The Rape of Piddlington - an AWI scenario

 Phil popped over for a couple of days, allowing us the opportunity to put some figures on the table and to play a game:

The peace and quiet of the tiny hamlet of Piddlington is shattered by the fateful cry, "The British are coming".  Unfortunately for Piddlington it has been chosen as an American weapons and ammunition storage site, that has come to the attention of the British commander.  He has ordered a small force to go and destroy the facility.  Word of the plan has reached the Americans and the local Piddlington militia has deployed and a request has been sent for reinforcements.

Soon the red coats of British grenadiers can be seen approaching down the long road leading to the settlement:

Aware of the experience of others of being ambushed in the wild country, the British commander deployed a couple of battalions on each flank to protect the main force, consisting of the commander, a field battery, the grenadiers and a second line battalion.

A Hessian battalion works its way along the left flank:

Meanwhile, the Piddlington town guard has deployed onto a rocky mound adjacent to the road, hoping they can delay the British until reinforcements arrive:

In the settlement itself is a battalion from the county militia and a light gun:

Seeing little opposition ahead, the British send the grenadiers forward to clear the mound, supported by the gun and the line battalion.  A brisk fight enshews and although the town guard take casualties they cling on and deny the grenadiers from taking the little hill.  The county militia move down the road to meet the threat, but suffer casualties from British volleys. After another turn, the county militia break and run from the field:

With nothing to stop them the two right hand British battalions continue to work their way around the right flank.

More American reinforcements arrive and the village is now quite strongly defended:

On the British left the Hessians and British battalion close on the outskirts of Piddlington.

The fighting on the approaches to Piddlington intensifies, with the Town Guard still managing to hold off the British grenadiers.  Two American battalions storm down the road and rout the British line battalion there, but lose one of their own in the process:

With the road clear the Americans charge down the British battery, but run into a hail of grapeshot and are shattered.

The Town Guard numbers fall every turn and having put up a heroic fight they crumble:

The battered British Grenadiers gain the mound, but come under fire from the village.

The British grenadiers decide to pull back from the summit of the mound and await reinforcements.

The Hessians arrive and the British gun moves up with the commander. Also on the British right the two battalions begin to engage the American left.

Although the Hessians are forced back by the American artillery, the other British battlion begins to engage the American gunners.

The British battalion on the left attacks and destroys the American gun.  The American left collapses as two British battalions attack the now thin defences.  Suddenly it is all over, as the American left disintegrates their exhaustion point is reached and the remaining American units pull out of the village.  

The British set about destroying the stores and set fire to the buildings.  The battle became known locally as 'The rape of Piddlington'.

For rules we use Command & Colors Tricorne, and the figures are mostly Airfix plastics, with some other brands thrown in. This proved to be a very enjoyable game.

 

Roman Drive into Nubia - Battle Report

 Continuing operations in southern Egypt a small Roman army heads south along the Nile valley to confront a Nubian led rebel army.  The Romans, consisting of mostly heavy infantry supported by archers and some cavalry meet a lighter force, with chariots and horse archers. Will commands the Rebels and I the Romans. The two forces confront each other on a flat, featureless area of desert:

The Roman heavy infantry are in the centre, with medium infantry and cavalry out on the flanks, with archers as skirmishers in the centre:

The rebels have a similar deployment, with medium infantry dominating the centre and horse archers and chariots out on the flanks:

The battle begins with the Roman archers firing into the Rebel centre, dropping a few infantrymen, but Will pushes his horse archers and chariots out in a flaking move, both right and left.

Roman cavalry move forward to meet the Rebels.  The Roman suffer some casualties as do the Rebels when the Roman cavalry catch the lighter cavalry, who are accompanied by a Rebel general:

A similar action occurs on the other flank, with the Romans taking some hits, but the horse archers are driven off:

The arrival of some spear armed Roman infantry checks the Rebel chariots

On the opposite flank the Roman cavalry retire, pushed back by chariots and light cavalry:

The Roman left is in peril as the cavalry are severely depleted and the medium infantry are forced back

Back on the right, the Rebel light cavalry are destroyed and their chariots run into the Roman heavy infantry that have been slowly advancing.  The chariots are destroyed

Roman infantry advance in the centre too, supported by archers, who continue to pick away at the Rebel infantry.

On the left flank Roman infantry crash into the lighter Rebels causing the Rebels to collapse.

With both Rebel flanks under severe pressure, Will moves his troops in the centre forward in an attempt to split the Roman army, however the tough Roman infantry brush off the assault and now the Rebels are in disarray. Their commander falls They have reached their exhaustion point and begin to run from the field.  The Romans have removed the threat of a rebellion in Nubia and the battle ends.

The game was played using 25mm Minifigs S Range figures.  The rules were from the Command & Colors Ancient game.  The game ran quickly and smoothly and was very enjoyable.  It was quite good having an open battle field with scope for moving troops around easily and offering cavalry and chariiots the chance to run around the flanks.

 

A Clash of Iron - War of the Roses

 Continuing the theme of heavy metal forces pounding each other, Will and I put away the tanks and dug out the medieval figures (after a long search for the cavalry, which were hiding in plain sight in a shoe box!). We used Command and Colors rules for this battle. The cards were to play a devastating hand.

The game was based upon a non-historical theme, having divided the armies into two, consisting of two feuding barons; Baron William and Baron Robert.  The field was largely open with the odd copse and some hedges:

Both sides exchanged fire from their archers, with William pushing his light troops forward.  Initially there was little effect, but eventually Robert's forces gained the upper hand ( I had a card that said 'darken the skies' that gave my archers extra firepower), this with a couple of cavalry charges pushed the enemy light troops back.

William ordered a major attack on Robert's right flank and for a moment things looked difficult, however lady luck played her hand again, seeing Williams heavy cavalry destroyed.  This left the flank open and Robert's cavalry smashed into his infantry, supported by those pesky archers in the woods.

With William's left flank in tatters, Robert pushed his infantry forward in the centre, supported by cavalry.  In the clash that followed Williams remaining cavalry unit is destroyed along with more infantry.

William's forces are checked in the centre as enemy heavy infantry steadily advance.

Robert's cavalry are now free to roam the field and sweep into William's left flank, which crumbles under pressure.

In a last ditch attempt to reverse the situation William himself leads a charge but after some heavy fighting he is surrounded and his best troops are cut down. He drops his sword and kneels in surrender.

It is all over, a short but bloody encounter.  William's forces are smashed with a score of 8 - 3 to Robert. The figures are all 28mm plastics and were originally from the collection of the late Alan Cook.

Jacobite Rising

 I have been after this game for some time and when a copy came up for sale, I had to have it. The game is based upon Command & Colors Tricorne and is produced by compass games:

Inside the box is the usual 13 x 9 hex board, but in a pale green. Then there are the trillions of wooden blocks.  Each block has to have two stickers attached - a time consuming process sitting in front of the TV. There is a good selection of terrain tiles reflecting the hilly, damp moorlands, with farmsteads, rivers and roads.

I have set out one of the scenarios in the rule book; the battle of Glen Shiel 10 June 1719.  The Government forces are nearest the camera in red, with the Jacobites in blue:

The rules are very similar to other C&C games and anyone who has played C&C Napoleonic will easily pick up on the rules; however, there are some differences that reflect the nature of the terrain and the fighting qualities of the troops, especially the Jacobite highlanders when they launch a close combat charge. The Goverment forces might run away!

The cards used in the game are different.  The Command Cards are similar to others games, but the there are Tactic Command cards specific to each side:

I have yet to play a game and so I am not clear as to how the tactic cards will influence the outcome, but it looks like fun.

As always, in the longer term, I plan to substitute the wooden blocks with figures and that process is underway.  I have ordered some 6mm figures from Baccus.

Clash along the Nile

 Bob Black came over for a game yesterday and I was keen to have another go at C&C Ancients, introducing light chariots and 'warrior' class infantry.

The setting for the battle was based on the idea of a Roman force in southern Egypt moving along the Nile valley to put down a troublesome Nubian presence that had been harassing Roman trade routes.  As the Romans work south they find their path blocked by the Kushite enemy:

The Roman left wing

The Roman right wing

Kushite warriors and chariots

The view across the battlefield.

I played the Romans and Bob the Kushites.  I was pretty confident that my heavy infantry could ram through the lighter Kushites, after which my cavalry would run them down.  However the Gods were not on my side that day as I studied my tactic cards.  Nearly all applied to my left wing, where I only had two units.  With limited options I hoped that things would improve as the battle unfolded.  I kicked off by moving my archers forward to harass his centre.  Bob had no foot light troops and his cavalry was on the wings so I felt fairly safe:

Error - Bob had a card that allowed him to rapidly close on my archers, which had done very little damage, and cut them to pieces, forcing them to retreat:

I now moved my mass of infantry into the centre to threaten his infantry that had driven off the archers:

This initially worked well as a Kushite unit is badly damaged and another forced back.

But, now my ability to continue this assault is restricted by the cards and several attacks force back and cause casualties amongst my infantry.

Despite causing damage I am unable to make real inroads into his line. Bob then counter attacked with his cavalry and chariots

Initially I was able to check this advance with my left wing cavalry,  However, by now I had lost three units to Bob's one

On the opposite wing my cavalry counter attack met with some success wiping out some Nubian horsemen, but my cavalry were destroyed in the process.

Now Bob was able to deliver a hammer blow with a massive advance.  I was unable to counter this and the Roman army collapsed. 

My commander fell on his sword with the battered Roman army pulling back from the field.

The gods had betrayed the Romans and the Kushites proved to be a hard hitting nimble foe, while my Romans were fixed and unable to respond.  I probably should have thrown my cards in on turn one and hoped for a better hand.  Next time...............