Pikeman's Lament, Landscaping And Dogs!

The game in full flow!

I counted them all out......Push of pikes and storms of shotte!

Another visit from my old chum Ted, gave me an ideal opportunity to try out the 'Pikeman's Lament' rules for my English Civil War  collection. As regular readers may be aware, I am generally a big fan of the 'Rampant' rules family. They are granular enough to ensure serious strategic and tactical thinking during a game, whilst at the same time are unpredictable, very flexible and fun! I have been a fan of Lion Rampant and Dragon Rampant since their inception. I also enjoy Xenos Rampant for my Warhammer 40k collection. Pikeman's Lament has been on the bookshelf since publication with the intention of trying them out with the ECW and that day has finally arrived. I wanted to try them out against a live opponent not in a solo game and have been waiting for just such an opportunity.

The Royalist army prepares for battle

I designed two equal standard game size forces of 24 points each. In ECW terms this meant we both had 2 units of 6 cavalry, a unit of 6 Dragoons, a unit of 12 Pike and 2 units of 12 Shotte. 54 figures a side. This is in my opinion, a pretty good size of army for a 54mm game on a 6' by 4' table. The table doesn't feel too crowded and there is room for manoeuvre during the game. Yes I would prefer an 8' by '5 table but unfortunately the library at Apperley Towers just can't accommodate one that size without drastic redesign. Perhaps one day.

The Roundheads place a cavalry unit behind the hamlet

I naturally took control of the Royalist forces, whilst Ted being an unreconstructed Puritan at heart took the side of Parliament. We tried an open battle scenario as the best option for a first game.

I do not want to bore you with a blow by blow account of this game and will merely illustrate its general flow with some pictures. I was more concerned with the performance of the rules than the outcome of the battle, but it ended very satisfactorily on both counts!

The second Roundhead cavalry unit out ahead of its infantry and Dragoon support

The far right wing anchored on the wood

The Royalist centre, supported on both wings by a cavalry unit

The battle begins with the rapid advance of the Roundhead cavalry in both the centre and on the left wing followed by a hesitant advance by the infantry

Forward!

For Parliament!

Steady lads!

Charge!

Six needed on two dice to open fire!

The Pike advance to the hedge

The Ironsides bypass the pike and head for the shotte

Cavalry everywhere!

For the King!

The surviving cavalry catch their breath before charging in again

The remnants of the cavalry unit just before the Royalist Shotte blast them away

The Royalist left wing attacks with covering fire from the dragoons

The Royalist infantry are in good order whilst the opposing infantry are facing multiple threats

The fight is slipping away, the Royalist cavalry about to charge and rout the unit of Shotte!

The end....Parliaments forces are much reduced and failing morale tests...the game is conceded to save further unnecessary plastic bloodshed!

Conclusions

I think we were in agreement that the battle was largely lost because of some hasty decisions when deciding on initial placements. Teds dice throwing however was lamentable! The main thing was that we enjoyed pushing some toys around, rolling some dice and talking all things wargaming for a few hours! A thoroughly enjoyable day.

What about the rules? Well they worked smoothly (partly due to our familiarity with Lion Rampant etc)  and did not once give us cause to say 'that doesn't feel right' , or 'that needs a house rule'. Did they have the right feel for the English Civil War? That's slightly more difficult to answer. There were a few new special rules like 'First Salvo' which give a bonus to Shotte units the first time they use their weapons. Overall, we both felt the rules gave a great game and were quite successful for the period in question. Admittedly they didn't feel very different from Lion Rampant, but in small engagements the weapons and tactics were not that different! Men on horses with swords, men on foot with long sharp sticks or weapons that hit you from a distance. 

For smallish engagements I think these will be my go to rules. For larger set piece battles I'm not so sure. Time will tell.

Tales From The Potting Shed......Cottage Life

As I explained in my last post, once I had sorted out a nice selection of the Britains garden range for display, this left me with a considerable amount of spare items to do with as I will. I had long had the desire to start to build some free standing, 'all in one'  buildings for the wargames table. Specifically an English village. The problem with 54mm scale buildings and scenery generally, is they have an enormous footprint if you scale them accurately. Fortunately that didn't bother Britains or Timpo, so I decided to not let it bother me either! I decided on a base size and then 'landscaped it with Britains garden grass sections and patio slabs. I then positioned the building and started to build walls and a garden etc.

This is 'Far Leys', a Timpo farm house, repainted and given a small but representative front and rear garden. A front gate and drive and a side gate to the rear garden, with its shed, vegetable plot and cold frame. It set the framework for all of the other buildings so far. I loved being able to incorporate some elements of the garden range and make this property a great free standing building for games.

Kirrin Cottage is a simpler property, but on an identical base size. It has a larger front garden but very little at the rear. This is the first of the brilliantly adaptable Britains Farm/Ranch house building. I had acquired a number of these over the years in varying states of disrepair but you can't beat a good fixer upper!

Rectory Cottage has a nice frontage with a modest rear garden, but again, Britains garden pieces form the majority of the scenic additions. 

Finally we have the Flying Swan public house based on the relatively scarce Timpo large farm house. As a thatched building it just felt right as the village pub. I built a sign, added some floral decoration and added the much needed beer garden at the rear. What more could the discerning drinker want?

There is of course the village store /post office as well, but I featured that on its own in an earlier post, so will refrain from repetition.

So is that it? Well my small church needs a grave yard and my riding stable could do with a small yard. My Blacksmith could also do with larger premises so still more garden range material is needed. I am running out of the plastic pieces but have an abundance of the pre war lead garden range to go at next! I have to admit, I'm quite looking forward to it!

A Lick Of Paint.....Canine Escapades!

One of the small tasks that I undertook to ease myself back into painting was to repaint two hollowcast dogs that I had acquired. As I was putting these away it came to mind that the dog population in my collection is getting out of hand! I am not a dog lover in real life and prefer cats given the choice, but I do seem to be acquiring quite a number of splendid hounds and thought you might be interested to see them and their owners. 

Here we see the two Commanders in Chief of army Red and army Blue with their own canine companions.

In this clash between the commanders of my English Civil War forces we see two very stylised 17th century hounds. I have no idea who made these, coming as they did as part of the ECW purchase, but I adore the 'woodcut engraving' style of them. One is obviously a poodle, the other not.

The pooch lying down is one of my latest repaints from Britains and felt like he would fit in well at the Vicarage. Please let me know if you disagree. The old Queen (Victoria) felt like a good mistress for the sitting brown pooch which is a modern 'ish' Britains piece.

Next we see two Britains Shepherds with their collies. The black one is original paint.

Finally we see a (Britains) huntsman with a hunting hound and a Peeky Blinder (or maybe just a village lad?) with a splendid white Boxer. This last dog is easily my favourite, from the Johilco kennels and repainted last week.

Well that's it for my dog collection, but I have a lot of other animals to use as scenic props and scenario objectives and if there is interest I will bring them out from the stables etc in a later feature. 

Tara a bit!

 English Civil War Part Three ! Trial By Battle

Having sorted out the ECW collection to my satisfaction, I decided to give them a solo outing using the Medieval rules ' Trial By Battle' with suitable adaptations as available on the group Facebook page. These rules play well for their intended period and I wondered whether they would stretch to include the 17th century conflicts? They are well suited for games with about 6 to 8 units a side, so I set up two forces of 7 units per side. I decided to make the units smaller than I might for a much bigger wargame, Cavalry in sixes, Infantry in twelves and single artillery pieces.  The rules do not prescribe scale or unit sizes which suits me just fine!

The New Model Army, Horse, Canon, Shot, Pike, Shot, with Dragoons and Horse out of shot on the left flank.

The Royalists, Horse, Pike, Shot, Pike, Shot, Canon and Horse.

The view from the Royalist Centre which held firm throughout the game.

The Battle Unfolds

The game as set up, was never going to give me any great tactical challenges, but was ideal to just try out the rule mechanisms. I wanted more than anything else to find out if these rules felt 'in character' for the 17th Century. As a wargamer of more years than I care to recall, I have learned that the best rules have a knack of 'feeling right' for a period or particular form of warfare. Its not just about the mechanics working correctly (although that's a huge plus, as many rules sets have failed this basic step!), its whether they encourage and enable the tabletop combatants to fight in the manner that they should, bearing in mind the tactics and weaponry of the time.  

The Cavalry on both wings advance towards each other, with the NMA Dragoons opening fire on Prince Rupert's Cavalry.

The NMA Dragoons fall back as the cavalry on the left wing crash into each other. 

The cavalry clash head on on the right flank!

The NMA Infantry advance forward led by their army commander

The Royalist centre hold ground and give fire!

The Guns of both sides pounded away during the game without causing any significant damage (echoing historical reality as far as I can tell!)

The musketry cause significant casualties on the advancing NMA infantry.

It was not long before a unit of NMA musketeers broke and fled the field

The Royalist cavalry on the right wing routed the Roundhead horse and charged the Parliamentary Gun!

The struggle in the centre carried on but the writing was on the wall !

 Total collapse and the Parliamentary rout began!

For King And Country!

No, not an advert for that well known manufacturer of high end figure manufacturer, but the sentiment of the winning side in this my first ever ECW game. It had involved cavalry clashes on both flanks, which were won by the Kings forces on the lright and Parliaments on the left. Unfortunately the Roundhead cavalry in its enthusiasm, chose to engage a pike block and lost badly! Whereas the Royalist cavalry chose a soft target in the form of the NMA artillery unit and then charged the rear of the infantry centre. 

Throughout, the Royalist infantry held their ground and fired steady volleys into  the advancing NMA infantry, before fighting steadfastly in the melee that eventually developed. 

So how did the rules feel? Great is my overall feeling. The battle developed along historical lines and the troops performed in the way I wanted them to. The only niggle I had was the lack of any rule for interpenetration of skirmishers. In the end I just let the NMA cavalry charge through the dismounted Dragoons and reformed that unit behind the cavalry melee. 

I shall use these rules again and recommend them for medieval games in particular, but make sure you get the compendium as well!

My next battle will be trying out Pikeman's Lament but not for a few weeks as I take a short break from the 17th century.

A lick of paint......French Foreign Legion

Whilst I have been pre-occupied with the ECW collection for the past few weeks, I did manage to finish painting the French Foreign Legion unit and thought I would show a quick picture of the end result, patiently awaiting action on a shelf in my cabinets ! I am undecided about whether the regiment needs more recruits. I don't like to include figures lying firing in my basic units. I prefer to keep them separate, to stand in where they look more appropriate, such as when skirmishing or dug in to terrain. On that basis I may add another two riflemen to give me two basic companies of 12 men including Officers, plus the machine gun section and mounted Colonel. I don't have any appropriate figures at present but it shouldn't be a problem to add two more.

That's all for now, but I have plans for a new gardening feature soon! 

Tara a bit!