Game and more painting

Had an excellent game of Regiment of Foote last night with Martyn my long time wargames opponent. It was his first game of Regiment of Foote but we managed to play to a conclusion within 3 hours or so (taking into account I was a bit rusty too!)

Here we see the field of battle at dawn. This little piece of England is the border of the counties of Barpshire and Scruttockshire where those two rivals for the heart of Lady Geraldine, The Earl of Trent, Benton Smythe and Sir Marmaduke Evans MP are heading for a clash of arms. The crossroads is known locally as Bayleighs Cross. The date is 4th April 1642....


The two armies deployed, Sir Marmaduke (me) with his Roundheads to the left and the Earl of Trent (Martyn) to the right.

Martyn was defending after the campaign section of the rules, but after four marches each, he lost only one unit at the deployment . This meant it was going to be a hard game for the attacker (me!) to win. Still, Marmaduke girded his loins and after an early morning prayer session, he stood in his stirrups and ordered the advance. This shot shows the slow advance of the foote in the centre. In the background the Royalist horse were getting the better of things which gave them free reign later in the battle.

A clash between Deverells Roundhead Cuirassiers having the worst of it against a veteran unit of Royalist horse led by the dashing Prince Eugene.

More Royalist horse deploying to the field behind the a conscript Bluecoat regiment, shaking in their boots as facing them was a horde of Puritanical roundheads about to trample all over them.

A general shot of the field showing essential wargaming impedimentia, Peter Pig dice, beer, biscuits and a nice cup of tea.

A dramatic shot of some Roundhead dragoons on foote, creeping around the hedgerows on their left flank. They had a tough game skirimishing with their Royalist counterparts but did their job preventing the Royalist horse getting around to the rear.

It was a great game that ended in a winning draw for the Royalists with their veteran cavalry having practically free reign by games end. Although I had control of the centre with my foote, they were feeling exposed as all but one of my Regiments of horse (and a conscript unit at that!) had routed from the field.

Marmaduke had no option but to retire from the field to reorganise his forces muttering "Odds tis a small thing that you have! The Earl of Trent quaffed on ale in the local. An aide of his was heard to say "zooks sir,we have but fought lightly today!"

We used the proposed modifications from the RFCM Yahoogroup that Peter Pig put up in November. The main changes being to the assault phase. A greatly reduced number of dice are now used, with a result that infantry fights in particular can be less decisive. I thought they worked very well, but as ever a couple of questions came up.

1. There are no factors in the new 'Fight' table for charger cavalry or to take account of the quality of the units fighting. On the quality issue, the saving rolls may account for this but maybe there should be something for having a better class of troops in a fight (+2d6 for using better class troops than opponent....maybe +1 for trained v conscript and 2D6 for veteran v conscript). I appreciate the new table is designed to reduce the number of dice rolled, but I do feel charger cavalry need a plus as well.

2.The cavalry who rout cavalry opponents table perhaps should be for cavalry verses infantry too as in the main rules victorious cavalry pursue off table similar to when fighting cavalry.

Thumbs up from me for the changes. Looking forward to the next clash between Marmaduke and the Earl of Trent as the Earl follows up on his minor victory. Next game in a couple of weeks, not sure what yet!

If you look to the right you will see my painting points are creeping up. 164 now. Thats more point than I have brought so far this year. The latest editions are Viet Cong with RPGS and LMGs, US Marines with LAWs, a Reb unit for CWB along with some officers and markers. Only a couple of bits left for CWB now and then a game hopefully!

On a completely different note myself and Lisa saw 'Slumdog Millionaire' the other night and we both thought it was one of the best films we have seen in a long time. Uplifting stuff in these times of fiscal hardship!

Sean