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| Yours truly, doing some experimental archeology... |
Afternoon, and welcome back to what will soon be regular blogging again. Two SB5 members recently had a 6mm ECW game which was on the Palladian Guard blog - read on to find out how it turned out!
Some of you may recall the
6mm American Civil War
rules I wrote - detailed rules for regimental-level combat, with a
focus on period battlefield tactics and drill. We used these to refight
every battle in which the 4th Texas fought. Well, I've now done the same for the British Civil Wars, using my
6mm Baccus figures.
Warre Without An Enemie is
a tactical game where you command a body of pike and shot, supported by
some cavalry and skirmishers. You need to get all the different types
of troops to work together effectively, in particular your musketeers
and pikemen. The rules revolve around morale and ground - casualties
are almost an afterthought. Your men will start to fragment long before
they all die.
To playtest the rules - which are very
similar to the ACW version, with suitable tweaks for things like pikes,
cavalry and matchlock muskets - I went to the sangar with Mike to
playtest the rules. It was a really fun game, and a Sunday afternoon
spent with bacon butties, coffee and general good humour reminded me
what good wargaming is all about.
As with all my
'battle reports', I won't try and report every dice roll - just some
annotated pictures which should give you a feel for how it all went.
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| A regiment of New Model pike and shot. These are slow units, but powerful in close combat. |
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| The
New Model force drawn up. A small body of commanded shot is on the
flank, closest to the camera. These aren't as vulnerable to cavalry as
you might think, particularly if they are in good cover like some woods. |
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| Some
rapacious Scots to oppose them! In this scenario, the Scots have more
cavalry, which is higher-quality, but their infantry are composed mostly
of levvies and are not that dependable. |
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| The
battlefield. To make it as realistic as possible, it's full of fields
which will impede movement and prevent cavalry from operating at full
effectiveness. |
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| I switched one of my P&S units to column to manoeuvre through some woods. |
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| The very formidable New Model Army! |
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| I
dispatch some Lancers to the flank to guard against a sneak attack, but
pretty quickly they start taking fire from the NMA guns, and I have to
bring them back over the river and take cover, allowing me to redress
the ranks. |
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| The
NMA having some trouble over here; their commander shot are becoming
disordered by trying to manoeuvre through woodlands. They'll need to
spend a turn redressing the ranks before they can fight at full
effectiveness. |
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| Methinks a push of pike is in the offing! |
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| A
vicious fight errupts for the village. The Scots get there first, but
the NMA troops are exhausted and unsupported after driving them out the
houses. They have no choice but to retreat - the various morale levels
give each unit a distance. If there are any enemies within this
distance at the start of the turn, they've got no choice but to back
off. |
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| I
unforgivably forgot to get any pictures of the pike push itself. But
thanks to being slightly less tired, and having their flanks secure, the
Scots perservere and drive the NMA off. This game rewards the careful
husbanding of reserves - after winning a pike push, these Scots are in
no shape to chase off the enemy. Thankfully, I have some nearby cavalry
who I can push up to finish the job. |
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| A nice cinematic shot of some Scottish lancers hiding behind some trees! |
To be fair to Mike, this was only a playtest and his
first game to boot, so it wasn't entirely fair. We tweaked the rules as
we went along as well, so the Scottish victory is certainly not the
result of better generalship on my side!
All went well,
I think. Mike actually lost comparitively few troops, and even fewer
were killed on my side. I was just lucky to keep winning initiative
rolls, and my cavalry were lucky enough to be in the right place at the
right time to drive the enemy off. An excellent game, and a fantastic
chance to show off my newly-painted 6mm stuff.
Hope you enjoyed this!
