Montrose Turn 1, April 1644

The campaign began with Montrose launching attacks into Lower Highlands and Ayrshire.

Upper Highlands - Determination 

In this game both sides scored points from getting units over the centre line, with the Pike & Shot battalia worth double the other units. The terrain was hilly with scattered scrub. 

Montrose at the bottom of the picture

Both sides advanced with their cavalry on the eastern side of the field. The Royalists pushed their veteran Irish units up the centre. Other units were used by them to outflank in the west and their horse held back.     

Montrose Irish

The Royalists were able to push through in the middle and attack around the outside in the west. The cavalry battle was tussle where the Royalists had a slight edge.   

Covenanter foot counter the Royalist flank moves

The final score was 6-4 to the Royalists. Royalists Win.

Ayrshire - Forlorn Hope

In this game both sides began with 2 units and their guns deployed forward and the remainder of the army looking to catchup. Points were scored for kills with the forlorn hopes scoring extra.

Royalist forlorn hope 

In the pre-game movements the Parliamentary forces caused some damage on the Irish troops while the Royalists looked to advance their cavalry as a screen to protect the Highland units seeking to outflank the Parliamentary forlorn hope.     

The Parliamentary forces had the better of the cavalry battles but Montrose horse hung on long enough to let the Highlanders attack the forlorn hope and push them back. Meanwhile the Irish on the Royalist right punched through the Parliamentary battalia opposing them.      

Highlanders get around the corner

Losses mounted on both sides but the Parliamentary armies morale gave way and they retreated in the gathering gloom. Royalist Win. 

Campaign situation

A good start for Montrose with both Lower Highlands and Ayrshire coming under his influence.  

 

Spanning the centuries

The last 10 days have been pretty busy on the gaming front - thank goodness I'm retired as I've never have the time!

First up some WWII using the latest iteration of Keith Flints Startline battalion level rules. They have a strong heritage in the classic 80s WRG rules but cleaned-up and sped-up. We cracked through a 1944 scenario in an evening and there is interest in doing a Monday-night club campaign.   

Germans hiding in wait

British attackers

We're now almost ready to start our Montrose campaign so we did a final practice game that introduced the Scottish/Irish troops. They are more fighty than the Covenanters but shoot less well.  Not shown I also played a 20mm game with Roy but the intense heat forced us a to halt before the end.  

Highlanders attack

Irish getting stuck in

It was also monthly Beneath the Lilly Banners time with us once again fighting Ottomans vs Russians in the Great North Wars. This game has a distinctly colonial feel and was a resetting of the Battle of of the Pyramids. We called in a marginal victory for the Russians as they took the riverside village and withstood fierce Ottoman attacks which broke up the front square but did nt rout it. 

Front Russian square - they would bear the grunt of the casualties 

Finally some Blucher - the Battle of Mincio (1814) river which pitched French/Italians against Austrians in an encounter game where both armies were divided by a river. Both sides opted for a left flank movement with the French looking initially to be too slow. 

6mm Austrians

The French centre was able to hang-on while their comrades on the left destroyed all the Austrians west of the river. Units were traded in the centre allowing the French to break the Austrians when their losses hit 50%.  

 

French attacking the Austrian centre and flank

Finally finally (not pictured) was some Deadzone scifi skirmish. I'm playing in  a tournament in August so some practice was in order. I was nt entirely happy with the Enforcers I used (AKA space marines) so will return to my trusty cyborgs from the evil Mazon Labs list 

Triple S - SciFi, Scots and Spies

 A fairly busy week of gaming as we approach the end of June. 

I'm still painting for a new addition to the "5 Parsecs From Home" solo Sci-Fi skirmish  family - "Planet Fall". In this variant of 5FPH you are the commander of an expedition seeking to colonise an alien world. I've been painting both the xenomorphs and the crew.

Crabman xeno

Expedition soldiers

Expedition scientists

I've also been to Fishponds for another game of "Test of Honour". The scenario involved the Samurai trying to smuggle a spy off the table as the Warrior Monks look to block their progress.    

Warrior Monks

Samurai

The spy did nt escape before we completed the game be we called it for the attacking Samurai.    

Action in the centre

Finally we're starting our new campaign looking at the Montrose rebellion in ECW Scotland. We're using "Never Mind the Matchlocks", a new set for us so plenty of learning to do.     

Highlanders

Covenanters

Our learning this week is that the cavalry rules are more complex than the infantry ones. We'll look to reduce the cavalry numbers to speed up the game.     

Dark Ages - the finale

For the final game of the Dark Ages interlude we did an battle royale style battle. All the factions have assembled to elect a high-king but all plan to use the opportunity to eliminate a deadly rival. All the leaders start in the centre, having each randomly selected another player as their rival. The warbands start on the table edge and no attacks are allowed for the first two rooms.

The battle field

The Merrymen

The first Viking band

The Picts

The Anglo-Saxons

The Irish

The meeting

Most of the leaders immediately rushed back towards their warbands with lots of jockeying for position as everyone tried to move towards their target whilst working out who might be gunning for them.     

Second Viking band 

The early action saw one of the Viking warbands attacking the Anglo-Saxons whilst the Irish rushed towards the Pictish troops who formed a defensive perimeter.   

Anglo-Saxons ready for the Viking attack

With the Vikings getting stuck into the Anglo-Saxons the Irish launched their war dogs into the Pictish crossbowmen and then attacked their lines.   

The Merrymen and the second Viking band were circling each other when one of the Berserker got confused and attacked his compatriot killing him in.   

Merrymen prepare for a Viking attack 

Berserkers get confused!

With night falling all the warbands were engaged - Irish vs Picts, Vikings vs Merrymen and Vikings vs Anglo-Saxons. No one managed to kill their intended targets but there were injuries and a dead; Viking 1 (Dead), Viking 2 (3 wounds of 4), Anglo-Saxon (0 wounds), Irish (0 wounds), Picts (2 wounds), Merryman (2 wounds).   

Irish and Picts

Vikings and Anglo-Saxons

A fun game and suitably chaotic. Played the Irish and was trying to kill the Picts. The Anglo-Saxons were trying to kill me but got tangled up with the Vikings.