Edgehill part 2.

 The King is impatient and wants to keep momentum however his command roll is poor and with only 4 activation chits it will need carefully thought.

On  the  Royalist left flank Wilmott retires his regiment of horse in order to reform and rest.

In the centre the musket exchange was slightly in favour of Parliament with Cholmley’s regiment causing Dutton to retire. 

On the Royalist right flank the Prince of Wales regiment reforms and Ushers dragoons cause Ballards detached musketeers to retreat.

Brooke’s and his Purple coated regiment fires on Prince Maurice’s regiment and causes them to retreat.

Suddenly at 3.40 the Royalist army appeared to find new impetus, on the left flank Astons horse advances to support  Digby whilst Wilmott continues to fall back.

In the centre three Royalist regiments of foot charge,

Fenton charges Saye, Fielding charges Roberts and Pennyman charges Mandeville

Dutton reforms his regiment and Charles Gerard’s regiment advances and fires on Cholmley with no effect.

In the melee the Royalist foot do well, Mandeville is forced back by Pennyman.

Fielding and Roberts both inflict casualties although Roberts attached light gun is destroyed

Finton’s regiment is bounced by Saye and forced to retreat disordered.

On the Royalist right drama unfolds as Rupert leads his regiment in an attack on Holles foot regiment, with only half of their musketeers attached ( the others had been detached to support the cavalry and had fled) and failing to form stand of pike Rupert men hit home and inflicted 4 casualties causing Holles men to break and flee the field. In a break through move Rupert leads his men forward in an attempt to repeat the success on Lord Generals regiment, on this occasion both sides inflicted casualties and Rupert men were forced to retreat.

The regiment now had blown horses and would have to retire.

Brooke’s regiment fired on Prince Maurice and inflicted casualties.

As the time moved towards 4pm the Royalist cause appeared to be in the ascendancy although the first line of Royalist foot had taken many casualties and were becoming exposed.

4pm On the Royalist left flank Astons horse charges Saye’s foot to prevent him from attacking Fintons regiment which has suffered heavy casualties and is trying to reform. Aston doesn’t caus any casualties but forces Saye to retreat disordered 12”!  Aston follows through and hits Balfour but again fails to cause casualties and receives one in return causing him to retreat.

In the centre most of the first line Royalist regiments look to reform although Fielding charges Roberts although causing casualties Roberts regiment holds its ground causing Fielding to fall back, likewise Dutton charges Cholmley’s foot again no casualties are caused but Cholmley is forced to retreat.

On the Royalist right flank Rupert seeks to retire his cavalry to rest and reform. Ushers dragoons continue their private battle with Ballards detached musketeers and forces them to retreat from the battlefield.

In response Parliament seeks to hold its lines and apply pressure where it can, Wardlawe’s dragoons on Parlaimenta right causes the Roayalist dragoons to fall back and the reserve cavalry troops,( including Essex’s lifeguard) moves toward their left flank in an effort to prevent the Royalist horse threatening the infantry

The clock moves on and some lethargy seems to strike the Kings army.

On the Kings left Astons horse reforms but their dragoons are driven from the field by the intense fire from the Parliamentarian dragoons.

In the centre Duttons regiment fires on Whartons causing them to retreat but Dutton is now out of ammunition

Fielding falls back battered and Finton who also has heavy casualties fails to rally off a hit.

Fairfax’s regiment has advanced and fired on Digby’s horse causing them to retreat and Sayes regiment after reforming starts to advance back towards the centre.

At 4.20 the King only receives 4 activation chits on his left Wilmott continues to rally and Digbys horse comes under fire from the Parliamentarian dragoons who have redeployed in the enclosures and are posing a serials threat to the Royalist cavalry.

In the centre the out of ammo Dutton charges Cholmley’s regiment both inflict casualties on each other but Dutton is forced to retire disordered.

Pennyman fires at Mandeville to no effect and is now also out of ammunition.

Gerard and Brooke’s engage in melee and Gerard is forced back. The Parliamentarian artillery now makes its presence felt again firing on the battered Fielding causing the regiment to retreat further.

On the Royalist right flank Rupert can see he needs to buy time and apply pressure on the enemy he moves and joins the Prince of Wales regiment and charges what’s left of the Parliamentarian cavalry and inflicts one hit in reply the cavalry including the Cuirassiers inflict a casualty and causes the Royalists to retreat but more importantly Rupert is wounded. A quick check and he suffers a light wound and will be out of action for 30 minutes.

The loss of Rupert at a critical time will put a strain on the Royalist army as they need to try and rally off hits on their infantry.

4.30pm 

On the Royalist left Wilmott seeks to bring all his horse together and continue to reform and rest.

As he does so the Parliamentarian dragoons in the enclosures fires on Digbys horse causing them to retreat.

The King has ordered Salisburys regiment to clear the enclosures of those annoying dragoons!

In the centre Pennyman out of ammunition charges Mandeville in an attempt to stall the Parliamentarian foot, Mandeville takes two hits and breaks. Essex’s infantry regiment is on the slope  behind Mandeville. The regiment holds firm and is now facing Pennyman.

Dyves charges Brooke’s regiment in order to take pressure off the disordered Royalist foot, unfortunately Brooke’s repulses Dyve and inflicts two hits.

On the Royalist right flank Ramsey with the remaining 3 troops of Parliamentarian horse charges the just reformed Rupert horse and inflicts 3 hits taking one in return!

During Parliaments turn cracks start to appear in the Royalist forces, the artillery fires on Fielding and breaks the regiment!

Essex’s foot charges downhill into Pennyman and inflicts 4 hits driving them back, Brooke charges into the disordered Dyves and inflicts 3 hits and Cholmley charges into Dutton inflicting 2 hits and driving him back.

Certainly Parliament this round was in the ascendancy inflicting multiple casualties on a number of Royalist regiments bringing a number of them close to breaking.

4.40-5.00pm the King continues to struggle with activation chits. Salisbury’s regiment on the left flank fails to charge the dragoons but the battle takes a dramatic twist in the centre

Under fire from Saye and Balfour, Bolles regiment of foot breaks, Essex’s regiment of foot charges again into Pennyman inflicts 3 hits and breaks them,

Wharton and the Lord Generals regiment fires on Dyves regiment the casualties are sufficient to break the regiment and the artillery fires on Fintons regiment the artillery fire rips through the regiment and causes them to break. With four regiments breaking over two bounds it Brough the Royalist casualties beyond the break point!

The Royalist forces had 63 BP out of 63 and Parliamentarians 48 out of 56, so close . In the last few bounds the Parliamentarians managed to shield their regiments who had sustained high casualties whilst the Royalists had three or four consecutive bounds where they did not receive many activation chits with the result the King couldn’t pull back the forward regiments and replace them with fresh regiments.

The army break point was set at 40% of total points with a troop of horse being 1 and a regiment of foot being 6 or 7 etc.

Certainly a cracking game and very close. Points to consider for me and the rules, there is nothing in the rules re the effect of friendly units breaking, I cobbled together shaking 1 or 2 dice with a flag meaning the unit becomes disordered. Two flags disordered and retreats but I think this can be developed further for different quality troops.

Also I can’t decide if I should have a regiment break if it is forced to retreat too far one flag on the dice equates to 4” and a standard infantry move is 8” if three flags are rolled and none are cancelled through support or generals should they break? To be considered.

A few smaller games to tweak the rules a bit more I think! And maybe later in the year Marston Moor 🤣

More than happy with the rules though I don’t think I will be trying any others.

Hope it’s not been too long a report but recorded for posterity 🤣

Battle of Edgehill part 1

 So today we managed to get  8 bounds played which effectively takes us to around 3.30 game time.

Before I give a summary of the events so far I just thought I’d summarise some of the tweaks I’ve made to Tony’s rules.

Activation chits. I’ve made both commanders competent which means they will generate a d4+an average dice worth of chits each go. Because it’s a large game I’ve added that each cavalry commander generates one chit for their use ( Rupert generates 2)

Tony uses 1 hit per base  loss, for infantry I use 2 hits. In this battle it’s suggested the Parliamentarian regiments were larger but fought in a deeper formation so effectively had the same frontage. Royalist regiments of foot take 6 hits before being removed, Parliamentarian take 7. They lose a combat dice per 2 hits.

It’s also suggested the Royalist foot later in the battle suffered from shortage of powder and shot and that may be one reason they gave ground and the Parliamentarian foot gained the upper hand. To reflect this after the third round of fire Royalist foot shake a d10 - a 9 or 0 they’re out of ammo next bound it’s a 8,9,0  and the following bound 7,8,9,0. It stays at this level.

Troops that retreat are disordered and take a bound and a command to reform - lose a combat dice if they fire or melee disordered.

Cavalry can perform two charges and then horses are blown and can then take no offensive action. They can defend with-1 combat dice. They can recover by being stationary and unengaged in combat for 3 bounds!

So let battle commence.

Reports suggest that although Essex was waiting for reinforcements and therefore had no urgency to engage in combat it was his artillery that opened the battle, so to kick off the battle I allowed the two Parliamentarian heavy/medium guns to fire before the first bound, the gunners had obviously found their range and with their first shots targeted Belles foot regiment and destroyed their attached light gun and inflicted a hit!

So at 2.00 pm the battle started. Royalist gained 7 activation chits. Cavalry on both flanks advanced as did the dragoons on both flanks, the Royalist heavy guns opened fire on Mandevilles foot inflicting a hit.

The Parliamentarians only gained 5 activation chits but chose a wait and see approach, their artillery fired on Bolles again inflicting a further hit and the dismounted dragoons on their right advanced through the marshy ground in the hope of threatening the Royalist cavalry.

2.10pm Royalists threw well gaining 8 activation chits, the dragoons on the right dismount as do the dragoons on the left.The front line infantry regiments advance but the Royalist cavalry stood? The Royalist player was being cautious hoping to put pressure on the enemy dragoons and musketeers before unleashing them

The Royalist artillery fired but to no effect.

The Parliamentarian gained 7 activation chits

Their artillery again targeted poor Bolles foot regiment and scored a further 2 hits they were feeling pain for sure.

Their first line of Infantry also advanced towards the Royalist foot.

2.20pm Royalists gained 7 activation chits and still had 3 in their pool their dragoons on the right flank fired causing Ballards detached musketeers to retreat.

Prince of Wales cavalry start to enter the enclosures on the Royalist right which slows them down.

Rupert and Maurice’s horse advance to within charge range of the Parliamentarian horse as they do so 3 troops of Wallers horse in the Parlaimentarian lines advance, remove their sashes and declare for the King and join Maurice’s horse ( in real life it was one possibly two troops did this we threw a d3 and scored a 6!)

Bolles regiment of foot reeling from the artillery fire managed to rally off one hit.

On the Royalist left Wilmott’s front line of cavalry also advance to within charge range, the dragoons fail to cause any casualties on the enemy.

2.30 pm Royalists gain 8 activation chits and all he’ll let loose, Royalists dragoons Usher on the right fire and miss.  On this flank Rupert, Maurice and the turncoats charge.

On the left flank Wilmott likewise charges the three regiments of Parliamentarian horse.

Bolles seeks to rally off another hit but fails.

In terms of the melees on the left flank Caernarvon’s horse is held by Balfour but inflicts 4 hits and receives one.

Wilmott destroys Lord Generals horse and loses two troops horse of horse in pursuit, they make a breakthrough move and advances towards Fairfax.

Grandison only inflicts one hit on Fielding but causes him to retreat in disorder and he manages to halt right on the board edge, in a breakthrough move he attacks Fairfax’s foot and causes a hit and forces him to retreat.

On the right flank the 3 troops of turncoats attacked Ramsay’s horse inflicting 1 hit in the fight back Ramsay destroyed the turncoats.

Prince Maurice attacks Waller inflicting 2 hits and forcing him to retreat, in the follow up Maurice destroyed  Wallers troops. One troop of Maurice’s regiment was lost in pursuit.

Prince Rupert horse hit Goodwin and inflicted 4 hits and caused him to retreat, in the breakthrough move Ruperts men charged Holle’s regiment of foot inflicting one hit, in the fight back Holles men inflicted a hit on Ruperts horse.

Suddenly Essex saw both his flanks under severe threat and he needs to try and salvage something to apply pressure and buy some time to recover.

On the left flank Ramsay attacks the Kings lifeguard causing them to retreat and in the breakthrough move he attacks Byron’s cavalry in the Royalist second line inflicting 2 hits and receiving one. 

Brooke’s regiment of foot advances and fires on Maurice’s horse inflicting one hit and causing him to retreat disordered.

Goodwin rallies and reforms his troops on the base line.

Bedford advances with two troops of reserve horse from the hill towards Prince Maurice.

Holles remains nagged with Rupert .

On the right flank Fielding reforms his horse 

Fairfax fires a disordered volley to no effect and Balfour engages with Caernarvon inflicting a hit and causing him to retreat disordered 

2.40/2.50pm 

Suddenly the Royalists were struggling for activation with only 4 being allocated the King needed to to use his reserve pool to ensure pressure was maintained.

Rupert continues to attack Holles foot but with little effect he causes one hit but in retaliation Holles forces Ruperts horse to retreat in disorder.

The Prince of Wales regiment eventually has made its way through the enclosures and charges across the last one into the Parliamentarian horse it inflicts one hit but causes the enemy to retreat off the board, the regiment loses two troops in pursuit.

Byron continues his fight with Ramsay causing casualties and forcing a retreat he follows up but fails to rout Ramsay just causing a further retreat.

On the left flank Grandison  charges Fielding but gets the worst of it and is forced to retreat disordered. In the centre the Royalist front line Infantry have advanced and exchange fire with the Parliamentarian foot casualties are inflicted but nothing serious occurs.

In response during the parliamentarian turn Ballards detached muskets fire on Prince of Wales causing it to retreat disordered. Bedford joins Sandys regiment and charges Byron’s horse both sides exchanging hits

On the right flank Fielding charges the disordered Garndison causing him to retreat in the follow up both sides take hits.

In the Infantry exchanges in the centre casualties are caused and Duttons regiment of foot is forced to retreat disordered.

The 3pm turn saw action take place all along the field of battle, on the Royalist left only 3 troops of Parliamentarian horse remain, however all of Wilmott’s first line regiments were blown and Digby and Aston were some way behind. Again on the right flank there was very little left of the Parliamentarian horse although there are 4 troops of horse in reserve in the centre, Rupert doesn’t wish to launch another attack with his regiment as yet as this would mean horses would be blown and out of action.

In the centre the foot regiments continue to trade fire but some Royalists regiments are becoming concerned ammunition is running

Part two will follow over the weekend.

Battle of Edgehill praparation

 I like the ECW as a gaming period, relatively small armies, lots of small actions and whilst I did a demo game of Marston Moor in the early 80’s using early Mini Fig 15mm ( the ones on strips) and Peter Laing figures I have always wanted to refight Edgehill.

That early collection has long gone and whilst I made a faltering start using 20mm Newline design (very nice figures) I decided that in reality 15mm was far more practicable and the Peter Pig range full of character.

So over a period of time and utilising Lee Gramson painting service I have now collected enough figures to refight the battle.

So this coming Wednesday it’s my intention for Steve and I to fight. Today I decided to set up just to make sure all the pieces are present and correct.

The light was fading but here’s a few photos of the armies facing off, within the books I have there are some discrepancies re deployment etc. but I’ve made my best stab. The Parliamentarian Commander, The Earl of Essex, is in his coach this is in homage to Robert Morley who played the character in the film Cromwell many years ago and like May films of that era the battle is pretty inaccurate but certainly stirred the imagination of me as a young teenager.

The armies deployed, as Google seems to mix the photos up here’s a random selection of the armies, Parliament to left, Royalists on the right.

Royalist right flank with Rupert encouraging the boys

The Left wing cavalry of the Parliamentarian army

Royalist left wing with dragoons to the fore

The extreme right of the Parliamentarian centre.

King Charles and the heavy artillery looking over the centre of his lines.

Parliamentarian right flank, dragoons dismounted and ready to move through the marshy ground.

The Parliamentarian centre the Earl of Essex ensconced in his coach 😁

So I need to cut out a few more standards and issue them to units, then on Tuesday i need to get the paint pens out and get rid of any white edges around the standards.

For rules I’m using Tony Howard’s ( Prometheus in Aspic blog) Command and Colours ECW variant with suitable tweaks by JBM and yours truly. The system is designed for hexes but with some suitable rules in place around movement it’s easy enough to translate onto an open table. 

Really looking forward to this

Quick Bench update, a faux pax and Hereclea

 Thought I’d throw out a quick update on progress on various projects, I’ve never been one to sit and paint on just one project unless I’m really up against it for a show etc. So I usually have three or 4 things I’m painting at any one time, so depending on time, mood etc I can paint and make progress on something!

 

So currently I have some 15mm Thracians I’m painting for my BBDBA army, French. Chasseurs a Cheval for my ‘ epic’ Quatre Bras project. Some 6mm Carthaginians I found when sorting out and thought they may be good to try out Age of Hannibal rules and in the background some Triremes and Pentekonters.

I was really pleased at the end of last week to finish my 9th battalion of French line for my War in Italy project, that means I have some voltigeurs to do and then I can move onto 3 artlllery pieces and 16 cavalry before starting the Austrians. The figures were duly based, sand put on and inked and left to dry.

Today I thought I’d finish the bases but before doing so I kept thinking something looked wrong and indeed in a senile moment! I’ve put them on the wrong sized base, should be 40x40 these are 45x50 🤦🏼

So tomorrow have to soak them off and rebase. I Matt varnish once bases finished.

On Wednesday Steve came round for our regular gaming day, as we’d both been quite laid back about what to do I decided we’d do another scenario from the Great Battles of History series by GMT games. On this occasion I chose Heraclea a scenario the designers felt was the most balanced of all the scenarios they do.

The battle took place in 280 BC in Southern Italy involving Pyrrhus of Epirus and the Roman Consul P. Valerius Laevinus.

A short background - Pyrrhus had landed in Southern Italy but found that the much promised support from the Tarrentines and Greek colonists was significantly less than expected. However the Romans had likewise been caught off guard, one consul was in the North guarding agains a threatened Gallic invasion, an additional legion was policing the Samnites so Laevinus marched south into enemy territory faced with logistical problems of feeding his army Laevinus knew he had to bring Pyrrhus to battle quickly. Likewise Pyrrhus knew he needed a victory to bring more of the supposed allies to his banner and he was also aware of the supply issues facing the Romans. So Pyrrhus decided to take up a defensive posture set back from an inconsequential river near Hereclea. Lining the river with Light infantry and skirmishers Pyrrhus decided to let the Romans bring the fight to him.

The Romans obliged they had sent their right flank cavalry on a flank march and advanced along the line. The Roman velites gradually pushed the enemy back and the Roman flank march appeared and caused disarray amongst the Epirote skirmishers this allowed the main Roman lines to cross the river and attack.

The accounts seem to indicate that it was a hard fought affair along the line until Pyrrhus unleashed his 21 elephants. The Romans had never seen or encountered these beasts before and it tipped the balance with Romans losing the momentum and retreating, casualties on both sides were significant.

So an interesting battle to play. Key points in the game.

Seeing the elephant - where elephants initiate a combat the Roman player takes a quality check if it fails it takes casualties equal to the difference between its quality and the dice score!

The river penalises attacks ( melee and shooting ) from the river.

The Roman Triarii can’t move unless the enemy come within 3 hexes or all Romans are more than 6 hexes. Away. They can’t attack until the Romans have lost half or more of their break points.!

Taken from Pyrrhus’ side you can see Pyrrhus with his heavy cavalry on the left, the phalanxes in the centre and to their right Tarrentine MI and Heavy Infantry to their right light cavalry. The light infantry and skirmishers can be seen deployed along the river. The Romans are deployed in standard formation the cluster of counters top left are the Roman flanking force, they can come on two hexes either side of the river on any bound.

So as the Roman player my plan was to keep the flanking force off table until my main line was about to cross the river, Roman cavalry do not fair well against Heavy cavalry when attacking so they will not stand up to Pyrrhus and his cavalry. I would advance all the Roman infantry as quick as possible and cross the River, the main push would be on my left, the Roman cavalry have an advantage against Pyrrhus’ light cavalry on  his right and I hoped to push through between the Phalanx and heavy infantry.

The first couple of bounds all went according to plan, the Roman cavalry on the left threw themselves over the river and went to engage the LC and as the Roman infantry advanced I drifted some Hastatii to my left to extend the line and had Princeps advance to cover the gaps, interestingly Steve seemed overly worried about my left flank cavalry and he sent the heavy infantry over to his right to hem my cavalry in he also sent some elephants to the right, although not in command  and therefore can’t attack, my cavalry can’t move adjacent to them so again he was trying to shut me down.

So here you can see the Roman cavalry on the extreme left, ( we’ve both lost units) and his elephants and HI moving to close me off.His Tarrentine MI have advanced towards the river and there is now a gap opening between them and the Phalanx.

I got engrossed in the game and forgot to take a couple of photos but in summary my left flank cavalry were squeezed and eventually destroyed.All my commanders were focussed on the left and left centre and we pushed hard killing a number of Tarrentine MIforcing his skirmishers back I was able to launch and attack with Princeps on his end phalanx taking it in the flank, and extreme dice score saw it rout. On my right flank I had brought my cavalry on, they rode down a couple of light units but Pyrrhus hit them hard and destroyed more than 50% of the cavalry 

Steve had also advanced with a phalanx engaging some Hastatii in a sluggin match. Because my commanders were over on the left most of my infantry on the right were out of command meaning they couldn’t attack but for some reason Steve didn’t press this thus allowing me to move troops to my right  preventing Pyrrhus from coming round my flank!

About this time I could start to move my Triari within the rules they are restricted, being unable to move unless the enemy move within 3 hexes or there are no Roman units within 6. In addition they can’t attack until the Romans have lost 50% of their break point total. Again I split the formation the commander and half the units moving left the remainder moving right. Over the next two bounds Steve did start to move his heavy infantry back towards the left, they destroyed some Hastatii but were still some way off supporting his phalanx. He’d brought his skirmishers forward to provide some niggling fire on my troops who were forced to attack him and drive him away from the right flank of his Phalanx, The Princeps again launched an attack on the next phalanx in line and I managed to secure a second activation of their leader which saw another phalanx flanked and destroyed. I still couldn’t work out why Steve wasn’t pressing any attacks on hi left. 

At the end of turn 6 the Romans had lost 97 points from a break point of 185, the Epirotes had lost 93 points from a break point of 125 and Steve conceded, believing there was no way could he stop me from taking down at least one if not two phalanxes and that would be effectively game over.

A couple of photos of end game

The Roman right flank, what’s left of my cavalry have pulled back and joined up with the Princeps to refuse the flank, a column of Triarii move up in support. One phalanx has attacked with limited result and Pyrrhus with his heavy cavalry are just loitering.

There’s a different picture left centre, to the top left of the picture the Epirote heavy infantry with LC support are moving back towards the phalanxes but I have placed Hastatii to slow them down and the Triarii are moving up to engage to the top right the Roman break through can be clearly seen with another phalanx lined up to be attacked from the flank, a Roman victory at last and a change of history.

Next week May be a figure game!

Take care.

Vapnartak - my thoughts!

 In December Robbie Roddis on his The Indepenent Wargames Group blog gave his thoughts and views on the future of Wargames Shows and what makes a good one. So whilst driving back from Vapnartak at York and mulling over what I thought of the day his post came back to mind.

The York show is, I guess the opening of the Wargames season for us Northerners and as such has always been a well attended show. I’ve always attended to meet up with people have a look around and pick up a few bits and pieces. This year, to me at least, it all felt a bit flat. I really enjoyed catching up with people and I did pick up a few bits I’d preordered but my over riding feeling was it didn’t give me any buzz. Before posting a few photos let me explain why.

I do not intend to upset any one and I have been involved in organising shows and events before so I understand the effort and work that goes into it but my first thoughts were that the organisers have got complacent! Both the website and Facebook page had little in way of updates until around two weeks before the show when the list of traders went up followed a few days later by a list of games.

The trader list was just that a list of names, no description of what they sold, no hyperlinks just the bare minimum.I’ve been around a while and know a lot of traders but new names do appear it would be useful to have an idea of what they sold!.

We arrived at ten past ten and doors opened at 10 the queue was large but it took us just over 40 minutes to get in. Previous years the organisers had staff outside prior to opening selling tickets to the queue in order to facilitate entry. Not this year. Some of the traders I spoke to couldn’t understand why it took so long to get people in. 

Each year there feels to be fewer and fewer games and this year seemed to be no exception, there wee some nice looking games but not enough and not of the quality I guess you’d expect at a show of this size and status. 

There were no re enactment groups this year now it’s not my scene but love them or hate them they create a diversion and kids like to look and hold helmets etc.

As always up until 12.30ish the place was busy and quite crowded in parts really quite uncomfortable, a positive side was that the table top sale was back and they had moved it to an area on its own. Far better.

So by 1 I’d had enough and headed home. It really has become, to me at least just a trade event and the organisers I feel have just relied on its history and have put little effort into getting games etc there. I won’t be going next year which is a pity as I do like the catch up with people.

I’ve put photos of some of the games below, sorry if they’re not labelled it wasn’t always easy to find space to get the pics.

As to my purchases no pictures but I bought some Mediterranean walls from Last Valley, bases from Warbases, Rapid fire rules from Colin Rumford and some magnetic bases from Trevor and Paula.

( As a foot note to the above in response to a comment I made on a YouTube review and from another source I have been told there has been a major fall out within the York club with the result that many of the Historical Wargamers leaving! Also it was suggested that the only reason the show took place is because the Club has a contract with the racecourse for the show to take place for a number of years, that would seem to explain and account for my thoughts I guess. )

Battle of Magnesia and bench update

 I’ve really enjoyed returning to playing board games over the last year or so, it gives me the ability to play battles or campaigns that it’s unlikely I could ever do with figures. One such battle is the Battle of Magnesia, ( Seleucid v Roman) and is a battle I had started collecting 28mm figures for after having painted half the Seleucid army I realised the futility of it all as I would need a 16’ table to come close to playing it in 28mm so the figures went.

Having bought into GMT’s Great Battles Series their SPQR set does indeed have the Battle of Magnesia so over the last couple of Wednesdays Steve and I have been playing through the game.

I don’t intend to go through this one on a turn by turn basis it’s a big battle and although in real life the Romans won it’s a tough fight. The Seleucids have double depth phalanxes ( good going forward but penalised if attacked ), Cataphracts and quite a few elephants.

The Romans have a more flexible command structure, better quality infantry and a higher break point and that’s about it.

The picture below shows the initial deployment.

The Romans are at the bottom of the picture and as you can see their right flank hangs in air with the Seleucids extending way beyond .

Holding the flank are Pergamum Greeks and Legionary cavalry so my plan was to push hard in the centre and left and fight a delaying action on the right.

The plan didn’t last long Steve as expected advanced along the line bringing elephants to the fore and pushing hard with his left flank Cavalry an early attack with his heavy cavalry on my right didn’t go as well as he expected and enthused by the potential of a counter strike I engaged - big mistake, I had forgotten Roman Cavalry are penalised against other Heavy cavalry and my cavalry disappeared in a cloud of hooves and lances.

From that point on I had an uphill struggle I managed to refuse my right deploying Triarii and Greek infantry to prevent the Seleucid cavalry enveloping my line and I pushed hard to break through the centre of the Seleucid line, I managed to use the small number of elephants I had to put Antiochus and his Royal Guard under pressure and also destroy a number of Agryspiad units. I was also on the verge of destroying a couple of phalanxes when after 6 bounds I had reached my break point. The Seleucids were only half way to theirs. ( It didn’t help losing two Generals who contributed 20% of my points)

This shows end game

It clearly shows how the Seleucids have wrapped around my right flank and how the Roman infantry had almost split the Seleucid line. Lessons have been learnt and a refight will be had.

On the painting bench as always it’s been a mixed batch, I’ve almost finished the 28mm early French battalion, I cranked out some 15mm Thracians, and I’ve inked the 15mm Trireme I printed

In sorting out I found my 6mm Punic war armies and thought I’d have a little dabble with the Carthaginians

I’m pretty pleased with these and fancy trying them with Littlewars TV Age of Hannibal rules and or Strength and Honour which I really like the look of. Even possibly the second edition of Hail Ceaser ( who knows)

Also in the tidy up I was quite surprised to see how the ECW armies have grown 

Now filling 11 A4 boxes, the vast majority have been painted by Lee and I think it’s time I set up the Edgehill game ( still a few dragoons short 🤣)

York show this weekend which I’m looking forward to although looking at the web site there appears less games than previous years so I can’t see me staying long.

Take care.