The Battle of Lansdown Hill : 5th July 1643 ECW

Monday saw a return to the table for my ECW collection for the Battle of Lansdown July 1643, spelt a couple of different ways. Sir Ralph Hopton leading his Cornish Royalist army is seeking to move towards Oxford, they are shadowed and harried by Sir William Waller who is holding ground in and around Bath. After several smaller skirmish and some manoeuvring the two army bumped into each other at Lansdown Hill. The Parliamentary army of around 5000 men had taken up a strong defensive position on the hill. Foolishly or not the Royalists were drawn into a frontal assault, different sources give them a numerical advantage in men but it’s not clear if these were all actually in the battle. Hard in any period but particularly rare in the ECW a frontal assault up hill against a defended position.  Anyway after much cavalry skirmishing the robust Cornish infantry eventually took the plateau forcing Waller to initially retreat behind a stone wall and then in the night to slip away. An unlikely win for the Royalist cause !

Plenty of maps of the battle on the internet but none of them are the same, I found this one perhaps the most useful and the main balance for the two armies came from my Asquith scenario book.

Lansdown Hill with Parliamentry army dug in. We gave the Royalist Cornish infantry some suitable bonuses to reflect their elite status. And so onto the battle…….

A local Shepard hurries away from the hill with his freshly painted flock !

The Royalists have little choice other than to go for it, the Parliamentary cavalry is more cagey choosing to exchange pistol shots rather than charge in knowing they have the advantage of the high ground

With the sheep out of the way cavalry on both flanks, supported by dismounted dragoons begin to skirmish for advantage, both sides are trying to breakthrough knowing this will threaten the rear of the enemy infantry

Just a shot of lots of ECW cavalry fighting it out 🙂

After trading a couple of volleys the Cornishmen drive up to the earthworks, it is going to be a slogging match but the Parliamentary forces have the advantage of defences and the hill on their side

After several turns the Parliamentry cavalry break through on the left

The cavalry fight on the right is more balanced, in the foreground dragoons can be seen skirmishing with each other.

On the left the Parliamentry cavalry are getting the better of the fight

And the left most unit of infantry starts to move to the centre to block the oncoming Cornish regiment

With Parliamentry cavalry now in their rear the Cornishmen are forced to take up a defensive hedgehog formation

But it is going better for the royalists on the hill. With a couple of failed morale checks and some shaky regiments the Royalists have managed to push into the defenses.

Both sides are getting tired and the numbers are still about balanced

The Parliamentry infantry needs to hold for a little longer to allow their advantage in cavalry to count.

But the Cornish infantry prove just too resilient their elite status giving them victory in two of the three key combats for the plateau, despite some late charges by the remaining Parliamentry cavalry they too have to flee and the battle is up for Waller who must concede the field to the Royalists.

History somehow managed to repeat itself against the odds. This was a really fun battle and tremendously close right to the end. Bravo to those Cornishmen taking the battle up the slope. The collection, setup and rules worked really well providing exactly the type of ECW game we were hoping for….definitely more to come in the future.

After what seems like a very long time it stopped raining today and with my health, the weather and other commitments coinciding a beautiful fews hours walking in the Northern Fells of the Lake District. Just a dusting of snow left from the bad weather a week or so ago.

Thanks as always for passing by the blog. I am finding the technical problems with the blog are giving me some headaches whereas before I had no problems now I am struggling to upload photos, we’ll see if it gets better soon ? I don’t have a lot of patience for technology 🤬

Matt❤️

Battle of Mynydd Carn 1081

The end of last week saw a couple of games being played. First up a chance to get my Dark age collection out for a fight. Some time ago I picked up a useful book on Battles in Wales this lead me to the Battle of Mynyyd Carn 1081. After a bit of web searching……..

“In 1081 Gruffudd ap Cynan returned on a second campaign from Ireland with an army of Danes and Irish to become King of Gwynedd. He took his fleet to St Davids and made an alliance with Rhys ap Tewdwr who had recently been ousted as prince of Deheubarth by Caradog ap Gruffudd of Morgannwg. Gruffudd ap Cynan received additional support with backers that came from north Wales. They all agreed to remove Trahaearn ap Caradog from the throne of Gwynedd. However, meanwhile, Trahaearn had learned of their plot and secretly formed an alliance with Caradog ap Gruffudd and Meilyr ap Rhiwallon. Trahaearn also obtained Norman arbalesters for additional support for his army. The two enemy armies met at the fierce and bloody Battle of Mynydd Carn north of St Davids. Trahaearn, Caradog and Meilyr were killed”. 

The scenario had a number of features to add some ‘fun’ , most significantly Gruffydd’s force would be split into factions, Welsh, Danes and Irish. These would come on piecemeal and at different rates as they rushed headlong into combat. Trahaearn’s which is slightly smaller would be set up ready to fight. There was a slight chance that some of the Danes would swop sides although in the end this didn’t occur. The small hills are surrounded by boggy ground.

The welsh portion of Gruffydd’s force immediately rushes onto the table in fact assaulting the light defenders in the wood first turn ! It was clear the object for the defenders would be to beat the attackers before they could bring their numbers to overwhelm them.

Crossbow bolts are fired into the woods to slow the attack

Quickly fierce  fighting kicks off in the woods

At the far end the Welsh defenders are drawn into the boggy ground by the Danes, this proved a big mistake !

The defenders are starting to be driven back although they are still holding the nearby hill

But they too are gradually being forced back until they finally break 🙁

In the centre Caradog has attacked but his heavier armed ‘Saxon’ warriors get overwhelmed and eventually the Danes force their way through the ‘bloody bog’ and begin to outflank the defenders. History has been repeated although only one of the defending generals has actually been killed the others would need to make a quick escape to save their skins.

I didn’t take too many photos but this was a tremendous battle and fight. The random deployment worked really well giving the attacker a lot to think about but getting the battle going really quickly. It has made me think I could do with a few more Pictish and welsh troops ?

The other battle last week was down with George, he has already covered the battle on his blog so just a few pictures here and the merest record.

The Germans are at least allowed tanks this battle so a Pz1 and II enter the battle.

Marie-Louise a local lady mistaken by the French as a collaborator but in fact she was just shopping and when challenged she disappeared back into the woods ? (She is actually a sniper and will return !)

I made a real hash of coordinating the attack, getting too spread out and letting the french get into a strong defensive position, this meant a lot of fairly ineffective shooting at a single unit in the buildings when I should have been advancing boldly across the table.

The PzI was as much a decoy as a threat to the french who spent a long time chasing it through the woods

I’d like to say my plan worked but it didn’t really, however by some quirk, every time I hit a french unit I managed to kill or wound a junior leader and then George kept rolling six’s on the bad things table. One of the French senior leaders was even hit by shrapnel from the 75mm gun and knocked unconscious for several phases. The french morale plummeted off the scale really quickly leaving them with no option but to flee the field giving the Germans an unlikely win. I’m not sure the Germans deserved a win but I’ll take it 🙂

Lots of painting activity at the moment but not much completed only these 15mm animals for the ECW collection. I have some pigs but I’m not sure what to do with them yet ?

We have just completed another ECW battle today so I’ll try and blog that later in the week, otherwise thanks for taking the time to pass through 🙂

Matt❤️

One final thought blogger seems to be particularly annoying at the moment as it must have had an update or something. Uploading photos seems to be a challenge, commenting seems to keep locking me out etc… I assume this will settle down but it is becoming a bit of a chore so I probably won’t post that often at the moment.

The Battle of Maida July 1806

With a couple of games postponed due to real-life the dungeon hasn’t seen that much fighting. However, Saturday saw the Napoleonics back on the table. The battle will be well known to many as it is a popular one giving a fairly balanced and modest sized Napoleonic battle.

One of the many maps on the net showing generally accepted setup, historically the French probably shouldn’t have attacked and forced the British to, but they did in massed formation which was their undoing against the thin British line. Some might say the scene was set then for the whole of the Napoleonic period

Our setup, in reflection when tidying up I think I might have missed a unit off for the French which as the French general was a bit annoying next time perhaps ?

The setup form the other end of the battlefield.

The French advance of course otherwise we wouldn’t get much of a battle, the British reserves will arrive on turn three.

The accounts I have read discuss the lack of British skirmishers as they had been combined into Kempts’ light brigade so I stuck with that, the french of course had plenty, the British open up as soon as the french are in range.

They throw their columns in on the broths right only to be wiped out, other french Battalions chose to reform into line for the attack. (Historical hindsight of course)

To their left the french do charge home, but are also held for now

Coles brigade arrives to bolster the centre

The french Chasseurs charge in as well but their combined strength can’t quite break the combined grenadier battalion, they do shake it though and it is subsequently broken under artillery fire !

The British have now held their left

And the battle turns to the french left

Under heavy fire the Polish Battalions charge in and Acland’s brigade is just on the point of collapsing and fleeing the field, but somehow they pull out a fortitude save and hold on the field 🤬

In the final turn the french are forced to retreat with two of their three brigades broken and running from the field. It was a close run thing though and a splendid evening gaming 👍 you might just see, at the rear the French commander has left his Brandy on the field of battle. Perhaps it might have been different if I had given the french that extra battalion but it was close and fun which is good for me.

A bit of painting, although these are technically Turks, Woodbine figures, I had them spare from a previous bring and buy, rather than languish in a box I have painted them up as Albanians with their characteristic white Fez’s. The Albanians provided several brigades to support the Italian invasion of Greece and by some quirk their uniforms were very like those of the WW1 Turks. The rifles may be slightly wrong but I can live with that. 

Much of the rest of my time has been preparing Greeks, basing etc and revamping my painting station to create a bit more space going forward.

Well that’s it for now several more battles on the cards in the next few weeks 

Thanks for checking in

Matt ❤️

Battle of Lydden : Operation Sealion and other New Year activity

Plenty of hobby activity here in the Dungeon. First up, and always a good start to the year we resumed the Sealion campaign. Day 2 and the Germans are pushing North out of Dover along the A2, with the white cliffs and stiff resistance the Germans haven’t been able to open the port yet so to open the A2 towards Canterbury a strong force of Fallschirmjager have been collected to push up the road on foot. The Village of Lydden sits where the road cuts through the hills and the British have blocked the road.

Germans approaching from the south looking to open the A2 and link up with forces to the west, we nominally set three objectives, the railway station, and two houses overlooking the road through the village, one central and one to the West.

Both sides had a double move for troops coming in on the first turn, the Germans making the better of this deployment rushing units of paratroopers close to all three objectives. They have some support weapons teams but only very limited armour.

The British aren’t giving up yet and push infantry along the railway line and an AT gun upto the roadblock

At the other end of the village, Fallschirmjager move into the garage, the house over the road from the telephone box is the objective

The centre of the village the objective being the big house.

The battle for the railway station begins early and proves a key focus for both sides. The Germans have some heavy artillery support, to reduce the impact of this we agreed it would only hit on a six. Haha first turn it demolished the British AT gun, lucky for the British the Germans don’t really have any armour !

The British push forward an AT rifle team only to find the paratroopers have 2 flame thrower teams to help clear the village ! toasted Tommies 🔥

The fight for the railway station hots up but some lightheaded Germans choose to charge across the railway line only to be caught in cross fire and wiped out by the British defenders !

Germans reserves move up, whilst the British seek to outflank them with one of their two Vickers Tanks

The Germans have secured the western objective and just need to hold it now 

British infantry advancing through the village

Dash it the British manage to snatch the station when the two leading Fallschirmjager units both fail an activation test in the same turn , the Vickers tank can now be seen burning and the British are almost broken. They have even resorted to deploying the Beaverette ! In the end the station is contested.

At the west of the village the Germans have secured the house by the Junction despite a late attempt by the British navy unit, the other Vickers tank is also now burning.

The ‘big’ house has changes hands a couple of times, especially when the pinned Fallschirmjager unit in the building rolled a FUBAR and fled the village !!!! But in the end the objective is contested with British in the back garden. This gives the Germans a minor victory, with the only clear objective held and more troops left on the table.

Star of the show definitely goes to the German artillery, their 105mm Howitzer which we only allowed to hit on 6’s hit at least 4 if not 5 times during the battle. This caused a huge amount of laughter and fun even form the British commander 😂

I also played a game of CoC down with George, what a beautiful setup but the result was rather lacklustre from the Germans. George has covered the details on his blog so I won’t repeat here, but the scenario from the campaign is a really tough one for the Germans with very little scope for the Germans. We are moving the campaign on rather than slog this one out again and again.

And some painting since Christmas…

My first completed Perry Spanish unit marches into formation, extra Grenadiers as this will represent the 1st Battalion. More to come…..

I also have a desire to ‘complete’ my SYW collection so I worked on the second unit of Austrian Draggons these representing the 1st Regiment.

They only just fit in the Austrian cavalry box though 

Following Jon’s lead the pile of shame, thankfully much smaller…..

Here are the currently unmade 1/48 aircraft I have collected in the Dungeon six in total, I need to make some progress on these I think.

Well that’s it for the update in 2026, I have some thoughts about projects and battles/ campaigns for this year and I’m already on with prepping the Greeks I got at Christmas. More games planned in the next few weeks.

Thanks as always for taking the time to check out the blog 

Matt ❤️