Royal Armouries Gaming Event (RAGE) - 100 Years War - Harfleur game

After the success of the Napoleonic Wargaming event last year at the Royal Armouries the Armouries decided to hold a Royal Armouries Gaming Event (RAGE), but this time focusing on the 100 Years War.  The trigger for this was to celebrate the arrival of the Battle Of Agincourt diorama that the Perry twins had constructed last year.  Initially it was on display in the Tower of London, but has now moved to it permanent residence in the Royal Armouries in Leeds.

John S suggested a 28mm game using the Lion Rampant rules for a battle recreating the Siege of Harfleur.  In our game the French sortie out to try and wreck the bombard and approaching seige tower.   John S constructed a fabulous castle and he and Gavin M did sterling work on painting figures up as well.  You can read more about his construction of the Harfleur Castle on his Blog (Link).

Over the two days of the event (23-24 Apr) our club ran a total of 14 participation games.  8 games played on the Saturday with something like a 5:3 split English wins to French.  6 on Sunday, all French wins!

Points were c. 45 per side.  Odd number but worked ultimately on what we had.

English had:
4 expert archers (longbows)
1 expert yeomen (melee armed archers)
2 Foot men-at-arms
2 bidowers (skirmishing bows)

French had:
1 mounted men-at-arms (mounted Knights and sergeants)
2 foot men at arms (foot Knights)
3 expert foot sergeants (foot sergeants doh!)
2 crossbow
1 bidowers (handgunners).  All targets were 2 armour when shot, but could not shoot if evaded.


Here's a selection of pictures of our participation game.
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Of the 10 games at the event, there was an outstanding looking display game of Agincourt - very inspiring :)   Here's some pics of it.
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Comment:  Amazing looking castle.  I'm reliably informed (by the owner Simon) that it is a Hudson and Allen model with heavy conversion work undertaken to add a wooden palisade, new top tower with gothic windows, brochette etc).
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Sharp Practice 2 At The Harrogate Wargames Club

Had a recent game the club using the Sharp Practice 2 rules.  Organised by John S this was our first bash using these Napoleonic Skirmish rules.  It was interesting to contrast these rules with the 'Eagle Rampant' (ER) version of Lion Rampant that I posted about back 8th April this year. Link.

In terms of ease of play and accessibility ER wins hands down, as SP2 is a far far more complex offering.  That said SP2 offers a deeper richer gaming experience for the more hard-core/enthusiastic Napoleonic gamer.

In the game we played I was the clean-living god fearing British taking on the unworthy French dictator and his henchmen :)  Sadly one I lost due to being insufficiently aggressive with my Rifle Regt.  Great fun however  :)


Here's some pics of the game :)   Figures belong to both John S and Gavin M.
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EAGLE RAMPANT AT THE HARROGATE WARGAMES CLUB

In the Apr 2016 edition of Wargames Illustrated is an article about a Lion Rampant variant for the Napoleonic period, called 'Eagle Rampant'.  Although currently deep in the middle of our club 13 player Dragon Rampant 'Badlands' campaign, John S suggested we take a week off to try the conversion out; so last night after our club AGM we had an eight player game on our 8ft x 6ft club table.  Each player between 3 and 4 units, points varied but most had 12.  The Eagle variant is so similar to Lion Rampant and Dragon Rampant that those familiar will be right at home with the rules from the off. 

The clean living, god fearing Brits took on the filthy frog-leg eating French (perhaps you can guess which side I was on :) ).  The objective was a baggage train stuck on a bridge.  Both sides had to try and take control of the objective. 

I started south of the river (my unit was 2 units of Line Infantry (4pts each) and 2 Skirmish units (2 pts each) along with Theo S.  Facing off against us was John E.  To the north in a defensive posture were John S and Mick with more Brit Infantry and some Cavalry facing off against Simon A, Chris J and Gavin M.

From the off lots of desperate actions broke out all over the table as the two sides clashed !  John S was rapidly overwhelmed north of the Church and Chris J and Gavin then rolled into Mick M and gave him a battering.  Theo S's troops didn't do much for a while other then take a beating from French skirmish fire (poor initiative rolls), but then my Skirmishers and a line unit reinforced him.  John E after a valiant exchange was crushed and the axis of the battle changed.  Simon A troops took a beating off Theo's and mine Skirmishers and he was out,  Mick J's and Chris's last troops also fled.  The final shots were between Gavin Theo and myself as we fought around the baggage train.  In the end Theo and I managed to hold on, but it had been 'a damn close-run thing'  :)  

Myself, I felt the game went brilliantly and was well entertaining, provoking a large amount of good natured banter.  To my mind this is a good measure by which to judge how enjoyable a game has been on a club night :)  Well done to John S for setting up a well balanced game.  We'll certainly be playing Eagle Rampant again in the future :)

Anyway, here is a selection of photos from the game.  Great looking figures (I'm sure you'd agree) by John S, Theo S and Gavin M.
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Theo's troops face off against John E.
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Early in the game look North.
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John Es column Infanty.
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Theo's Infantry.
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Theo's Leader.
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Looking south.
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Things are starting to look grim for the Brits (on the left) as weight of numbers tells.
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Mick's Brits are under some pressure.
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Remains of Chris's cavalry and Gavins Infantry take on my Line Infanty (nearest unit) and Theo's (just in sight to the right) wading through the stream.
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Battle of Waterloo – Summary, Analysis and Assessment for the 200th Anniversary

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Came across a good article about the battle on the Armchair General site - Link.  Certainly worth a read.
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28mm Napoleonics At The Harrogate Wargames Club

Its been a little while since I've posted on the Blog, so this is the first of a few posts (not necessarily in chronological order) to bring things up to date.
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Last night at the club we played 28mm Napoleonics using the Black Powder rules.  We've been kind of caught up in the enthusiasm for the 200th anniversary of Waterloo and several of our group (namely Theo and John S) have been painting away furiously.  We've also been invited by the Royal Armouries at Leeds to put on a demonstration game on 13/14th June, so that has brought into sharp focus the need to get some more painting done.

Last night was meant to recreate part of the battle with the iconic La Haye Sainte as the centre-piece.  It was the largest number of figures we have fielded to date and certainly gave a great feel to the game.  We ran out of time before reaching a conclusion, but thoroughly enjoyed ourselves anyway.

Here's a selection of photos.  None of the figures photo'd close up are mine I have to admit, I think most are John Savages.  As normal his painting standard makes the rest of us lesser mortals feel inadequate...  LOL
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The Allied forces line up for battle.
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The French...
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French line infantry up close.
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Part of 'The Thin Red Line' :)
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British Riflemen.
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Kings German Legion.
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French Cavalry make their presence felt early on.
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The battle in the centre.  Gavin aggressively moved a British cannon up ahead of the main, where it did nothing (bad dice rolls) and was promptly overrun by the French Infantry.
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Main battle on the left flank (of the Allied line)
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