As reported last year, I am lucky enough to be part of a group of gamers hosted by our good friend John at his home overlooking the stunning Lake Tarawera in the central North Island every 12 months or so. We all take 3 or 4 days off work and spend Tuesday to Sunday at the house, with all day games on weds Thurs Fri and Sat and a half day game on Sunday. The evenings are filled with a log fire, beer, wine and champagne (not to mention Calvados!) and huge meals - Bouef Bourgignon, Lamb rack, whole fillet of beet etc....certainly a highlight of our gaming year! Each day we have a completely different game, with one or more of the attendees providing a scenario - often a new project - involving figures that most of us have in our collections.
This year, we had English Civil War, Napoleonic, WW1 in East Africa, Spanish Civil War (a new period) and a small Napoleonic skirmish with a twist for the half day game on Sunday. In this post, I will briefly cover the first days battle, an English Civil War confrontation.
The two sides were lined up facing each other with a simple mission - to make base contact with the opponents baggage train, represented on the table by several model carts to the rear of each army. The first side to achieve this would be the winner - or the secondary method of gaining victory would be through attrition of the enemy forces.
Rick, Mark and I commanded the Parliament forces, with John, Barry and Chris the Royalists - Paul designed the scenario and ran the game as umpire.
There was river on our left flank with a church in the far corner on the Royalist side of the table. Rick decided this must have some strategic value and set several units from his left wing command haring over the bridge to secure it. Mean while, I stood firm In the centre and Mark deployed his forces on the heights on our right wing, with the baggage train to his rear.
John (opposing Rick) and Chris (opposing Mark) both advanced - John moved a unit into the church Rick was heading towards, whilst Chris made a general advance with his entire force. Rick managed to get his force into by far the most dominant position and looked to have John in the palm of his hand, but a series of bad dice roles, countered by exceptionally good ones from John, undid all Ricks good work - one unit of Johns cavalry led a charmed life and managed to push back three cavalry regiments of Ricks, plus wipe out a gun. Then, when Rick charged a properly formed foot unit into an opposing unit in a horse-resistant "hedgehog" formation, he somehow contrived to loose that combat too!
On the other flank, things were equally dismal for our cause. Chris advanced rapidly with a motley band of Scots and Irish foot, plus a couple of unit of regular foot and some cavalry towards the centre (the right of his left wing command). The clansmen were a one shot weapon - bloody useless in most instances but virtually unstoppable in a charge! This they dually executed and destroyed one of Chris's units. The cavalry in the centre confronted Marks horsemen and after losing the initial contest, overcame and routed our units, opening a direct route to the baggage train. After a couple of moves where the initiative roles went against us at critical times, Chris made it through to our baggage line and won the game as per the scenario.
However, it was only just lunchtime at this point, so we all agreed to carry on the game after lunch.
There is no happy tale of redemption or a moral victory for Parliament, unfortunately! Chris continued to rough up Marks force, and although he had one or two reversals, he wiped out our entire right wing by the mid afternoon and started to turn in on the flank of my Covenanters in our centre.
Ricks bad luck and Johns good continued as per the morning session. Barry and I maneuvered around each other and I think I had slightly the better of it, but I lost one unit of cavalry to John and had the other one pushed back after losing a melee. All in all, it was a very bad day for Cromwell's men - he was not present - maybe that was the problem?!
Following are the images I capture of the action. The figures are a great variety from Front Rank, Foundry and Renegade to 28mm plastic by Warlord, some painted 25 years ago and others completed only a few weeks before the game
Ricks left flank of the Parliamentarian army
Marks left wing on our side
Ricks forces advance towards the strategically important church on the Royalist right rear table edge
Chris's Scots advance towards Mark
Mark deploys his dragoons to face the Scots
Two of Marks pike blocks with musketeers detached in a forward skirmish line
The position on the Parliamentarian left wing under Ricks command
The result of the clash between the ferocious Highland charge and the Parliamentarian dragoons - the dragoons are no more!
Chris and Marks cavalry clash in the first charge of the game
The general advance against Mark on the Parliamentarian right wing
Barry's Royalist centre advance - the cavalry in column very shortly disappeared due to gun fire
My two units of cavalry supporting Rick's advance on the left wing
Another charge on Marks right wing forces
The action in the centre - the yellow coated Royalist cavalry facing off a Covenanter "hedgehog" were decimated by musketry and quit the field soon after this shot
The end is nigh on Parliaments right wing - Mark only retains two units of foot
The result of dice rolling - two units of Rick's cavalry fleeing the single Royalist cavlary regiment that opposed them
The action in the centre - my Covenanters still in good shape and about to inflict some damage on Barry
Top left - Rick's orange coated infantry regiment charges a "hedgehog" but despite all the advantages, contrived to loose and be pushed back!
Final shot on Marks wing - one unit left and its about to be eradicated. The game ended around 4pm and we retired to the house to watch DVD's, drink wine and lick our wounds!
Day two to follow tomorrow.......
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