripe for my cavalry counter attack.

 

In the ensuing fight one enemy horse unit was destroyed and another shaken. As they fell back my cavalry followed up with a sweeping advance destroying another unit of horse and causing another to be shaken. However I lost one unit of horse who failed a break test.

But by now the damage was done with two units destroyed and three shaken units John's brigade was broken!

My brigade was still in good shape and had the battle continued on I may have swept the field and have been able to take the Royalists in the rear.

Leith and Ian had fought a massive melee with neither side claiming the honours.

As time was called on the game Parliament had a narrow lead but the battle in the centre was likely to determine the final outcome.

Another fantastic game. The Pike and Shotte rules really work well with these really big battles.

First blood is drawn in the Battleroom

One of the conditions of moving into our new house last year was that I got my own gaming room. Okay it wasn't quite like that, it was more like, "Honey, you know that media room in the new house, that would make a real neato gaming room for me and a few chums to while away a few hours of an evening or weekend playing with our toy soldiers and downing a few bevvies, what d'ya think?"

My wife didn't exactly say no so that was good enough for me and so the Battleroom was born!

Currently the room is a work in progress as we settle into the new house and my time is mostly devoted to getting the gardens sorted out so that "She who must be obeyed" is content but I have been able to set up a nice painting desk, get all my historical books in place and even a couple of display cases for showing off some of my armies. Unfortunately I have to share the room with my son's piano but that should be moved into the front room soon to give me more room.

Eventually I will have enough room for a 8' x 5' gaming table which is more than enough for 99% of all my gaming and if I ever ran a big game I have plans afoot for that out side in the new decking area.

I will build a dedicated gaming table but for now I get by with some plastic trestle tables which work fine.

So finally I was able to christen the new Battleroom by inviting over fellow club members, Tom Brake , Jon Bunce, Richard Bradley and Ian Hemmings for a big ECW game. We decided to play a scenario instead of a pitched battle and I chose the "Blood on the Danube" game from the Black Powder Pike and Shotte rule book. In this battle Jon, Richard and myself were Scots defending the armies' pay chest which was hidden in one of the three buildings while the Royalists commanded by Tom and Ian attempted to capture it.

I cannot remember everything about the battle but in a huge turnaround in form Tom's Curaissiers were able to smash through the Scot left flank held by Richard and attack the centre while Ian doggedly pushed ahead against the centre and right flank eventually breaking both Jon's and my brigades and sealing an decisive Royalist victory.

A great afternoon of gaming with generous opponents and a good hard game played in good spirits I am looking forward to our next outing.

And now for the pictures....

The battle lines are drawn. Scots on the left defending the war chest (hidden in the windmill) and the royalists on the right. The Scots have a battery of guns placed ahead of the main battle line on a small hill. The game length was fixed at 8 turns and the Scots were hoping to play for time and delay a major action while the Royalist pressed forward to get stuck in.

Massed Royalist cavalry on their right flank including the dreaded Curaissiers. Normally they are terrible but today they justly earned their title of heavy cavalry as they smashed the opposing Scot horse.

I commanded the centre and took up a defensive position behind the wall. I hoped my forward battery of artillery would break up any attack to my front.

The Royalists advance and first blood is struck by my artillery as the lead regiment of commanded Shotte is smashed by grapeshot. Meanwhile on the left the Royalist commander Tom orders the local farmer to get his cattle off the battlefield!

Royalists close in ready to charge the artillery and clear it from the hill.

The Royalist left flank advances on the Inn faced by some Scottish horse and mad highlanders. My infantry look on from the centre behind our wall.

The Scottish left flank as the Royalists advance. The brigade commander Richard attempted a delaying action by not offering battle besides a small force that occupied the farm house.

The highlanders give a rousing yell and charge the royalist Shotte who respond with a volley. Unfortunately the highlander's fighting prowess doesn't match their enthusiasm and they are routed from the field.

The artillery on the hill is overwhelmed and the Scots that are sent forward to offer support soon suffer the same fate.

The Scots in the farmhouse hold on doggedly but the royalist swarm past the building to engage the left flank at push of pike and force the Scots back.

The Scottish cavalry finally charges the opposing horse but are swept from the field.

With all three Scot brigades breaking in quick succession the army calls it a day and abandons the field to the Royalists who get to divide up the loot. The battle was over in around 6 six turns and a bit over 2 hours of playing time. I love the Blackpowder rules, they give a quick fun game without losing historical feel and are perfect for group play.

To finish Richard Bradley has performed some magical photo manipulation to give this great shot of the armies at push of pike.

Bye for now.

 

English Civil War Parliament army full review

So The English Civil War has always been a favourite period of mine and I have always wanted to play it in 28mm scale. The arrival of the Warlord Games plastics was the final impetus I needed to get started. Looking back on the blog I started this army back in late 2009. It's hard to believe it has been so long!

Well as I am doing a reboot of the blog, it is high time the army got its first official parade. The army is a good size for most games but definitely needs at least another two regiments of horse in the short term.

The full army in review consisting of:

5 regiments of pike and Shotte

1 regiment of commanded Shotte

1 regiment of Dragoons

2 regiments of horse

5 cannon

4 Commander bases

The final army when completed will have an additional 6 horse regiments, 3 regiments of foot and another commanded Shotte regiment and some more commanders. I will also add the little extras like horse holders for the dismounted dragoons, petard team, sniper, and baggage train with wagons etc. some field works are already done.

From the early days I reduced the size of the Shotte sleeves from 12 figures down to 8 and reduced the pike block to 12 men. This enabled me to make a new regiment from the leftovers and the unit still has the right "look". I also plan to reduce the size of the horse units to 8 horse per regiment for the same reason. We use the Blackpowder Pike & Shotte rules for our games so the number of figures is not as critical since we use casualty markers.

On the subject of rules we tried a few rulesets before settling on Blackpowder. We tried the Perfect Captains rules called Civille Actions. It had the necessary historical fluff but the rules themselves were fairly ordinary. Then we tried Victory Without Quarter. These rules were okay although the moral system was a tad brutal. Some of the game mechanics were similar to Blackpowder but the rules were rather undeveloped. We did look briefly at Warhammer Civil War and 1644 but they were not for us. However 1644 has a great campaign ruleset which I am modifying for our planned ECW campaign.

So why did we choose Blackpowder? Well firstly the game is quick! We have played games with four players per side each commanding a brigade and played to completion inside four hours. For such a huge game I challenge any other ruleset to get a result in that time. It does take a few games to get used to the rapid movement (or no movement if you fail a command roll) and large musket ranges but after a while the rules, while on first impressions seem simple, are quite nuanced. Most importantly games have the right ECW "feel". For me this is the most critical thing about any ruleset. If it does not feel like I am playing the period then it doesn't work.

The mighty Parliamentarian guns. In actual fact rather bloody useless except at close range where they are quite deadly.

The right and noble Sir William Waller. You will not find a better man in this "Warre without an enemie"

Old Wartyface himself Oliver Cromwell. Commander bases in Blackpowder P&S are great for mini dioramas. Trying to track down the colours for Cromwell pre-Lord Protector/Commonwealth proved a bit tricky with a fair degree of internet trawling until I found this one.

Lord Essex. A very brave commander (He routinely brought his own coffin with him on campaign) but an utter pratt of a strategist! The Royalists ran circles round him almost all the time but he still kept command!

The Earl of Manchester. There is not much to recommend him as a ECW commander and he appears to not be wholly committed to the cause of Parliament. His only saving grace in my opinion was that at The Battle of Marston Moor when the Parliament cause looked lost and Leven, Cromwell and Fairfax ran off, he stayed on the field of battle and rallied his men.

When I started the ECW project I would never have dreamed that we could refight the big battles like Marston Moor, however we now have around 10 players at the club who have armies or are building them. The very social nature of a Black powder game is great. Each player only needs to paint 3-4 units and they can join in a game. Of course most players have more than that. I have no doubt that soon we will be able to replay one of the big battles  such as Edgehill or Naseby.

Parliament Horse. Since we use casualty markers in Blackpowder the number of figures per unit is mostly irrelevant. Therefore I will reduce the unit size down to 8 horse. That way i can get more horse regiments on the field quickly and the 8 figure units still look good on the table.

Commanded Shotte and below the regiments of foot.

The one that started it all, Sir Ralph Weldon's regiment of foote

Samuel Jones' regiment of foot.

The dragoons. I need to purchase the new horseholders from Warlord Games for these guys.

And so there we have it the Parliament army. I still need to put some more work into it to get it where I want it, but I am rather proud of this army, and now I get to regularly put them in the field for fun ECW games with Black Powder.

After the army is complete what next? Scots!

I will post some more pictures of the armies in action soon.

Cheers

Neil