Nantwich (1644)

Royalist right, looking towards the center of the board.

Last Saturday morning I hosted a remote game of  the battle of Nantwich using The Pikeman's Lament, with Gabe as the Royalists and myself as Parliament.  The Pikeman's Lament rules were heavily modded to allow for movement and range measurement on a grid and to eliminate activation rolls for movement and shooting.  They also used a morale check in place of a attack activation roll, and all shotte units could skirmish with a half move and -1 to shoot. 

Starting positions, with Royalists on left and Parliament to right.

The scenario was based on the battle of Nantwich in 1644, which was a victory for the great Parliament general Sir Thomas Fairfax.  I used a scenario I found in Miniature Wargames #75.  I built the little Acton church specifically for this game the day before. The scenario called for a lot of hedgerows, more than I possessed.  But as it so happened there were lavender clippings left out to dry in the basement, so those were conscripted to table use! I rather like the look!

Turn 2? Parliament reiters advance and are fired upon by Royalist artillery.  

I had to have a hard think about how to treat the hedges for the game. Under Pikeman's Lament they might be obstacles and cover, which would require units to move up to them and stop, and the continue moving past them the subsequent turn.  As cover they might increase Stamina by 1. They might also obstruct line of sight which would make shooting attacks worthless.  Instead I decided a hedge simply cost a double move to cross, and if they obstructed LOS it was simply -1 to hit.  They had no influence on melee other than it cost extra movement for the attacker to contact its target. 

Looking down the road towards Acton church from the Royalist right.

The written scenario called for half of the Parliament cavalry to be "Dutch style."  For Pikeman's Lament this would mean to use the Trotter profile (which I call Reiters), who can use the Caracole rule of riding close, firing pistols, and closing for melee if they disorder their opponent.  I think 1644 is a little late for Parliament armies to still be using this tactic, especially for an army with Sir Thomas Fairfax in it.  Fairfax was an excellent cavalry commander, and it was his cavalry combined with Cromwell's which made up the core of the New Model cavalry a year later. I have an unit profile for "Fairfax" or "Northern" horse which is simply a high-morale Galloper profile (no wild charge), but opted to follow the scenario and use Reiters instead (superior Parliament horse plus numerical superiority for Parliament infantry seemed a little unfair, too).

Infantry in the Parliament center advances on Acton church.

The game was played in about 2 hours, 15 minutes. On the Royalist left, Parliament Reiters advanced and were engaged by Royalist harquebusiers (a "generic" cavalry), with support from Royalist trained band infantry, and took the worse of it.  On the Royalist right, Royalist harquebusiers engaged Parliament harquebusiers, and although the Parliament horse was dispatched, the Royalists were beat up enough to not take further action in the game.

View from Parliament right, looking towards the advance on Acton church.

In the center, the Parliament infantry trundled along up to the hedgerows lining the road to Nantwich, where they began to pepper the Royalists in the churchyard with musket fire.

View from Royalist left, earlier in the game, when Royalist harqueusiers had not attacked yet. Unit labels are actually from the previous Aylesbury ECW game. 

Parliament Trained Band pikes attacking by the Acton churchyard.

As the Parliament player, things were getting dire for me: my cavalry had been routed, and although the Royalist cavalry had taken casualties they were still on board, disadvantaging me on victory points. My best shot was to press forward in the center and get a bunch of units across the road, which could gain me victory points to force a tie.  The Parliament trained band pikes did well, besting the Royalist seasoned pike.

On Parliament left, Royalist cavalry finishes off last of Parliament reiters.

Parliament pressing forward in the center across the Nantwich road.

Parliament shot and pike crossed hedge at the road. They were not met with a fierce volley as some decent shooting by Parliament the turn before had disordered the demiculverin in the churchyard. The Parliament shotte were then able to loose some volleys without the -1 for shooting through obstructing hedges (5+ to hit!) and starting piling up casualties on Royalist shot units.

The Parliament assault on Acton!

Here you can see the Parliament infantry having crossed the road hedgerow, and the pikes pressing into the open field beyond.

As is often the case, however, the furious comeback late the in game came up short.  We were playing until nine units had been removed from the table (about 40% of the starting units, not including artillery), and then would count up victory points.  When the 9th unit was removed, only a Parliament pike unit stood on the Royalist side of the road, and a single Royalist cavalry unit was on the Parliament side.  This meant that no victory points were assigned for having more units on the opposing players side of table, and that the Royalists' receiving 2 victory points for loosing fewer units was enough to win the game 2-0.

End game, with Parliament forces that could have forced the tie, and possibly even the win if they had taken the gun in the churchyard, stalled on the road.

It's only now, looking at the pictures, that I realize how close Parliament was to actually winning the game - if one or two additional Parliament units had crossed the road, and if Parliament could have seized the Royalist gun in the churchyard for 1 VP, they could have won 3-2.  But I think I was too conservative with my reiters early on, and took too long trying to soften up the Royalist center with shooting (at 6 to hit), with little effect, when sending the infantry over the hedge a turn or three earlier would have made their superior numbers more effective. 

This remote game went faster than the previous Dornach 1499 game, almost certainly because there were no morale rerolls.  This was tempered by the hedges dampening the effectiveness of musketfire which extended pay a bit.  I think if the game had been relatively open terrain, it would have been closer to my two hour goal.  Again, it was great to push my 28mm armies around with another player.

Dornach (1499)

Based on the success of previous remote games using a Lion Rampant-type game with no activation rolls and with movement/distances changed over to a grid, I figured it was time to try out larger 28mm using the same format.  My 54mm medieval game on a grid only took about 80 minutes to play, with more than 10 units per side, so a Dornach scenario with 10 units of Swiss (plus 3 light guns) against a 12-unit Swabian League army (plus 2 heavy guns) seems like a reasonable 2 hour task.

Starting Imperial positions. Pikes in the middle, with men at arms and crossbows and some handgunners at the wings. Heavy guns are granted a single two-square "deployment move" before the game starts, which they used to deploy in front of some zweihander infantry.

The scenario from Sides' book had an unremarkable, terrainless table, but the woodcut had hills, trees, a river, and a castle in the background, so I used that as inspriration to spruce things up.  I played the Swiss and Jamie remotely controlled the Swabian League.

Looking towards the Swiss positions, who have a sort of van/middle/rear medieval deployment going on. The Swiss are mainly pikes with some crossbows and halberds.

The effects of no activations rolls was felt immediately and was visually striking as well, with both players moving their armies forward according to their own strategies. With activation rolls these early phases would have seen one or both sides become strung out or scattered.

After first League move. With no movement activation rolls required, they are able to move forward in a strategic way.

Swiss advance in a nice line.

Swiss center surges forward.

The Swiss had a custom-rule called "Terrible" which is the "Venomous" rule from Dragon Rampant, with any "6" rolled on a Attack roll counting as two hits instead of 1. With 6 out of 10 Swiss units being these pike "murder blocks," I felt that my best and strongest move was to simply plunge a bunch of pikes right into the core of the League's line, being their Landsknecht pikes.  

League landsknechts brace for the attack.

Although activation rolls for moving and shooting were removed, a still unit had to pass a Morale test to charge an enemy.  At some point in running these large Renaissance games for convention-style play, I had added a rule called "Tough."  Tough allows the subject unit, if it fails a Morale test, to reroll one or both of the dice (so if you rolled a 5 and 1, you can keep the 5).  The idea was that this rule would keep elite units on the table and not have them rout because of a fluke dice roll.

Swiss attack draws closer.

However, in this game, where all the Swiss pikes, Landsknecht pikes, and Swabian men at arms had the "Tough" rule, it meant that the majority of units were constantly rerolling Morale tests and passing. This caused the game, planned to last an hour or two, to stretch out to three hours over two sessions (we were playing late in the evenings with a 9:00 p.m. start time).

After the first clash. 

So the Swiss pikes attacked in the center and not only rolled well, but rolled exceptionally well, amplified by their Terrible nature, while the Landsknechts rolled exceptionally poorly.  The Swabian line was pushed back.  On the Swabian left, men at arms, zweihanders, and crossbows hamstringed a unit of halberds but the men at arms ended up masking the concentration of crossbows.  On the League right, Swiss and League crossbows exchanged long range fire but generally kept their distance.  A Swiss commander was slain in battle.

Swiss left flank.

Action in the center.

Swiss pikes on the attack. 

Swabian counter-attack underway.

The League then countered by allowing the crossbow/aquebuses and artillery on the flanks to fire into the flanks of the Swiss attack.  Again, the "Tough" rule caused Swiss pike units to pile up casualty markers but to still pass Morale checks, causing them not retreat or rout. Additionally, because of the "Terrible" rule, the Swiss were consistently scoring an extra casualty in each melee than their opponents, so it was roughly costing 1.5 to 2 landsknechts to kill every Swiss pikeman.

You an see the Swiss pike practically surrounded in the center-left of the above, being fired on at close range by heavy artillery.

By this point 8 units had been removed from play.  When 11 units (half the starting 22 not including artillery) were removed, the game would stop and victory points would be tallied.  The Swiss decided to launch another around of aggressive attacks, and started by peppering a weakened zweihander unit with light artillery fire, and subsequently routing it. 

The remainder of the game was a tense grind to the finish. The Swiss were the clear leaders in victory points, seeing as they had pushed into the Swabian half of the board and had lost few units.  The last few units to get us to 11 were caused by failed Rally rolls.

Close to endgame.

This was the first table outing for 3 units of Swiss pikemen (decked out in the red pajamas) by Essex miniatures that I painted early on in quarantine.  I got these (and many more) at the last Enfilade convention.  They came with halberds, but I made pikes for them instead.  This boosts my total pike units available to 14, which can make the dominance of pikes in this era easier on the tabletop because you can just make over half the units be pikes.  This may make some of the many rules I've tacked onto pike units to try and make them more dominant less important.

So, for future reference: the Tough rule should be stricken entirely. I'm not even really sure what the impetus for creating it in the first place was. Possibly to make Landsknecht exception in comparison to "regular" pike?  It would probably be good to be rid of the "Terrible" rule as well, as 6s-as-two-hits can yield some devastating results.  The better morale of Swiss Pikes will give them an edge in continuing to attack later in the game, but I would like for them to have an offensive "boost" over other troops. 

It has been great reconnecting with other wargamers whom I have not seen in many months. I have an English Civil War remote game (Nantwich in 1644) scheduled for tomorrow morning, in fact!

Unit stat blocks and grid rules below.

SWISS ARMY

SWISS PIKES
Att To Hit 4+ (5+) / Def to Hit 3+ (4+)
Move Rate: 2 squares
Morale: 3+ / Stamina: 3
Special Rules: Pike Block (use first To Hits unless in rough terrain or until unit suffers 50% casualties; always use 4+ Defense To Hit vs other pike units) Veteran (Defense value is 3+ instead of 4+); Tough; Terrible

SWISS HALBERDS
Att To Hit 4+ / Def to Hit 5+
Move Rate: 2 squares
Morale: 3+ / Stamina: 3
Special Rules: Fleet-footed; Counter-charge (vs. infantry only); Tough; Double-Pay (pikes defend at 4+ not 3+)

CROSSBOWS
Att To Hit 6+ / Def to Hit 5+
Move Rate: 2 squares
Shoot Rng: 3 / Shoot To Hit 5+
Morale: 3+ / Stamina: 3
Special Rules: Skirmish (move half and -1 to hit);-1 to hit if target more than 2 squares

LIGHT ARTILLERY
Att To Hit -- / Def to Hit 6+
Move Rate: 2 squares
Shoot Rng / Shoot To Hit:

Short Rng (0”-6”): 12 dice @ 5+

Med. Rng (6”-12”): 8 dice @ 5+

Long Rng: (12”-24”): 8 dice @ 6+

Morale: 5+ / Stamina: 1
Special Rules: May offer closing fire with successful Morale check. May share a square with another friendly unit.

SWABIAN LEAGUE ARMY

MEN AT ARMS
Att To Hit 4+ / Def to Hit 5+
Move Rate: 4 squares
Morale: 3+ / Stamina: 4
Special Rules: Tough. Counter-charge on successful Morale check..

LANDSKNECHT PIKES
Att To Hit 4+ (5+) / Def to Hit 3+ (4+)
Move Rate: 2 squares
Morale: 4+ / Stamina: 3
Special Rules: Pike Block (use first To Hits unless in rough terrain or until unit suffers 50% casualties; always use 4+ Defense To Hit vs other pike units); Tough; Bad War

LANDSKNECHT ZWEIHANDERS
Att To Hit 4+ / Def to Hit 5+
Move Rate: 2 squares
Morale: 3+ / Stamina: 3
Special Rules: Fleet-footed; Counter-charge (vs. infantry only); Tough; Double-Pay (pikes defend at 4+ not 3+); Bad War

CROSSBOWS
Att To Hit 6+ / Def to Hit 5+
Move Rate: 2 squares
Shoot Rng: 3 / Shoot To Hit 5+
Morale: 4+ / Stamina: 2
Special Rules: Skirmish (move half and -1 to hit);-1 to hit if target more than 2 squares

ARQUEBUSIERS
Att To Hit 6+ / Def to Hit 5+
Move Rate: 2 squares
Shoot Rng: / Shoot To Hit:
Close Rng (1 square): 12 dice @ 4+;
Long Rng (2 sqaures): 8 dice at 6+
Morale: 4+ / Stamina: 2
Special Rules: Skirmish (move half and -1 to hit); May offer closing fire with successful Morale check.

CULVERIN
Att To Hit -- / Def to Hit 6+
Move Rate: 0
Shoot Rng / Shoot To Hit:

Short Rng (1-2 squares): 12 dice @ 4+.

Med. Rng (3-4 squares): 9 dice @ 5+ (4 dice if ½ strength)

Long Rng (5+ squares): 6 dice @ 5+

Morale: 5+ / Stamina: 1
Special Rules: May offer closing fire with successful Morale check. May share a square with another friendly unit. Cannot move during game, but receives one move of 2 squares before first players regular turn.

SPECIAL RULES:

TERRIBLE: Anytime this unit uses its Attack dice in a melee, all results of 6 will count as two hits.
TOUGH: When this unit fails a Morale test, the player must reroll one or both of the dice. The new results stands, even if it is of worse result than the initial roll.
BAD WAR: When this landsknecht fights another landsknecht unit in melee, reroll all missed to-hit rolls once.
FLEET FLOOTED: Ignore terrain movement penalties.
PIKE BLOCK: A unit of 6 or more models which is not in rough terrain or Wavering with this rule has both Attack and Move at 6+ and the unit Attacks and Defends with +1 to their dice scores. Pike Block units do not receive the +1 to Defense Value if attacked by another pike unit. If an Attack ends with both units still in contact, the enemy must retreat (unless the enemy is also has Pike Block). If a unit with Pike Block enters rough going, no longer contains at least 6 models or is Wavering, it does not receive the Pike Block bonuses.
COUNTER-CHARGE: When enemy unit has successfully diced to attack this unit, but before it moves, this unit may test for a counter-charge at 7+. If successful, both units meet halfway between their start positions and both count at Attacking. If test fails, stand in place for enemy charge. May not be used if Wavering.
SKIRMISH: As an Ordered activation (leader reroll may apply), successful on a 7+, the unit may choose to make a full move and execute a ranged attack either before or after this movement takes place.
DOUBLE-PAY MEN: When attacking an enemy unit with the Pike Block rule, the target enemy unit will defend on a 4+ and not a 3+.

RULES FOR GRIDS:
A. MOVEMENT

1. Diagonal moves are not allowed.
2. Mounted Men At Arms move 4 squares
3. Infantry moves 2 squares
4. Light artillery moves 2 squares
5. Culverins and other heavy artillery cannot move at all, but receive one free move of two squares into a “forward position” at the beginning of the game.
6. Artillery units may share a square with another friendly unit, including another artillery unit. Dice for shooting and melee attacks by a single units against two units sharing a square must allocate 2 of 12 (or 1 of 6 if halfstrength) dice towards the non-artillery target. If both units in the square are artillery pieces, divide the dice evenly.

B. RANGES

1. Crossbows: 3 squares
2. Arquebusiers: Short 1 square, Long 2 squares
3. Light Artillery: short range 1-2 squares, medium 3 squares, long 4-5 squares
4. Culverins: short 1-2 squares, medium 3-4 squares, long 5+ squares
5. Line of sight is calculated from center of originating square to center of target square (use a stick). If the line passes over a square that contains another unit, or obstructing terrain such a a building or woods, then there is no LOS. If the line touches the corner but does not cross the square, there is LOS (this is possible at direct 45 degree angles).

C. SKIRMISH ORDERS

1. All units armed with ranged weapons, and light artillery, may make a half move and shoot at -1 to hit. This can be move/shoot or shoot/move.

D. ORDERED ACTIVATIONS/REACTIONS.

1. Move, Shoot, Skirmish actions are considered automatic, and no activation roll is required.
2. If attacking an enemy unit, the attacker must pass a Courage test. Usual modifiers apply.
3. A Countercharge and Closing Fire action requires a Courage test.

E. COMBAT

1. An attacking unit can attack an enemy unit in an adjacent (but not diagonal) square. IF the defending unit is in a building, or woods, or behind an obstacle, and loses the melee, the attacking unit will “carry the position” and move into the square vacated by the enemy.

VICTORY OR DEFEAT:
Scenario is played until half the total units on the table have been removed. Then award points as follows:

• +2 to the side that has had less units removed from the table.
• +2 to the side that has more units on the opposite half of the table than it started on.
• +1 to the side that has lost fewer command stands
• +1 for every duel won
• +1 for every captured artillery piece (see separate note below)

Quatra Bras with Asquith's Big Wars

For quite some time I have loosely chatted about flying down to the bay area for a day to play a game using shiny toy soldiers with Nick (who posts occasionally at PMCD Mobilisatie).  More recently this turned to having a remote game via Zoom, and Nick was kind enough to set up and host a game on Sunday morning.  At his suggestion we used Stuart Asquith's Big Wars, which I had never played before, and a scenario based on Quatra Bras from One Hour Wargames (hilariously, the scenario took a little over 3 hours to play).  I have never played Big Wars, and I will say that it does an excellent job of sticking to a lot of the nuance of HG Wells' Little Wars, although they are not terribly well organized, with somewhat key rules tucked away at the end of sections where you would not expect to find them (infantry in line can offer closing fire is noted at the very end of the melee section rather than the beginning, for example). Additionally, after the end of the game, I noticed a sentence that for small arms fire you are supposed to lay down casualties and then count them in counterfire (as in Charles Grant's The War Game) which might have change the game quite a bit in feel and outcome (although I don't particularly like that mechanic). 

I played blue (the French) and Nick red (the British).  My entire army came on board right away,  Red had 3 units on table at the start with more arriving on turns 3 and 9. Blue has to cross the entirety of the board and tag a crossroads. 

Army Blue coming on board, with Zouaves leading advances on the farm and the woods. A great collection by Nick!

I thought I played well at first, clearing out the farm and the woods with lots of artillery and small arms fire from my numerically superior forces, while taking few casualties myself. My heavy cavalry cleared the woods of the enemy light infantry.  But despite many, many attempts, I could not knock the Red horse artillery guarding the road down a notch, and it shaved off a figure here and a figure there for the whole game. 

Having cleared the woods and the house, I put my infantry in columns and sent them up the sides of the board while my artillery dueled poorly against the Red horse artillery in the middle.  At turn 9, Red got its final reinforcements, but my flank-marching troops were still 18-24" from the cross roads, which left them with little choice but to advance right up into close range fire. There was a little bit of one-for-one unit losses, but in the end Blue ran out of units.  Pics are mostly Nick's, except for a few screenshots I took that turned out okay.

This farm is a French card toy kit.

That pesky horse artillery!

Poor quality screenshot. Nick is measuring range.

Another screenshot.  Nick had two cameras which was very nice.

Blue heavy cavalry attacks the foot artillery but only drew a tie.

Nick moves my line infantry into attack.

This the end game.  Nick's cavalry (center) has just routed the Imperial Guard (lower left, in the California sunshine).  The Red guard infantry at upper center has just routed Blue line infantry.

Trimsos River

This game was played via Google Meets, and was my first remote game. Since I've already been playing with larger figures on a grid, it was pretty easy to shift to remote gaming (I added letters and numbers to the grid so orders and questions could be more easily understood).  The set up (the map and the number of units) was based on the Trimsos river game from Donald Featherstone's War Games, and the rules were my Charge! variant (with important updates of (a) no diagonal fire or movement, (b) cavalry can move 5 square, and (c) the two retreat moves for a unit at or under half strength are on that unit's turn only.

Starting setup.

There were 58 figures per side so the game would stop when one side had lost 29 figures.  The Empire (red) (me) won the toss and moved first. Would the Allied (blue/green/grey) (Pete) continue its string of victories?

After the first turn. Action is already looking to focus on the stone bridge on the left, where the West Surreys and Irish Guard are readying to cross. 

Allied artillery. This particular piece was quite reliable and critical in the game.

On the other side of the table, neither side ever seriously contested the old wooden bridge, probably because of lack of cover and exposure to long range artillery field. The Imperials most kept to the heights of River Ridge or behind it. 

At the top you can see the Scots Guards motioning towards the old wooden bridge. After taking one casualty from long range Allied fire they pulled back.

Allied Turkish infantry fords the Trimsos.

The Imperial West Surreys crossed the stone bridge and were able to take up positions behind the walls of an old ruined enclosure, with the Irish Guard following up from behind.  Fierce rifle fire was exchanged between these units and the allied Cheshire Riles and 2nd Bulgarian Infantry, with the Imperial units faring poorly. 

Firefight between Imperial and Allied infantry, Cheshire Volunteers in the foreground.

The Allies having softened up the West Surreys with additional support from from the Royal Marines and the artillery, the Allied charged the Surreys with the 13th Lancers (Bombay), and successfully destroyed the Surrey's entirely.

The situation after destruction of the West Surreys by the 13th Lancers.

As above three photos clearly show, the situation is not ideal for the Empire - the Irish Guards stand quite alone against over half of the Allied forces at the stone bridge.

Meanwhile, the other half of the Imperial army has waited perhaps too long at the western edge of River Ridge to provide meaningful assistance to the right flank... 

On the following turn, Imperial artillery were able to route the 17th, and the Irish Guards came across the Trimsos at full strength and fired a mighty volley at the 2nd Bulgarian - and caused no effect! On the Allies turn the Guards were then subjected to a deadly cross fire from three Allied units!

The Irish Guards under a withering triple crossfire!

Trying to save a poor situation - the Imperial Life Guards have moved to the right flank.  The 6th Dragoons threaten from the stone bridge. 

The Irish Guards were able to get into position behind the ruined enclosure, and the Scots Guards and  from the opposite flank began to shift into range.  The Imperial cavalry tried to keep out of rifle range in hopes of drawing Allied infantry closer...

Imperial cavalry trying to position for a counterattack. The Irish Guards deliver more ineffective volleys from the ruined enclosure.

On the following turn, however, the Royal Marines dealt the Irish Guards the last casualty to put them at understrength and they began to fall back.  One of the Imperial guns also falls back. The Imperial army is close to the breaking point...

Irish Guards begin to fall back. The Allies are now presenting an impressive firing line dominating the stone bridge.

The Allies have dispatched the Governor General's Horse Guard (upper right center) from its right flank to support the attack on the stone bridge.

There were a few more turns as the Empire tried to set up long range fire to soften up Allied infantry for a mass cavalry attack, but the Allied Governor General's Horse Guards were able to sweep across thr bridge and finish off the disordered Irish Guards and end the game.

Situation just prior to end game. The allied cavalry at lower right will cross the bridge and destroy the remnants of the Irish Guards at upper left.  

Despite the lopsided thumping my Imperial army took (the Allies only suffered 9 or 10 casualties to my 29 - whoof!), this really was the best out thus far for my Charge! variant.  Dropping diagonal movement and measuring simplifies things and the retreating mechanics felt better. Cavalry moving 5 instead of 4 makes them very effective for finishing off units which have been softened up a bit.  Concentrating fire from several units and/or guns on a single enemy is the most effective strategy by far, which both feels right and lends itself to replicating a mid-to-late 19th century battle in terms of how the players move and deploy their units.

The remote game went very smoothly although it may have been aided a lot by Pete having played the Isted game earlier and being familiar with the system. Game took about an hour and 15 minutes. Will probably set up a second camera using an old smart phone, which can be down at table level and also to see dice rolling (I did all the dice rolling - the pips were not visible to the single web cam as it was set up on a ladder from the allied side of the table).  The game was also played over coffee at 9:30 a.m. on Saturday so it felt a bit like Saturday morning cartoons, to me! It also made me a little nostalgic for the first period of sleepy gaming on Saturday mornings at Enfilade.