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.

1644 After-Action Report

It was a hard-fought game with just a handful of real combats. The Royalist dragoons proved to be the best 50 points spent on the table when they helped the cuirassiers win the combat in the river. For the most part the Scots and Irish got bottled up in between the edge of the board and the river. By the time the Royalists came to town, Montrose's forces were hopelessly outmanned, regardless of the Irish mercs' superior training.

A couple of key takeaways:

• Cuirassiers are amazing - heavy armour really helps turn a combat in their favor.


• Mulitple combats are something we need to work on. One combat started out simple enough with one cav unit charging one pike & shotte unit. Then a second cav unit charged in the back for support and some Highlanders charged the side to support the infantry. It got very confusing very quickly!


• Marching rules will probably be needed in the future. The infantry on both sides redefined 'plodding.'

Royalist List for Saturday

The Royalist List

General................................................50 pts

5 Dragoons, trained...........................50 pts
12 Horse,trained +1cf.......................84 pts
12 Horse, trained...............................72 pts
8 Curassier..........................................72 pts

36 Foot,trained 12 Pike,24 Shot...144 pts
36 Foot,trained 12 Pike,24 Shot...144 pts

Lt Gun.................................................21 pts
Hvy Gun.............................................40 pts

Total..................................................677 pts

Montrose List for Saturday

Saturday's game of 1644 will see a hypothetical Royalist vs Montrose engagement of roughly 650-675 pts per side. The scenario will center around control of a small town on a river near the mid point of the board.

The Montrose List

General..........................................................................50 pts
24 Highlanders, trained, 6 armed with muskets....102 pts
24 Highlanders, trained, 6 armed with muskets....102 pts
24 Irish, elite, 8 pike, 16 musket..............................152 pts
24 Irish, elite, 8 pike, 16 musket..............................152 pts
12 Horse, elite...............................................................72 pts
1 Sniper..........................................................................10 pts
2 Frame guns (light guns)............................................32 pts

Total..............................................................................672 pts

Frame Guns and a Forlorn Hope

Saturday's game of 1644 is going to be a trial run of the Montrose Scots list. In preparation for being outnumbered I decided it would be wise to paint up as much artillery as possible. That means two light guns. Here they are freshly painted and placed with some units from the rest of the army. There's a Forlorn Hope hunkered down behind a fence as well.

Irish for St. Patrick's Day

With an upcoming game, I threw some paint on some Irish pikemen. The colors are a little more uniform than I'd initially planned, but it'll make them easy to use as English down the road if the need arises.