15mm Royalist v Roundheads using the Epic English Civil War rules.

 We are in the happy position that between the three of us we now have more than enough 15mm English Civil War units to do some decent sized games (with plenty more units to come). Using the Warlord Epic Pike and Shotte rules we set up an encounter scenario based on one out of a magazine again. I had also devised some random event cards based on some ideas of my own and a few borrowed from other rule sets. Ian as commander of the Roundhead forces selected a card which made an opposing commander drunk with a minus on his Command level. Ian played it on Oliver Cromwell who was leading my cavalry. For us Nigel pulled a 'Bluff' card which we also placed with our cavalry in a weak attempt to 'bluff' Ian into thinking it was something more worrying...I am not sure it worked. 

Deployment, Parliament (Nigel and I) on the left, Ian's Royalists on the right. 

Oliver Cromwell getting drunk on a hill with his troopers. 

The Royalist cavalry facing their Parliamentarian foes engaged in a face off for the first 4 turns. 

Nigel soon got his foote troops lining the hedge and was getting the better of a firefight with the Royalists. 

Ian tried using 'column' to get his foote units quickly into position; sadly his poor command throws slowed him down. 

Ian's cavalry getting ready to charge.

Ian's infantry trying to move forward. 

The bottom three cavalry units are mine. Being drunk clearly inspired Oliver Cromwell  as my three units routed three of Ian's units and made the fourth unit withdraw 'shaken', (the unit with the yellow counter).  

With their cavalry wing destroyed and their infantry advance stalling before it had even begun, the Royalists conceded and a Parliamentarian victory was declared. This was another fun game and it seems like these rules are now our rules of choice for the ECW as they are fast and fun. 

 

Battle on the Ice Fields: 15mm Fantastic Battles.

 With Ian having acquired a new snow and ice themed battle/gaming mat it seemed a good idea to christian the mat with a game of Fantastic Battles using my Ice Elves in their natural element. We placed a few patches of grey felt on the snowy mat and deemed these to be ice fields. Any unit or company moving over an ice field had to throw a dice and on a '6' fell through the ice to their doom. If a unit or company opted to stay on the ice for more than one turn the chance of falling through increased by 1, so a unit staying on the ice for a second turn would fall through on a 5 or 6 and so on. I did wonder about making it easier for my Ice Elves to avoid this fate as the ice is their natural home but decided that for a one off game this would be unfair but perfect for a campaign.  

This game would also be a first battle for my new unit of Ice Wyrms (fantastic beasts, mounted, furious charge and poison). I only have two of these old DandD battlesystem Miniatures but hope to have a couple more soon. 

Other than the special rules for the ice we played a straightforward encounter battle, the theme being that Ian's Gnome and Nature army were now invading the Ice Elves homelands. The Ice Elves rush to put a force together to face the Invaders across the snow and ice of their homeland. It was 1,000 points a-side. 

Deployment, Forces of Nature on the left, Ice Elves on the right. 

The patches of felt are the ice fields which were ignored and moved around by both forces. 

I think I need to make a few ice themed pieces of scenery. 

The Ice Elves did not suffer too badly from 'Mishaps' apart from a few points of resolve lost. 

The Nature forces also got off lightly from 'Mishaps.'

In the front right of the photo Ian's giant snails with howdahs charge my elf archers to negate the effect of their missile fire. 

The giant snails win that melee. 

Elsewhere my tiger riders squish some witches who failed to evade far enough but my tiger riders are now in danger of being surrounded. Ian's wizard had summoned the giant snail right onto the tiger riders flank. The elf spearmen move up to help. 

There were some very close melee's going on. 

My mage at the rear had taken 'Haste' as his spell choice. This was an experiment for me which back fired as I failed to use it effectively. I need to think about this spell choice but it felt like points wasted. 

Ian's giant mushrooms with a defence of 6 and regeneration proved to be a very tough unit. 

As the various melee's continued quite a few of my characters were destroyed alongside the units they were fighting with. I thought that things looked bleak for my elves.

After a final and hectic round of melee on turn 5 both sides reached their breakpoint at the same time resulting in a closely fought draw. 

I always enjoy playing against Ian's Nature army as he always mixes up the traits and troop types to present me with a real challenge of who and how to fight them. This was another fun game and we both agreed that 'Fantastic Battles' always gives a great game. 

 

More 15mm ECW

 We had another 15mm ECW game using the Warlord Games Epic Pike and Shotte rules today.  I set up a more open table, using less scenery than last week to hopefully allow us to get more units into battle in our 650pts per side game. Once again, it was a straight forward encounter battle. A quick set of dice throws decided that Ian was on the northern edge as the Royalists and Nigel and I were the Parliamentarians facing him. Ian also had to start the deployment, his dice throwing was poor and this seemed to set the tone for him for the rest of the game. 

Royalist deploy on the left, Parliamentarians to the right. 

The Royalist deployment. 

The Parliamentarian deployment. 

Ian sent his dragoon's forward quickly, trying to get on our flank. 

Ian also advanced his central infantry Battalia, leaving one unit behind as that had been disordered by canon fire and could not advance. His other infantry failed the order so did not advance in support. 

The Parliamentarians who outnumbered the advancing Royalists shot one enemy unit to pieces, destroying it and placing the rest of the Royalist foot in trouble. 

Nigel sent the Royalist cavalry off on a flanker. The front unit are his newly painted Ironside's, bound to come to a bad end as all such units do.

Another Royalist Infantry unit is destroyed by intense Parliamentarian musketry 

(and Ian's very poor Break Test dice rolls).

Nigel's Ironside's, led by Cromwell himself charge Ian's Cuirassier's, Ian couldn't even score a hit  on the Ironside's who swept the Cuirassier's away. Cromwell's bonus rules in melee really helped here.

Nigel's cavalry sweep round to threaten the Royalist flank.

The Royalists are in serious trouble now and start to withdraw with their central infantry Battalia broken 

As the battle ends the remaining Royalists cower in the corner, one of the quickest games we have ever had. Ian's luck with the dice was dreadful and really affected the outcome of the game but we still had fun, these are a good, quick playing set of rules.