Battle of Winterton 1644.

As Dave was in Manchester,watching the cricket,it fell to Brian and I,commanding the Parliamentarians,to face the Royalists,commanded by Graham and Paul-it was a most excellent game!!

Top photo is scenario,bottom is table before any movement-keeping the scenario in mind,each player had to decide on his own objective,and away we went...........................

The opening moves-my troops are manoeuvering towards the "walled field" held by Paul's troops,whilst in the background Brian is mounting an attack on the Town,held by Graham.

A couple of musket shots,supported by a blast from his artillery,and then in with the pike-glorious stuff-however Brian was repulsive,er, sorry,I meant repulsed!!!

Despite being cannistered,on the way past,my cavalry are about to challenge Paul's cavalry,for dominance of the central position-hurrah!!

Brian and Graham's reluctance to get their cavalry engaged,caused a bit of an "impasse",which didn't last long,resulting in Brian's troops getting a right old beating!!
But on the town front,things were a bit different.............

After clearing the walls,with finely directed musketry,Brian charged in,and took the town by push of pike and dint of musket butt-another hurrah!!-to the left of the town,you can see I have taken the central field,putting the whole of the Royalist position in jeopardy.

Paul and I were having a real "humdinger" of a fight for the flank,and for a while I thought I had "shot my bolt",but I managed to amass a couple of cavalry units plus one untouched infantry regiment,and pushed on through the gap in the Royalist line-could this be the end????

There they go!-with the Royalist army split in two,the game was finished-Brian had possession of the town,and Paul,although far from beaten,was in a bad position,so the Parliamentarians were declared the winners-if only Brexit could be solved that easily!!!!
Well done to us all,a great game,roll on next Sunday.

Border Reiver Show Report.2019.

On Saturday we attended,and put on a demo. game at Border Reiver show in Gateshead.
Our game seemed to go down a storm,but the show itself felt a little "flat",with not many traders and the "footfall" wasn't as good as last year-the canteen did a roaring trade from the start to the finish,and with free car parking you would have expected a good turnout!

Top photo shows my garage at 8.15am,and by 9.00am the game is ready for action,as can be seen in the bottom photo!!-it's all down to organisation and planning-the game was,of course, the battle of Isandlwana (Zulu Wars 1879) we included our,now almost compulsory, display at the end of the table,which attracted a hell of a lot of interest!

The Zulu "high command" of Brian,Graham and Paul-awaiting the start of the game-believe it or not the doors are open!!

Yes,OPEN!!!

Our game was one of five or six demo games and a couple of participation games,and as you can see there was room to wander around and look at the games,and there was no queues at the trader's stands either!(although the couple of traders I talked to,said they had done ok.

It wasn't long before our display of original antique weapons of the period attracted young and not so young-well,when are you going to get another chance to handle a Martini Henry rifle,bayonet,assegai and shield??

Graham's attack by his centre regiments(looking very Napoleonic!) sweeps towrds the British line,commanded by myself and Dave-the "horns" were filtering around the flanks-very impressive!

Brian is putting my command under serious pressure,and the whole line is falling back!
Then it happened...................................

Robbie Roddis,disguising himself as a "normal" person, has managed to slip past Security,and is attempting to disrupt proceedings by sneaking up on Brian's blind side!!!!

I have tried to think of a witty/funny caption for this photo. but can't-can anyone help??

The British line is on the verge of collapse!!-History repeating itself,look at the hordes of Zulu!

They think it's all over-it is now!!!
We had a great day out,talked to some very interesting,and interested people,and hopefully portrayed our hobby in a good light.One noticeable thing was that I didn't see any "official" from Border Reiver coming to our table and asking how things were going!
We still had a good day,and will,probably, attend next year.
I took some photo's of some of the other games,but "camera shake" took over and the results were CRAP, so I haven't put them on the blog-apologies to all who took the time and effort to do so.

Mongols vs Russians.

Last night we had a 100%  turnout for this fascinating game,pitting a fine Russian army against the might of the Mongol Empire.

Top photo is the scenario,bottom shows the initial attack by the Russian vanguard against the Camp.
Brian was in charge of the Koreans,Paul and I shared command of the Mongols and Dave commanded the main Russian army,and Graham commanded the Vanguard troops.

To the right of the camp,Graham is attacking Brian's Koreans-neither side getting any real advantage early on!!

On move number 2, the Russians arrived,and on move number 3 the Mongols arrived-this shot shows both sides trying to deploy rapidly-the Mongols won the race and hit the Russian infantry as they were still in marching column!!-this was a good tactical ploy by Dave and in keeping with the Russian tactics of the day.

In these two shots you can see the Mongols sweeping forward to pin the Russian centre,whilst attempting to gain the flanks,using masses of fire-power and hit and run tactics-marvelous 

stuff!!

The fight for the camp intensifies!!-The Koreans are weakening and the Russian infantry  are closing in-this could be "touch and go".

The Mongols are making a right old mess of the Russian infantry,but the Russian cavalry are massing,ready to counter attack!!

Graham has managed to beat the Koreans outside the camp,and is now assaulting the camp defences-come on Brian!!!

Oh dear!!-the camp is taken,after an heroic struggle!!

In the centre,the fight is going the Russians way,but we are slowly gaining the flanks-a draw could be on the cards!!

One final shot,showing the Mongols in a spot of disarray!!,but the Russians can not take advantage because of their insecure flanks,so a draw was declared!

This was a good game,and the offer of a loan of books and videos still stands "boys" before the next one!!

We won't be playing next Sunday,as we are putting on a demo game at Border Reiver on Saturday.

Pre-view of game for 1.9.19.

As we ran through our Border Reiver game last Sunday,and didn't want to post any photo's-to dilute the surprise!!!  I thought,because I'm suffering from blogger's "need to blog syndrome",that I would post a preview of Sunday's up and coming game.

This is the simple scenario,not showing too many troops-I have picked sides, the "boys" will find out what they command on Sunday.

Top photo shows the Korean camp under attack from the Russian vanguard,bottom photo shows the main Russian army approaching!

Top photo shows the camp,bottom shows some of the newly painted Korean auxiliary troops.

These three shots were taken last week,and show Russian Engineers,bought from "Ebay" by Paul,middle shot is of Brian's on-going 15mm ACW project,and bottom is a 28mm plastic gun and crew,also painted by Brian-there's so ,much going on in our small club,it's a wonder we get around to playing all the periods we collect!!-but long may it continue.
You'd better prepare yourselves for the next photo's-are you sitting down????

It's equivalent to that infamous photograph of "The Hole In The Wall Gang"-fine legs on parade too!!!
Roll on Sunday.

Battle of Aq'Bat(akbat!) 1176 AD.

Because Graham is sunning himself in far off distant climes,it fell to myself,Paul,Dave and Brian to fight this awsome battle based in the "Holy Land".

Top photo is scenario,bottom is the table before any movement.
I commanded the Crusader infantry,Paul the Crusader cavalry,Dave the Saracen cavalry,and Brian the Saracen infantry.We made our plans,wrote our initial orders,and off we went!!

My left hand infantry are advancing towards Brian's Saracens,but my right hand infantry are awaiting some damage done by my Catapult(only had four shots,but managed to hit with three of them!!) against the troops in the town.-In the background,Paul is getting himself into a right old mess,his plan was to form a wedge and attack Dave's Camp,but timing was a bit out!!
We had discussed before the game started,that the Saracen light horse archers were going to be a massive threat,and Paul was going to get a unit of crossbows and a couple of Cavalry units onto the flank and prevent any Saracen moves against the left flank-Store this plan for future information!!!

Paul is desperately trying to form his wedge,with a crossbow screen to his left-to the far left in the background you can see Dave's horse archers moving in an out-flanking manoeuvre!!

In this shot,Dave has instigated a charge by his heavy cavalry,Paul has counter-charged,and all hell has broken loose-both Dave and Paul are moving their elite guard cavalry,complete with commanders(!!!) into the fray-you can tell what is going to happen,can't you????

As the infantry advance towards contact on my left,Brian did something extraordinary,and moved his town troops out of the town!!!-can you spot something happening in the background?

Remember the plan of the crossbows protecting the flank??-well,they've managed to get themselves surrounded by the horse archers,and are slowly,but surely,getting wiped out!!
This left Dave in a great position,on both the flank and rear of Paul's Cavalry-oh dear!!

Both Paul and Dave's heavies are battling it out,and it was swings and roundabouts,until the Saracen guard cavalry beat the Grand Master's cavalry back,forcing(??) Paul to send his King(yes,King!) into the fray-please Dave,don't throw a 5 and a Kill dice!!!!!!!

But,of course, he did!!! and the short lived tour of the "Holy Land" by the king ended in a pool of blood,forcing the whole Crusader army to test morale,which it failed !!!!!!!,just as..................

Top photo shows my left hand infantry beating Brian's,and the bottom photo shows my right hand infantry beating Brian's and entering the town,which should have heralded a Crusader victory-however,my morale was tested and failed!!!!

Dave,trying to suppress a Gloaty Grin, looks on as the Crusader Army leaves the field of battle,and heads for home!!
This was another great game,enjoyed by us all,roll on next week,when we will be play-testing the game we are putting on a t Border Reiver on the 7th of September.