Action from the Sudan

Over the last couple of weeks I have been trying to get my blogging mojo back into action and whilst working on the garden I was thinking that part of the reason for not posting regularly was the effort it was taking to put together posts. Editing pictures, creating the narrative and the final copy all take precious time, so forward going I am going to only focus my long posts on the games and projects that I believe are worthy of this effort.

However we do play every week in the shed and most weeks you will find me busy painting figures at some point and this blog does serve the purpose of a diary of events. Therefore to kick things off here are a few photos of a recent game we fought last Monday night. There is a very short summary, a taste of the action and of course the result.

This one off ficticious battle was set in the Sudan with the vast Mahdist hordes facing a large British and Allied force determined to put them to bed. Spread across a 16ft table over 1500 little men fought out this action. Black Powder rules were used.

The game was also notable for the inclusion of a new player, Matt. Hopefully he had a good game and numbers permitting might wish to return.

The British entered from the far table, not knowing the disposition of the enemy but they knew that they would be up against a lot of them.

The table was zoned with an Oasis /Ruins in the South, an old watch tower in the centre of the Mahdist entry point and a long wadi heading East West across the northern end of the table.

The British had already deployed their cavalry on both wings and were searching for the enemy.

Battle commenced immediately as the British and Mahdist cavalry came to blows but not before the British scouts had discovered the best part of a third of the Dervish force hiding in the Wadi. Most of the action was fought at this end of the table. 

The British being sensible chaps had somehow managed to deploy their less so competent Egyptian Allies to face this flank whilst their strongest forces held the centre and the flank facing the Oasis.

The Dervish had decided in advance that they would solely focus on one wing of the Invaders and would attack from the Wadi, the forces holding the Oasis would threaten but not advance thereby pinning the left wing of the British. 

The battle was fast and furious, the British cavalry were hastily chased away and a full frontal charge against the hapless Egyptians was launched. Fanatical charges are deadly and in the onslaught most of the Egyptians fled leaving the defence to the steady Brits.

Somehow Black Powder delivers in this period, the volley firing of the ranked infantry decimate the horde forces but there is always the chance they will get through and if they do they can be deadly.

As the game progressed the Fuzzies prepared themselves for a second storm on the British line. This time the defence was bolstered by troops drawn from the centre.

Once again the Martini Henry's played havoc with the local tribesmen's morale and the assault failed.

With the clock ticking was there one final opportunity before the game time could run out? The remnants of the Mahdist cavalry force were thrown out as a screen in front of the British line to allow fresh warriors to move up unhindered.....

But alas command rolls and the dreaded end of evening clock put paid to any final assault. A quick tally of casualties suggested that the game was a draw and considering the positioning of both forces a likely British marginal victory was on the cards.

Everytime we play these games they are nail biting affairs, the Colonials always look hopelessly outnumbered BUT their firepower, resilience and command all come to the fore.

Hope this is of interest

More soon....

Hail Caesar vs Never Mind the Billhooks

Good Afternoon All

A few weeks ago I was alerted to a new book being released by Warlord Games that featured the Wars of the Roses. Having invested in hundreds of 28mm figures for the period, spent countless hours researching the battles, and subsequently fighting all the major engagements of this very interesting civil war I was intrigued. Online reviews were in the main positive so I decided to purchase a copy.

A few days later the supplement arrived direct from Warlord Games in a nice secure box along with an exclusive resin figure. First impressions were that this was a mighty tome (some 144 pages long) and it looked great. The layouts were clear and concise, texts were well written and there are some glorious pictures from the Perry Brothers. I have said it before and will say it again they (the Perry's) must have made a fortune from this historic period. Thanks must be given to the author Rob Grayston for this book and in my opinion his name should grace the front cover

I won't elaborate too much on the contents but suffice to say there is the history, the characters of the era (along with some special rules), a vast number of scenarios covering all the major battles and a few what if's plus some interesting rules for campaigns. There is of course a section (albeit small) on the troop types of the period and some some era specific rules. It will be these that I dwell on and compare to the Billhooks ruleset.

Before I start I should state that Hail Caesar is our go to ruleset in the shed for fast play, multi-player ancient, dark age and medieval genres. That said my gaming group invested a significant time in the Billhooks venture launched by Andy Callan in collaboration with Wargames Illustrated. The Billhooks rules (scaled up with very few modifications) delivered some fantastic battles, a great narrative and were in the main extremely easy to pick up. Consensus across the group also said that they felt right, melees were brutal affairs, arrow storms could be both deadly and frustrating and the rules lend themselves to inclusion of events and scenario based ideas. It would fascinating to see if the same could be said for WOTR Warlord style. Who knows maybe we will refight the series again using this official handbook?

The best way to review any ruleset is to play it, however rather than take a battle that we had already fought I decided to take a scenario from the book that did not feature in our Billhooks campaign. I elected to use the battle of Losecoat Field. 

This action was set up as a one sided affair with Edward IV's standing army taking on a rebel faction. All the stats in the book suggested that Edward would have no trouble in pummeling the rebellion into a bloody pulp and be home in time for a roast boar supper. He had to be back in time for dinner because the scenario only gave him six turns to complete his task. What happened next will follow....

Hail Caesar is very much an igougo game with each side moving their troops (subject to successful commands, then firing and then melee. Reactions and breaktests are resolved as each action develops. This works well for big multiplayer games and differs significantly from Billhooks in which each unit is activated by a random card sequence with the jeopardy of not getting a turn (last card). Billhooks also benefits from the inclusion of events and bonus cards being drawn through this turn sequence. 

Billhooks is a much more chaotic adventure, initiative can fluctuate between sides and opportunities present themselves as results arise. Both rulesets movement rules are driven by Commander's attributes but whereas in Billhooks the units will move if issued orders, Hail Caesar is very dependent on successful command rolls. These command rolls can allow troops to swiftly traverse the field whereas in Billhooks movement can be much slower as you trade off moving with firing opportunities.

Perhaps one of the biggest changes to the core Hail Caesar ruleset with this WOTR supplement is the introduction of Arrow Storm for all longbow armed troops. Limited to three arrow volleys only the units now have a shooting factor of 6 (as opposed to three). This typically means a target unit shot at by two longbow armed units (not untypical when players concentrate fire) at standard range will achieve a 50% hit rate of 6 shots. (This improves if the unit is just longbows with the marksmen attribute)   Against any unit this can be devastating, and it is almost certain to cause a ranged break test in the process. Don't get me wrong this feels right and raises the importance of well armoured troops as screens for their lesser equipped colleagues. Billhooks on the other hand also adopts a bucketful of dice approach but with hits scored on only 5+ at standard range Longbow duels tend to be more attritional in nature.

The units themselves are worthy of discussion. In Billhooks there are three standard types of units Men at Arms, Bills and Bows. Each unit can be combined with another or operate independently. In Hail Caesar there are also three types of units - Bills, Bows and Household troops. The first two are self explanatory but the third is effectively either a mix of Bows and Bills or Bows and Men at Arms. There are no individual units of Men at Arms. These household troops also receive the arrow storm attribute, three volleys and if they are a mixed Men at Arms unit receive two additional attributes - steady and stubborn. The combination of these two make them hardier and more likely to weather an arrow storm.

Again I have no issues with these troop types but I do miss the excitement of a unit of fully clad tin cans marching into battle and dealing devastation wherever they tread. The melee scores in Hail Caesar do little to reflect this desire. The clash scores for both Men at Arms and Bills are the same.

I mentioned at the beginning we fought the scenario Losecoat field for our playtest. The picture below shows the very simple battlefield set up on a 12ft x 5ft deep table. Sadly the scenario book gives no guidance on table size or distances between opposing armies. We elected that each force would be 30 inches apart (just outside artillery range)

 

For the figures I just used 12 figure per unit an in the case of household troops they had six bow and six of the others. I have been thinking for sometime that I might rebase my WOTR figures on their individual stands (on 1p coins) are starting to show undue wear and tear and it is a real pain sorting these out after a big Billhooks battle. Much better to use casualty markers I think.

The forces took the field and we started playing. The Royalists had six turns to destroy the rebels. In our first game the dice gods favoured the rebellion as over half the Kings force failed to move at all in the first two turns and as such when they did trundle forward it was a piecemeal affair.

This is not a criticism of the WOTR supplement but rather the whole Hail Caesar, Black Powder et al stable - they do not lend themselves to limited turn games. The nature of this rules command rolls forces players to perhaps slow down advances unless they are storming ahead. Much better to adopt a time limit eg 2 hours to accomplish the task

As the Kings forces approached the rebels we tested the Arrow Storm effect -( aside from forgetting the crucial -1 range modifier) they were telling especially the forced break tests that come from sixes being rolled. Disorder rained down on the advancing troops.

With the rebels able to enjoy a 2 to 1 majority in archery fire they soon pinned down and weakened the Kings advance

Protected by hedgelines and arrow stakes they awaited the rush of the heavily armoured men at arms and bills. Again the rebels were up to the cause and their levy status only having a marginal affect on proceedings. Perhaps it would have been better if the they were lesser armoured or green troops.

The first game saw the Kings force run out of time and heavily bruised for very few Rebel casualties. Not such an easy game !!

Our second attempt saw a very different side to the battle.

The Kings forces moved forward steadily (thanks to successful roles) and because they could bring more bows into action than the rebels the battle was reversed.

We also learned that advancing with the Household/Men at Arms leading the attack was a much better proposition.

The second game accomplished the scenario goals for Edward IV and he was back home in time for his Roast boar dinner.

In summary

These adjustments to Hail Caesar play well but we all felt that Billhooks gave a better narrative, Billhooks is more chaotic and perhaps more fun. I also I think because we play a lot of Hail Caesar in other periods we were just in effect playing another Hail Caesar game using different figures. Billhooks has earned its right to be our number one choice for WOTR, however I am not done yet. The book really is a worthy investment, some serious effort has been put into its composition and contents and for that the author should be proud.

More soon

Battle of Evesham - a 28mm Wargame

 Afternoon all, and Happy New Year.

Last year the shed witnessed a refight of the Battle of Lewes and it was always our intention to fight the other major battle of the Barons War, this being the Battle of Evesham.

If you want to check out our retake of Lewes head HERE. This was great fun and was played out twice on Monday nights.

However, bringing the Battle of Evesham to the table top is a completely different beast. In a nutshell the Royalist forces, lead by the Prince of Wales Edward, enjoyed a a three to one superiority over their opponent Simon de Montfort (defacto Dictator of England after Lewes) and once Simon's Welsh mercenaries fled the scene he was in an even worse position. Hemmed in by geography Simon's forces were pummelled and destroyed. This doesn't sound like a great deal of fun from a wargaming perspective and certainly no fun for the real Simon de Montfort.

As part of the planning for this re-enactmentlead I have been doing some research on the events leading up to the battle at Evesham. Three things leaped forward as a means of making this a better game.

Firstly Simon de Montfort's son, also known as Simon, was marching to his father's aid and with a reasonably sized force was resting at Kenilworth when it was ambushed by Royalist forces lead by Edward. Three quarters of Simon the younger's forces were destroyed. What if Edward had not marched to defeat his foe at Kenilworth, and that these forces could link up with the other de Montfort force?

Secondly it was widely believed until new research was discovered that Edward split his army into three battles and that the third battle lead by Sir Roger Mortimer had marched south of Evesham in an attempt to cut off any escape for Simon's forces when he was attacked by the Prince of Wales. This new research suggests that the Price of Wales did not split his force but rather all three battles confronted Simon de Montfort north of Evesham.   What if Edward did indeed split his force and Mortimer will approach the battle from the south?

Finally the accounts suggest that a large portion of Simon de Montfort's army were Welsh mercenaries, secured when Simon signed over several castles in Wales to the Welsh prince Llywelyn ap Gruffudd. When Simon's army finally met Edward outside Evesham the Welsh clearly decided that this was not their fight and promptly fled the field. Simon was left with a massively outnumbered force and the rest is history. What if the Welsh did not flee? or least potentially rallied and stayed on the field?

Before I continue with my plan its useful to share a map of the battlefield to illustrate Simons predicament...(source British Battlefields website)

Please note this map illustrates the older view that Edward split his forces.

As you can see in this Map Evesham sits in the bend of the river Avon and this can only be crossed locally at a bridge in the south east and at Offenham in the East. and if you took the route to Offenham and travelled eastwards you would come eventually to Kenilworth !! 

So in our refight Simon's son will NOT be ambushed but will arrive at somepoint during the battle via the Offenham bridge, Edward has split his army and Mortimer will arrive from the South and the balance the forces more evenly the Welsh might not evaporate at the sign of Edwards army. I know this all stands a bit far fetched but will hopefully give a good battle !

We will be using Hail Caesar as our ruleset for this game.

Orders of Battle

Special Rules

1. All welsh units must take a break test at the start of the game - this does mean the units may rout from the battle before it starts

2. Simon the Youngers force should be split into cavalry and infantry. Mounted troops arrive each rebel turn on a 4+ With each turn adding +1 to die roll, Infantry forces arrive on 6+ with each unit adding +1 per turn thereafter. These troops enter the table at the bridge to the east of Evesham.

3. Mortimer's force enters the table on turn one - the forces would arrive in the same manner as above. The bridge to the south west of Evesham is their entry point

4. The village of Evesham for this game is considered out of bounds. The victors can pillage at the end of the game. 

5. Victory once one side is broken (50% or more units shaken or destroyed)

The Game

This is a perfect game for four players but sadly one of the group identified to play dropped out at the last minute. This lead to Vince controlling both Simons whilst Mark took on the role of Edward, Prince of Wales and I assumed the part of Sir Roger de Mortimer.

Simon seniors forces were deployed in advance and on player arrival we rolled to see how many of the Welsh would stand. Unfortunately a third of the force thought Wales was a much nicer place to be and subsequently disappeared from the table. This put the rebel cause at a distinct disadvantage from the outset

The full rebel force force the Welsh departed

Once the Welsh deserters had been dealt with Edwards forces arrived. Mark elected to flank his infantry with two wings of cavalry. These forces started moving up in a orderly fashion.

Realising his forces were severely outnumbered Simon determined that an orderly retreat was called for until his reinforcements arrived.

No sooner had Simon pulled back his rear was threatened by Mortimer's troops approaching from the south .

Fortunately his own reinforcements began to arrive......

The main bodies were still too far to either charge or influence each others decisions. Playing length wise on the table was affording us the opportunity of playing a medieval game with quite a bit of maneuver.

The thin lines of the Rebels awaited the Royal onslaught.

The Royalist forces pushed forward, their two powerful Infantry battles flanked my mounted troops

The already weakened Rebel force awaited the inevitable charge....

Mark being Mark (Prince of Wales) likes to keep his lines neat and tidy and in this game he did not disappoint.

By now Simon the youngers troops were onto the field and reinforcing his fathers rear. Mortimer's troops can be seen moving up in the distance.

Screened by cavalry Simon junior's Infantry were strung out in column across the field.

Mortimers was struggling on the hand to extricate himself from a log jam on the bridge (failed command rolls)

With his forces ready Mark commanded the charge !!

The Royalist horse crashed into De Montfords household knights. Both Simon and Edward threw themselves into the melee. With the benefit of added supports the Royalist house ran dow the Rebels. A cry went up De Montfort had been killed in action. Edward was wounded. This was brutal.

Technically the game should have been over with the death of the Rebel leader but with so much of the game to play Simon the younger assumed command.

The Rebels were in dire straits, they were trapped to the front and rear. 

The Royalists continued to advance, mopping up the remnants of Simon's cavalry

Mortimer's troops had now managed to push their way forward off the bridge and positioned themselves for an advance on the rear rebel guard. However a sizeable force of Rebels had broken away from the front and confronted Mortimer's troops crossing the river

Boxed in Mortimers chaps fought back against this new threat. Unfortunately for the Rebels they left their flanks and rear open. This brave assault ended badly for the Rebel forces

By now the Royalist Infantry were in position to secure victory

The two cumbersome battles crashed into the smaller rebel lines. 

A brutal Melee was erupting across the field and inevitably the stronger Royalist units were having a better time. 

With both sides experiencing heavy casualties both sides pulled back for a breath....

Mortimer's rear attack was now advancing into the rebel rear guard....with the clock ticking, Simon de Montford dead and no hope for his cause a victory was declared for Edward Prince of Wales

So a result that was very close to history. Simon de Montfort did indeed perish at Evesham along with his rebellion. Could he have won? The history books clearly show that as outnumbered as he was on the day he was never going to succeed, our battle suggested his chances were slim.

We all agreed that this was a different type of game to our usual Medieval brawls and had the merit of allowing significant movement. Strengthening Montfort force, whether it be allowing him to keep all of his welsh or providing him with more troops would deviate too far from the possible history what we were trying to create.

I do hope this is of interest and with the advent of more early medieval troops from Victrix and Wargames Atlantic I think it is time to think about increasing the forces I have available for other battles fought in this period? Bannockburn anybody?  

The Persian Army - The Long process has begun

 As mentioned in my last post I have been focussing for the past few months on my Persian Army. Afterall I need somebody to take on the Greeks and Macedonians. My plan is very much to create a generic Persian Army that can fight across the period so it will consist of a large number of foot , a good number of cavalry plus of course Elephants, Chariots and other goodies. With this in mind I have now completed the the core of the Persian Infantry.

I started this haul back in March of last year when I acquired 10 boxes of Wargames Atlantic Persians and about 6 packs of Victrix. These figures are easily interchangeable and if funds allow any further acquisitions of foot will be from Victrix. There figures are glorious and perhaps more flexible in poses however their limited head options are a pain with just the cloth 'helmet'. Wargames Atlantic offer a lot more variations including helmets, animal heads, bare heads and alternative cloth hats. I have clipped off all the heads from the remaining sprues so options are there for later on.

All told I have about 450 foot now painted and a further 100 Immortals are now awaiting basing. Further foot will be used for command stands.

First out of the blocks were 32 stands of Persian Bowmen  - these will be used as skirmishers with three/four bases per Hail Caesar unit/ All my light troops across the Pwersians, Greeks and Macedonians are based this way.

For the regular infantry I did agonize over the basing of these chaps as I need flexibility for both different rulesets and for the composition of different units. Given most of the foot are mixed spears and bows  I decided to mount the Spear carrying Spara (Big Shields) on their own bases with the archers on separate larger bases. It also helps that these are more often than not are classified as medium infantry so they are not as densely packed as my Greek Foot. 

The Persian force also has a number of medium spear infantry (again these are all Wargames Atlantic). To differentiate these they have been given the crescent shaped wicker shields.

Each units footprint is 15cm x 8cm - consistent across the armies I have assembled.

Hope this is of interest and up next in a weeks time will be the Immortals !!

Happy New Year