The Battle of the Nile , Battleground Show and more

Well another busy week on the hobby front. First up I have been searching out a suitable set of rules for my 1/3000 sailing ships. Many I have looked at involve record keeping for damage for each ship and a level of complexity which isn’t really appropriate for my little ships. I have looked at quite a few rules and  having played many of the ‘Osprey’ rulesets thought these were worth a try.

Turns out they are pretty much exactly what I was after, they still have the fun of potentially changing weather and wind conditions, gunnery and discipline favouring the British but are fairly quick to pick up and importantly you can manage without any record keeping even at my tiny 1/3000 scale, all the damage etc been marked on the table. So after a couple of mini test battles and with the table in the dungeon clear I  set up the Battle of the Nile to see how Nelson would fair.

As one of Nelson’s famous victories there is plenty of info on the battle and maps etc.

Also lots of elegant paintings of the battle to give it a heroic feel ?

Brace the mainsail and all that !

One of the benefits of the scale is it fits pretty neatly onto a 6x4 seascape, the French are ‘anchored’ in the bay the rules have a convenient way of representing this. The British fleet is tracking in the distance to pass around the headland and catch the French by surprise. I was playing solo for a change which allowed me to fiddle the scenario as I went along. The french would be unable to move until they could see the first British ship around the headland. The wind at the start is coming across the British in the distance putting the French at a real disadvantage.

But the British get a little ragged in their haste to get at the French

And just as they turn the corner the wind drops, changes in the wind are governed by the initiative roll each turn. This really broke up the British fleet just at the point the French can start to get underway.

The French open up at long range but to no effect

But soon the British fleet drives forward into the french 

The first french ship is blown to pieces immediately. Blue markers indicate destruction, yellow markers are actual damage, you can remove these but if you get more than 4 you strike your colours or sink.

The two fleets get stuck into each other and the French have some lucky rolls ! Pretty soon a couple of British ships are burning too.

The wind changed again but both fleets are desperately trying to get into the best firing position. The victory goes to the fleet which can drive the enemy’s morale rating to zero. This neatly balances the fact that fleets may not be quite the same size, although at the Nile they were pretty close. Initially the french get the better of the fighting and the British morale drops quite quickly. But thanks to some fortunate initiative rolls when they were needed the British slowly pull the battle back, in the end it was remarkably close with both fleets within a couple of ‘ships’ of their morale failure.

But the British held out, their slightly better gunnery winning through. Nelson wins another victory, hoorah ! Although I think they lost roughly half their fleet. A very enjoyable battle played out over a couple of days, the benefit of having it setup I could play through a turn then come back to it later etc. I will certainly be playing some more. For larger battles I have bases to allow the fleet to be combined into groups or divisions to bring the number of active elements to a manageable number.

Next up some painting ….

A couple more ECW cavalry regiments. These are Peter Pig castings, helpfully some of which are single casts so less fiddly. Nice figures although it is hard to look at them and not think cowboys ? On closer inspection they are definitely ECW cavaliers.

As mentioned previously we visited Battleground show at the weekend. A very enjoyable days, catching up with a few folk, checking out some excellent games and squandering my retirement fund ! First some of the battles which caught my eye

Martin was putting on a  lovely Barbarossa battle in 10mm all Pendraken figures

A Sicily Bolt action game, well I was bound to have a close look at this one. I like the vineyards the hills are nice but challenging for storage.

I was particularly taken by this Waterloo battle ( there were a couple) using preprinted 6mm figures etc, it looked excellent to my eye and something to think about for the future, very nicely done

Another small scale C17th  battle. Do I need one of these forts I wonder ?

Teddy bear fur in abundance on this Little Round top battle, I did feel the setup here slightly odd as the battle effectively is only in about 1/4 of the table ?

A modern Afghan battlefield very nicely turned out, another interesting idea for the future as I wouldn’t need any terrain and only limited numbers of figures ?

An air battle which I have seen at a couple of shows I think, the main draw being the map/mat, I would like something similar for my 6mm WW2 planes but in a different scale I guess as these were much bigger.

Finally a massive flats battle, I think SYW , old school but still looks very effective.

The shopping was excellent with a very busy and active bring and buy. I had a taken a list of things to look out for and nearly all of them came up. Dash it I couldn’t help myself  !!!

Lots of ECW stuff but mainly because it was all being sold in job lots, a harbour for Cruel seas, tanks for the railway, some kit to build better wound markers and I couldn’t resist the castle. I came back so excited  I’ve already been working on some of this stuff 

By popular demand I have been trying to take some photographs of the railway but it is proving very difficult due to adequate access and lighting. Anyway here is a shot of a GWR Dean goods 0-6-0 pulling a small mix freight load.

I have also tried with perhaps only moderate success to take a couple of videos of action on the track, if you are interested in railways click the link, if not just go back and look at the lovely Wargames above.

Once gain thats it for now, sadly my game with George has had to be postponed , but I should be gaming at the weekend.

Thanks as always for checking in, please let me know if people are interested in more train photos it is a whole interesting new challenge for me?

Thanks again Matt ♥️

Epic English Civil War another run out with the rules

As mentioned in my last post this week we had another chance to get the ECW collection on the table, it had slightly grown since last week but essentially this was a chance to test out the rules a second time and implement the changes we had thought through after the last battle. We will then see if we can have a look at some historical battles ?

So no specific Battle today just two forces facing off. The Royalists are on the attack and have slightly more infantry the Parliamentarians , shown below on the right, have less infantry but more cavalry and an extra cannon or two.

, they have also taken some central high ground to defend.

The fields provide cover, and the hill in the distance is wooded. The buildings are just moveable terrain as I haven’t developed suitable rules for villages yet and KoW historical doesn’t really do buildings.

The Parliamentary forces drawn up for battle and as to be expected cavalry on both flanks. I have a better idea for the first fire markers which I will develop over the next few weeks. But for this battle it was the little white markers. I didn’t take too many photos as we were just playing through the rules.

The Royalist right flank , prince Rupert returned from his escape last week !

After a couple of turns of jockeying for position and trading pistol shots the Royalist cavalry gets stuck in, Dismounted dragoons on both sides trade shots and the cavalry melee lasts much of the battle

On the other wing a similar situation, with some open space the cavalry swirl about trying to get an advantage shooting and when possible charging their opponents, then pulling back. Again this swirling action lasted much of the battle

Eventually the Pike and shot the units draw closer together trading musket fire if they can but then looking to push the enemy back, although you can see a gap between the Pike units this is because in the rules if you don’t drive the enemy away you pull back slightly in effect they are fully engaged in ‘push of pike’

Initially the Parliamentarian cavalry gets the worse of it but they turn around and attack again, some how the small commanded shotte unit just beyond the two nearest command figures managed to hold off the Royalist cavalry for several turns. These lighter cavalry not being especially hard hitting.

Hard fighting, the parliamentary cavalry have turned it around, the nearest pike blocks are just about to break but the Royalists are now ascending the hill in the distance !

Here they come ! And the Parliamentarian blocks are already close to breaking

After a lot of fighting the Parliamentary cavalry finally get the better on both flanks, although they don’t have much strength to do anything anymore

One Roundhead unit has broken right through the Royalist lines and is threatening all sorts of mischief , everybody is pretty much worn out now.

A final shot down the table, the victory if you can call it that went to parliament as they are still holding the hill and the Royalist cavalry has been driven off on both flanks.several of the Parliamentary forces are very lucky to still be on the table. Interesting to note how many units even after a full day of fighting haven’t discharged their muskets yet, having been thrown into the hand to hand fighting. We’ve designated these pike/shotte blocks as not being able to move and shoot, which to me seems fair.

Fun of course to play and a close fought battle. The rules worked well with the additional tweaks and gave and enjoyable game with enough historical feel for the period, but keeping the core simplicity of KoW which we like. We turned up one new an interesting rule problem when a a waivering Royalist cavalry unit fails an impetuous test, in the end we decided they would have to charge but be hindered in that charge. 

I plan to write down the additional rules at some point, we have also implemented some fate cards (following the approach of V&F)  a few other things I need to fix are the wound markers as it is slightly obtrusive when every unit is carrying wounds. I am also making some camp/baggage scene vignettes to act as objectives etc…lots to think about.

That’s it for now as I need to plan my German attack for tomorrow morning at George’s ?

Thanks as always

Matt ♥️

Battle of the Clouds : American War of Independence 1777

After slightly too long we resumed our AWI campaign. Following Brandywine, the British camped around Chads Ford. Then chased the American Rebels east and North. 

The two armies moved roughly parallel to each other eventually ‘bumping’ into each other in Chester County. Where the so called Battle of the Clouds took place. Historically it was really only a small skirmish across two locations.

Most of the battlefield is built over today but apparently a number of historical buildings still exist. I enlarged the skirmish slightly to make it a worthwhile battle with R&P. 

In our battle the Americans have been caught strung out and need to move their baggage (three wagons) off the table at the far left corner. The wagons can’t be shot but can be assault, must stay on the road and be activated as normal moving 12”. British in a fairly historical position will look to cut the road. The weather played a key factor in the historical battle with a huge thunderstorm effectively spotting the battle when every bodies powder became wet. We would roll for the rain from the end of turn 4 the rain would then increase until no shooting was possible and only hand to hand combat. The heavy rain would also slow the movement of the wagons.

The rebel wagon train strung out on the road

The Hessians with their jaegers on the parallel road

Quickly the battle develops as the wagons begin to move off, the Hessians open a worrying fire to slow the Rebels. In the far distance the British under the command of Cornwallis are looking to cut the wagons off

The boot tavern

The rebels continue to move off to the East

And drive the jaegers back temporarily 

With a number of double 6 activations the British get unit units of reinforcements

At this stage the  Americans are progressing well. With only a couple of failed activations with the wagons

The bulk of the American force is concentrated in the fields along the road holding the British back for as long as they can 

The American skirmishers have been driven back

Still the battle rages as the weather changes and the skies open, the rain initially half the effectiveness of all shooting

With the reduced effect of shooting the British light infantry are able to charge down the road and successfully knock out the Rebel cannon.

As the rain continues the British grenadiers break out looking to give the rebels cold steel

And then the thunderstorm really gets going and all shooting becomes ineffective

The grenadiers charge across the open ground and almost wipe out the first regiment they hit driving them back down the road, the wagon is also now stuck in the mud.

The last volley of the battle from the Americans, they have managed to get two wagons to safety before the rain set in

Now Cornwallis pushes all the British forward determined to catch the last wagon, redcoats push down the road and the grenadiers despite being shaken charge in again

The shame of it the grenadiers in their weakened state are thrown back

The battle has now become very tight, the wagon is making very slow progress and the Americans are getting very shaky.

The British spot an opportunity to capture the enemy General to throw the whole American army into chaos

Washington is now surrounded and the Americans desperately try to save him whilst the wagon refuses to activate in the mud

A final charge from the British and Washington is in trouble

Washington somehow manages to survive the assault but is driven back over the fence broken, one more turn will see him captured or better killed but at this point the Americans manage to activate the last wagon bringing the battle to a close.

A really fun and furious battle, very close right to the end, it really was close but the British missed their chance. The thunderstorm and the loss of shooting added a real twist. If the rain had come any earlier the Rebels would have struggled. Thanks Jon for a great battle.

Tomorrow I’m back to ECW and then all being well another CoC battle with George and then Saturday a trip to the Battleground wargame show. Not running a game this year just attending as Joe Public but if anybody is going and wants to say high let me know. So a busy hobby week.

I’ve been wrestling with the next ECW cavalry regiments as they are bit fiddly to stick together. I also discover I have some more warlord plastic cavalry I had forgotten about so in total possibly 5 more cavalry units to paint and about the same infantry if you don’t include the rest of the Scottish. I’ve also picked up secondhand a few extra bits to make some baggage/camp markers as these seem to play an important part in ECW battles.

Thanks as always for passing through 

Matt ♥️