Retro English Civil War.

  A recent FB post on that  splendid  'Yarkshire Gamers Reet Big Wargames Group' group  once again mentioned the almost legendary TV series 'Battleground ' of the late 1970s.So far the only TV series featuring  Historical MINIATURES Wargaming. There have been others doing it with computers and one rather poor effort with maps , sandtables and coloured counters but this is still the only show with toy soldiers at its heart. It is ublikely that we will ever see its like again. For the record there were 6 episodes made by Tyne-Tees TV four of these can be found on YouTube. Take a look.

Mixed unit of Hichliffe and Garrison. The Garrison Pikemen have had the cast pikes replaced. 

However this post is a bit more personal. Some years ago now  my wife Carole bought an ECW collection  for me one Christmas. This collection contained some of the units which had featured in the 'Edgehill' episode of that series  and further in the Ospey 'Naseby' book by Peter Gilder and Stuart Asquith.

A couple of the guns hiding behind some more modern gabions. 

Prince Ruperts Charge- some later additions here by my hand. 

 

A Green Regiment - again Hinchliffe and some Garrison. I think these were originally Duncan Macfarlane's 

Recently changing my computer to a much needed newer model I fear I have lost some of the pictures I took of the collection . However here are  some I found. More will appear  even if I have to take new ones . 

Some of the cavalry- Hichliffe Foremost 'Prince Ruperts Charge' 

 A few more of the cavalry - placed upon the issue of battle wherethey form part of the front cover

I do have more to take picture of. A unit of Cuirassiers - all on rather small identical horses- as well as more infantry.

And Finally... The photo in the Naseby book with the Kings Lifeguard of Foot and the actual models .

Silly formations?

 There is currently quite an interesting discussion on the Facebook 17th century wargaming group concerning ECW wargames rules. What is fascinating about it is how few of the posters actually mention the period when they are extolling the virtues of their favourite set. Mechanisms - often Simplicity  sometimes  but rarely if ever the actual period. You would thin it would appear once in a while. But that is the "dark heart" of today's wargaming - it is ALL about game and rarely if ever about the period being gamed.

Royalist foot- all formed 4 ranks deep both pike and shot. Equally 2 ranks deep for a smaller unit would be fine 

 Now perhaps some perspicacious chap can answer me this. Why in some rules do the "game designers" allow silly formations and mad organisations. Now I'm only talking about historical wargaming here . I don't care if your Dwarfs form up in the famous King Ankelbyter XIV's  pigs arse formation  or of the Fartenberg Fusiliers use the inverse square- with all the bayonets pointing inwards. No I'm talking about rules purporting to be historical and allowing patently non- historical formations . In this instance specifically English Civil War.

A better view of my prefered 4 ranks deep- but all forming the same depth- which is the real point. The additions to the base depths are simply to protect the charged pikes. This unit did several tours of duty in the OGUK display case

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 Since when Gentle reader do the shot form up only half as deep as the pikes in a fully formed battalion of foot. I see it quite often on games using this or that ruleset. Pike and Shotte does it. To Defy a King does it. It is possible to do it in 1644 or Warhammer ECW or Gush . It appears possible in newer sets such as The Kingdom is Ours- which I do not own. (I do now own a copy - prper review later)  But none of these answer the question. Why? I've read Barriffe and Elton, Glanced at Hexham none of these contemporary sources show the foot drawn up like this. Contemporary battle maps such as Streeter or De Gomme don't show it. All show foot in usually 6 ranks- both Pike and shot- no difference between the two.  Now- being kind- if you squint a bit the 4 ranks of pikes with 2 ,2 rank sleeves of shot might just about look like a bad Swedish Brigade but since Swedish Brigade was only used (badly) at Edgehill by the Royalists that does not explain why it appears so often on ECW games today.. When you are daring enough to ask wwhy this is you either get blank stares or mumbling about how" it is  in da rules innit"  but never have I had any inkling of a period explanation. Surely the best thing to do would be to lose the 2 extra ranks of pikemen or- as I do- add the extra shot and make the whole unit 4 ranks deep- though I can see why plenty of chaps would not do this and would therefore unless you like big units prefer the former option. I am also aware of the "salvee" argument which allows foot to double their files in order to fire 3 ranks at once as a salvee. That does not mean that  moving in  doubled files was normal. Equally I know that on occaison  troops formed up 3 ranks deep to cover a wider frontage Now if there is a source that details pikes regularly forming up with twice the depth of the regiements shot I should love to see it.

Parliamentarian Cuirassiers 2 ranks deep to represent the 6 ranks they normally used early in the war.

 Equally when I began ECW gaming in about 1976 or so  I started with small units of 6 pikes 12 shot or 8 pikes 16 shot but all formed up 2 ranks deep. Rules were with Derek Sharamns or later Gush and I suspect that under Gush is where- for me at least the rot began. Under those rules Pikes received a rank bonus in melee but shot could fire only a maximum of 2 ranks deep- I played tournaments at the time so .... However I have grown up since then and would not choose to be so unhistorical now.

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 This kind of silliness happens far less with Horse. Though I tend to form up my Early Parliamentarin horse 2 ranks of models deep - to represent their 6 ranks - as against the Cavaliers single rank of models to represent 3 ranks deep.

A Royalist Brigade is"Swedish Brigade". 3 regiments of foot .

 Now I am aware of the abstraction argument - and as always some level of abstraction is unavoidable simply because we are using little metal men on a table and not big flesh and blood ones in a field, dice and not actual gunpowder and we are not, normally, attempting to maim and kill one another.(Though I have seen fits of picque at Tournaments)

The rather more complicated version as depicted by De Gomme no where are the shot depicted at  half the depth of the pikemen. 

 So my question Ladies and Gentlemen
 How  has this "incorrect convention" become almost normal and why - despite the historical evidence to the contrary and as I am sure has occurred more than  a few times. How many other bits of  non historical silliness that did not happen of a battlefield do we take for granted merely  because"they make a good game" .

Winceby Fight- refought

For our March Game I was in the chair and decided to run and ECW re-fight. I chose the cavalry fight of Winceby for several reasons
 1/. It is small enough to game in a single meeting.
2/. It is a cavalry  fight. Something that happened an awful lot in the ECW but such battles are not gamed that often. This seems to be largely because Joe Wargamer "hates painting horses" - though my sample is not scientific if I had a quid for every time I'd heard that I would not need to sell soldiers for a living. Personally I don't get it .  With the possible exception of medieval housed horses that need heraldry,h orses are easier than the riders so I've never understood what all the anti-cavalry fuss is about.
 In order to re-fight Winceby I needed almost all the ECW cavalry I own - without including the 30 or so Cuirassiers or 20 mounted Dragooners. This even though the battle had  less than 4000 combatants in total ended up being 200 plus mounted figures plus a mere 30 dismounted dragoons (I do not consider that my ECW forces have anything like enough Horse. I need to almost double it).
 For the game forces were almost even with each side haveing around 100 cavalry . The Royalists having a tiny numerical edge with 20 dragoons  in 2 units as against the single 10 man roundhead unit.

The table at the beginning of the game. Royalists at the top of the picture. Rounhead first line under Cromwell in the foregground. Roundhead second line on the bottom edge. 

The Royalists had 3 commands as against the Roundheads 2  but since the Roundheads in question were Sir Thomas Fairfax and Oliver Cromwell the the Royalist had a job on.. With 5 players plus myself as Umpire the stage was set for an interesting afternoons game based firmly on the historical precedent. Terrain was of the simplist being merely 2 low ridges- actually wooden blocks beneath the cloth and a few hedges on the roundhead right- which should have been on the left !!! Not that it made any difference.
 Our groups decided some time ago that although we have terrain boards for our public demos for these pub games simplicity and portability are more often the norm.
 Rules used were Forlorn Hope- still the best ECW set I have found despite the very pretty  but possibly a bit generic Pike and Shotte  (though I have not yet seen the new ECW supplement) and the rather odd but not uninteresting "To defy a King". Such lightweight fluff as Pikemans Lament need not detain our thought processes. So Forlorn Hope it would be.

Royalist Horse advance slowly .

The Royalists got off to a bright start advancing their dragoons and sorting out the roundhead dragoons in the hedges in pretty short order. The Parliamentarians advanced their whole first line under Cromwell cautiously in response. Instead of following up their initial success the Cavaliers stood and waited for a couple of turns .... So did the Roundheads - although the Cavaliers did extend their second line to to their right a little in an effort to stop the possibility of a Parliamentarian outflanking move in that direction.
 At last after an awful lot of fiddling about both sides front lines clashed. The charges all being initiated by the Cavaliers. The ensuing melee was long and - to begin with- largely bloodless owing to the huge number of totally bum dice thrown by both sides indeed at one point the Umpire waxed somewhat Churchillian
 "Never in the field of tabletop conflict have so many bum dice been thrown so many times by so few"

Another view of the Cavaliers

 Eventually the Cavaliers routed one of Cromwell squadrons but in turn their centre was routed and other squadrons pushed back. Now appeared a spectre. In the hope of a quick victory the Cavaliers had pushed part of their reserve- including its commander into the front line. This error had consequences. In the melee Saville could not leave his troops to summon up his reserves so they simply stood about without orders while on the other flank Fairfax - after a couple of false starts- bum dice again- was set fair to  cross the hedge and outflank the hard pressed Cavaliers. So it was all over bar the shouting. The Cavaliers conceding the game at this point.

Cromwells division moves forward. 

 Figure were all from my ECW collections being about 60% Old Glory 25mm and the rest Hincliffe from my shiny retro collection . As always our thanks go to Landlady Jean for excellent Beef Butties and chips and sundry pints of Consett Brewey's White Hot- an excellent session beer. Though  it was rumoured that some of the Cavaliers were seen imbibing of  strange  bottle beverage called "cider"   no wonder they lost .

The melee gets a bit intense. Cromwell getting stuck in. 

All over bar the shouting. The Cavaliers conced at this point as their Flank will be turned. 

Roll on the next game in late April- currently looking like WW2 in the desert using "Operation Warboard.

Rearguard action at Utterly Edge

So there I was setting up the table for the latest T.W.A.T.S meeting yesterday when it cam to me. A question. Why are some wargamers so bloody boring? It must be in the genes- we all do it from time to time especially when riding our own pet hobby horse. Now I'd just had the latest WI drop on the mat and frankly it is tedious  full of "rules spotlights" and sycophantic twaddle about how wonderful the new Perry western desert stuff is. The whole mag was an exercise in product placement. Now you'd expect a bit of that but somehow this issue went over the top. There were a couple of interesting bit- making tents in 10mm and some nice stuff on the last weeks of the Reich - focusing on the Panzer Test facility and its extempore Panzer company. I would have liked more of this  However overall the tone was pretty childish again or rather patronising. It  sometimes seems to me as if the various writers would rather be thought "cool" than educated. Sorry to say this but this is the unforseen, pernicious influence of  SCI-FANT specifically GW and its fanboys and copycats. Even Henry Hyde's column- actually quite thoughtful -has pictures of bloody Airfix all over it.
 What is this bloody obsession with childhood
 This is all a long way from the "intellectual pursuit" that Featherstone aspired to in Advanced Wargames. And by God it is so repetitive and boring .

However back to the plot. I was in the chair for this month's game so I decided on a follow up to the Battle of Shyterly Moor -see earlier post-  I thought I'd use Pike and Shoote for the game this time as I'd had them a while- even read them- but not actually played.
 Time pressure meant I never made specific briefings but no worries I thought  the forces are all in their boxes and aside from detaching a couple of units frOm the Parliamentarian side to simulate losses from the previous engagement  all was set.

The field of battle before anyone turned up.

By Gum You could lose the will to live trying to find stuff in Pike and Shotte- what a faff- even though I 'd read them- and yes bits READ very well. Playing was so bloody slow with all that IGOUGO each player issuing orders 1 at a time by the end of move 1 we had terminal ennui.
 So I switched to  faster set.... WRG....  Well it was the only other set I had to hand.

The Royalists advance.

The actual enagagment was a follow from the Battle of Shyterly Moor  on so the Roundheads had troops deducted to simulate campaign losses- their Cuirassiers had a proper smacking last time out so declined to play this time as had 1 of their foot regiments. However they were reinforced by 2 more companies of militia shot and a couple of guns.

Royalist Horse and Dragoons bimbling about. 

 They had a distinct terrain advantage as I decided to base the scenario loosely upon the battle of Adwalton moor, so the Roundheads had a hedgeline to defend which, while gapped in parts was a significant obstacle to the somewhat more numerous Cavaliers.
Floating Jeff took the Cavaliers and Jim and Shaun the Roundheads
 Quire quickly after the tedious first turn the game became a right slogging match. Strange to say but the roundheads kept about half of their shot in reserve and the brunt was born by the 4 D class militia musketeer units. They stood to it manfully. Giving at least as good as they got and often better.
 The battle developed into a long firefight with only the superior Royalist Artillery giving them any kind of edge.

The Parliamentarians sit safe behind their hedges

 As the afternoon wore on  a unit of royalist horse finally put in a charge against some exposed roundhead shot and after a 2 move fight sent them packing and pursued- only to be hit by the Rounhead horse and sent off in turn. The better controlled roundheads did not pursue and this allowed Jim with the Roudhead right wing to break contact and beat an orderly retreat declaring that he had done enough. The rest of the Rounheads followed suit albeit in a somewhat more disorderly manner abandoning guns and baggage.

The Royalist horse finally make a move. 

 The Royalist - having had a stinging slap in the face contented themselves with collecting more abandoned Roudhead guns and more importantly enough powder for another battle.
 The Roundheads fell back on their fortified base at the town of Utterly.
 But nest time we'll use Forlorn Hope ....

A News size for the ECW

Now that a good bit of the new Blue Moon English Civil War range is available, I've been trying to work out what I should do for myself using it.
 I've had ECW armies on and off since 1977 and these days, and for the last decade it is probably overall my favourite period for modelling, collecting and wargaming. I've around a thousand painted models in  2 distinct collections plus about 100 or a bit less in 40mm- though some of these last are more strictly 30 Years War.
 Nevertheless in all this Pike and Shotting I have never done anything in 15mm- until now.
 All right a mere 14 figures isn't much but its a start and there are more on the painting desk.
 So here are 3 pics of the first fruits of a possible 15mm ECW project which if I continue will be the New Model Army expedition to Flanders and the Royalist Army in Exile with Spanish and French regiments for each side as well.
 Will I get that far. Only time will tell.

15mm Parliamentarian General. 

I know I'm biased but I do like these little dudes.

New Model pikemen in 15mm. The flags are handpainted ,made from wine bottle foil. 

and finally for the moment.

Officer in Ciurassier Armour from the same pack as the first picture.

I should have more packs from this range available in March- the guns and the Horse.  Irish and Scots should be along later.

To Lament or not to Lament !

The other day I received in the post a copy of the latest Osprey Games booklet "The Pikeman's Lament"  from that very efficient outfit  The Wordery an ebay bookseller I've used previously. Costing me a mere £9.65 including postage  this looked like a bargain and it terms of the physical appearance of the book it was
 Then I looked inside and all my illusions were quite quickly shattered.
Now as you know I'm a bit of a 17th century nut- mainly ECW but not entirely ignoring other wars of that tempestuous century either. It follows that any set of rules purporting to depict conflict from that period is going to interest me. The active phrase here is "purporting to depict".
 The basic idea is actually pretty good- these are no rules, or perhaps I should say this is not a game, for refighting large battles. In theory it depicts the small war of outposts , minor actions and skirmishes that were a major part of much 17th century warfare. And so it does.... well sort of... maybe a bit anyway ..
There is some good stuff here most especially the almost role play of the officer selection process but each "Company" is only allowed 1 officer (and no NCOs) so an historical command structure is not allowed despite the fact that the officer character starts as an ensign- the lowest commissioned rank of the period-
  It is pretty obvious that the authors are very prepared to butcher the actuality to achieve their desired results- these being a "set of simple and fast moving miniature wargame rules" . An awful lot has been subordinated to these objectives.  Period organisation, period formations, period weapon handling, period drill   and period terminology have all been given a proper kicking to make them fall into line with the authors "game". Now in some cases this is necessary . I suspect that these rules will handle small scale cavalry actions rather well assuming you can live with tiny units and non period organisations but the points based organisation places  quite a bit of "negative freedom" on the system especially as the points system is also part of the morale mechanism.
 A couple of examples
 In these rules a "forlorn hope" is a troop type rather than a military decision. So I'm tempted to ask can you use a forlorn hope as a forlorn hope ?? Well yes actually  in the game the term actually means "small elite foot unit" rather than  the advanced party  ( of either foot or horse as the situation demanded)   the term was actually used to indicate.

Dragoons- now anyone with a basic grounding in the 17th century military art knows that dragons were mounted infantry who dismounted to fight. Here the term is used to indicate any type of  mounted firearm cavalry as well as traditional Dragoons -no distinction is made Dragoons do not have to dismount to fight. They do not have to act as their historical namesakes did.

This misuse of terms is at best misleading for the newcomer, which you would think that  this limited ,tightly organised and rather narrow focus game is aimed at. Let's face it if you are into 17th century warfare and know anything at all about how operations were conducted then this game will make you laugh- especially if you are not already a wargamer.

 Also for the type of warfare these rules are intended to depict 2 of the troop types available would have been a distinct rarity and possibly - for certain of the given scenarios absent altogether- Pikemen and Artillery. In accounts of the various types of outpost warfare of the period I have Pikemen are rarely if ever mentioned. Artillery more as an objective than a unit- besieged garrisons would sally out to destroy or disable the besiegers guns if they could as at Basing House and Lathom house to cite just 2 examples.
 Also this "game" is very dice heavy. Everything requires a dice roll  moving, firing, reaction, orders, casualties  and morale. Dice rolls are substituted for decision making. Great if you are 12. You might lose the will to live if you are an adult.
 However above all else what really really gives me the hump in these rules is the unit structure. There are only 2 unit sizes 12 figures for some foot and 6 figures for all Horse and Dragoons and the remaining foot and gun crews. Why this should be so is never explained so despite the fact that we are told 1 model represents 1 real soldier (so what the hell use are 12 pikemen - a mere 2 files for much of the period. Why would they be involved in "outpost warfare" ). You get the distinct impression that this is done because the authors favourite toys are sold in  factors of 3 or 4 or 6  or more likely that the system was lifted straight from the very un-medieval medieval "game" Lion Rampant without benefit of actually  looking at 17th century warfare.
 If you want a quick  simplistic "game" with a very little 17th century flavour and an awful lot of dice rolling.  A game that is quite heavily structured so you don't have to do anything as radical as thinking for yourself. A game that assumes you know nothing and doesn't bother to enlighten you then this is for you, straight from the booklet.
 If you want a game of 17th century outpost warfare then these- after a good butchering may do the job but straight from the book they are just another same old same old  skirmish- a- like.  Frankly I could go on about poor points such as no weapon differences- despite the fact that these were viewed as important at the time (don't for instance use matchlock muskets for either sentries or night operations if yo can help it) but this is the kind of stuff the interested player  or umpire can put in at need and IS nit-picking. Nevertheless the overall impression is that the authors have striven mightily to do as little as possible to produce a sequel to lion rampant- which wasn't that good anyway and in doing so have for me dropped the ball somewhere near the halfway line .... sort of a grudging 5/10

Troops of Horse and Photo software.

These Two troops of Roundhead cavalry have been on my desk for some time- Both will join existing troops to form larger regiments. So the Orange Cornet will join the Earl of Essex's regiment and the Red Cornet Sir William Balfour's  regiment. Both troops will join the "Modern ECW"  army rather than the shiny 1970s one. The Parliametarians in this collection are representative of the Earl of Essex's Army for the Edgehill campaign. The Royalists  more for the Summer of 1643.
 The shiny blokes are of course for 1978 !
 However  I do fancy doing  an "Edgehill-a-like" sort of refight at the Durham show this coming june(assuming of course that they are kind enough to invite us) where I use about 90% of the ECW stuff I own all on one table- the thick end of 1000 figures I think, though I have not actually counted 'em all.

Troop of Sir William Balfours Regiment of Horse. Possibly that of his Major and Son- William Balfour . 

 The models are all Old Glory though the horses- again Old Glory are- or some of them are- no longer in production. We changed our horses a good few years ago as some of the older ones were a bit thin. However I still have a few of the older horses left in my personal stock and for some units I prefer them.

Two troops together led by Sir William Balfour. Though at Edgehill he may have been in Cuirassier armour as the first Colonels troops of his regiment consisted of 802 cuirassiers plus officers.  So I might paint another ! 

Close up of the two troops. 

An 8 figure Troop represents a standard  troop of horse of roughly 70 men plus Officers so figure to man ratio is about 1-10 . However on the table they often act more like "divisions" of 2-3 troops which was the standard fighting  formation- we'd call it a squadron.
 Photo software can do your head in . I took these pics yesterday and the machine then hid them in the bowels of itself when I uploaded them to the computer. Apparently  the photo software  thinks it is Jan 1st 2005  despite haveing accurate clocks and calendars for other functions. Talk about left hand not knowing what the right is doing.

The Battle of Shyterly Moor- 1643 or 1978- take your pick.

 Saturday 17th October saw 4 T.W.A.T.S gather at our usual watering hole forthis months game. To whit you Gentle Author Floating Jeff, Mechanical Shaun and Andrew the Tekkie.
 I was in the chair  so decided to run and ECW game as I have lots of toys. Not least a bundle my wife Carole bought me for Crimbo a couple of years ago . These have featured on theis blog most recently in the post "Reconditioned Regiments" and also in my ECW article in MWBG some months ago as well as in other ECW posts here. .
 So it was about time they took to the field.
 Most of the models were Hinchliffe or Foremost but with several Garrison and some Minifigs gunners. The White Regt of trained bands were of course my single precious unit of  rare Les Higgins "Jason" 30mm figures- with a couple of Stadden to make up the numbers.(I totally forgot to bring the 7 figure cavalry unit of Jasons that I have. They will turn up next time.  A few Essex and some Old Glory were mixed in where they fitted in stylistically. Both armies were very shiny !
 As they were  mostly figures from the 1970s it seemed appropriate to run a game using 1970s rules so I chose George Gush's WRG set from 1976 . I used to play these quite a bit in the late 70s and had dabbled since but it had been at least 10 years since these had been used in anger,
 It was an intresting and entertaining experience.
 So here are the briefings for each side.

September 1643 or 1978 – take you pick!

Royalist Briefing

 Sir Geoffrey Riche- B’Stard.

Baron Firkham of Firkham Hall

Ye rebels have entered your lands intending to plunder monies intended for his Majesty (minus your cut of course !) You have therefore drawn together your forces to oppose them as they advance from the mill town of Utterly toward Firkham.

 You have drawn up your army on the edge of Shyterly Moor.

 Your army consists of.

 Horse and Dragoons.

The Queens Regt of Horse.	A class HC ( C) Order Sword and Pistols	9 figs
Sir Thomas Tyldesleys Regt of horse.	A class HC ( C ) Order Sword and pistols.	11 figs
Lord Capels Regt of Horse	A class HC ( C ) Order Sword and pistols.	11 figs
Sir Haverage Dyce’s regt of Horse	A class HC ( C) Order Sword and pistols.	8 figs
Sir William Blackstone’s Regt. Of Dragoons	D class MC Order  sword  when mounted  C class Open order musket when dismounted.	10 figs

The Foote

The Kings Lifeguard of Foot  Redcoats.	Pikemen close order. HI C class  2 sub Units each of  LI musketeers C class	16 pikes 32 muskets
Sir Charles Gerards Regt. Of Foote Bluecoats	Pikemen close order HI C class 2 sub units each of LI musketeers C class.	24 pikes 32 muskets
Col. Mythical Smiths Regt. Of Foot Grey/Brown coats	Pikemen close order HI D class. 2 sub units each of LI musketeers D class	16 pikes 24 muskets.

The Ordnance.

Heavy Guns	2 gun models D class gunners.	Guns may not be moved one placed. May only turn on their axis- which counts as movement.
light gun	1 model D class crew	May not move and fire
Light gun	1 model D class crew	As above. Either light gun may be attached as sub unit to foot unit if desired.

Objective

Destroy the rebel scum! 

Parliamentarian Briefing 1643 or 1978 –take your pick!

Major-General Jasper Grasping.

That foul malignant Sir Geoffrey Riche- B’Stard has been raiding the mill towns of Utterly and Skintborough to extract contributions for the Kings evil counsellors.  Some of it was your money !!

 Therefore with the help of the Lord of Hosts you shall smite the malignants Hip and Thigh.

The Horse.

Sir Arthur Hazelriggs Regt. ofHorse.	EHC close order sword and pistols C class	16 figs in 2 units of 8
Col Philip Twistletons  Regt of Horse	HC (C ) Order sword and pistols  C class	10 figs
Col Edwin Cooke’s regt of Horse	HC (C ) Order Sword and pistols D class	10 figs

The Foote

The White Regt of Trained bands	Pikemen HI Close order C class 2 sub units of LI musketeers C class. Order	25 pikemen  32 muskets.
The Green Regt of Trained Bands.	Pikemen HI close order Cclass 2 sub units of LI musketeers C class. Order	16 pikemen 24 musketeers
Col Edward Suren’s regt . of Foote	Pikemen HI  close order C class. 2 sub units of LI musketeers C class .Order	14 pikemen 22 musketeers.
The Utterly and Skintborough Commanded shot	Musketeers LI D class Order,	24 musketeers

The ordnance.

Heavy Gun	1 model D class crew	May not move once placed except to turn on its axis- which counts as movement.
Medium Gun	1 model D class crew	May not move and fire in the same turn-
Light Gun	1 model D class crew

Objective- Destroy the Malignants!! 

As we had not played this system for some years I decided on a simple encounter battle. I wrote the Briefing deliberately BEFORE checking out the rules to see if my memeoory was at fault- only with regard to artillery movement had I misremembered- Gush allowed artillery more freedom that I would have. For the game we went with Gush..

The armies deployed. Royalists on the right of the picture. Table approx 8 feet by 5 

The Battle.

Both sides  deployed  ignoring period formation. Foot mostly  2 ranks deep  instead of the deeper formations of the 17th century. The idea seemed to be to get the most firepower in. ,

 For the first 3 moves little occoured . Each Commander -Floating Jeff for the Royalists and Andrew for the Roudheads- ably assisted by Shaun simply felt at eah other rather gently. The Royalist Dragoons siezed a wood on the Parliamentarian left whilst twice their number of  Roundheads in the form of the Commanded Shot simply stood and watched. 

 A prolonged artillery duel ensued in the centre with the Royalists getting marginally the upper hand and causing moderate losses to the White regiment. However the Kings Lifeguard were far from unscathed as the duel continued Andrews artillery dice being marginally better- even with fewer guns.

Closer shot of the Roundhead deployment. Britain's trees once again do the business

 Finally Jeff got moving . The Queens horse charged Twistletons and routed it in short order- Jeff doing his dice thing as normal!! . The victorious Cavaliers then pursued into the somewhat surprised and stationary Curassiers and after a 2 move fight sent then on their way as well and being nutters pursued them from the field. Jeff's dice had scored again helped by a thumping slice of luck when Andrew's dice were the worst possible outcome and Jeff's the best with a plus 4 difference to the Cavaliers !! . Glum faces in the roundhead camp and dark muttering to boot !! 

Sir Thomas Tyldesley's Horse advance. Figures are  mostly retro being Hinchliffe from the late 70s but combined with a few Old Glory and painted as recently as early this year. 

On the Royalist left Dyce's and Capel's horse advance.. In the distance the Queens horse can be seen doing the Roundheads over good and proper ! 

 Left with little choice the Parliamentarians began a belated advance with the commanded shot entering the wood on the Roundhead left to search for the now dismounted dragoons. In the centre a firefight erupted which the  Roundheads had the better of but over on their right it all went very pear shaped very suddenly.

The roundheds begin to advance- Too little too late. 

 Surens Foot fired at Dyces horse- which drove them to a frenzy and they charged. They were however supported by Capels horse who hit the foot in the flank dispersing the sub unit of shot and smashing into the pikemen as they were engaged frontally. After some truly bum reaction test throws the whole unit fled pursued by the royalist horse. At this point Andrew and Shaun conceded defeat with 3/4 of their horse and 1/4 of their foot gone they had little option. So  we all had another pint ! .

The wheels come off AND it all goes very pear shaped for the Roundheads .... 

Post match analysis! 

Andrew had correctly predicted that "he was in for a right smegging" and so it proved.  Back in the day Jeff had been something of a competitor around the country and despite a decade or more since the last WRG game it was amazing how fast it all came back. Up to a point this was true for me as well.. Shaun has some experience with WRG too but only with the Ancients.

 However the Roundheads lack of aggression cost them the game at least as much as Jeff's knowledge and his uncanny ability to get good dice when it mattered (He throws bum dice too but somehow never at the tipping point as it were !!) .

 There is no doubt that these rules are not perfect for the ECW- I need to put in some period formation rules for a start/ However we will re-visit   them both for the ECW and  for other pike and shot sub-genres.  We may even visit the Ancients rules.

 Frankly I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed the experience. I know its not fashionable these days but you actually have to think about what you do rather than simply roll dice or even pull them blind from a silly little bag like a poor raffle for a box of cheap whine ! (spelling error very intentional) 

A bit of showing off!.The Battle Magazine isd October 1978 and if you look carefully you can see the two units in the photo are now in my collection . 

Another this time matching the figures to the Asquith/Gilder Osprey on Naseby from 1978.

 Oh and the label "Retro- Wargaming" - well frankly "Old  School " reminds me too much of doddery old farts in cardigans with thermos flasks , smelling- as one blogger put it  of "Ralgex and Werther's origonals" . Not the T.W.A.T.S  style at all.

 As always thanks are due to Jean our  landlady for the splendid beef butties and acres of chips and gallons of gravy. Not to mention  more than a  few pints of Consett Brewery's splendid "White Hot" a light ale which is just the job for a decent seession.

 Next game will be sometime in October. I'll start thinking abut it once we get back from Donnington .

Reconditioned Regiments.

About a coupel of years ago I bought a load of ECW models from DC- he of Unfashionably shiny fame !  Some at least of these  had been Peter Gilders. Others had been Duncan MacFaralnes. I've been working through them giving them a bit of TLC where needed.

Most of these figures are at least 30 years old and knowledge then was a little more sparse than it is now, so which regiement is what can be problematic. Nevertheless I opted to keep them as stylistically close to the era they were made as I could.So I left the fictional- but very pretty hand painted flags where they were.

Colonel Mythical Smith's regiment of Foote. Garrison Pikemen Hincliffe Musketeers and Command. Beautifully painted but totally fictitious flags.

These units are of course products of their time (the later 1970's) so by todays standards are perhaps not as visually accurate as they would be if I made them now. .

A regiment of Greencoat foot.  .

The Greencoats seem to be parts of two smaller units as the 2 groups of pikemen do not fit together. Maybe in time I'll add to them or split them into 2 units. The important thing here for me is that I retain ther 1970s style.

 As it happens these lads and many others will be on the table for the next T.W.A.T.S. meeting  about a week from now.