The Battle of Torrington using 'Never Mind the Matchlocks'.

 This week's test game of 'Never Mind the Matchlocks' was a scenario very loosely based on the ECW battle of Torrington. I changed/reduced the scenery to simplify the gaming table and adapted the forces used to suit our collection of 15mm figures and give a game of an appropriate size. With the forces fairly equal in number the Royalist infantry were behind a rough barricade with the Parliament Infantry lined up across the hedges facing the. Both sides were then allowed to feed in extra troops as their cards turned up in the first couple of turns. 

In previous games we had played our 15mm multi based units as 'counts as' smaller units to match the unit sizes indicated by Andy in the rules. Today, after discussing the idea with Andy, we played the number of figures you see are what you get to fight with. Overall it worked well. 

Royalists on the left, cowering bend their barricade (which looked like a stone wall!). We played that the barricade increased the defence of any troops behind it by one from Musketry but was no defence against cannon shotte. The Royalist were mainly trained or raw quality troops, the Parliamentarian troops lining the hedge were slightly better quality troops. None of this mattered as Nigel, in charge of the Royalists really battered Ian and I in the first few turns with his ace cannon fire. Our more numerous cannon were nowhere near as effective.

Ian in charge of the Royalist  cavalry went off on one, charging across our right flank. 

The main Parliamentarian infantry, cautiously lining the hedge, waiting for the right time to advance. 

Cotton wool indicates which units have fired.

Ian and his Royalist cavalry ride down the Parliament field gun which did not get to fire in response due to a 'special event' rain shower. 

Nigel formed his purple unit of Pike and Shotte into a hedgehog when threatened by the cavalry. This unit remained almost surrounded by enemy cavalry. Sadly for Ian, his cavalry Brigade commander was only level one so just could not get his forces to do much to counter both the enemy purple infantry and their cavalry. 

As we started to run out of time and we tried to speed through a last couple of moves I once again forgot to take any more photo's. With Nigel and the Royalists on the defensive, he seemed to be slowly forging ahead. However, the loss of one of his units triggered a whole chain re-action of Morale Crisis tests which he promptly failed suddenly giving the Royalists the advantage. A last desperate cavalry charge was won by Nigel and when we counted up the Morale tokens we were at 7 each so a hard fought draw was declared. 

This games tactics were very heavily built around the Royalists trying to hold their position and Parliament trying to push them back. We all felt that this, our third game went very smoothly with only the one question to ask Andy. We seem to know the rules well by now and really enjoy the games they are giving us. 

Finally, my first unit for my 28mm Army of Alexander the Great, some Victrix plastic Greek Light Cavalry. I painted and completed  these in between painting batches of pikemen-I need a lot of them.