Prelude to Lostwithil - English Civil War

Got into a bit of an English Civil War scrap last night as we tested out Aidan’s scenario for the bigger Battle of Lostwithil (hopefully to appear later in the month).  In brief my Royalists were joined by Red’s, and commanded by Charles himself (who turned out to be as inept as the rest of my commanders).  They advanced onto the board on a 6 foot frontage against a Parliamentarian army only slightly smaller and proceeded to fight in an unsightly scrap that didn’t go far and wasn’t in the slightest decisive after 3 hours.  David Astbury and Aidan split the defending Rebels 50/50.

The setting was that the Parliamentarian troops, commanded by Old Robin the Lord Essex, were trapped and awaiting naval ships to lift them out of Cornwall, but in the meantime they were to try and break out of the Royalist cordon.  The victory conditions were that the Rebels got 1 victory point for each unit that escaped, and the Royalists 1 victory point for each they wiped out, so the Roundheads sent forward their horse to try and get away, while their foot mostly stayed further back.  In the end it was a rather predictable 4-1 Royalist win, with only the invincible Polish Lancers(!) breaking through and fleeing.  My infantry suffered from bloody awful command rolls, and went up against rebel infantry in a ruined castle which weren’t going anywhere, while Red expended all of our powder reserves (limited powder in operation this time out) trying to shoot 3-4 roundhead horse regiments, and mostly failing.  The scenario needs a bit of work and a much bigger table for the actual thing I think.

Interestingly we turned up to discover another 28mm English Civil war battle about to start on a similar sized table, so we setup as close as possible in the hope of trading a few shots later across the void…..

David's Rebels defending fields, hedgerows, and sheep.

The main area of the battlefield, with the Royalists appearing en-masse on the far edge.

The Rebels second big charge as Red's Royalist infantry starts turning up.

My dragoons in the woods on the Royalist left flank.

The castle (to the right) defended so ably by David.

Unengaged Scotsmen.

My desperate attempts to reduce the castle - I even had a storming party complete with petard which failed in 6+ turns to move more than 18" of the 36" I needed.

Stradlings pike come close, but not close enough.

The final nail for the Roundheads escape hopes as Red brings on the reserve cavalry brigade.

Still time for the flamboyant lancers to scythe through some of my remaining horse and escape. 

Work In Progress.........October 2013

A new year, and the hobby front has gone very quiet this month for a variety of reasons, including poor health and other distractions such as searching for work.  Bar the dotting the ‘i’s and crossing the ‘t’s I’ve now finished my current job so I’m on to looking for something new and exciting which challenges me – on all fronts it cannot fail to be an improvement on the one I’m finishing at the heritage centre.

Another reason why I’ve not been into the hobby as much has been a diffusion of interests.  No one period/scale/project has stood out as something I want too do.  I’ve played some Flames of War, but not been grabbed enough to pick up a brush.  I’d like to start on some World War One French with an eye towards a possible 1914 game at Gauntlet, but I lack the finance to buy any, and the same goes towards the English Civil War which I’m still keen on adding to my collection, but I’ve painted every model!

Actual Painting

Fortunately I do have some painting to talk about, because as one of my Thursday night games in October I finally managed to stick my 6mm American Civil War Yankees on the battlefield.  They were not numerous enough to make a complete side, but the addition of many of Andy’s zouvres made for an even two games, of which I lost both but enjoyed heartily.  This was finally enough to motivate me to do something modelling related.

My troops were lacking skirmishers, dismounted cavalry, command bases and cannon, so all were cut, stuck to lolly pop sticks and sprayed a lovely colour of black.  Then over a week later I added some blue to some of the infantry, command and artillery.  They are a work in progress, and once I’ve done the initial batch I’ll move onto the dismounted cavalry.  There is also a regiment of zouvres, complete with skirmishers, to do which will provide a break in the blue proceedings; I’ll have to look up their colour scheme.  Once the lot are finished I’ll base them en-masse and do an ACW post and maybe play another game.  After that I am pretty much out of Union troops, and I’ll have to make another purchase to carry on trying to keep up with Andy’s massed confederate regiments which significantly outnumber me!

Other things hanging around the edge of the painting table

A couple of 4 figure bases of Wars of the Roses archers in 28mm scale; the perrys miniatures which I keep almost having the enthusiasm to paint but not quite.

Current reading

Some basic, quite simple, books on the first world war to get a feel for the period and the events of 1914-15 before I plunge in and buy some French.  I’ve also read Antony Beevor’s ‘Berlin’ book again, super stuff, I really enjoy his detailed narrative style which flows beautifully and makes a book that deals with such a complex subject simply flow.  I’ve his Stalingrad book waiting to be read again as well.

Gaming

A few games this month, mostly of Flames of War as I lost to James in the Race For The Rhine campaign (which I’m running) thanks to my impatience, then returned the favour by running him over with my rarely used Panthers in a big 3,000pt game.  I also managed to fit in the aforementioned ACW game, a big Market Garden battle on a Saturday, and finally suffered a very conclusive defeat in my quarter final Bloodbowl game to Paddy.

Purchased Vs Painted

This may be a good year for this ratio, mostly because I don’t expect to be able to buy many models!  And it’s a good start.

Purchased – 0

Painted - 0