FK&P AAR: Muscovites and Scots

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John and I fancied a game of For King & Parliament, but I didn’t fancy using straight ECW armies. Eastern front was a possibility, but I didn’t fancy using the Cossacks, which meant my only complete army was the Muscovites, but who to fight against them? Step forward the Scots and we were good to go, albeit for a rather odd if contemporary mash up!

I would play the Muscovites and, incredibly considering the amount of horse I had, immediately lost the initiative and had to start deploying first. My plan was to put most of my cavalry on the right and win there whilst my infantry held the centre and left, then swing my victorious cavalry into the rear of his infantry once they were fully engaged with mine.

Only potential problem was that I didn’t have much infantry, so had to use a brigade of Reiters (heavy horsemen) in the middle to fill a gap.

The Scots read my cavalry deployment superbly, and placed their large cavalry brigade opposite them, meaning that not only were my Tatar light cavalry immediately wrongfooted (I wanted to sneak them round the flank but their way there now led through some Scots Pistoliers) but my National Cavalry were squashed up behind a windmill! C- could do better for deployment!

Lots of lovely Muscovite horse, but they’re not quite in the right place

As battle commenced, the Scots hung back: advancing only their Highlanders on my left and their cavalry on my right. I quickly led my entire army forward except for the Servant Cossacks and Border Dragoons on my far left: I didn’t fancy mixing it with some mad Clansmen!

I also attempted to sort out the mess on my right flank by getting one of the brigades of National Cavalry to swap places with the Tatars: what a mess!

The aforementioned mad clansmen

Swapping two brigades of cavalry over is not easy

Fortunately John’s Scots had a fit of the slows, and I was able to get my horse sorted out and push forward to start the engagement that should sweep the Scots cavalry from the field and thus fulfil stage one of my cunning plan.

Meanwhile in the centre, the main body of Scots infantry had finally started moving forward. My Reiters headed out to meet them, but as I didn’t fancy charging well-ordered pike blocks, my cavalry turned around and retreated before any significant action took place.

The enemy were now effectively advancing in echelon towards me, which suited me fine as it gave my National cavalry more time to win on the right. The only trouble was that the Scots horse were proving hardier than expected!

The cavalry melee on the right went on and on, and I just couldn’t seem to break the Scots donkey-wallopers!

This meant that the Scots infantry were able to advance on my line and a series of sporadic firefights and melees broke out. My Reiters were still able to outpace the advancing Scots, but my Soldats and Border Dragoons were not so fortunate. A good thing, however, was that my Tatars had now managed to slip through the enemy line, going over the crest of the hill through the grounds of the windmill.

Finally, however, the Scots horse broke, and my cavalry were able to turn and head to the left. The Tatars led the way, forcing the nearest Scots pikemen into hedgehog. My heavier horse cantered past the spikey beasts and then curled round and slammed into the rear of the units next to them. At the same time my Reiters now charged forward meaning the Scots were caught front and rear.

Once the surviving Muscovite heavy horse got into a position on the flanks and rear of the enemy line, the battle was really all over for the Scots. I won’t describe every moment of the roll up: suffice to say that it got very bloody very quickly, and once one or two of their pike blocks had broken, the domino effect soon had all their troops fleeing for the safety of the Glens!

It hadn’t quite been a text book victory: too much had gone wrong with my initial deployment, meaning that my left and centre had only just held out for long enough to let my right wing do what they did. Had the Scots been even a little quicker off the mark on their left and centre, then I would have lost the battle there before my National Cavalry had even dealt with the Scottish horse.

FK&P AAR: Fire Over Barsetshire, Round 2

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This was the return match of Rob and I’s clash of Elizabethan English and Spanish forces in a fictional encounter in the equally fictitious county of Barsetshire.

In our first game, I had played the Spanish and achieved a decent win, so now it was time to see if I could do the same thing playing the English.

The Spanish Tercio: veterans all!

I was a bit nervous about the Spanish Tercio, so determined to avoid it for as long as possible. I therefore placed my Militia on my left flank, opposite the Tercio, determined to use the walled enclosures as a fortress from which to fight from. That left my Hunting Party longbowmen and commanded shot in the centre; and the contingent from the Royal army on the right.

As mentioned above, my plan was to hold the Militia back and push the Royal Army forward as fast and hard as possible, hopefully winning on the right flank before turning to roll up the Spanish once I’d done so.

As the battle opened, I therefore pushed forward my right, but the Spanish facing the Royal Army didn’t come forward. In fact they moved slightly sideways into the centre of the field, leaving my best troops hanging facing no-one to fight!

Meanwhile, on the left, the Tercio moved forward ponderously, but it was in the centre that we would first see action as the Spaniards’ Irish contingent, led by some Kerns, rushed forward towards the Hunting Party troops.

As the Kerns came forward, the English longbowmen did their thing, and the wild Irish were soon sent packing. This left the Irish pike, commanded shot and swordsmen to contest the centre: a fight that would continue for some time without clear resolution.

Meanwhile the Tercio were still ponderously heading for my refused left flank:

But it was on the right flank that things became very intense very quickly.

As mentioned above, my Royal Army contingent had marched forward as quickly as possible, determined to win the battle before the Spanish Tercio could get stuck in. They were facing the left hand edge of the Irish brigade and a brigade known as the Volunteers consisting of swordsmen and mounted arquebusiers. My veteran troops should have carved their way through them nicely but actually ended up effectively losing the individual melees that followed!

Besides costing me my best troops and about half my victory medals, this let a unit of Spanish mounted arquebusiers slip through my line to threaten the Royal Artillery.

Now those of you who play For King and Parliament will know that artillery is usually not very useful in open battle. Rarely do you have the equivalent of a Grand Battery to blow huge swathes out of the enemy line: the standard is to have one or maybe two slow-firing pieces that are as useful as battlefield dressing. As the arquebusiers charged in, therefore, I resigned myself to losing another unit and another victory medal!

I had obviously underestimated the Royal gunners, as rather than being run down like rabbits, they sent the arquebusiers routing off the field!

A nice success, but now the Spanish Tercio arrived.

Choosing to drift into the centre of the field, the enemy pike and shot launched an attack on the two walled enclosures defended by the Militia and the remnants of Sir Fitzgerald Percy’s Hunting Party.

Although my troops survived this first wave of attacks, it was a costly business. Admittedly the Militia were relatively unscathed, but they were under severe threat from the front and flank; and my centre had taken a hammering and was still faced by an unbroken line of enemy pike and shot.

I was also now down to only two victory medals (meaning the loss of one more unit would cost me the battle as my men lost their morale and fled) and although my opponent was in the same situation, his units were mostly much healthier than mine and, as you can see in the pics above, in a far better tactical position.

I had the initiative, but if I didn’t win the battle this turn, then that would most likely be it as the relatively fresh Spanish troops hit my tired and disordered troops in the flank.

You remember how I said that artillery was mostly useless in open battle? Well the Royal Artillery were about to prove me wrong again.

Up ahead of their position, a unit of Spanish swordsmen threatened the flank of some already-disordered English pike. Unbelievably, the Royal Guns managed to not only fire three times in the same turn but, with their last round of ammunition, they also managed to score three hits on the Spaniards…sending them from the field and costing Rob his last two victory medals just before he could finish me off!

I really did feel that I had managed to snatch the narrowest of victories from the gaping jaws of defeat!

It had been a great game that showed how flexible the FK&P engine is: able to cope with the peccadilloes of the Elizabethan era as well as it does the English Civil War and Eastern Front.

One final picture, if only to showcase Rob’s beautifully painted troops and terrain. Here is the Spanish Forlorn Hope: the crew of the Sao Martinho happily taking no part in the battle as they loot a nearby farm!

FK&P AAR: Fire Over Barsetshire

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Friend Rob came round today and brought with him his collection of Elizabethan era English and Spanish for a 16th Century dust up of some kind.

Difficult to decide which rules to use, as we wanted to employ the TTS engine but the Elizabethan era sits neatly between the end of To The Strongest and the beginning of For King & Parliament.

In the end we plumped for FK&P, but with a few minor variations very much like the Eastern Front variant that we use for 17thC warfare in eastern Europe.

The Scenario

Rob had worked out a simple scenario involving some Spaniards “left over” from the Armada launching an invasion of England from a base in Ireland…

Spanish Briefing

When the Armada was driven north into the teeth of storm and gale, England believed she was saved. You, Captain General Velazquez will prove the heathen English and their she-devil Queen wrong.

Fortuitously as you limped south through the Irish Sea, you came upon the remains of the Squadron of Portugal also making their way slowly back to Spain and safety. Inspiring your fellow officers and the commandantes of the much-reduced fleet, you came up with a cunning plan. Landing with what force you had remaining on the coast of Ireland, you recruited a brigade of good Irish Catholics to your cause, rallied by the patriotic songs of a passing group of folk singers who conveniently agreed to lead the Irish forces.

Spanish Pike & Shot with Captain General Velazquez

Making a dash for the western coast of England, the Lord has finally blessed your endeavours, your landing was unopposed and, with what forces you have left, you have marched inland, hoping to rouse the English Catholics to your banner and still snatch victory from the jaws of disaster. So far, they have been less than forthcoming. One real victory, though, should inspire a rising across southern England.

You have made good time and have reached the county of Barsetshire, a hive of Protestant scum and villainy. As you ready to advance on a small farm just to the south of Uffley, you sight a ragged band of English soldiers: this is finally your chance to claim revenge for all the wrongs the English have done to Spain and God’s true cause.

The Irish Brigade

With you, you have the “volunteers” from the fleet, being a mixture of ships’ crews and what cavalry you have been able to raise using horses liberated on your march east. The least motivated, at least they will distract the English! Your core troops are your four battalia of Spanish infantry, the terror of Europe and veterans all. Finally, you have a brigade of Irish volunteers: untried, but ready for plunder and true to the faith.

Seize the farm, rout the English, and the road will be clear to Barchester itself!

English Briefing

The Godless Spanish don’t know when they’re beaten…but it’s time to show them once and for all that they are.

You are Lord William Harding, the Duke of Barsetshire. It’s a proud name, and you are determined to honour it. Unfortunately you missed the battles at sea, and thought all the glory would got to privateers like Drake, but God has given you the chance to feast upon one small part of the Spanish pie!

Sir Mark Proudie’s Pike from the Royal Army

Word of a Spanish landing in the west reached London and at first none believed it: the Spanish had been defeated weeks ago! As, however, reports of Spaniards marching inland grew, the Queen has dispatched you and a (concerningly small) force to deal with what are surely just some remnant Spanish brigands who’ve been blown ashore.

As you neared your home county, however, you became aware that what faced you was not a band of weakened, dispirited sailors but the core of a Spanish army, supported by Irish rebels. So be it: whatever the odds, God is on your side!

Sir Bernard Crosbie, a venerable old gent, has not been inactive either, and the West Barsetshire Militia have been raised, accompanied by some welcome artillery and the Reverend Crawley, rumoured to be in line for a Bishopric and certain to inspire the men. Most of your troops are lightly armed and untried, but you have strong cavalry, and every stout yeoman of England is worth at least two Papist wretches!

You intend to make a stand to the south of Uffley, not least because you own farmland there and would rather it stayed that way! Defend the road, save Barchester, and show the Spaniards once again that God is an Englishman!

The Silverbridge Gunsmiths Guild artillery: part of the West Barsetshire Militia

The Game

I would play the Spanish, Rob would play the English. The Spanish set up with the Irish on their right, the Tercio (their best troops) in the centre, and the somewhat dodgy “Volunteers” on the left. The English had the Militia of their left (i.e. opposite the Irish), the Royal army in the centre, and a locally raised mixture of musketeers and longbowmen, with a bit of light cavalry, on the right.

My plan was simple: advance my flanks forward as fast as possible then bring up the Tercio in the centre to finish off anything that was left!

The Battle Begins

View from Behind the English lines

English light horse advance to their doom

On the Spanish left, the two units of Mounted Arquebusiers faced off against a unit of English light horse and soon, with a combination of shot and a quick charge, sent them fleeing from the field. Despite instructions to the contrary, the arquebusiers who had actually charged home (Los Dopicos Horse) then pursued the fleeing cavalry: rapidly disappearing into the distance!

On the right, the Irish brigade moved forward as fast as possible towards the English Militia in their walled enclosure.

A unit of English light cavalry with lances and pistols hit the untried McKenna’s Kern and dispersed them, but they in turn were blown away by musketry from the right hand unit of the Tercio coming up from behind. This left the rest of the Irish free to assault the Militia in what turned out to be a series of hard fought melees with bill-armed troops but, as the battle ended, the Irish definitely had the advantage.

Meanwhile, in the centre, the Tercio had been steadily advancing towards the English Royal Army. Both sides were veteran infantry: the Spanish consisted of three pike and shot battalia and a unit of commanded shot; the English one pike and shot battalia, two commanded shot, and the Royal Gallowglass.

My Tercio managed to shrug off the fire coming from the enemy arquebusiers and get stuck in with their pikes, and the English centre began to give way. This allowed Juanitos’ Pike, led by General Tapioca, to burst through the line and then head off to the left flank to help out Volunteers.

Before we come to the climax of the battle, a quick interlude.

The English Demilancers, Robart’s Horse, had punched their way through the Spanish line earlier in the game, but also pursued their fleeing enemy right the way to the other end of the table. Eventually rallying and forming up again, they actually found themselves next to a farmhouse in which the crew of the Spanish galleon, the Sao Martinho, were sheltering: the crew counting as a Forlorn Hope, presumably because there was only a forlorn hope of getting them into action!

English Demilancers and the crew of the Sao Martinho line up next to each other!

The sailors fired off all the ammunition they had at the English horsemen…who utterly ignored them and trotted off, untouched, to see if they could get back to the main battle in time to influence its outcome.

Right, back to the main action.

The Spanish were definitely winning, but still needed to deliver the coup de grace to the English and, as anyone who plays FK&P knows, the fortunes of war can turn in an instant. A good example of this was about to happen.

The other unit of mounted arquebusiers, the Nuevo Rico Horse, charged into the flank of some enemy commanded shot. This should have led to a glorious victory but, instead, the Englishmen took the charge, turned and blew the Spaniards away with fire.

not, as many predicted, the End of some commanded shot!

This left the enemy commanded shot and two units of longbowmen holed up near or in a walled enclosure: not a suitable charge target for the remaining Spanish mounted arquebusiers even if the archers were all out of arrows.

Fortunately General Tapioca and Juanitos’ Pike were on hand and, still fresh after chomping through the English in the center, went in over the walls to skewer the longbowmen on their pike.

Over the walls the pikemen go!

The lonbowmen crumbled and fled the field and this proved too much for English morale to withstand. With their Militia on their left about to lose to the Irish, the Royal army in the centre under extreme pressure, and the loss of their right, they decided that discretion was the better part of valour and fled for safety. Victory to the Spanish!

Aftermath

Although the Spanish had gained the advantage early on in the battle, it had been a great and hard fought game. The rule modifications we used worked well, although we had needed to clarify a few bits and bobs as the game progressed: can Kerns use their javelins as part of the charge sequence, for example.

The figures (all from Khurasan) had looked very good indeed and all that now remained was to have a quick bite to eat before setting up for the return game where I would play the English…but that’s another post!

FK&P AAR: Cossacks & Transylvanians versus Muscovites

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After the Cossacks got so badly hammered last time out against a Muscovite army, it was time to reinforce them with some Transylvanians: the Cossacks would provide the war wagons and foot, the Transylvanians some fairly decent cavalry.

The Muscovites were, again, mostly Sons of Boyars or Reiter cavalry supported by two small brigades of infantry.

View from behind the Muscovite line

Muscovites

Transylvanians & Cossacks

Muscovite Reiters

Elite Transylvanian Cavalry

As the battle began, both sides advanced forward smartly, with the terrain meaning that the game divided into three sectors: my left flank, the centre and my right flank.

On My Left

On my left, some scummy looking Border Guards had appeared in front of me: the perfect target for the Transylvanians!

Apparently not, as rather than running over them like a badly dressed speedbump, my horsemen got impaled on their pikes. This flank then turned into an uneasy stalemate as horse and foot units milled around charging each other with little effect. The battle would be decided elsewhere!

On the Right Flank

On my right flank, I had some Transylvanian Enlisted Light Cavalry supported by two Haiduk units sheltering in the woods.

The plan was to send the light cavalry forward to soften up the three units of Reiters coming towards me so that the Haiduks could wipe them out from safe amongst the trees.

This did not work: the light horse were swept away almost immediately, and then the Haiduks were charged from the flanks and front and, despite the bonuses for being in cover, were swept away as well. The final unit of Haiduks did hold out for some turns, but eventually succumbed, leaving my centre now vulnerable to flank attacks.

Meanwhile in the Centre…

Meanwhile in the centre, the main body of Muscovite Reiters steamed towards my line: a mixed line of raw Moloitsy short-pike-and-shot and tabor war wagons.

My tabor fired valiantly away with both their light guns and musketry, but because I only had two of them rather than my usual four, I couldn’t get the concentrated fire I needed to halt the enemy Reiters heading towards me.

The Moloitsy were charged and gave way, leaving the tabor as islands of resistance amongst a swirling sea of Muscovite horsemen.

By this stage, I was also getting very short of victory medals…

The End

As my right wing collapsed, the loss of one unit too many caused my army as a whole to collapse: the Muscovites had won the day!

This wasn’t a hammering, I hasten to add: the Muscovites had been losing units as well, but it the Cossacks and Transylvanians who crumbled first!

Another great game, through, even if the Muscovites are currently proving unstoppable!

FK&P AAR: Cossacks vs Muscovites

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Time to get my new Muscovites onto the tabletop and into action, with their opponents being the Zaphorogian Cossacks. Russians verses Ukrainians: who would have thought!

I played the Cossacks, daughter #1’s boyfriend, Kavan, played the Muscovites. The rules used were For King & Parliament with the Eastern Front adaptations taken from the Tales from a Wargaming Shed website.

This turned out to be a fast and furious battle with what seemed like an endless wave of Muscovite horse crashing onto the Cossack tabor and infantry.

Here a gallery of the set up so that you can see the two sides:

The battle opened with a brigade of Muscovite Reiters thundering forward on the Cossack right flank, held by a brigade of Moloitsy and Registered Cossacks. The cards were with Kavan, with a couple of consecutive “10’s” ensuring that he actually charged home on his first turn!

The rapid charge had, however, obviously exhausted his cavalrymen, as they bounced backwards from the Cossack infantry, losing one squadron in the process.

The Muscovites also advanced another brigade of Reiters on my left flank, but not as fast, so I sent my Tartar allies out to deal with them whilst I advanced the tabor forward and prepared to deploy.

I almost came a cropper at this point, as his Reiters were once again quick off the mark, and hit one of my tabor wagons before it had a chance to deploy. Fortunately, I managed to survive the charge, but there was definitely now a weak point in my line!

Even worse, my Tatar Nobles (the best troops I had) had obviously been bribed by the Muscovites, as they left the table, along with some of their horse archers, without achieving anything!

I was now in quite serious danger of being outflanked on the left!

Fortunately I had a reserve brigade of infantry that I could deploy to face this threat, and the battle became a series of Muscovite assault on a fortress of Cossack tabor. Again and again, the Reiters and elite National Cavalry charged home, and again and again the Cossack line held.

My artillery was overrun, two of the tabor wagons were overrun, my Registered Cossacks on the right were wavering, but still we held, and the relentless assaults were costing the Muscovites dearly.

Kavan also wasn’t helped by a run of bad cards, including what you can see in the last picture, above: an absolute dead-cert winning flank charge on the reserve unit holding my left flank foiled by a couple of Aces drawn in a row.

This gave me the chance to get the last remaining unit of Tatars in on his flank and, finally, the Muscovites had had enough and retreated. A very narrow escape for the Cossacks!

It had been a terrific game, with everything coming right down to the wire. I had lost half my army, but had just managed to hold on long enough to get the win. Roll on the next game!

FK&P: Lists for the Eastern Front

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Whilst researching for my English Civil War armies, I came across the blog Tales from a Wargaming Shed. It’s author, Tim, had some rules and army lists for using For King & Parliament to fight pike and shot battles in 17th Century Eastern Europe as opposed to just the UK’s green and pleasant land.

Muscovites versus Cossacks, from a recent game

This, combined with the comprehensive miniatures for the theatre available from Wargamer.pl, inspired me to start a collection of Zaphorogian Cossacks to face friend Bevan’s Polish Lithuanians and then, as my collection expanded to include Muscovites, Transylvanians and others, to build on Tim’s work and the information provided in the By Fire & Sword rules by Wargamer.pl, to create more detailed army lists for For King & Parliament for the theatre.

On this new page on this blog, therefore, you will find pdfs of the army lists I have created so far. These are, I hasten to say again, hugely based on Tim’s work and the information provided in the By Fire & Sword rules by Wargamer.pl. All I have done is build upon their work, adding information taken from other sources (for example, the Steven’s Balagan blog) to put together enough information to get as many different eastern front '“pike and shot” armies as possible on the tabletop. Any mistakes are my own, and I welcome corrections or suggestions (send to admin@vislardica.com).

FK&P: The Eastern Front

FK&P AAR: Widbrooke Common Again

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As Rob had not only come a long way but also beaten me fairly quickly playing The Attack on Marlowe scenario, it seemed only meet and right to have another game…and being logical chaps, we set up the table for the second scenario from Marlowe the Maidenhythe scenario pack: Widbrooke Common.

Scene from behind the Parliamentarian lines

It’s the Royalists on the attack: advancing against the Parliamentarians across the eponymous common. Although Rob had played the Cavaliers in the first game, we got switched around somehow, and now I would take the loyalists into battle against the Roundheads.

The Royalists wasted no time, and marched forward smartly towards the traitors opposite them. One slight worry was that a lot of my infantry were Untried (the yellow markers in the picture below) meaning that the first time they encountered anything battle-ly (were shot at, wanted to shoot, were charged etc) they would have to check their morale

Slightly to the left of centre, the two cavalry lines clashed, with honours really falling to the Roundheads: their bigger ‘Dutch’ units surviving the initial charges of my smaller ‘Swedish’ squadrons and then bashing me up in the melee that followed.

In the event, both sides cavalry effectively cancelled each other out, especially as one of my infantry units was able to turn and blast a Roundhead horse unit in the flank. The battle would end with each sides’ surviving cavalry manoeuvering for advantage in the open ground on my left wing.

Which meant that the battle would be decided in the centre and on my right.

As you can just about see in the picture above, the first thing that I did was to dispose of the Roundhead artillery with my small unit of Cuirassiers. A bit risky, but the cards were with me and the guns were silenced for no loss.

The Cuirassiers then went on to threaten the Roundhead rear, eventually destroying the unit of commanded shot that formed the Parliamentarian reserve.

You can also see, in the picture on the right, that my infantry have moved forward and begun to push back his main line. Here’s a couple of great shots of them going into action:

What isn’t shown in the pictures above, and the reason that victory was eventually mine, is that on the right flank my horse had moved forward and outflanked two Parliamentarian infantry units that were trying to evict a Royalist Forlorn Hope from a small farm building.

Here’s a shot from earlier in the game: the Forlorn Hope would keep the Roundhead infantry distracted for long enough for my horse to turn left and hit them in the flank…which meant that when I broke the infantry in the centre, Rob ran out of Victory Medals and I had won!

It had been a great game, fairly tight right until the end. The initial Roundhead success with the cavalry hadn’t turned into more mainly because his horse pursued my retreating horse for too long, which gave me a chance to re-group what I had left and at least keep him occupied while my infantry moved forward.

The Cuirassiers were, despite their small size, the stars of the game: punching a hole in the enemy line and then disordering the main Roundhead line by violently removing their reserves behind them.

Another great game of FK&P!

 

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FK&P AAR: The Attack on Marlowe Again

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New friend Rob came up for a couple of games of For King & Parliament, a system he was considering but hadn’t played before, so where better to start than the first game from my Marlowe to Maidenhythe scenario pack.

Without going into the detail of why and what for, the Royalists are attacking a Parliamentarian force “dug in” on the approaches to Marlowe. Rob would play the Royalist, I took the Parliamentarians.

Royalists on the left, Roundheads on the right

Here’s a pictorial account of the game:

So a win for the Royalists, and for Rob in his first game.

FK&P AAR: Swedish vs Moghuls

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With the Moghuls having defeated the Cossacks in short order (see previous post) there was time to have another game. This time I thought that I would wheel out the Swedes: not sure quite how the contemporary but not contemporaneous Swedes and Moghuls would ever encounter each other…but then that’s the great joy of wargaming!

I was a bit more confident of victory this time: the Swedish army has a good mix of pike-armed infantry and decent Reiter horse: surely this would be enough to put the upstart easterners in their place!

The Swedes

The Moghuls

I drew up my Swedes in entirely the traditional manner: two brigades of infantry in the centre, a brigade of cavalry on each wing. My plan was to advance in a line and just get stuck in as soon as possible: my pike should be able to defeat his largely musket- or sword-armed infantry through reach alone!

The Moghul plan was to sweep his wings forward using weight of numbers to win the cavalry battle there, then curl in to take my main line in the flanks just as his main line hit them from the front.

His cavalry duly swept forward, with my cavalry advancing to meet them.

Left flank

Right flank

As the cavalry on both sides began their fight for dominance on the wings, the Swedes marched their infantry forward in the centre.

On the left wing, my cavalry were initially successful, and had a great opportunity to charge his main horse units in the rear by swinging around the small wood top left in the left hand picture above. Unfortunately, I drew a “10” for my first movement card, so got into the perfect position to launch the charge but just couldn’t actually charge before the way into the enemy cavalry’s rear was blocked by Moghul elephants.

Meanwhile, on my right wing, the cavalry clash had proved inconclusive. Both sides had lost multiple units, and things ended up with his cavalry technically ready to do more, but positionally unable to do so before the main battle lines clashed.

With the cavalry actions on the wings proving inconclusive, it was obvious that the battle would be decided in the centre. The two lines moved into contact and a grinding melee began.

As with most grinding melees, it was 50/50 who would win: the advantage I had from my pikes countered by the Moghuls slightly outnumbering me.

To cut a long story short, after a long series of to-and-fro clashes, I lost. At the end of the battle, the Moghuls had only three victory medals left, so if I’d broken one of his foot units before he broke one of mine, then I would have won.

All that was left in the centre of battlefield!

A great game, with the Swedes proving decidedly harder for the Moghuls to beat than the Cossacks!

Here’s a chronological, pictorial history of the battle:

FK&P AAR: Cossacks versus Moghuls

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Friend Bevan has recently acquired a 17th Century Moghul army, so naturally we had to get it onto the tabletop as quickly as possible.

The Moghuls’ first opponents would be my Zaphorogian Cossacks, and we’d use the “eastern front” version of For King & Parliament (in turn the ECW version of To The Strongest) that we have built up based on some core rule variants that you can find on the Tales from a Wargaming Shed blog.

The Moghuls

The Cossacks

My plan was to anchor my left flank on a patch of impassable ground, placing my artillery behind it so that they couldn’t be charged from the front (you can see this in the picture, above right). The left flank would be held by one foot brigade consisting of a sotnia of Registered Cossacks and two sotnias of Moloitsy.

Stretching out to the right from this point were the tabor war wagons, able to hold the centre of the field with sheer weight of fire. To their right were a second infantry brigade (same as the first one) and then, on the far right wing, the stars of the last battle, a brigade of Tatars: one squadron of noble lancer types, two clumps of horse archers.

The plan was, as I said, to anchor my left and centre, win on the right, and then sweep in and take his centre, battered from the fire of the tabor, from the flank.

Bevan’s plan, on the other hand, was to stay well clear of the killing field in the centre in front of my tabor, and advance strongly on the flanks. Hopefully his men there would win, and he’d decide what to do after that. Seems like quite a good plan to me!

The battle opened with the Cossacks being extremely reluctant to move forward at all. I managed to get the left wing into place, but only one tabor war wagon did what it was supposed to do. On my right wing, although the Cossack infantry were well up for a fight, the Tatars were not interested at all. This was slightly worrying: were my allies not quite so allied as I had thought? Had the Moghuls paid them off with more coin than I could afford?

The Moghuls trundled forward towards me.

Rather than spell out each phase of the battle in turn, let me give you an overview of what happened. In essence, Bevan’s plan worked perfectly.

On my left flank, my infantry, who should have been able to give a good account of themselves, especially as they were supported by the artillery and one end of the tabor line, crumbled under the weight of the Moghul attacks. One moment i had a left wing, the next I didn’t.

It was even worse of the right wing. The Tatars, the battle winners of my last two games, just refused to engage at all, and when they were attacked, just melted away. Definitely some dodgy politicking or bribery going on in the background!

Once my flanks were broken and driven it, Bevan’s Moghuls curled in on my flanks and the last of my victory medals soon disappeared. My tabor had hardly got to fight at all.

A nicely executed plan by the Moghuls and a well deserved victory. Here’s a chronological pictorial account of the game:

FK&P AAR: Swedish vs Cossacks

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Now that I had my Swedes all planned out, it was time to take them into action against my only other vaguely contemporaneous army, the Zaphorogian Cossacks.

This would be an interesting clash, as the two armies were very different: essentially a western pike & shot army (the Swedes) against an eastern pike & shot army (the Cossacks). Indeed, so different were the Cossacks that Bevan, my opponent, asked if he could use the Swedes (despite the dice initially saying otherwise) as he wasn’t sure how to fight with the Cossacks.

The Cossacks, therefore under my command, consisted of a brigade of four tabor war-wagon bases and some artillery; two brigades of Tatar cavalry, each consisting of two horse archer units and one heavier cavalry unit; and two brigades of infantry, each consisting of two Moloitsy units and one Registered Cossack units.

The Left Wing of the Cossacks

The Swedes, commanded by Bevan, were more like a conventional ECW army. They fielded two brigades of Reiters (like harquebusiers) , each with three squadrons; two brigades of pike, one consisting of three “Swedish” or pike-heavy battalia, the other consisting of four “German” standard battalia; and finally a battery of artillery and an orphan brigade of mixed cavalry consisting of a small unit of cuirassiers and another unit of standard Reiters.

The Reiters grouped together on the Swedish left wing

Despite having all the Tatar bowmen to seek out the opposition, the Cossacks were out-scouted and had to deploy first. The ground wasn’t ideal for war-wagons, with the only open space on my left, so that’s where they went along with a brigade of Tatar horse. The two infantry brigades went in the centre and centre right, with the final brigade of horse out on my right. I planned to hold the hedgerows on my right whilst the war wagons dealt with the Swedish left wing, and go from there!

The battlefield from the Cossack side. My CinC is obviously off to visit the church in the middle of the field!

The Swedes massed their cavalry on their left wing, and lined their infantry up next to them but stretching across the rest of the battlefield. That looked like an awful lot of cavalry facing my right, and I could immediately see that Bevan was intending to punch through my right hand cavalry brigade and then bring his horse round onto my flank. Gulp! I’d better win elsewhere rather quickly then!

The Battle Itself

The battle itself divided neatly into two halves: with action taking place on either side of but not along the road that ran up the centre of the field.

On the Cossack left flank, the tabor trundled forward with the Tatar horse easily keeping pace. Opposite them, the pike-heavy Swedish battalia advanced in a slightly ragged line, with the orphan brigade of cavalry behind them.

As the two sides got closer, the tabor turned and deployed ready for action, quickly opening fire with their light guns and muskets. One Swedish battalia was disordered by their fire, so the Tatar horse archers moved forward and double-disordered them with bowfire.

This was too good an opportunity to miss: the veteran Tatar Noble Lancers charged the disordered pike and smashed them from the table! Behind the pike were the Cuirassiers, but they were also dashed from the field by the rampaging Tatars. Unfortunately, the exhausted Nobles were then dispersed by the Reiters accompanying the cuirassiers, but they in turn were then routed by the horse archers following up their Noble comrades.

Meanwhile, one tabor was locked in combat with a battalia of pikemen. The action swayed back and forth, but the Swedish pike were too strong, and the tabor’s crew fled the field.

That was, however, the limit of Swedish success on this flank. Another battalia was hit in the flank and routed by horse archers, and as the battle on the other side of the field reached its climax, more Swedish infantry were about to be charged in the rear by the rampant Tatar horse: the combination of fortress-like tabor shooting any enemy that moved and the nimble Tatar horsemen proving a winnig combination.

It was, however, on the other flank that the battle was decided.

The Swedes wanted to push their horse forward en masse and just overwhelm the outnumbered Tatars in front of them. Unfortunately the cards did not smile on this endeavour, and their attack was first delayed and then delivered piecemeal.

This allowed the Tatars to focus their efforts on the front-runners and break two squadron of horse, but this initial success turned into a gradual retreat in the face of overwhelming numbers of Reiters and, as the battle ended, all three Tatar/Cossack units had been routed and the Swedish horse was preparing to lap around the right flank of the Cossack infantry.

The three Tatar/Cossack units had, however, effectively neutralised the initial Swedish plan of punching huge numbers of Reiters around the Cossack right flank meaning that, along with the successes on the left flank, the Cossacks had a real chance to win the battle with their infantry in the centre…provided they could do so before the Reiters eventually arrived.

The gallery below shows the cavalry action on the right of the Cossack position:

So the battle would be decided in the centre-right axis of the Swedish advance, where the good quality “Swedish” (pike-heavy) infantry moved forward against the Cossack foot: mostly raw infantry armed with long spears rather than pike.

The Cossacks lined the hedgerows near the crossroads and the Swedes advanced to contact. Cossack musket fire was largely ineffective, and they were soon forced to retreat away from the hedgerows in the face of a series of determined charges by the enemy pike.

I brought up reinforcements from the other flank, but so crowded was the nature of the fighting that I couldn’t find a way of extricating my disordered troops from the front line so that I could replace them with fresh. This, as I said, was due to the ferocity of the Swedish attack: continually pressing forward.

And then Lady Luck smiled upon the Cossacks: the Swedish Commanding General was cut down by Cossack musket fire as he led his infantry line forward!

In FK&P, your c-in-c is worth a lot (and I mean a lot) of victory medals, so this really tipped things in my favour. If I could break just two more Swedish units (across the battlefield, not just on this flank, so including all the action on the other flank, happening simultaneously with what I’m now describing) then the day would be mine.

The death of the swedish C-in-C

Unfortunately, Lady Luck is nothing if not even handed, and the very next turn the Cossack commanding general was first lightly wounded and then also killed, losing me an equal number of victory medals!

Death of the Cossack Commanding General

Both sides were now down to just two victory medals remaining: whoever next broke a unit would win the battle.

The initiative was with the Cossacks, so my line of Moloitsy and Registered Cossacks opened fire, bur failed to break the enemy. They returned fire…and this proved too much for one of my raw Moloitsy battalia. They broke and fled the field, taking the rest of my infantry with them.

Seeing their right flank broken and, indeed, with the survivors about to be cut down by rampaging Reiters, the victorious Tatar cavalry and tabor on the left flank remembered an important appointment elsewhere and also skedaddled. The day was with the Swedes!

Aftermath

It had been an epic game that, once again, came down to the final action.

All credit to Bevan for having a great plan and deployment: if his infantry hadn’t carried the day then his Reiters coming in from my right would have finished me off for sure.

17th Century Swedish Command

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Over the last couple of year’s I’ve built up a sizeable 15mm collection of English Civil War figures. To them I’ve added some Cossacks and am in the process of building a contemporary Polish army as well.

Looking to get more use out of all the above, I realised that I could quite easily use the bulk of my English Civil War collection as Swedish troops for the Thirty Years War. After all, the Swedish troops dressed in “western” styles rather than the “eastern” styles of the native Polish or Cossack infantry: so my “Swedish-style” ECW cavalry could masquerade as Swedish reiters, and the infantry could be fielded as is.

That was a good start, but I didn’t have any idea as to the composition of a Swedish army…but a couple of hours online and with the FK&P rulebook enabled me to put together the following, which I think does the trick nicely.

The main elements of the army would be reiters and either “Swedish” of “German” foot. “Swedish” foot were rarely actually Swedish of course (a lot of Finns and a surprising amount of Scots): the name comes from the way they were fielded in terms of pike/musket ratio following Carl Gustav’s reforms. Likewise, “German” foot were not all German, and the term applies to any foot with a more conventional pike/musket ratio.

I could have gone into more detail and noted that CG’s army were often short of pikemen, so all the infantry were effectively “German” stylee, but that’s probably an unnecessary complication: it’s enough that I can call pike-heavy battalia “Swedish” and standard battalia “German”.

The next question was how to make the army look a bit more Swedish. The solution was actually quite easy: the Swedish Command pack from By Fire & Sword gives you seven different command stands plus flags.

One problem is that the By Fire & Sword models are really difficult to get hold of in the UK: exports from Poland presumably more difficult now due to a mixture of Brexit, COVID and the dramatic increase in postage/transport costs. I manged to get one of the last I could find from Entoyment in Poole.

The models are generally up to the usual high standard of By Fire & Sword except, unfortunately, for a lot of the faces. I don’t know whether it’s the original sculpts or the casting, or even worn out molds, but many of the faces just didn’t have the relief that you’d normally expect. I’m not the best painter in the world, so I reply on clearly defined detail on figures to bring out the, er, detail, including faces. Base colour, a wash then highlight forehead, nose, cheeks and chin only really works if you have a clearly defined forehead, nose, cheeks and chin…otherwise you’re actually painting faces from scratch, well beyond my talents!

This was disappointing, but I still think the By Fire & Sword packs are great: everything you need plus flags.

So that’s a Swedish army created from existing stock and one pack of command figures. I might see if I can do the same with some of the other TYW nations…

FK&P AAR: Cossacks March Out Again

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Time for the Zaphorogian Cossacks to ride out again, this time with an away fixture at friend Bevan’s house.

It was an unusually shaped battlefield, and one criss-crossed by small streams and (impassable) lakes. There was also a chunk taken out of one corner, meaning any units deployed there ran the very real risk of falling off the end of the world!

After their first encounter ended in ignominious defeat, the Cossacks had re-organised their army: equipping their tabor wagons with light artillery and dropping the brigade of raw Cossack horse.

On this battlefield, therefore, I placed my up-armed tabor in the centre, infantry to the left and right of them, and a brigade of Tatars on the far right just in front of the edge of the world. That left me a brigade of horse in reserve just behind my tabor’s right flank.

As before, our opponents were the Lithuanian Polish, hereafter known as the Poles or the Polish. They had their infantry and artillery in the centre, with loads of really quite good horse on either wing.

The battle opened with the Poles advancing rapidly on either wing, and the game split into two halves.

On my right flank, my Tatars (one unit of veteran nobles and two units of light bowmen) took on four units of decent Polish cavalry. My lights were quickly sent fleeing from the field, but their veteran comrades managed to destroy two of the Polish horse units despite, at one stage, being hit in the flank.

Half the Poles who had been chasing my lights from the field then returned and, eventually routed my tired nobles, but I’d still effectively won that flank, certainly in terms of victory medals lost.

Meanwhile, on the other flank, waves of Polish horse, most of it rather decent, some of it the dread Winged Hussars, came forward and crashed onto the three Cossack foot units right at the end of my line.

[The Winged Hussars were being represented by only their bases as painting their leopard skins had caused a delay in production. This was quite unnerving…as the temptation was to visually dismiss the units that were actually the most deadly on the table!]

Time and time again the Polish cavalry crashed into one unit of Cossack Moloitsy militia: a unit that just refused to break. Two light units and two medium units of Polish cavalry were sent packing before, finally, the Moloitsy gave way, leading to a general crumbling of that flank.

So exciting was this passage of play that I don’t actually have many photos of it. Below, left is the first wave of Polish cavalry moving forward. Below, centre is the situation after the first wave of Polish cavalry has been repelled, with the black-base-Hussars moving forward in the background. Below, right is after the Hussars have finally shattered the Moloitsy infantry.

Meanwhile, the Polish infantry had also split into two halves. On my right centre, they advanced towards the Cossack foot brigade amongst the trees and rough ground in the bend of the river. A firefight broke out between the two infantry forces, with each of us eventually losing a unit.

On my left centre, after hanging back for some time, the other Polish infantry brigade came forward. They advanced towards the left hand tabor unit but so keen was Bevan to get them into action at the same time as his Hussars were wiping out my Moloitsy that he left their flank exposed.

No sooner seen then acted upon: one of my reserve cavalry units, Tatar lights, smashed into their flank and smashed them from the field. The Tatars went on to knock off a unit of enemy Tatar light horse (Taras Bulba anyone?) before retreating back to safety.

The climax of the battle was now upon us. Before my Cossack Moloitsy on the left broke and ran I had been comfortably ahead: nine victory medals verses the three that Bevan had left. Once my left flank had broken, I was down to three victory medals. Could Bevan now snatch victory from the jaws of defeat?

As his troops massed for further charges into my left flank, the battle was actually decided back on the right centre, where Bevan’s remaining infantry unit had retreated back from its firefight with some of my Registered Cossacks in order to re-group.

I followed up, also deploying my final reserve: a unit of poor quality mounted Cossacks. These managed to pin the retreating Polish Haiduks in place, giving my Registered Cossacks time to follow up and hit them in the flank. They crumbled, their victory coins were lost, and the battle was mine!

The gallery below shows the initial clash between infantry lines on the right center. The position after this initial clash, and then the climactic moment mounted and Registered Cossacks dashed the enemy Haiduks from the field:

So a first victory for my Cossacks, but a very hard fought contest won only by the narrowest of margins.

Again the Poles avoided frontally assaulting my tabor wagons, concentrating on trying to win the battle by killing all my other troops. In this game that actually worked in my favour a bit: my tabor were free to deploy their new light guns with significant effect and the terrain was such that my infantry could hold on for long enough before fleeing the field.

For me, I tried to avoid throwing my cavalry away. Admittedly the veteran Tatar noblemen played a blinder and did much better than they should have, but keeping the other cavalry brigade in reserve worked really well: I would only have lost them to the mass of enemy cavalry as it advanced forward, and this way I was able to shore up my line and then exploit the retreat of the enemy infantry when the time was right. For my next outing, I think I’ll add a unit of artillery to the roster, sacrificing some infantry Gallant Gentlemen to do so. After all, I can only use them if I’m attacking, and my infantry won’t charge enemy horse!

Here’s a pic of the table at the end of the game.

Cossacks Take To The Field (Briefly!)

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My first game of the year, so it was only right that the Cossacks finally take to the field with their opponents, the Polish/Lithuanians (hereafter known as the Poles/the Polish), provided by friend Bevan. So new to the table were both armies that the Poles hadn’t even been properly based yet.

The table was set up quite differently to our usual ECW terrain: no hedges and loads of irritating patches of rough or impassable ground.

We used the excellent eastern front modifications to For King & Parliament available on the Tales From A Wargames Shed blog.

View from the Polish side

The Poles arrived with a fearsome army: two units of Winged Hussars; four units of Pancerni horse; three units of Petyhorsy horse; three units of Tatar mounted bowmen; and four infantry Haiduk units.

Not properly based! Are the shades of the wargaming room to be thus polluted?

To oppose them, my brave Zaporogian Cossacks fielded four tabor war wagons; two brigades each of one unit of Registered Cossacks and two units of Moloitsy; and two Tatar warbands, one of two units of mounted bowmen, the other the same but with a unit of Tatar noble lancers as well.

Tabor in the centre, then the infantry, then the cavalry on the wings.

Here’s how the game went:

In summary, the Poles sent their cavalry forward on each wing. This proved too strong for my horse, who were mostly Tatar bowmen and reluctant Cossacks, leaving the end of my infantry/tabor line exposed.

My musket fire proved ineffective (I think it must have been raining) and although they did cause the Poles some damage, the Moloitsy infantry then began to crumble.

As the battle ended, the Poles were about to fall upon the Registered Cossacks whilst my tabor still sat in the centre watching what was going on!

Aftermath

An excellent game (despite the result!) and it was good to get back to gaming and give my latest army a baptism (of fire!).

Cossack Artillery

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Fanfare please: the last of the Cossacks roll off the production line!

Well, I have one more, unopened packet of Moloitsy, but even if I did want to paint them up, there’s no room in the two Really Useful boxes that I’m using to store the Cossacks in (it’s a bit like a tabor after all!) so who knows where I’d put them. Bored of painting Cossacks now, anyway: with 231 painted since 21st October, I feel I have more than done them justice.

Just working on my tan, Alexy

First up, in the photo above, is a Light Gun base to augment stationary infantry or tabor units. Figures and gun are from By Fire & Sword, and very nice they are too, if a trifle tall.

I do like how the Contrast paint has covered the torso of our sunbather with the ramrod: that’s just one coat of Darkoath Flesh over the grey undercoat. Loving Contrast paints very much!

Next up is a standard artillery base. Not quite such a good photo, though.

You can see that I have had to import some spare Peter Pig artillerymen as the original artillery pack only contained enough gunners for two crew per piece. I’ve painted the Piggy’s contribution in the same green both on the above and the next piece: I’m calling them non-Cossack mercenaries used to train or improve effectiveness!

I do like the pose of the chap in the red trousers on the left: the one with his foot up on the barrel and staring dreamily into space. You can’t quite see it in the pic, but in his other hand, the one by his waist, he’s holding what looks like a piece of paper. I like to think it’s a letter from that special little Cossack lady expressing her love and admiration…but it’s probably a Dear John or a bill!

Finally, here’s a little gallery of the single siege artillery base I’ve painted up.

This artillery set comes with not only it’s own resin gun emplacement, but also with a separate “slide-in” base for the gun and gunners so that you can also use them on their own, behind a tabor for example. Very nifty and much appreciated.

Again, not enough crewmen though, so I’ve added a Piggy mercenary and a couple of spare command figures (the standard bearer and the drummer) to make the scenic base a bit fuller.

So that’s the Cossacks done now (or as done as any wargames project ever can be) and it’s on to the next section of the lead mountain.

No sneak previews, but I think I’ll be moving forward through time to WW2…

Cossack Command

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I’m now just working through the last few bits and pieces for my Zaporogian Cossack army for the (unofficial) eastern European version of For King & Parliament.

Here’s the latest offering, once again showcasing the beautiful banners that come ready provided by the chaps from By Fire & Sword.

Cossack Cavalry

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It’s always nice to see who’s going to be first to get an entry into the new year’s Painting Challenge and, this year, it happens to be me: the extra bank holiday day giving me the chance to both start and finish a couple of units of Cossack cavalry.

These are more from the By Fire & Sword range, and very nice they are too. It was also such a relief to paint a “regular” unit (i.e. one where the figures are all the same) after the five units of Tatars that were my final entries into last year’s Challenge.

And that, of course, is one of the reasons that I have been able to finish them so quickly: less time switching between paints and poses. That and the fact that they have very little in terms of “webbing” or equipment.

Oh, and if anyone is wondering how I got the roan colour on the unit with the purple and yellow banner, it’s using GW Contrast Fireslayer Flesh with a Cygor Brown mane and tail. I think I should have given them white socks as well, but that can easily be fixed the next time I want a roan horse.

Only a few more Cossacks to go now…

More Marlowe to Maidenhythe AARs

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As mentioned in previous posts, one of the things I like about publishing scenario packs (in addition to the extra money to buy more figures) is reading people’s AAR of the games therein.

I’ve featured a round of reports from the first scenario of the Marlowe to Maidenhythe pack, The Attack of Marlowe, and am pleased to say that the people playing through the campaign seemed to have enjoyed the first game well enough to play through the second: Widbrooke Common.

Here a link to the Blunders on the Danube blog where disaster is narrowly avoided during the game when one of the tables used collapses! Despite the unexpected earthquake (this is Berkshire after all!) this is a great looking game with some lovely figures deployed. Here a pic:

The Start of the Game

Then it’s on to the Troop Time! blog, where Widbrooke Common has also been played out, thankfully without any near-catastrophes.

The author of the blog, Zanoni, does mention that he’s disappointed that the M2M scenarios aren’t linked more closely, but as I’ve explained before, that’s the way they are designed.

As the first multi-game supplements for FK&P, I wanted M2M and SoN to be scenario books that primarily provided people with lots of easily run games i.e. without any barriers to playing any of the 24 scenarios provided in any order.

I did think about going the whole hog and writing a campaign based on a dependency tree and with characters/units who can progress or expire (much like I do for my IABSM scenario packs) but felt that, at this stage, what FK&P needed was just lots of individual games that people can play

That said, I also wanted to link them together in some way, so there's a strong campaign thread running through each pack, the games feature the same people and units throughout, and there a neat tracker provided so that players can keep a running score of how they are doing: hopefully a good compromise, "best of both worlds" product.

So hopefully Zanoni will keep playing through the pack: he certainly seems to be enjoying himself so far.

The two lines clash! Picture from the Troop Time! blog.

Now all we need is the Iron Mitten to catch up with his Widbrooke Common game!

FK&P AAR: Disaster at Skirmett's Orchards

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Here’s a battle report from the playtest of the final scenario in my newly-published Siege of Norchester scenario pack for the English Civil War rules, For King & Parliament.

As the title of this post suggests, this was an absolute disaster for my Parliamentarians!

“Went the day well, my dear?”

“No it bl**dy didn’t!”

The day started very well. Above is a view from behind the Royalist lines, with the village of Skirmett in the centre of the table. My plan was to win on the wings then envelop the Cavaliers in a “horns of the buffalo” manoeuvre.

Northern Donkey Wallopers to the Front!

On my left wing, I had a brigade of Borders horse: poorly-mounted, but out-numbering the opposition. The lancers on the far left were quite nasty in a first clash, so I was pretty happy that I could get an advantage here.

The centre and right

I was a bit more concerned about my right wing, where the Roundheads had quite a few units of Swedish-style horse versus my monolithic Dutch-style troops, but my infantry were nearby and could always pore fire into the flanks of any rampaging Royalist cavalry before they got too close.

Back on the left wing, the two lines of cavalry smashed in to each other: complete disaster!

I may have gone a little over the top on the disorder markers!

Let me explain. I got my tactics just right and ended up with three cavalry units facing just the one of his. Not only that, but I was uphill charging downhill. Yes, I had both my CinC and the Brigade Commander with the central unit, but officers casualties are quite rare, yes?

Wrong!

In the first clash I lost both my CinC and the Brigade Commander: both killed outright!

This was particularly painful as in FK&P not only are officers really useful for, er, officering but, representing the cult of personality around so many ECW commanders, your CinC is worth a great many Victory Medals. Combined, I lost just about a third of all my Medals with the death of just two men! This obviously meant that even if things went 50/50 from now on, I would lose the game in short order.

Anyway, we decided to play on for a bit…

Even Stevens on the Right

Another cavalry clash on the right, with my troopers getting an initial advantage.

The Centre standing Firm

Unfortunately that advantage didn’t last. Lady Luck again deciding that she was for the King!

Centre cavalry unit couldn’t even last long enough for the infantry to intervene!

Which meant that when my already battered left flank finally gave way, I was out of Victory Medals and on the stage coach to Losertown!

The Left Crumbles

So a very quick battle mainly due to the surprising death of my CinC and a cavalry brigade commander. Still an enjoyable game and, looking for the silver lining, the speed of my defeat gave us time for another game…

FK&P AAR: Napshill Downs

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Regular visitors will be aware that last Friday saw the release of my second scenario pack for the For King & Parliament English Civil War ruleset: The Siege of Norchester.

The pack contains twelve free-standing, fictional scenarios in a loose chronological order. It tells the story of the investment of the fictional, Royalist-held city of Norchester. It begins with the Parliamentarians gradually pushing the Royalist foraging parties back into the city itself, then looks at the Royalist attempts to delay the construction of encircling works. There’s an assault on the outskirts of Norchester and then a Royalist attempt to get a messenger through to the King to ask for aid. Finally, there’s the arrival of a Royalist relief force, the fall of Norchester and the attempted escape of the main Cavalier protagonists. The same officers and units are used throughout the campaign, and it is hoped that the players will come to adopt and recognise them as their own or the enemy.

The pack is designed to give players who don't have enough time to write their own scenarios a number of games that they can play with little or no preparation. All you have to do is print out the game and player briefings, set up the table according to the map, break out the figures and cards, and start the first turn. You don't even need to print the pack out in full: just the pages you need for the scenario you're going to play. The games can be played either as a series of linked games or as a collection of one-off battles. To emphasise: each scenario is free standing and they do not have to be played in any particular order…but it is anticipated that players will play them in order as a campaign, keeping a running total of each sides’ score as they go along. The pack provides a Campaign Record Sheet as an easy way of doing so.

Finally, although specifically designed for FK&P, with a little work the scenarios can be adapted for any set of English Civil War/Renaissance rules: the basic elements of why, where and with what each side is fighting being largely common to all systems.

Napshill Downs

An important part of the preparation for launch is to playtest all the scenarios in the pack, and below you will find a gallery of images from the playtest of scenario #11: Napshill Downs.

As one of the later scenarios, the background is that Norchester has already fallen so some of the Royalist erstwhile defenders are trying to make their escape from the region in order to continue the fight against the Parliamentarian traitors elsewhere. The Roundhead force (which I was commanding) is tasked with bottling them up and destroying them.

This was one of those games that went wrong for me just about right from the beginning when I completely cocked up my opening moves! Read on to share my pain!

The Attack on Marlowe

Meanwhile, blogger Zanoni has started playing through my previous ECW scenario pack: Marlowe to Maidenhythe, which is now available in both digital and physical form.

His first AAR, covering scenario #1 The Attack on Marlowe has lots of pictures of his beautifully painted collection of ECW figures. Recommended as a feast of eye candy!

Click here to see the report on his excellent Troop Time! blog.