FK&P AAR: Dick's Tower

/

Back to For King & Parliament and the playtest of the next scenario in my forthcoming pack: Dick’s Tower.

Quick precis of the story so far: Royalists holed up in the city of Norchester besieged by the Roundheads. Parliamentarian guns have been pounding away at the city walls, focusing their efforts on a section of wall by the ruined building known locally as Dick’s Tower. A breach has been made, time for the attack to go in.

Dick’s Tower

The Royalists start the game in and around the tower: see pictures, below.

Defending the breach are two battalia of shot-heavy infantry, with a couple of commanded shot battalia coming up to reinforce them. On their left, outside the walls, is a brigade of infantry supported by some guns. The CinC’s bodyguard cuirassiers, the Norchester Disenfranchised, along with General Sir Edmund Dexter are there too. Lurking on the right are a couple of squadrons of horse, just waiting for the opportunity to sneak-attack the Roundhead attackers.

The Parliamentarian attackers (see picture, above) consisted of ten battalia of infantry supported by a large squadron of Dutch-style horse, the Perform-Thy-Vows Puritan horse.

Opening Moves

As the sun rose, the Parliamentarian line moved smartly towards the small stream surrounding the tower. The Royalist supporting force moved up parallel to the walls, whilst the Staplehurst Horse on the right trotted forward looking for the Roundhead flank.

The Parliamentarians crossed the stream without pausing and threw themselves at the breach. Their troops on their right hung back slightly, looking to fight one battle at a time.

Staplehurst was still leading his horse forward and, as one Roundhead battalion (Manning’s Foot, in blue) was smashed from the field by fire from the shot-heavies, charged the far left of the Roundhead line.

Engaged from the front and flank, the Parliamentarian battalia there (Kelsey’s Foot, in grey) crumbled and fled. It would have been great if the Royalist horse had charged on to hit the next enemy battalia in the flank as well, but the Cavaliers were carried away by their success and turned to pursue their fleeing foes!

The Climax

Meanwhile the Royalist left were beating the Roundheads in front of them: the timely intervention of the cuirassiers breaking what had looked like being deadlock.

The Roundheads were now in some trouble: their line had recoiled from the walls surrounding the tower, and although they had reformed and were preparing to go back in, both flanks were crumbling.

Indeed, before anything else happened, the second unit of lurking Royalist horse also managed to turn an enemy infantry battalia’s flank.

And that was really it: the Parliamentarians had started the battle with ten infantry battalions but were now reduced to four, who promptly voted to leave the field as fast as possible!

Aftermath

An interesting game. I’d played the Royalists and was now dying to have a go as the Parliamentarians!

John and I agreed that he had come forward without much tactical manoeuvre: although he had been unlucky with his cards on his left…my horse should never have been able to get around the side like that.

What would I have done differently? When I do play this as the Roundheads, I think I’ll initially ignore the Tower and its defenders and concentrate on wiping out all the Royalists out in the open. I’ll then be able to concentrate my strength on the units behind the fortifications, hopefully using my (then) overwhelming numbers to win victory. Can’t wait to try this, but if you have any better ideas, please do comment to let me know!

TTS AAR: Akkad versus India

/

Time for another game of To The Strongest: I would play the Akkadians, friend John would play the Classical Indians.

The Classical Indians were of the Republican variety: normal rather than heavy chariots (two units); loads of longbows (five units); a unit of Maiden Guard javelinwomen (questionable historically, but lovely figures, pun intended); two units of elephants escorted by light infantry (hard to kill); and two units of not very good cavalry.

My brave Akkadians consisted of a couple of units of battlecarts (four-wheeled proto-chariots drawn by equids: as manoeuvrable as that sounds); lots of citizen spearmen (five deep units); three units of regular soldiers (two carrying axes and one armed with bows); and four units of fairly scummy light infantry (two units of slingers, two units of archers).

My plan was simple. Battlecarts on the left would smash through the enemy cavalry then wheel round into the rear of the rest of the Indian army. The rest of my troops would advance steadily forward, spears to the front, weathering a storm of longbow fire but pinning his troops in place until the battlecarts arrived. What could possibly go wrong?

Opening Moves

Accidental advance in echelon

To answer the previous question: quite a lot actually. Firstly, my various brigades refused to advance together and I ended up moving forward in echelon.

Secondly, the enemy cavalry, which should have folded before the might of my battlecarts, proved stubbornly difficult to break: in fact, at one stage it looked as if it would be my battlecarts that were smashed from the field!

On my right, enemy chariots smashed into one of my spear units and drove it and its accompanying light infantry from the field. I should have been able to support the spear unit that broke with another brigade of troops, but they were at the back of the field stubbornly refusing to move forward.

Two against one: my “BLUE” spearmen are about to leave the field

That meant that John could advance his elephants in the middle of the field, attempting to defeat each of my brigades in turn.

two against one again: elephants and longbowmen combine against my “turquoise” spearmen

The game was definitely starting to look in the balance. Although I managed to hold the centre, with both sides taking a lot of casualties, my left wing battlecarts were bogged down in melee and on my right wing the Indian chariots threatened to run riot into the flanks of what remained of my centre.

All was not lost, however, as an extraordinary passage of play was about to occur in which the Akkadian Royal Household Axemen, previously stuck miles from the action as part of the brigade that had stubbornly refused to advance, finally got forward and set to work.

Facing two Indian chariots units, they destroyed both and killed the Indian general commanding them. They then resisted attack after attack from the elite Maiden Guard despite already being Disordered.

The Royal Household axemen: heroes of Akkad!

This success gave me time to reorganise my centre and to get things sorted on my left wing. The battlecarts were reinforced with some infantry and finally broke through the enemy cavalry and swung round, as planned, into the enemy rear.

With their centre hit from the rear and under pressure from a reinvigorated Akkadian army, along with the Royal Household Axemen who were still clamouring for more, the Indian army collapsed and fled the field. Victory was mine.

Aftermath

Well that had been a close run thing! At the moment when the battle was truly in the balance, a rather convenient run of luck with the cards on my part swung the day in my favour, and all centred around one unit.

the situation at the end of the battle

A great game!

FK&P AAR: Plumleigh Common Again

/

After a drought of about a month, I managed to play four wargames yesterday (huzzah!) and, incredibly, managed to win them all (huzzah again!).

That was a game of To The Strongest; two games of For King & Parliament; and a game of Art de la Guerre, which I hadn’t actually played before.

There will be After Action Reports for all of them in due course but, for the moment, here’s a catch up report featuring FK&P and another run through of the Plumleigh Common scenario from my forthcoming scenario book.

FK&P AAR: Plumleigh Common

/

Time to playtest the next installment in the follow up to the Marlowe to Maidenhythe scenario pack for For King & Parliament. This pack is provisionally entitled The Siege of Norchester and features actions surrounding, funnily enough, a fictional Parliamentarian siege of the Royalist held city of Norchester.

To cut a long story short, Plumleigh Common is a fight that occurs when the Royalists attempt to disrupt the Roundheads as they are digging trenches around the city. The Roundheads are, however, ready for the attack and so what was to have been a raid turns into head-to-head fight.

Here are two views of the battlefield. The walled area containing the church prominent in the left hand picture is Norchester itself, held by some Royalist infantry and artillery who cannot cross the city walls only shoot from them. The trenches represent the Parliamentarian lines, and are held by Roundhead infantry who are protecting a siege gun that could actually reach Norchester.

The battlefield thus divides into three sections: the area between the walls/ramparts; the open area next to it, and the area of enclosures on the far side. In this first game, I would play the Roundheads.

On My Right Flank

The battle opened on my right flank, opposite an area of dense terrain formed of enclosures. Here I had committed my troops raised from the Borders area…

In The Centre

In the centre, however, things were a bit more even:

The Climax

As you can see from the picture above, left, the fight for the centre had been carnage, with both sides losing many units. Victory Medals were now in short supply for both sides, but I had three relatively fresh units to bring over from my right which would swing the battle in my favour.

Unfortunately, this left my opponent with a temporary three to two advantage in the centre and a run of rather bad luck meant that I lost both units there in quick succession:

This wiped out my last few Victory Medals meaning that I lost the battle as my game-winning right flank force decided that the sight of the last two of my units in the centre going down fighting meant that it was far too dangerous to intervene despite outnumbering the opposition whilst in a tactically superior position!

Aaargh!

But a great game nonetheless, and the Plumleigh Common scenario is definitely passed as ready!

Age of Eagles AAR: Talavera

/

I played in a big Age of Eagles Napoleonics game this weekend just gone: a re-fight of Talavera. Most amusingly, given that I’d rarely played the rules or, indeed, any Napoleonics before, I was given the role of Wellesley i.e. in command of the allied British and Spanish team lined up against the evil French.

I’d like to be able to say that I emulated the soon-to-be Duke of Wellington and won a noble victory but, alas, the day did not go our way at all!

The Allies are lined up along a tributary of the river Tagus, Brits on the left, Spanish on the right, with the French coming at them across the stream.

The French planned to demonstrate towards the centre of the Allied line whilst attacking around the Allied left. If that didn’t work, the centre would turn into the main attack.

As the French came forward on our left, effortlessly brushing a single Spanish brigade aside, I moved some of our reserves (Mackenzie’s infantry Division) to counter the threat. With their advance there countered, the French changed their axis of attack and came forward strongly in the centre and on their left.

The Spanish held a fortified farm on our right, and the troops there performed brilliantly: their artillery slowing down the French advance and then a battalion of conscript infantry lurking just outside the farm holding off a charge by French heavy cavalry.

Unfortunately, the British in the centre performed less well. Firstly, closing up from extended line to line left several gaps in the British line. The French spotted this, massed their artillery and blew a British battalion away to widen one of the gaps into something they could move through…and move through the gap they did: French cavalry and infantry bursting through to totally disrupt the British line.

I had, as mentioned, already committed my infantry reserves elsewhere, and my heavy cavalry just didn’t get across the table fast enough to properly intervene.

As the British line began to crumble, the Spanish remembered they had an important appointment elsewhere (Cuesta was under orders to preserve the army) and the day was firmly to the French.

A great game, and all kudos to Mark and Bevan as the French commanders who, respectively, pinned and then dissected the Allies: great tactics. Thanks also to Dave for setting up and running the game; and to my unfortunate co-commander, John.

One last thing to mention, John had one Spanish battalion that despite initially recoiling from a combat then stubbornly refused to be broken no matter what the garlic-eaters threw at them. It seems like it was the Spanish that shone all day.

Here’s a gallery of the game (excuse the rather curly roads!):

FK&P AAR: Stour Road again

/

With the first battle only taking 90 minutes or so, we had time to re-play Stour Road.

Bevan offered to swap sides but, despite the fact that I had lost the first game quite heavily, I was sure that I now had the key to victory!

So, once again the Roundheads are digging ramparts around Royalist-held Norchester when the Cavaliers launch an attack to disrupt their work…

Another great game of For King & Parliament and, unusually, a win for me!

It’s now off to Plumleigh Common, where the Royalists will try a lightning raid on the Parliamentarian lines again, but this time the Roundheads are ready for them…

FK&P AAR: Stour Road

/

As the Parliamentarians begin to surround Royalist-held Norchester with a ring of trenches, the Cavaliers send out Sir Edmund Dexter and his cavalry to disrupt their work…

At this point I forgot to take any more picture as the action reached its climax.

Somewhat unexpectedly, the Puritan Horse gave way, leaving the flanks of my infantry battalia facing the Royalist horse utterly exposed. These were overwhelmed one by one, and the chaps digging the trenches who had come to help (counting as Rabble) were shot down by the rest of the Royalist infantry.

A major defeat for the Parliamentarians!

FK&P AAR: Cadmore Hill

/

Anoher play-test battle: this time a Parliamentarian column escorting siege guns is almost ambushed by a Royalist force, but the trap is sprung a little too soon…

IABSM AAR: Somewhere in Flanders

/

Another superb looking game of I Ain’t Been Shot Mum! from Alan Curtis and friends.

Lead units of 7th Panzer supported by elements of Tottenkopf Division bump into a BEF company with attached anti-tank guns deployed to contest a river crossing somewhere in Flanders.

An amazing set-up that is well worth a browse. Click on the picture below to see all:

FK&P AAR: Munces Wood Again

/

As it hadn’t taken Bevan very long to beat me in the last game we played, we swapped sides and gave battle again.

In the last play-through, Bevan had withdrawn his Clubmen and given up the centre of the table. I decided to do the opposite and support them, moving my infantry forward to form a line half way towards the enemy edge.

On the left flank, my Swedish horse moved forward cautiously: I was waiting to see what the enemy Dutch horse (that you can see moving across the table towards me from left to right in the left hand picture, above) would do before committing them.

On the right flank I used two squadrons of horse and a battalia of foot (Shaw’s Horse Brigade supported by the Westferry foot) to hold off a brigade of enemy horse. Points-wise, a stalemate here would be in my favour.

A general melee broke out in the centre of the field. Incredibly, given my luck in recent games, I quickly gained an advantage, with a squadron of horse and a battalia of foot (the ones in dark pink: the Wickborough foot) breaking through the enemy troops in front of them!

Then I made a mistake.: a stupid schoolboy error that would haunt me for the rest of the game!

Bevan had sent a unit of commanded shot (a smallish group of musketeers) forward through the wood (Munces Wood, in fact) towards my cautiously-advancing squadrons of Swedish horse. I failed to resist the temptation and charged the blighters as they came up to the edge of the trees.

Yes, that’s right: I charged musket-armed infantry in woods with close formation horsemen!

My foolish horsemen (the Cranston horse) were soon eliminated, leaving that flank open for the Musketeers to threaten my victorious infantry in the centre and for Bevan’s “spare” squadron of Dutch horse (the Stand-Fast-On-High Puritan horse) to advance up that flank as well…and adjusting to counter those threats prevented my infantry in delivering what should have been the coup de grace!

With some brilliant tactical play, Bevan then used the breathing space I had given him to regroup his centre. I still had the advantage, but now would need to break him again.

My pursuing cavalry (the ones that had broken through the line earlier: the Staplehurst horse IIRC) went off the table and then came back on to hit a squadron of enemy horse. I should have broken them, but didn’t, leaving them free to rejoin Bevan’s troops in the centre of the field (what we had started calling “the arena” due to the way the hedges were laid out) and again forcing me to deploy to face them.

Meanwhile, a melee had finally broken out on the right flank as Bevan could see that he had no choice but to try and win there before his centre finally collapsed. This didn’t work for him, however, and I was soon able to punch through on that flank.

The battle was now all but mine. I just need to destroy one more unit of Bevan’s and the rest of his men would lose heart and flee the field. Okay, so it was true that I would lose the game if I lost one of my foot battalia or two squadrons of horse, but all my remaining units were still pretty robust versus Bevan’s shaky-looking troops!

Bevan, however, had one final card to play.

If you remember, my folly of attacking infantry in a wood with horse meant that I had had to defend my left flank against a squadron of Dutch horse. I had succeeded in keeping them from getting over the hedge, using a battalia of infantry to do so. Now Bevan would have one last go at breaking through here. Failure would allow me to deliver the final blow that I needed to win the day.

His horse were double-disordered, my foot were disordered…so he had to get over the hedge to get me and then do two hits with me saving neither.

You guessed it: the cards fell his way and, with a roar of triumph, the Performe-Thy-Vows Horse swept over the foliage and dashed my pike-and-shot battalia from the field!

And that, as they say, was that!

Aftermath

Well that will teach me not to charge infantry in a wood!

All my hard work in the initial stages in the centre destroyed by a need to watch my left flank: a flank that I had effectively exposed myself. Much kudos to Bevan for staying cool and conducting an excellent fighting reorganisation of his collapsing centre, and then for taking full advantage of my mistake and holding his nerve until the end.

Another great game of For King & Parliament that came down to the last moment!

Here’s a complete gallery of the game.

FK&P AAR: Munces Wood

/

Time for another game of For King & Parliament: a fictional encounter battle near Munces Wood.

I would play the Parliamentarians, with a force consisting of a strong contingent of mostly Dutch horse, three decent foot battalia, two pike-only foot battalia, and a couple of units of commanded shot escorting some guns.

Up against me were some Royalist rabble (the units out in front of the main Cavalier line), lots of Swedish horse, and six battalia, half of which were pike-heavy.

Neither side started the game happy with their deployment, and the arena-like nature of the terrain would make things interesting as well.

Horrible picture: apologies for the over exposure!

The battle quickly divided into three segments. On the left, the cavalry clashed, with my Dutch horse unable to get over the hedge and into contact with the opposition. Not so for his men, who succeeded in clearing the foliage and headed for my poorly-mounted Pistoliers.

In the centre, the Royalist Clubmen retreated back to the hedgerow behind them, with his more battalia then coming forward to face mine.

On the right, some of his horsemen charged forward ferociously, routed one of my units of commanded shot, then ended up under the guns of the other and were blown away in turn.

I had expected to win the cavalry action on the left and then bring my horsemen around into his flank and rear, but that hedge stymied all my plans. The main cavalry clash would grind on without a clear result for the whole battle.

Both sides reinforced their centres with some cavalry but a run of bad luck as the two lines first came into musket range dogged me for the rest of the game. Although honours were even in terms of units lost, my remaining troops were all disordered or double-disordered, and that pooping Royalist Rabble then made a reappearance!

The game, however, was ultimately decided on the right flank, where my commanded shot and guns faced another cavalry assault.

My commanded shot were not able to stop the enemy horse from running them down, the guns acted as effectively against charges as usual (!) and my right flank evaporated.

With his horsemen curling around my right flank, and my cavalry still engaged in the grinding melee on my left, my centre gradually and unspectacularly collapsed.

Victory to the Royalists!

A challenging scenario which my opponent coped with much better than I did. If I had committed just enough horse to bottle up his men on the left, then I could have properly reinforced my centre and won the battle there before my right was defeated. I was a bit unlucky on my right, as I never had the chance to get my commanded shot into the trees, but plaudits to the Royalists for coming forward so speedily.

A great game, and one that only took about 90 minutes to complete. So we set it up again and played it the other way round but that, as they say, is another story…

FK&P AAR: Tounton Bridge

/

Friend Bevan wanted to play some more ECW battles, and as we had exhausted all the scenarios I had written for the Marlowe to Maidenhythe scenario pack, it was time to get the quill out and write a new one.

The background is simple: the Royalists are withdrawing into a walled town but need to cross a bridge to do so. Sir Henry Carlyle therefore volunteers to hold the Roundheads off from the bridge whilst his comrades make their retreat. His opponent is Sir Edward Dexter, leading a force of men from the Borders supported by a brigade of Puritan horse (commanded by Colonel Kill-Sin Rhapsody) and some rather uncouth Reivers.

View from behind the Parliamentarian column. The bridge is just behind the village.

This turned out to be one of the best games of For King & Parliament we have ever played, with the luck being evenly split all game and the result in the balance right to the last moment.

The Royalist Forlorn Hope opened the game by deciding that their position was not just forlorn but actually untenable. They were also blocking the fire of the Royalist artillery. They therefore retreated behind a nearby hedgerow to await developments.

The Roundheads took their time to shake out from column into line, with the Puritan Horse performing various convoluted evolutions to end up heading across the battlefield on the far left Roundhead flank. The Royalists watched all these developments with interest from behind their hedgerows, but eventually decided that something needed to be done about the Puritans, so dispatched Col Shaw’s Swedish horse to deal with them.

Parliamentarians shake out their line

There are an awful lot of Puritans!

As the Parliamentarian pike in the centre of the field approached the Untried Royalist “Just-Raised” brigade, the Cavaliers opened fire at long range and promptly disordered themselves due, presumably, with their surprise at how loud their guns were! This was a right pain, and would dog me for the rest of the game as I never had a spare moment in which to try and rally them.

Meanwhile, however, one of Shaw’s horse units had sprung forward and smashed a squadron of Puritans straight off the field: the first time we could remember a 3-hit Dutch horse unit succumbing to a 5-card attack in one go. The other unit didn’t do quite so well though, ending up even-stevens on one disorder apiece.

The Royalist centre-right scares itself silly!

Some initial success for Shaw’s horse

As all this was going on, some nag-mounted Parliamentary Pistoliers from the Border regions rode forward, survived the long-range fire from some of my Commanded Shot, and then promptly charged them and dashed them from the field. Not good, especially as this left a big hole in my line right in front of my guns. Worse, those very same Pistoliers survived flank fire from one of my veteran Battalia. Surely my guns were now toast!

Gulp!

Most unusually, however, the guns actually worked for a change, and blew the Pistoliers away. Crisis averted.

Meanwhile, the main melees rolled on:

Here’s a look at the whole battlefield. Note how I’m desperately trying to get a horse unit over from my left hand side to help shore up my centre and right!

Things now started happening in rapid succession (too fast for many pictures).

My two units of Swedish horse on the right finally succumbed to the four units of Dutch horse they faced, but they had down a good job in holding them off for so long. One unit of enemy horse came forward and threatened to turn and hit my infantry line from behind, but those reinforcements I’d moved across blocked them.

Then, in the main melee, one of my Untried units gave way, but this allowed me to turn the Battalia directly under command of Sir Edward onto their flank and destroy them. That gave me access to the flank of the main Parliamentarian line, and I took full advantage and destroyed another enemy Battalia.

The battle reached its climax

This left both Bevan and I on three coins each i.e. the first person to lose another unit would lose the game. There were also two combats underway: my reinforcements versus the enemy horse, my triumphant Battalia against some enemy Commanded Shot.

I chickened out of sending my Swedish horse in against his Dutch boys (the photo above left is actually from slightly earlier so my horse had become blown by now, which meant two cards versus two cards with death to whoever lost) thinking that I would charge his Commanded Shot from the field but, as you will see from the photo above right, I drew an Ace which meant my lads wouldn’t charge home.

Bevan then turned his Commanded Shot towards me and opened fire: two Nines, no Saves from me, Battalia and game lost!

Aftermath

An absolutely terrific game of FK&P: tactical challenges, extreme but even luck on both sides, and a succession of notable events: Swedish horse bashing Dutch horse from the field; three Untried Battalia disordering themselves; the guns surviving a frontal charge by blowing their enemy away; a succession of flank charges; reinforcements rushed from one side of the field to the other just in time to charge an outflanking enemy units; and, of course, everything coming down to the last combat.

Epic stuff, and I’m now inspired to write Scenario #02!

Robert Avery

IABSM AAR: Prokhorovka

/

Off to Dave’s for my first face to face game of I Ain’t Been Shot, Mum since before lockdown!

The scenario was set on the Eastern Front in 1943, and based on an historical encounter. Elements of the Soviet 5th Guards Tank Army (played by me) had to advance onto the table and take a village, Prokhorovka, defended by German armour. Yes, unusually for IABSM, this was to be an armour versus armour game with no infantry present.

I had what looked like an overwhelming force: a first wave of an HQ element, two platoons of three t-34s each, and a third platoon of three BT-17s. Following that, I had six more platoons of armour split into two more waves for a total of six more T-34s, three venerable KV-1s, three SU-76s, two SU-76is and, the piece de resistance, two SU-152 big beast tank killers.

If that’s what I had, I was a little nervous about what I was going to face. I’d been told to watch out for the new German Tiger tank: presumably I’d be facing about 20 of them!

Click on the picture below to see what happened: