Never rely on a Bavarian

Before I provide a synopsis of my Edgehill refight I thought it would be nice to provide images of one of the few things Ive completed lately. I had seen the review of a new wagon created by the brilliant plastic company called Dungeons and Lasers. Dave Thomas stocks the series and I bought the wagon as soon as I saw he had one on display. Yes its a fantasy piece, and yes it is scaled for about 35mm, but its a lovely model and I would recommend it to anyone who likes such things It was very easy to construct and a real pleasure to paint. I attempted to do a neat job on the piece and although I will never produce a wagon as lovely as the top painters I still like it. Next time you are passing Dave Thomas at one of the shows, buy one, you wont be disappointed. 

Anyway Edgehill. John and I fought the battle using the updated Pike and Shotte rules provided in the Warlord Epic ECW box. I hope that they will release a version for those who dont collect Epic figures. I added a couple of extras, in that I had managed to obtain a number of incident cards that cater for the battles of the ECW and John and I drew two each. Usually the cards are things like, brigade commander is late for breakfast, minus one to command etc. I thought it would add a bit of friction. Once used one was allowed to roll for an additional card if one rolled a six. We never managed that.

Only Rupert was given a command rating of 9 whilst most other commanders had the usual 8 rating, although Ballard for Parliament and Byron for the Royalists were given a 7 rating. Strangely it didn't seem to affect their commands too much, whereas Rupert!!!!!

In order to reflect the lack of firearms of the Royalists and the well provided Parliamentarian foot, there was a disadvantage for the Royalist firing and a plus for those damned rebels. Given the advantage one would expect the Royalists to attack with pike as quickly as possible. To also reflect history the brigade of Charles Essex was given a 'wavering' classification when fired upon. So given that its sometimes best to follow history I thought I would produce a cunning plan...... 

Sadly it was more Baldrick than an Alexander. The Royalists led by me managed to confound history.

My Rupert was more poltroon than a prince as he continued to fail his command rolls and allow the best cavalry on the field to stand and be shot at by the rebel commanded shot. Couple that to some absolutely dire morale throws I struggled badly.

Given the size of the cavalry commands it only takes three hits to shake a unit, remember that each two actual figures represents a troop of 50 men the rebel commanded shot and medium gun began to take their toll on the stationary royalist cavalry.  The red and yellow tokens shows the shaken and disordered status of my cavalry as their horses chewed grass and waited.

In the Royalist centre I had to use Charles to get Byron's command to advance. Unfortunately they advanced piecemeal and John was able to break up the Royalist infantry by some good firing and smart marching. One can see the Kings Lifeguard shaken and exhausted with little in the way of meaningful support. I did manage to drive the wavering brigade from the field,... eventually.

On the left the Royalists made a better fist of things and Wilmot leading the cavalry steadily chewed up the rebel cavalry who suffered from the shooting of my supporting dragoons. Of course it couldn't last and John managed to cover his right by marching a foot regiment into the front of my cavalry where they stood like a stonewall, to mix up my history a little.  After three hours of battle, I had lost two infantry brigades and a cavalry brigade, John had lost two brigades but was in a far better position tactically. 

                      So Charles led his pensioners from the field and cursed Rupert as he did so.

          To cheer up Charles I held a small review of Ruperts best cavalry, much use they were,...not.

Yes I lost, yes I am a crap general but can I say it was a very good game with some tense and exciting moments. The actual refight is doable for most ECW wargamers and I would recommend the purchase and use of Stuart Asquith's excellent series of battles for the civil war.                                                                                               As for Rupert, who calls their child Rupert for God's sake?