War of the Roses clash

Last weekend we played a war of the roses battle using using a mixture of DBA and Armarti rules (my dad has been play testing by mixing the two together.) it was my first outing using either of the rule sets and I really enjoyed the gaming experience, nothing against impetus in our last WOTR game but I preferred this game as I felt the game mechanics worked better and generally suited my style of wargaming better. Anyhow the game turned out to be somewhat of a brutal affair. Both sides lost a lot of casualties and going into the close of the game both armies were preciously close to our break points. In the last turn I managed to get Henry dragged from his horse in the thick of the melee and somewhat unsportingly I might add, wasn't given any quarter by my dads Men at Arms! This saw my dismounted Knights and supporting men at arms flee which at this stage of the game I felt swung the balance to my dads King Richard force ( just a note at this stage to say the so called King left his fighting ranks to scully off behind friendly lines, obviously very afraid to face Henry in the face of combat). Both our flanks had been smashed, my Knights made short work of my dads infantry on his left flank, my dad promised next time he would bring stakes ha but the other flank saw my infantry eventually flanked by my dads knights and once this happened they wove havoc in my ranks. Both armies had chances in the Battle to push home advantages but some rather untimely command rolls by the both of us put a firm halt to that. Fortunately night fall saved Henry's army from total defeat but my army was now leaderless as it left the battlefield liking their wounds, Richards reign continues to another fight.here are some shots of the action

My knights on the right flank who devastated the archers and men at arms opposing them

My forces push to try and flank Richards central body of infantry 

My dads cavalry stutter towards my flank as his infantry force back up my left flank.

My daughter (future superstar wargamer?) infiltrated my dads side of the table and proceeded to roll some rather unfortunate "poor" dice rolls which saw a unit of archers and men at arms flee. Grandad proceed to banish said granddaughter from the Wargames room :-) 

The results of my daughters dice rolling ha ha 

A shot of the battlefield as the armies ready to engage

My dads knights crush my billman and the writing is on the wall for my left flank

A brutal melle rages in the centre of the table as still clashes against armour

My dads Knights start their sweeping advance along the flank of my infantry

My Foot troops were pushing Richards forces back in the centre but I just couldn't quite break them, the game at this stage is on a knifes edge

Despite some stuff born resistance my Left flank crumbles

Leaving my dads Knights free to roam behind my centre lines..

My cavalry finishes of the remaining infantry but alas they are to far from the action to reenforce my under pressure centre

The defining moment of the battle sees Henry slain and his dismounted foot Knights and billman turn tail and flee

The final shot of the table showing a lot less troops than the opening picture,fair to say a majority draw to my dads Richard army.

Battleground war games show part 2

Following on from my last post here are some of the pictures of some of the other games on display at the annual Battleground Wargames show. I was unable to take photos of all the the games due to myself participating in my own demo game so apologies to the ones I have missed. First up was one of the two games (our Blucher game been the other) displayed by the Independent Wargames group. Collin and Robbie along with a guest appearance from Jon ref ought the battle of Rossbach in 28mm. As usual the game looked spectacular with loads of figures on display, if you want to read about the game I have added a link below to Collins blogg where he has wrote up a nice account of the game.

http://carryingsonupthedale.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/battleground-2015-and-man-of-match.html

The lads from Westerhope put a lovely Colonial Sudan game on in 28mm. I had a particular interest in this game as I enjoy wargaming this period, some of this collection is over 30years old and still stands the test of time very well! 

I have seen this game a couple of times this year at other shows, however the sheer scale and size of the buildings still look impressive, the game was a 54mm version of Pancenoit by the Durham Wargames group

A interesting  participation game by the Border Riever group with lovely terrain set in the Mexian Revolution

This game was show casing a ECW game using Paper flats. It literally is a wargame in a box ready to go. It really did look quite effective and a great idea if maybe you want to sample a period without having to spend a fortune on lead building an army.

Consset Table Top group put a fine looking Western participation game on. I must admit time permitting I would have liked to have a crack at this.

Generals and kings displayed a WW2 blitzkrieg commander game using the early German and French forces. The standard of painting was very good on these models and the game looked great.

I hope I'm not mistaken but I think this game was by Brompton bankers, the terrain was really impressive.

A 10mm re fight of Waterloo by Tynside Wargames group looked impressive over a nice big table!

Redcar Ironbeares WW2 rapid fire game, I loved how they had painted their German tanks

All in all I felt the standard of games was good and of a better standard than some of the larger shows I have attended this year. I didn't have a shopping list of things to buy as alas it's a bit to near Xmas but I still couldn't resist buying a Y wing for my Xwing minitures games :) The attendance on the day seemed as though it was busy so hopefully the trade did well. The organisation was top notch so thanks to Leon and co from Pendraken, a great show and what makes it better is its on our doorstep so not much traveling was required. Next show will be February and my favourite show of the year at York. 

Battleground 2015 part one...Blucher demo game

On Saturday my dad and I ran a Blucher game at the Battleground wargame show at Middlesbrough show using our 10mm Napolionic French and Austrian armies. The show was well attended and it seemed like our game was well received by the public, we had plenty of questions asked about the rule set so I hope we managed to sell the game well. I have taken photos of some of the other demonstration games of which there was was some nice looking games which I will post as a part 2 of the day. My dad had been rather busy printing and lamenting the unit cards for the day so we used these for our deployment. With it been a demonstration game we played 400 points aside, bigger than our normal games but we could get more of our units on show. We kept the terrain simple but effective to allow for a easy running game. I took a few photos of the game when I got chance of the action, we managed to get around 10 turns in throughout the day which by the time the show started to wind down my dads Austrians were starting to hold the upper hand.

The table at set up

French Dragoons move to meet the threat of the Austrian hussars in support of the Bavarians

Austrian hussars and horse artillery

Austrain Dragoons appear from behind the hill to give a nasty surprise to the on coming French line brigades

The Austrain left flank sees a Austarain infantry Corp advance

The table after most of our units had been revealed

Austrain Currasiers charge the Saxon massed battery

My Bavarains push up to support the French line infantry brigades as Napoleon over sees the action

The battle in full action from behind the Austrain lines.

The Saxon corp comes under a heavy attack from the Austrian Grenadier brigades

The Old guard Corp moves up to support the faltering French line attack

The end of the battle looking across the battlefield.

As I stated before I will put up some pictures of the other games I managed to get alook at up in my follow up post.

Battleground 2015

Tomorrow is the day of the Battleground convention (formerly known as smoggycon) held at the Queen's Campus Sports Hall in Stockton-on-Tees, TS17 6BH, running from 10am until 3pm. The independent wargames group are putting two games on, my dad and I will be fighting a Blucher game using our 1809 Austrain and French 10mm armies and Robbie and Colin will be relighting the battle of  Kunersdorf in 28mm. It should make for a good day out so pease feel free to say hello if you pass by our game.

                      An action shot of the figures that will be in use tomorrow 

A Pike and Shotte ECW battle

Work and the daughters first birthday have eaten into my time over the last couple of weeks so I haven't had the chance to update my blog recently. A couple of weekends ago I had a ECW game with my dad using Pike and Shotte so I have uploaded some pictures of the game I took on the day. 

Battle lines from the Royalist side

Parliament Cavalry

Ruppert leading the Cavaliers

The game played out to be a draw but at the final position my dad playing the Roundheads had definetly started to get the upper hand in the game. On the left flank our cavalry clashed through a number of engagements which after initial sucess,some rather lack lustre counter charging saw Rupperts command broken. The Roundhead cavalry still had one command battered up abit but crucially still unbroken

The centre saw our Pike blocks clash with both sides pushing one another back. At one stage I felt I was going to crack my dads centre but although some of my units pushed through the gaps where the Roundheads had broken I was unable to break the second line. By this stage my units were becoming alarmingly shaken.

And yes I managed to get Ruppert slain as he lead what was to be his final charge 

Overall it was a cracking game, different to what we have been playing of late but really enjoyable, it's always nice when you play with a period you haven't used for a while. Up next will be a venture back into the dessert with Britians finest against the massed hordes of Mahdists in a blackpowder game.