The Battle of Soggy Bottom repeat - ECW

It was 28mm, and right in the English Civil War, while using "For King And Parliament" - our Sunday game ... Bart was the King and Campbell the Cromwell.

It looked like a nice uneventful afternoon so I decided to be Parlamentarian, with a couple of Pike&Shotte units bang in the middle not much to do just advance and weathering it out, while the Horse flanks will decide the battle.

But then in our war council, it was revealed how few and shitty our cavalry was and they would be expected to be run over soon ... any minute  -  so the infantry had to save the day, and act quick ...

So as I advanced with the lot in line, the King‘s veterans came closer nearly shot Campbell‘s Cromwell away... juuust about it.

Then we advanced and shot and advanced and shot, slowly grinding them down, and at the end I just shot and charged two units of the King off board - that were my 6 points (of course the others had much more kills/points!!!) towards a parlamentarian monarchy, and the end of a wholesome, organic, and vitamin rich (blood) ECW Sunday afternoon battle.

The rules worked a treat and the miniatures were splendid. Of course you could have done all with the Pike&Shotte rules, but then half of the crowd would have had me tarred and feathered ... or were at each others throats because of the interpretation of them rules... haha!

Please enjoy the actual photographical documentary, taken from historical tin-miniatures - no real humans or animals were hurt in the process.

initial set up 

with forrest at the edges!

jolly roundheads

and Cavaliers

and some Scotts

at first the Royalists advanced in the centre

my sector advanced further

supported by lots of cheese crackers

Then the cavaliers chargedin

some Scotts defending some racing grounds ...

and me troops advanced

and shot(t)

and shot the enemy away 

on both sides of my sector

to the point that royalist cavalry had to come and charge me in the flank ...

... without effect, but to withdraw a bit ...

while our cavalry made an more clever stance as it might appear 

the opposing flank charger  got the same of that treatment and the last Royal coins were ours!

Cromwell was happy!

The Great Polish-Lithuanian hussars with lances and feathers ...

... are called hussars, but only in this period, even when they have long sticks!!! Later you must call them lancers, and never anything else, but I digress...

This Thursday it was, 15mm, By Fire & Sword, and true to my word, I choose the Swedish side (with Campbell as the main commander), even when we knew we would be outnumbered. While Peter, Chris and Alisdair choose the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. All of the magnificent figures came from Barts impressive collection (and  I think it was his complete collection - all of them beauties!!!).

The scenario I believe as well from Bart or it was from the rulebook (BF&S) as he umpired. We, the Swedish, had the most points, although on the table it rather looked the opposite, as if the the majority were lost to the Swedish teamster union. We were told to hold the line, while 2 wagons should arrive and pass behind us ... but of course they were late, not enough bakhshish. So Campbell formulated a secret victory condition, which he whisperd in my ear: "If we still stand at the end of turn 4, we won..." , morally, I guess is what he really meant.

We had the first turn and missed the opportunity to soften up the polish cavalry (all misses), but who can really shoot at men clad in feathers ... (yaah ...OK  ... the Spanish and the Anglo-Saxons ... I should have let Campbell throw the dice ...) Then the Polish charged with 3 units of winged hussars, as it turns out it wasn't enough to repulse and beat the old veteran Swedes (old swedes are hard to chew on!?!), which mentally demoralised our opponents from the start.

What amazes me is that even when we were doing fine (dice wise) we had to retreat, so we developed a overwhelming tactical superiority out of it. We lost the fights, saved the morale, retreat, and stood our ground again (albeit with less men). All the Commonwealth aristo-cats could do was repeatedly throw the Poles (feathered hussars) against us. I guess the other half of their (most of the time immobile) army were disenfrenchised Lithuanians.

Only in the 4th turn, we were pushed back from the hill and the unlanced, but still very much quick-winged Hussars rushed in front of the two wagons and captured them and our cheese crackers (symbol of our steadfast unwavering moral superiority). Naah,  actually I confess, I ate them beforehand. So technically we lost, but according to Campbell, we nearly won - which is still a loss in my books, but I ate that as well.

All in all it was a great game, and I enjoyed it very much ('cmon it‘s a renaissance game!!!). I get to learn the rules a little bit more every time we play. It must be an era that gives Polish players a great pride to play the invincible hussars, which makes me wonder what went wrong with the great state in the end ... when did they loose their boni ... but that seems to be another story another time ...

The Polish side ...

My Swedish guns and Infantry

The Lithuanian side

and the Commonwealth side... 

vs overwhelming Swedish centre and Campbells cavalry surrounding ...

all my guns were primed well

until the Polish Hussars with their longer lances came ...

lots of them (3 units)

we took the hits

won some combats and still ... no poles on the hill

on the road more of the same ...

in turn 3 finally the teamster stopped their strike (the cheese crackers are the Swedish morale)

Again the hussars charged in

And again my Swedish veterans took the hits

and still we send them back

at the end of the 3rd turn

Campbells dragoons were dismounting

and his Reiters were actually doing right repulsing the hussars again ... 

but then in the 4th turn ...

the end of battle ...

The Battle of Soggy Bottom somewhere in England shortly before they killed a King

This week it was 28mm, For King & Parliament, Peter and Campbell, and somesort of a warm up for the upcoming big sunday game a la Edgehill. So Campbell, Mike and Alisdair and Mike were defending the rights of parliament while Bart, me and Peter managed the Kings expectations cavalier like. Bart had the left Horse wing while Peter the right Horse, I was managing the centre and came up with a plan (how German I know ...): an inverted Cannae -  I would march forward and attack while the two flanks stay behind just to wait for the enemy to attack my flanks that they in turn could attack theirs. ... plans...

Bart waited assiduously, while Peter pressed forward nevertheless. I did my part of the plan, made some more or less successful attacks, but then Campbell cavalry saw the gap and charged my veterans in the flank. Bart was too far away to react, maybe he waited on a written invitation, but nevertheless in these rules a flank attack is always fatal. And so the veterans perished, and so the next unit, and the next as well ... a sweeping disaster. 3 out of 5 blocks were gone.

Then I advanced with me untested and greenies and shot Campbells Horse to mud! At least I revenged the loss of my line. But I shalt not fear as for the rest of the game they hold the line vs Mikes six blocks and a gun on a hill. Barts cavalry manoeuvres were a mystical mistery and probably made sense only to himself but he managed to wound Cromwell and exchanged his flank against Campbells.

So it was just down to Peter vs Alisdair and MDF Michael ... well It didn‘t went too well and at the end of the night my greenies still held the line, but lost via points/coins and had more losses than the roundheads so we lost. Even though the simplest of plans are obviously impossible in these club games, I still had a tremendously fun evening!

Guten Abend!

The initial set up

Barts guns towards the Roundheads

My Royal Veterans

My whole brigade

Ammunition ready

Marching forward

still marching forward

the first time we ever did a volley & charge attack of the veterans ...

...it didn't changed much

Then Campbell's Horse swiped the veterans and two other cleanly from the plate

... and another

until my greenies were all that was left