The Battle of Ormskirk 1644 in 6mm.

 'Victory without Quarter' seem established as our ECW rules of choice but perhaps need a few tweaks to make them work to our satisfaction. This week we re-enacted the battle of Ormskirk from 1644. The Royalists need to win to maintain a presence in the North. Phil and Nigel commanded the Parliamentarian forces entering from the table edge when their cards were drawn through the outskirts of Ormskirk. That left me in charge of the Royalists. Most of my troops were deployed ready to meet the oncoming Parliamentarians whilst my other cavalry were due any time from turn 3 onwards. 

Random events can crop up quite regularly in VWQ and the first one this game saw this whole cavalry regiment switch sides from the Parliament to the Royalist. It was decided that they should make a run for the Royalist lines to receive fresh orders from their new commander, this seemed to take them most of the game. This single event seemed to swing the balance of the game in favour of the Royalists. 

Happily there are lots of random events to be diced for in VWQ so this one should not crop up again for a while. 

The Parliamentarian's light gun advanced rapidly and deployed facing the Royalist's dragoons. Meanwhile, another random event saw a unit of clubmen join the Royalist cause but they did not have time to get involved. The Royalists cavalry reserve arrived promptly and were soon in action. 

We had much more melee happen in this game than previously and Phil's Parliamentarian trotters soon got the better of my Raw Royalists. 

The centre of the battlefield was all action melee's and firefights but with the Parliament troops seeming to gain the upper hand.  

We also discovered in this battle that in VWQ cavalry charging foot caught in the open is not as easy a target as you may think. I lost two such clashes. 

Happily for me, the cavalry that switched sides arrived just in time to boost the Royalist cause and with few troops left on either side we called it a draw. 

All the melee in the game brought up a few problem areas.Cavalry charging just musket armed infantry were certainly not as effective as we thought they should be. Also divisions seem able to lose most of their units yet the few remaining can continue to fight? It seems like a few 'house' rules are called for but we do like the core rules for movement, firing and melee.

Finally, a quick look at two of my ongoing 15mm projects, my Napoleonics and my Hundred Years War English. I recently completed the 95th Rifles and also re-based my other two units so that they more easily fit both 'General De Armee' and General De Brigade' both of which seem likely to be played. 

15mm seems a very popular scale amongst our little group of gamesr just now. Phil already has a large collection of 15mm Medievals and both Ian and I are now painting up armies for this period. The figures below are from the PSC 'Siocast' range which are lovely little figures that paint up really well.  The flags are a mix of hand drawn and painted (the hobilars) and some that were freely available on-line. I printed them to 15mm scale and then painted over them to improve the look as my printer does not print very vivid colours.