Muskets at the Ready

Out of a 36 member unit, I have painted a small wing of musket wielding soldiers. I wanted the coats to be a brighter red, but it was not coming out the way I wanted it, so I'm leaving the darker red coat for now. I'll just pretend their uniforms got dirty from campaigning. I wasn't much into detail work or highlighting for this group as I am just going for a tabletop worthy force. At a 4-6 foot distance they should look menacing enough to my enemy. By menacing I mean their combat potential, not their paint job...

Another Stab, Another Odd Combat

We took another crack at a half-size game, playing Covenanters against Royalists at 500 points.
This time the Scots made some significant changes in the list by dropping the highlanders, bringing both cav units to max, and adding a second field gun.

The Royalist forces managed to hold up one unit with their CF5(!) cav and decimate another with cuiraissiers (bane of my kilted existence). Cuiraissiers = MVP.

The dour men of the north, knowing that their infantry was outnumbered and, for the most part, outclassed relied on frame and field guns to level the playing field. This proved a little more effective than either of us was really comfortable with at 500 points, shaking one English unit and whittling the second down to half strength fairly well.

In the end, the English had routed the left cav wing, the Scots had beaten all but a couple of models in the English cav wing on the opposite side, and the foot fight in the middle was a toss-up. A very fun mess!

There was only one situation that really stuck out as a mechanical problem and that was a unit of English foot with muskets forward that got stuck in a fight with a unit of Scots foot with muskets to the side. We found casualty removal on the English side to be odd, with the removal of muskets causing odd gaps in the combat that didn't allow many models of fight on either side. The combat results just didn't do a good job of representing what was on the table. We'll go back and hit the books and try to come up with a solution. Aside from that, though, we seem to be getting relatively competent with the system.

Parliment Receives Its Leader

Finished painting up my general for the heroic and dashing New Model Army, Sir Oliver Cromwell.

Yes he looks great in his blue coat and red scarf, yet his green and yellow feathers in his hat hint at a loose tie to the mighty empire of the O'Connor clan from fantasy battle. Too bad Cromwell wasn't a huge fan of the Irish.

Next up on the paint deck will be my two cannon as the bases that I have ordered aren't scheduled to arrive in the mail until Tuesday. Until then, the Parliamentarian troops will vacation in their Batalia box while making fun of the Scots and Royalists...

Covenanters vs Parliament 550 Points

Our newest historical junkie and long-standing Warhammer Empire commander and I played 550 points of 1644 last night as he anxiously awaits a mountain of plastic from Warlord. The Parliamentary force was proxied by Games Workshop Empire models which worked well. They looked extremely well fed, though.



Scots Covenanters:

General

• 2 Snipers
• 2 Frame Guns
• 1 Field Gun
• 2 Pike and shot units, trained
• 2 cavalry units, trained
• 1 Highlander unit, trained

Parliament Forces:

General

• 2 Snipers
• 2 Field Guns
• 2 Pike and shot units, trained
• 2 cavalry units, trained

The game was pretty smooth, with no big rules bog-downs. We didn't play a specific scenario, opting instead to just throw down for a pitched battle to see if we had a handle on the rules. We screwed up a few, but for the most part both sides were affected the same so it all worked out.



The push-back in multiple combat issue came up again. We opted to just push back from the largest unit and that worked fine.



In the end, Parliament had a clear deathgrip on the left flank (their right) and the Scots' ambitious cav and infantry siezed the right flank. At that point it was 11:15 so we all agreed to call it a draw and go to bed! A very fun game with some good highlights.



-The Scots' frame gun crew gets MVP on their side by sniping the Parliament general from his horse.


-Parliament's reading of Osprey's Pike and Shotte Tactics netted them a vastly superior artillery deployment and they invoked great fear in the center of the Scot infantry.

-The big thing I forgot was to roll for reaction distance on a cavalry flank charge. When the Scots' cav on the right flank made a flank charge on the Parliament pike and shotte, we should've rolled a reaction distance to see if they were able to respond by changing their facing. Failure would see them routed! But, since the cav was actually a turn ahead from one of our other Command messups, I can't complain!

-After reviewing the artillery rules, I realized that we were both giving our guns too wide a berth with LoS. Any targets further than 22.5 degrees from a barrel are out of LoS and the gun must be swiveled which counts as moving! We were both doubling this to 45 degrees on either side, making guns a little more effective than they should have been.

All in all a most excellent refresher on the rules.