The Battle of Craven Common, a second game of 'Never Mind the Billhooks'.

 For our second game of Never Mind the Billhooks we opted for more open terrain than last time to hopefully help us learn the rules better. We then complicated matters by adding in all the newly painted troops completed over the last few weeks, boosting each side up to 174pts. I was certainly looking forward to how well my recently finished Mounted Knights might do? 

Sticking with the imaginary nobles created from local place names the four of us opted to play a straight forward encounter battle, deploying upto 9" on either side of a 6'x4' table. We used red dice for the Lancastrians and Ian's (always throw a 6) green dice for the Yorkists and these dice helped us decide who took control of which side and also which table edge we deployed on, (Ian always threw 6's!). The table represented Craven Common, an imaginary local piece of open land currently owned by the Earl of Lawkland but wanted by the Duke of Eldroth. The aim is simple, win the battle, own the land.  

Here are the forces....

Lancastrians

Earl of Lawkland (mtd). Class 3 Hero/ldr

Sir Henry Kettlesbeck (foot). Class 2 Commander.ldr (+5pts)

Sir James of Catteral Hall. Class 2 Commander. Ldr (+5pts)

Sir Harry Stainforth Class 1, Dolt (+5pts)

Type	pts	Move	Shoot	Melee D6	Save	Notes
Light Horse	1.5	10/14”		2	4+	Save is 3+ in melee
1x Men-at-Arms	2	6”		1.5	3+	Save is 4+ if hit by x-bow or handgun
5x Bill	1	6”		1	4+
4x Archers	1	6”	9S/15L”	.5	5+	May shoot twice a turn. Hit, 5+ at short, 6 at long
Skirmishers Handgun	1	8”	0-12”	.5	5+	Hit 5+
Gun + 3 crew	9	4”	0-30”	.5	5+	Crew x 2 when shooting, hit on a 6, all hits kill. Three or more 1's and gun blows up.
Total	174

Yorksists

Duke of Eldroth (foot). Class 3 Hero/ldr

Sir John Litton (foot). Class 2 Commander. ldr (+5pts)

Sir Thomas Langcliffe. Class 2 Commander. ldr (+5pts)

Sir Edmund Rathmell. Class 1, Dolt (+5pts)

Type	pts	Move	Shoot	Melee D6	Save	Notes
Mtd Knights	3	8/12”		2	4+	Save is 3+ in melee
Men-at-Arms	2	6”		1.5	3+	Save is 4+ if hit by X-bow or handgun
4x Bill	1	6”		1	4+
4x Archers	1	6”	9S/15L”	.5	5+	May shoot twice a turn. Hit, 5+ at short, 6 at long
Skirmishers Archers	1	8”	0-12”	.5	5+	Hit 5+ up to 12”.Only 1 shot per turn.
Gun + 3 crew	9	4”	0-30”	.5	5+	Crew x 2 when shooting, hit on a 6, all hits kill. Three or more 1's and gun blows up.
Total	174

So the dice decided that the Lancastrians would be led by Phil and myself with Ian and Howard being the Yorkists. 

The knights that never moved! 

 

Here is the table after deployment, Lancastrians on the left, Yorkists on the right. 

It has to be noted that right from start whenever Ian needed to throw a dice for deployment or whatever he continued to throw a six. The manoeuvre phase was fun with both sides mainly moving on the Lancastrian left until the Yorkist skirmish archers moved through the wood and shot at my skirmish handgunners. Taking just the one casualty we moved onto using the Leader cards. Howard tried to get around my flank on the left whilst Ian and Phil mainly stood back from each other. Ian fired his cannon at some of Phil's infantry causing a couple of casualties. In return I fired my cannon and BANG! I rolled three 1's resulting in my cannon exploding and being out of action. I ordered some of my infantry to turn towards the skirmishers in the woods and soon dispersed them with my archers and handgunners. 

I continued to advance my infantry towards the Yorksist's only for one unit to be badly wounded by their archers.  My poor dice throwing continued as they promptly failed their Morale Crisis test causing tests on my nearby units and with rolls of 1,1 and 2,1 two other units promptly fled too. This left our left flank in serious trouble whilst in the centre and on the right the two forces largely just faced each other with the Yorkist knights not wishing to move against the Lancastrian Light cavalry that were so well supported by archers and billmen. Even the Yorkist cannon was keeping fairly quiet. 

As a last gasp action and with very few army morale counters left I attached the Earl of Lawkland to my Men at Arms and charged into the enemy ranks, (making good use of a bonus action card). These guys fought incredibly well destroying two enemy units but the damned green dice of the Yorkists ensured that no other units failed their Morale Crisis test and fled the field. 

A lucky special event card helped the Yorkist's  by allowing them to bring on a unit of skirmishers  on the flank of Phil's cavalry. However, before they could really get into the battle my Men-at-Arms were finally defeated by bowfire causing us to lose our last Army Morale token. 

This was a great game despite my poor dice throws and fickle troops. We possibly made a few mistakes but a quick read through of the rules should put us right. 

The Yorkists advance...

The crossbow men arrive on our flank. 

Sadly the Knights and light cavalry were both being held back by their leaders so neither of them got into action before the Lancastrian forces crumbled. The Duke of Eldroth was able to take control of Craven Common but I am sure that we have not heard the last of the Earl of Lawkland!

  

 

15mm ACW Black Powder

 The guys at the Ingleton club kindly invited me along for their first game in well over a year. With John hosting,  Andy had set up a scenario based on the Battle of Antietam one in the Black Powder 2 rulebook, watered down to suit the clubs collection of 15mm ACW figures. I was given the role of JEB Stuart to hold the left flank and I also commanded Jackson who had to try and hold a cornfield. 

The table looked amazing as 6 enthusiastic players gathered around to see the might of the Union army drive back the smaller holding force of Confederates. 

The photo above shows my men defending the cornfield which we held until the end of turn 6 before being overran by Tom and Tony's advancing Union troops.  

I actually inflicted the first casualty of the game with my cannon, hitting Tony's advancing columns. This piece of fast moving horse artillery was to prove to be my 'Man of the Match' as it  managed to remain undamaged whilst inflicting a steady flow of casualties on the enemy. See the photo below...

The Union forces had 8 turns to push us Confederates back and by turn 7 they had pretty much done so all over the board.  Here is a photo of the right flank as Johnny slowly but inevitably pushed John's troops back to help the Union troops earn their victory.  

It was a great game and we Confederates almost held out for 8 turns but when we started to collapse the rot set in quickly. Thanks all for a great game.

More 6mm Pike and Shotte

 For this weeks battle we chose the Adwalton Moor scenario but tweaked it a little to balance the sides a little better. Phil took the role of Lord Fairfax in charge of the Parliamentarian forces whilst Ian and I shared out the Royalist troops. Ian enjoys the challenge of being in charge of cavalry so he opted to control our mounted Battalia, one on each flank whilst I took control of the centre. Having won the initiative Ian lucked out on his Command roll's and his left flank advanced rapidly whilst the right wing were a little more cautious. In my role as the Earl of Newcastle I also sent my cavalry forward through the centre.(see first Photo).  

Our rapid advance caused a few problems for Phil and in the photo below you can see Ian's 4 units of horse (on the right) take on Phil's 2 units a melee which Ian won destroying Phil's front unit.   

This early action put Phil on the back foot and although he lined the field with musketeers and Dragoons we were able to largely move around it. 

The last photo shows my centre battalia of foote also rapidly advancing now, effectively encircling Phil's forces on three sides. A few more rounds of shooting and melee all seemed to go largely our way and so Phil conceded the game. 

Once again we had great fun and seem to be getting the hang of the Pike and Shotte rules and so are getting through the turns a bit quicker. 

Next week however, we move back to medieval times for More 'Never Mind the Billhooks'. 

  

15mm More General D'Armee

 Today's game, hosted by Howard was another game of General D'Armee using his lovely collection of 15/18mm AB and Battle Honours figures with some of Phil's Old Glory Prussian's. We opted for a simple encounter scenario, loosely based on a battle detailed in the 1815 One Hundred Days pdf set of scenarios.

With the British (Howard) defending their base line, aided by Phil's Prussians, Ian and I as the French felt obliged to attack. Our aim was to break some of the elite British units and hopefully break through. The table looked splendid with the large units favoured by Howard as we all cooked in the strong sun - we were playing in Howard's garden. On our left flank my cavalry brigades charged forward forcing the Prussians into square but we made very little impact other than that. 

In the centre both Ian and I made a slow advance whilst we tried to soften up the Elite British units with artillery fire. Ian tried to advance more quickly on the left and did manage to see off the British Royal Horse Artillery but that also cost him a few skirmish bases. Phil and Howard held their line and were not tempted to move forward. By the end of the afternoon both sides had made small gains but not enough to gain victory so we called it a draw. 

We are still learning the rules so we perhaps staged too large a game. However, we all really like the rules and feel they reflect Napoleonic Warfare very well. We just need to re-read them a bit more now.  

Inspired by all this 15mm Napoleonic goodness I have started acquiring some figures of my own. Having browsed various manufacturers I went for some 15mm Essex Miniatures British as they are really nice figures, not too expensive and they also have a very full range. For starters I am going to base my collection on Kempt's 8th Brigade of Picton's 5th Infantry Division at Quatre Bras. So far I have cleaned up lots of figures and got them ready for painting but I have managed to paint a command base to represent Kempt himself plus an ADC.

The Battle of Wistanstow 1645

 Continuing our ECW run of games this week we ran the Battle of Wistanstow 1645, straight from the 'To Kill a King' supplement. Phil and Howard took control of the Royalist forces with Ian and myself controlling the Roundheads. The basic plot is that the Roundhead's have been sent to prevent the Royalists from being able to approach and possibly re-take Stokesay Castle, which in reality they did manage. Sadly Ian and I are not filled with the same steely resolve as our dreadful all round dice throwing proved. 

I got so caught up in the game I forgot to take more than two photo's. The first shows some of my troops occupying a small farmstead with my infantry line behind. The second photo shows Howards cavalry wing trying to get around my left side (which they finally did right at the end).  

On the whole, despite having inferior command levels, the Royalist command rolls were so much better than ours; apart from their centre which hardly moved at all! Even when they 'Blundered' twice, it seemed to work out to their advantage. Thus the Royalists were able to push us back on both flanks, Phil's Pike seeing off our cavalry on the right and then when Howard broke through with his cavalry on the left we called the game a Royalist win! 

Once again great fun and possibly more of the same next week with a battle closer to home, Adwalton Moor!