A Small Battle in the Midlands - ECW

Last night myself and a couple of the lads played a little game of English Civil War. On one side was the combined Parliamentary and Covenantor Army of six Pike & Shotte, two artillery pieces and five cavalry regiments. On the Royalist side six Pike & Shotte, three artillery guns and four cavalry regiments. Josh and myself on one side and Brian and Dave (NZ) on the other.

It turned out to be a bit of a slow game as the old Pike & Shotte unit did not really move that fast, however after about three turns of movement and dome artillery fire we finally managed to get into some combat. 

The battle went fairly strong in the center with Dave's Royalist pike charging a large Scottish pike unit, only to be pushed back and counter charged himself. Fighting on the Royalist right then picked up once my cavalry pushed through a rather tough hedgerow and charged a unit of dismounted dragoons. They in turn were later shot and then piked to bits by a Royalist Pike & Shotte unit. 

Finally however which I think may have ended the battle for the Parliamentarians was a charge I made against one of Dave's veteran pike units...I lost and was unable to rally that unit for the remainder of the game, plus my dismounted dragons were also routed. Thus my brigade was under 50% and on a attempted rally the brigade withdrew from the field, leaving many fallen comrades on the field of battle. 

Our forces also took a fairly heavy lose of commanders, loosing our Captain General and three brigade commanders, which left our armies almost leaderless....we accepted the lose and patted Dave on the back for his great victory.

Above and below - the Combined Parliamentarian  & Covenantor Army

Dismounted Royalist Dragoons firing from behind a hedge

A yeoman wanders around the battlefield 

Elite Miniatures French Artillery Crews 1812 - 1815

I have just finished painting some Elite Miniatures French artillery crews in order to improve my website but also to show some of the Elite range off to the world. The two codes shown above and and third from the top are FW58 ( Foot artillery crew firing - regulation dress with shoulder straps)   and FW59 ( Foot artillery crew Loading - regulation dress with shoulder straps) 

The figures were very easy to paint with plenty of detail and smooth surfaces to apply your paint.

FW59 ( Foot artillery crew Loading - regulation dress with shoulder straps)

Napoleonic Late War British Infantry 1812-15 - Elite Miniatures

These lovely chaps have just been painted and based by Leroy Simpson for Fortune & Glory Napoleonics Rules. The figures themselves are from the very nice 1812 -15 British Line Infantry (or Waterloo) of Elite Miniatures range and are in the advancing and charging poses. They are a nice figure and are impressive to look at on or in mass formations. Flags are GMB.

The advancing command (BW6)

Standing Command (BW26)

 Centre and flank companies advancing and charging (right figure) - codes (BW1/2/3)

Regimental Fire & Fury - North Queensland Style

On Saturday afternoon the lads from the Lonely Gamers Club put on a great game of Regimental Fire & Fury, with the intention of slowly confirming some of the finer details of the rules, before continuing our ACW campaign. The table was the biggest one we have played on to date, laid out as 12ft x 6ft with 127 stands of Federal Troops Vs 108 stands on the Confederate side. 

With no scenario in mind we allocated three key pieces of terrain as objectives, two were major road intersections and the last objective being the rail head in a small town on eastern side of the table. We only played for a about three hours before low light halted the movement of troops for the day. Both side made no major gains, however the Confederates did move through the township and occupy for a couple of turns, only to move out and attack the Union left flank. At about the same time a single Union regiment charged one Confederate Brigade bringing their attack to a halt and forced them to fall back out of close range, thus leaving the town and rail head unoccupied.

Most of the action for the afternoons battle tended to be in the center and eastern side of the battlefield, with just minor skirmishing and long distance artillery fire at the western end of the battlefield. Causalities for the day were only minor for both sides, Union forces suffering 600 loses all told and the Confederates 650 loses all told.

In all the lads seem to have a great time at the game, with period hats worn and a lovely banana and almond cake made by my beautiful wife to fill the empty bellies of the gallant generals on either side.