ECW ..capture the wagons raiding party scenario

We played a scenario out of the Airfix English Civil War book above which my dad purchased way back in 1978, we adapted it every so slightly so we could use Pike and Shot to play the game

The objective of the game was for the parliamentarians to sucessfully get the baggage wagons off the opposite end of the table via Puddleby town. The small Royalist force made mainly of cavalry played by myself had to try ambush the the baggage and capture as many wagons as possible. We gave everybody the marauder rule so command distance wouldn't be a problem as this would represent best the idea of a raiding party attacking the column.

The commander of the rust hall is a drunk in the scenario so his garrison may or may not take part in the game depending how many pints he had supped. To represent thus we give him a lowly command value of 6. Needless to say he didn't do to much in the game.

The game was very different from our normal pike and shot games and played out fast and furious at times. The wagons made steady if slow progress for the first half of the game, however I was hampered by some poor command rolls and struggled to catch the baggage train. However this changed in the second half the game as my dad started to fail command rolls frequently so I was able to catch some of the wagons with my cavalry. After sucessfully fending off a couple of counter chargers from the Roundhead cavalry the two captured wagons started to make very slow progress back off the table, however I managed to roll a forth blunder of the game while moving the wagons so I was unable to fully get them off the table edge. Here are some pics showing the game progressing.

The wagons rolling down road with infantry escort

Royalist cavalry arrive to try head off the baggage train

Roundhead cavalry ride out to confront the cavaliers as they threaten the rear of the baggage train

The cavarly clash with the royalists getting the better of the action and defeating the Roundhead opponents.

A wagon is attacked by the royalist cavalry

A desperate struggle for the control of the final wagon ensues in the final turns of the game.

The result of yet another blunder

Come the end of the game I had lost the bulk of my raiding force although I had managed to capture and remain in possession of two of the wagons. My dad managed to get two wagons over the bridge and into Puddlesby town despite his best efforts of leaving them on the bridge, it seemed as though the town garrison didn't trust them and refused to make way off the bridge for a number of moves due to failed command rolls! It was a fun scenario and as I stated before completely different to our usual games, at times it was quite manic as our troops were fighting on all sides of the table. The one remaining wagon had changed ownership on quite a few occasions but at the run of the game it remained not in command of either side so we called the game a very entertaining draw.

French v Imperialists...Italian wars

                                            Somewhere near Naples 1525.....

At the weekend we ran a Italian wars game using Pike and Shot. I played the Imperialists and my army was made up of 2 Spanish Colunelas 1 Landsknecht battalia led by George Von Frudsberg giving them the steady rule. My cavalry was in the form of a Burgundian/Allied command and a Spanish cavalry command. My dads French army was led by Francis I which made all his cavalry Rash. There was 1 Swiss Battalia, 1 French/Italian battalia and a Landsknecht Battalia and also 2 French Cavalry commands.

 

The Battlefield from The Imperialists side. 

My Spanish cavalry in full splendid colour in support of the Spanish Infantry.

Francis leads his French Knights towards the Bulgarian cavalry but somewhat ponders his next move with a couple of failed command rolls. The Imperialist light cavalry use this to their advantage and harass the knights with small arms fire and then evading away. 

In the centre the Imperialist Landsknecht troops form a solid battle line ready to charge as arquebus fire is exchanged disrupting the battle lines

The Imperialists finally charge home and break the Swiss troops in the centre although They suffer heavy casualties and in the following turn find themselves broken from shooting,the final hit I failed to save!. The remaining Swiss troops start to withdraw. Units of Spanish pike appear to give support to the Imperialists centre as the the French command moves down from the hill to replace the Broken Swiss Battalia.

The Spanish infantry on my left flank are charged by the Blackband, my Spanish arquebus's repel a Blackband pike block with some quite spectacular saving, and the remaining French cavalry appear from behind the hill to charge my Spanish cavalry who were in a position to flank the Blackband infantry.

After losing another arquebus unit in the fire fight across he Churchyard my Spanish command is broken and start to retreat just as they were looking like they might break the Landsknecht Battalia 

The game ending charge saw my final unit of Burgundian cavalry run down by the now  rampant French knights personally led by Francis who had broken the rest of my cavalry. (When he finally decided to pass a command roll that is)

With my army now losing three of my 5 commands my army starts to withdraw and we call an end to the game.

A hard fought game which just slipped away from me towards the latter stages. A few better morale saves here and there could have prevented me from losing my Landsknecht command to allow me to start to rally some morale points off them and my Spanish on my left flank were very close to breaking the Blackband but just ran out of steam. My Burgundian cavalry were well beaten by Francis's cavalry  on my right flank which proved to be my final undoing.

A quick update with a picture of another completed  Light Infantry/Chausseurs, unit for my Napolionic army and a couple of new buildings for use in this period.

Ireland 1690

1690 in the countryside of Ireland...........

Sunday evenings game saw me try my hand at a game of Pike & Shot using the armies of William of Orange and King James II. The period is completely new to me and for my first go I think I faired reasonably ok, well if you don't take into account that I managed to get William killed leading a rather rash cavarly charge! Midway through the game I was close to been over run and I was fortunate my Dad managed to roll a few poor command rolls halting his attack and allowing to get my reserves into a more solid defensive line. My cavalry to managed to redeem themselves after a poor start to the game, although they ended up broken, they managed to break James cavarly in return. My elite troops faired well and managed to rally their disorder off at the start of most of their turns unlike my dads elite troops who spent lot of the game disordered. For the best part my shooting was poor, especially my first volleys which I'm sure were fired with wet powder.

Playing Pike and Shot was very different tactically from Hail Ceaser which I'm am starting to get to grips with, however I few more games and ill start to get a better understanding of he rules and tactics.

Here are a few photos of he game,