Al Andalus : Encounter battle at the border

For what is likely to be my last game for a while George came up to the dungeon. He had suggested something medieval so I dug out my Al Andalus Arabs. As the table was still covered in the Sicily cloths I was a bit lazy and left them in place having simply reduced the hills to something manageable. So perhaps the battle was being fought in a particularly dry part of Southern Spain between two minor Taifas fighting it out for control of their border district.

The two forces were broadly similar but with suitable variations to give more interest. A dry river bed crosses the battlefield at one end, but the most prominent feature is the high ground which angles across the plain.

Having formed up in front of each other both armies advance fairly quickly looking for a quick and decisive win, my force to the right rushes to try and gain the advantage of the high ground with light cavalry protecting the flank

The enemy have hired some mercenary heavy cavalry and crossbow men to support them !

Well objective achieved we have the high ground but can we hold it. Both sides spend some time exchanging missile fire

Under fire from the crossbows two small troops of warriors run down the hill to sort them out !, my camel riders sweep across the high ground hoping to quickly break the enemy centre ?

Despite the difficultly of charging up the hill the mercenaries charge in against my light cavalry, along the rest of the high ground infantry clash spears.

At the far end of the battlefield and beyond the dry river light cavalry has been skirmishing for much of the battle

Things are not going well ! The mercenary heavy cavalry have driven off my left flank, infantry is still fighting in the centre but the camels have been held and are being whittled down each turn

After a couple more turns it is clear the battle is up as the death toll on my side is rising quickly, and many of the troops on my side are wavering (in KoW this means you miss a turn of combat and is critical at this late stage of a battle) the enemy commander is packing up his dice happy with the land grab !

My camel troops surrounded on the high ground nothing left but to flee for their lives ! Where did it all go wrong ?

A fun battle, for a while it was going quite well, had the camels broken through it might have been a different story. Always nice to get this colourful collection on the table, there are more in the ‘lead pile’ both Arabs and Norman/spanish this battle might just encourage me to prep up a unit to paint ?

Thanks for popping by, this is likely to be my last post for a while as i start my trip on Monday.

Matt ❤️

Battle of Platea 479 BC

After all the muskets and smoke over the last few weeks it felt like time to throw some spears. With the weather set fine on Saturday a big game was in order. We have played a Platea scenario before and as it gave a good close game I thought it would fit the bill. The benefit over some other famous Persian battles eg Marathon is Platea allows a much wider range of troops (sadly no elephants though) and has the huge bonus of getting all the various Greeks on the table. So on Saturday we went big in the shed. 

The Persians on the left, split into three groups, in the distance the main Persian army led by Mardonius are facing off against the Spartans who have become separated from the rest of the Greek forces. In the middle mixed Persian allies and troops from their many satraps, these face mixed Greek allies. Finally in the foreground Greeks who have sided with the Persians including the Thebans are facing off against the Athenians and their closest allies. Pausanias is the Overall commander of the Greeks and specifically the Spartans. The Spartans are unable to move until the correct omens have been received from the gods. Whilst the forces are broadly equal in infantry, the Persians have significant cavalry as well, the Persians as to be expected have a different balance of forces focussed mainly on archers.

The Persians and their allies advance to get into bow range

The Athenians push upto the river

And both sides skirmishers engage in frantic fighting 

All along the line arrows are ranging down on the Greeks, 

Finally after sacrificing six sheep the gods say the Spartans can join the battle (I had a simple mechanism for this the Spartans needing a double six but getting an extra dice each turn)

The Persians have been firing at the Spartans who have just been hiding under their shields

With the Spartans now entering the battle, the Thebans decide to get stuck into the Athenians, but the attack falters crossing the river

The Spartans push forward but have several more rounds of arrows before they can get to the weakly armed Persians

Blocks of Hoplites thrust at each other over the river

Ouch…eventually the Spartans crash into Persians this is not going to end well

After some really tough fighting the Athenians get the better of the Thebans in a very close fight

In the centre the Persian allies are winning have beaten back the bulk of the Greek allies

And not surprisingly, now they are stuck into the fight, the Spartans are making fairly light work of the lightly armoured Persians. So overall the battle has gone to the Greeks. History has been repeated and the future of western civilisation has been saved. In 2500 years we will all be able to sit and watch Love Island thanks goodness 😂 a fine and very fun battle which played out very close.

Well that’s it for now and no planned battles for this week so a rest at least and a chance to tidy up a bit.

Thanks as always for taking the time to pass through the blog.

Matt ❤️

Cropredy Bridge : ECW 1644

Just back from a family wedding in Bristol this weekend and straight into a Monday game. Having visited Cropredy on my trip a month ago I thought it would make an interesting scenario. Historically the Royalists commanded by the King were on the back foot, Waller for the Parliamentarians had been chasing his army up and down around Oxford but unable to pin it down. Eventually the King moved north along the right bank of the River Cherwell the Parliamentary forces tracked them about a mile away on the left bank. When some additional horsemen were sighted ahead the Royalist Vanguard and main army hurried forward leaving the rearguard upto a mile behind. Waller sensed an opportunity and sought to force a crossing of the river at Cropredy Bridge itself and Slat Mill Ford. The king meanwhile was well ahead crossing a third bridge further north.

The map above gives a good overview of the battlefield which is nicely spreadout. Historically both forces were broadly equal in both cavalry and infantry, the Parliamentarians appeared to have slightly more artillery available although by the end of the day this had been captured. What is less clear is how many troops actually took place in the fighting it would appear almost none of the Royalist infantry was engaged at all. 

From my recent trip a shot north cross the fields from Cropredy Bridge itself, the Cherwell runs along in the trees to the left. The river is likely considerably narrower now due to the later construction of the canal nearby.

A shot lookingSW from the slightly higher ground down towards Slat Mill Ford. The battlefield was mainly open ground at the time.

Our set up, the Royalists to the right spreadout and to the left Waller’s army about to force the river. Given the difficult nature of river crossings in Wargames especially when numbers are equal I had a couple of extra rules to avoid a complete log jam. Firstly although the crossing would funnel troops they wouldn’t cause any delay, secondly to avoid the Royalists reacting too quickly each command, Vanguard, main and Rearguard for the Royalists and the king separately would have to dice before activation and moving off the road. On to the action using our amended Kings of War Rules.

Parliamentary cavalry surges across Slat Mill Ford, the Royalist rearguard luckily activated quickly and moves its cavalry to meet the threat. In the distance the Royalist dragoons holding Cropredy bridge can really only hold for one turn before they and run over 

After the initial clash the Parliamentry cavalry get the better of it but we have found these cavalry skirmishes can last quite a while giving time for the infantry to form up.

The casualties are mounting up on the cavalry with both sides starting to waiver. Independent musketeer units and dragoons can be seen fighting on the flanks.

With the dragoons pushed away the Parliamentry cavalry surge over the bridge, luckily some Royalist cavalry has activated and charges forward to stop the advance. But the main royalist infantry hasn’t yet activated and is still sitting on the road ! Breaking with history Waller sensibly sets up his artillery on the left bank of the Cherwell.

Finally the Royalist main force activated and starts to move off the road from the village of Waddington

The village of Williamscot which will later see some fighting !

To the south both cavalry forces are almost blown, (you can see by the wound dice mounting up on both sides)

Eventually the Parliamentry cavalry win the day here in the south, but undeterred the Royalist rearguard infantry decide to charge forward before they are completely outnumbered

Royalist cavalry is reforming, the cavalry in the foreground are the kings lifeguard (I know they probably didn’t have armour but they are the best representation I have). having taken Williamscot the Royalists have take it back in hand to hand fighting. The royalist main infantry is now formed up and advancing but they come under the attention of the Parliamentry artillery across the river.

The the south Waller is winning the day but the parliamentary troops have taken a real beating and their cavalry is effectively blown.

The Parliamentry infantry starts to swing north only to see the Royalist main infantry force crash into their comrades near Cropredy bridge, what cavalry remains is still fighting around Williamscot 

There is fighting everywhere now but neither side has a clear advantage ?

The finally clash of cavalry late in the day around Williamscot sees the Parliamentry cavalry thrown back

The kings lifeguard make a final attempt to charge and break the Parliamentry right wing, in the centre the Royalist infantry advance is slowly grinding forward.

As evening falls across an extremely blood soaked battlefield, the Royalists are holding Williamscot and are closing on Cropredy bridge, pretty much all the troops left are battered and bloody and not capable of further action. A splendid battle and I know some of you don’t like it but after several minutes of discussion we were unable to split the two armies, a draw. On the basis that the king can escape to fight another day he can claim something at least, but he doesn’t have much of an army and Waller now doesn’t have a force with whoch to chase him. Great fun it felt like the battle was on. Knife edge the whole time 🙂

Prior to my trip to Oxford I had played a game over at Martins and don’t think I blogged it so for completeness here are a couple of shots. He had purchased a lovely collection of 10mm Schleswig-Holstein forces (German /Danish) conflict from mid 19th Century. Rather than a historical battle we got everything out for a battle……..

Both sides attempting to captured the various villages

Linear tactics akin to Crimea/ACW

We used V&F which worked well for this period

Plenty of fun especially as by German/Bavarian forces won the day 

That’s it for now although another battle planned for later in the week.

Thanks as always for checking in

Matt ❤️

The Battle of Newbury 1643

For my next game a return to the ECW in 12.5-15mm ? (Whatever scale Warlord Epic are) This time the Battle of Newbury and introducing Erik to my ECW collection and our Kings of War based rules.

An excellent map from the web, I think these being the ones produced by the Battlefield Trust.

Historically the Parliamentarians under Essex were heading south towards London, the Royalist army encamped in and around Newbury sought to cut them off. In the early morning Rupert headed out to capture the high ground to the South West of the town. But Essex had beaten him to it. The Royalists then attacked in difficult terrain and after a lot of fighting claimed a victory, they had driven the Parliamentarians away but it was really only a fighting draw as Essex was able to get away with much of his army. They did however prevent Essex from getting to London.

The setup on the table. Despite reading the battle through several times and looking at various scenarios I managed to get the balance of troops wrong. Specifically I didn’t give the 

Parliamentarians enough infantry as historically they outnumbered the Royalists. Anyway it gives me the chance to correct this in a future re run of the battle. As mentioned above it was as much as anything an introduction for Erik to my collection and rules for which it worked admirably.

With the Royalists having the initiative they advance along the whole front, looking where possible to use the fields and hedges to prevent any counterattack.

Prince Rupert taking his position on the Royalist right and with the advantage of numbers leads a dynamic charge across the open ground of Wash Common

Some above average dice and the advantage of numbers and the Parliamentary cavalry is hammered, the shock so great they are staggered

And forced to retreat but this decisive win on the right set the scene for the battle as Essex is now forced to try and defend a worryingly open left flank, you can see the London trained bands advancing from behind the hill to try and block the flank but the royalist cavalry now has pretty much free movement across the common !

On the other side of the battlefield where the ground is more broken neither side quite has the advantage. You can see beyond them the Royalists have chosen not to attack the hill direct and instead have pulled back to await the outcome of the cavalry battles.

parliamentary dragoons and cavalry exchange shots, but neither side is really making a significant break through here

But at Wash Farm, the London Trained bands, here represented by my Scot’s but with a thinner pike block, try to hold the flank but the Royalist cavalry is just dominating the open ground

Forced to try and salvage something Essex sends two pike blocks off the hill to try and cut the Royalists off from Newbury, their cavalry is able to draw back in good order

Whilst Essex still holds the hill with artillery he doesn’t have the number to take the fight to the Royalist, in the distance the Royalist infantry rather than assault the hill is also heading around the flank across the common

Here they are form the other direction

They do take a few casualties from the artillery on the hill but not enough to slow them down, the battle is pretty much over now for Parliament, in a final throw of the ‘dice’ a pike block charges forward to try and clear the common, but they become very isolated and are quickly surrounded by the Royalist cavalry. They surrender rather than be wiped out !

Returning to the Newbury end of the battlefield it has ended in a stalemate the King has the numbers and Parliament can’t make any progress. With their right flank broken and the Royalists making a general advance the battle is over Essex must flee and attempt to save his army, hopefully the Parliamentary baggage will prove too enticing for the Royalist cavalry and the army can be saved.

A fun battle and a good introduction I hope for Erik. Essex was up against it when his cavalry was crushed and it didn’t help that I reduced his infantry by mistake. A very nice battle with lots of options we will certainly see this one again before too long to see if the infantry imbalance makes a difference to the result. Having played several battles now with this adapted KoW rules it is the first time a significant cavalry dominance was achieved in a single round of combat, the parliamentary cavalry performed very poorly indeed !

That’s it for now, my Saturday game was postponed, so I have spent some time painting the first Highland unit for the Covenanters and I hoping to complete them this evening ? We’ll see……

A game planned for mid week then Easter and the following weekend a trip down to London where I’m planning to visit SALUTE again this year if anybody is going.

Thanks as always Matt ❤️