Tuesday 21 October 2014

Regimental Fire & Fury game

Today, we had a go at Regimental Fire & Fury in 15mm as Steve Clarke and I have been building up enough forces for a battle.

Steve C set up a board with a Confederate supply base being defended by infantry and guns as Union troops attempt to capture the town and its supplies.


Here we see part of the supply base with Confederate infantry moving up to support the front line troops

Union troops enter the table - cavalry

And infantry in some strength

Under the watchful eye of their commander

The Confederate general spots the enemy advance

 and his first battery in prepared positions are ready

 another position is ready to be manned

 and infantry man a hastily constructed barricade

 the second artillery position manned, infantry occupy high ground in reserve

The first shots are fired

 And the first casualties caused

The Union cavalry move down the turnpike on the left
 

As infantry advance through the fields
 

Union infantry advance under fire

some are broken and retreat

Union guns move up

and one brave battery deploys within canister range of the Confederate defences

Union troops attack the hill over on their right

with support coming up behind

in the centre, a second Union battery deploys with infantry in extended lines ahead and besides

but fanatical Rebels roll in from the Union right and defeat not one

but two Union regiments, in one fell swoop destroying the attack the Federals had spent time building up

The Union commander decides to pull back his remaining forces for another day.


This set of rules seem to suit 15mm ACW perfectly for us and we will carry one with these for future games.


Monday 20 October 2014

English Civil War - 1644

After a gap of many years, we finally dusted off the ECW troops and decided to try 1644 rules by Rick Priestley which have sat on the shelf unused despite our enthusiasm when they were first published.

We decided on a conflict for a village positioned around a vital crossroads - so here goes ...

Royalist Dragoons move up quick on the right of the village

With supporting Foot marching towards the centre

Parliamentary Foot have similar ideas

 Two Royalist regiments reach the first buildings

Whilst a Parliamentary Blue Coat regiment can be seen around the bend to the north as the Royalist Dragoons decide to dismount and enter the barn

 A gun is dragged up in support of the Paliamentary foot

Roundhead horse deploy on their right

As the First cavalry action happens in front and to the right of the Blue Coats

A Royalist gun has deployed and starts firing

Royalist cavalry prepare to charge the Blue Coats

As the Parliamentary musketeers and artillery pound the barn holding the Royalist dragoons

Another Parliamentary regiment flanks the barn

On a roll of a 6 at the beginning of a bound, reinforcements arrive - in this case, more Royalist cavalry

Parliamentary forces push on towards the centre of the village, leaving the artillery to finish off the enemy dragoons

the Royalist cavalry have charged in against the Blue Coats

whilst over on the Royalist right a regiment of White Coats has charged the enemy unit beside the barn

The Cavalry melee over at the back of the village still rages with fresh units joining in

View down the main road during the Parliamentary advance

Royalist red coats attack across the left of the village against Parliamentarian green coats

but the white coat regiment has been beaten back by the Parliamentarians by the barn

and casualties are mounting as morale plunges

Two Royalist foot units are now in action on the left of the village and the Parliamentarians falling back

all the cavalry is getting sucked into the action in the fields north of the village

The King's men seem to have secured left of the village for now

A reinforcing Parliamentary foot unit arrives just as their friends break in the middle of town

a Parliamentary green coat regiment is routing from the Royalists

We finished the game at this point. Overview - cavalry stalemate outside the village, left and centre of village in Royalist hands but Parliament has pushed back the Royalist right.  Pretty much a draw unless fresh forces arrive to tip the balance one way or the other.

So, what did we think of 1644 ?  Not bad but still not the elusive perfect ECW rules we are looking for.  We have a couple of more sets to try out in the future for further comparison. (Fields of Glory Renaissance and Warr Without an Enemie by the Wyre Forest Wargames Club)








Wednesday 1 October 2014

More of Borodino

I took so many pictures at the Wargames Holiday Centre, it would be churlish not to share more with you ...

This is early on when units are undisclosed

French line lancers come up in support of an attack

French Guard battery

 Heavy cavalry and limbered guns cheek by jowl with the infantry

With their right flank secure, more and more French units pore forward

This battery has taken some casualties, going by the white rings on the crew

Always a stirring sight - the Old Guard advance menacingly

 Russian cavalry move to head off the advancing French

French allied heavy cavalry look to join in the fray

Bring up the guns !

French Polish and Red lancers anxious to join in

I lost count of how many troops we had on the table !

The gunners have fled and this battery is about to fall

But the Russians never know when they are beaten

Russian Guard Grenadiers arrive on their left flank to stop the rot


Had enough yet ?!!