Monday 13 May 2019

Battle of Winstanton, a Pike and Shotte Battle.

Although I havent posted for a while I have actually been doing the odd bit of wargaming in between jobbing on with real life. Who said retirement was easy.
Anyway I have had a couple of cracking wargames one with Paul Stevenson and one with John my arch enemy.
I am lucky to have known Paul for a lot of years and he has always put on a cracking wargame, his forte is however the American Civil War, who hasnt got his book about wargaming the period. Its a classic. Paul has been working on a set of rules to cover the ACW which has now grown to cover the musket period of warfare. Last week I traveled over to his home to sample his latest developments. He kindly staged  an ACW game using his lovely Perry figures, his armies have grown exponentially since our last battle..  I picked the Union which realistically had better artillery, more infantry and more green regiments. A deadly combination. Paul led a veteran Confederate division with less firepower but better generals. Whoever said the big battalions win? Naturally I lost the battle due to a combination of foolish expectation for my green troops and some poor dice throwing. But the actual game was a cracking affair and in the balance until the collapse of my centre. As for Paul's rules? I thought they flowed well, contained some lovely game mechanisms and as to be expected gave a great feel for the period. I hope he gets them published, they deserve wider recognition.
I then staged a small English Civil Wargame using a scenario from the King and Parliament Black Powder book. The Battle of Winstanton was small enough to allow me to use my part built armies albeit with smaller  units of commanded shot.
I took the Parliamentarians who were defending the crossroads, whilst John commanded a larger scratch force of Royalists with poorer commanders. Strangely that didnt seem to affect the result in the long run. It also gave me an opportunity to field my latest acquisition, a large European church courtesy of E Bay.
The aforementioned church. A West German? creation that I decided was too nice to paint although I will add a light to the interior to show off the stained glass windows.
For the scenario, the Parliamentarians had only two regiments of trotter cavalry and two regiments of dragoons. Being rash I threw my cavalry away very quickly and to add to the insult I also got their commander killed! My commanded shot were made of sterner stuff but were eventually over run by the Royalist cavalry.
 I had painted some small units of shot for the battle using the 'spare' York show figures which are the lovely Mini Fig chaps scattered around the images. They might not be historically correct but they have a definite charm. Needless to say I lost the game when the two brigades went shaken in two consecutive moves. So another loss. At the moment I cant buy a victory but they were two great battles.
In an effort to hurry up the completion of my ECW project I bought some painted figures from Ian Hind. They will need repainting but in this age of conservation what better way to save the world than by giving life to old toy soldiers.




                                      My 'spare' Mini Fig shot unit with spare Rupert standard.

22 comments:

  1. Two games in rapid succession suggests retirement may not be too onerous. Super looking ECW game and your church is a handsome acquisition. Great layout.

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    1. Thanks Jonathan, with the weather finally changing for the better I cab start tacking my garden which is great but it does take it out of you. Plus who can paint when the sun shines..

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  2. Very pretty sir...
    And the toys work well with your terrain.

    All the best. Aly

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    1. Thanks Aly, Ive given up on attempting to emulate the late great Peter Gilder and simply gone for a more practical solution.

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  3. Very nice looking game and figures.

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    1. Thanks Peter, I know historical accuracy isnt a strong point of these armies but I'm trying to make them pretty.Its good for my soul.

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  4. Enjoyed your table very much.

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    1. Cheers Norm. Sometimes reality in wargaming can be a chore, so its bright clothing and clean looking toys all round.

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  5. Looks great. Love the OS style of the armies

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    1. Who would have thought, actively searching out Mini Figs and the like. Talk about full circle Colin.

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    2. Indeed. And how many 50 year old Hinchliffe SYW do you have? I think it's great.A testament to the hobby.

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  6. Lovely figures and terrain, looks great!

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    1. Thanks for the encouragement Phil. You know I like brightness in my toys. Its a great therapy to push them across the table.

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  7. Lovely looking armies and the church is great!
    Best Iain

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    1. Iain, the church was a great buy. I really thought I would need to repaint it, but its too well made to spoil. Those West Germans eh?

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  8. Great to see this collection in action

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    1. Thanks. I will be very happy when its finally completed, if there is such a thing.

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  9. What a super sight! A grand looking table and superb retro armies.

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    1. Thanks David, do I get a plus one for super retro troops?

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  10. A marvellous spectacle... to hell with being realistic, these look so attractive.

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    1. Thats very kind, Ive realised life's too short to agonise over the colours of cloth from the 17th century. As long as theyre not carrying a panzerfaust is accurate enough nowadays.

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My 6mm Napoleonic set up.

My 6mm Napoleonic set up.
Austria 1809.

Austrian Hussars

Austrian Hussars
Hinchliffe figures

Austrian Grenzer

Austrian Grenzer
Austrian Grenzer

Smoggycon 2013

Smoggycon 2013
Smoggycon 2013

Smoggycon 2012

Smoggycon 2012
Smoggycon 2012

Smoogycon 2009

Smoogycon 2009
My French getting another beating