Edgehill Redux

Having only played two turns of the scenario on a small table, I decided to reset and play on my larger table. I played the game solo. Baroque set manages solo play well. I rolled randomly for which command got ordered first unless it was an obvious choice. If there was any doubt about whether to react or not, or which reaction to make, random dice solved the decision making. The scenario gives Parliament a strong center but weak flanks and the opposite was true for the Royalists.

Turn one saw the Parliament center advance and the Royalist wings advanced. The Dragoons faced off in the hedgerows and battled for supremacy. 

Royalist Gallopers charge early and drive off a unit of Reiters

Desultory fire in the center on turn 1

Turn 2 - Rupert rolls boxcars on his command roll and upgrades to Charismatic. This happened to all the Royalist commanders and one of the Parliament generals. No snake eyes were rolled. The Royalists advanced on their left with the horse but lost the duel in the hedgerows. The Parliament Dragoons would be a thorn in the side of this flank for the King. 

On the other flank. The Parliament troops were faring better. They advanced and fired with their Reiters and then charged the weakened Gallopers with thier Cuirassier unit and drove them back. The slow Cuirassier failed to followup. The Royalist Dragoons kept their opposites at bay amongst the hedge rows, preventing a serious collapse on the Royalist left.

The Parliament infantry advanced in the center hoping to come to grips with the less experienced Royalist foot. Long range shots were exchanged and a few units were disordered. The Royalist foot advanced on the right to support their victorious horse.

View from Parliament center

View from Parliament left - Rupert's Gallopers on the verge of breaking through

Turn 3 - The Parliament foot are forced to turn their flank to prevent being rolled up by the Royalist horse. The same is true on the other flank for the Royalists as the send reinforcements to prevent the Cuirassier from exploiting their success. Both flanks are showing wear with units routing and withdrawing on both sides. The Parliament foot's hopes of engaging the center are stalled as they start to take damage and roll crap to rally.

Cuirassier press ahead

Another charge for the Cuirassier

 Cuirassier rout another horse unit

Parliament foot stalled in the centre

 Elite horse flank a pike and shot unit

 Aftermath

 Highwater mark for Parliament on the right

Turn 4 - Things were looking dicey for the Parliamentarians. They elite Royalist Gallopers were able to press ahead and take out a second infantry unit with the help of a supporting foot unit. The Cuirassier were devastated by a volley from the Dragoons and had to fall back. The Reiters avenged them by blasting a pike and shot unit, routing them. With the retreat now cut off by Royalist horse and mounting casualties, Parliament troops withdrew from the field.

Gallopers rout an battered pike and shot unit

 Press of pike in the center

 Cuirassier fall back

 The battered flank of Parliament

 Endgame

It was a good game with a quick result. The game can be very decisive if you flub your morale rolls. Even one hit can cause a rout. I still find myself flipping through the rules a lot but should do better next time. 

Baroque outing

We had a learning game of Baroque this weekend. I managed to find 2 willing generals and I played the role of rulebook page flipper. I borrowed the scenario for the Battle of Edgehill which I found on the Baroque Facebook page. In hindsight, this might have been a little ambitious as it required large armies. Not the best for a learning game. On the other hand, the generals wanted to play a historical battle. An additional challenge was setting up on a 6'x3.5' table when I had planned for an 8x4. The set up call for a flat battlefield with hedges along the flanks and a road down the middle. Historically, the Dragoons battled amongst the hedges for supremacy while the cavalry used the open ground next to the farms to fight it out.

 Deployment - Royalists on the right

In our battle, the large infantry units forced the cavalry to deploy mostly in the hedges in support of the Dragoons. This made for a slow and disordered approach for the cavalry and made it difficult for them to come to grips. The Royalist Dragoons succeeded in getting the defended terrain by occupying the cross hedge on both flanks. The players learned quickly that the hedges nullified their cavalry's combat abilities.

Trouble in the Hedge Rows

The Royalist elite horse unit managed to charge the Parliamentary cuirassier in a opportunity charge. The Cuirassier failed to cause any damage with their pistols and were driven back, pursued and driven back again one hit from routing. The next turn the Parliament general elected to withdraw the Cuirassier and the Gallopers gleefully prepared to play in the flank of the enemy infantry.

Battle lines approach

The gallopers performed an about face. Which triggered an opportunity charge from a lowly unit of Reiter cavalry amongst the hedges. They were able to contact the Gallopers on the flank but had to battle across a hedge. The Reiters had the minimum one dice in combat but rolled a six causing a hit. The Gallopers swung back with 5 dice but failed to score a hit. They then failed their cohesion check and took a wound. In my rule flipping I learned that losing a flank or rear combat results in an automatic rout. That was it for the Kings Horse Guard unit!


The Royalist general tried his luck with another unit of horse, charging a disordered unit of pike and shot. The muskets succeeded in getting off a volley of defensive fire but to no effect. The horsemen learned that they were at no advantage due to the loss of impetus from pike armed foot. They rolled well and drove the infantry back. They pursued but were driven back in turn.


As the infantry lines approached each other, the generals were constantly considering whether to risk closing range and triggering an opportunity charge, or to save their first volley for a closer shot rather than a long range Hail Mary shot. We only managed to play two turns but both players said they enjoyed the rules and would play again.


I reset this battle on my 8x5 table to give it another try. Unfortunately, one box of figures got dropped on the return trip and much gluing will be required before this can happen. Good thing it is only Monday and the game will not happen until the weekend!

Back on home turf - 8x5 table

Banging the War Drums

I have had a busy couple of weeks since Huzzah. I have assembled a primered my 3 “Things From the Basement” buildings. I built myself a “Lazy Susan” to help with the job of spray painting the big buildings. I thought of cracking out my air brush for the job but went with my trusty can of white spray paint. I may use the airbrush to paint the building interiors.

I have been banging the war drum to summon players form my gaming group. I want to teach them Baroque. I have painted more units for the armies and only played one game so far of my commitment of 6 this year (6x6 project). I found a scenario for Edgehill 1642 on the Baroque rules Facebook page and will put that game on.

Troops mustered for battle

I was able to bulk up my hedge collection. My old hedges were a little too big for my liking so I did up another 13 feet of them and scaled them back a little. They will also work for WWII France. I used foamcore base and added green scrubbies to form the hedges. I bought some Spanish Moss from the fake flower shop and ground it up in my blender. I used this mixture to flock the hedges and regular flock for the bases.

Hedges with a Tommy for scale

Painting on my fantasy figures continues. I finished a Devilish looking fellow and a scantily clad lady to be a Djinn in my fantasy “Men of the East” army. Some of the figures look to be pre primered but I have learned are not. My Dark Elf queen and Beholder are not holding paint. They must be white resin of some sort. I will have to strip them and primer. I have a half a dozen figures left on my shelf but am not in a hurry to get to them.

Tonight, I will organize the troops and terrain for Edgehill and hope I get some players. Otherwise it will be a solo game…

Brush with Plastic

Here are the completed infantry units from my recent purchase of Warlord plastics. They are a little larger than my usual Old Glory metal figures but close enough not to matter. I spent about 5 or 6 hours assembling 40 foot and 24 horse and this would be time better spent painting. I had to remind myself that the figures were a great value while assembling, to get through it.

Once assembled the figures looked great. There was a little bit of mold line that I ignored and as you can see from the pics, the lines are not visible once painted.

I printed off some ECW flags from the excellent Warflag website and voila, 40 figs build and painted over a 2 week stretch.

Next up will be 24 horse made into 4 units. I have them assembled and primered. I am painting the horse first and then the riders. Stay tuned for cavalry reinforcements and then a big game of Baroque to blood them.

Baroque

Looking back over the past posts, I see that I am due for a game with my 28mm English Civil War collection. This has been building momentum over the past few months. I purchased a copy of Baroque from Wargames Vault. This is the spinoff from their popular rule set Impetus and Basic Impetus for the Ancient period. I have played a game or two of BI and found it to be fairly fun but it has been five years since this experience.

New Shiny

I also ordered some reinforcements for both armies thanks to a 50% off and free shipping sale from Warlord Games. I ordered enough cavalry for 4 more units and enough foot for 2 more units. This will allow for more flexibility if I want to try an all cavalry or all infantry list, or just play a huge battle. Once painted (hah), I will have 6 Foot and 6 Horse a side.

So I read through the rulebook several times but there is nothing like playing a learning game to really get the hang of the rules. I built 2 600 point armies using the list provided in the back of rules for Early Royalist and Parliamentary forces.

The Royalists had:

4 Galloper Cavalry

4 Pike and Shotte Foot

1 Medium Cannon

1 Dragoon

3 Generals rated Poor/ Average / Expert

one P+M unit had Iron Officers and one Cavalry had Motivated Fighters

The Roundheads had:

4 Trotter Cavalry

4 Pike and Shotte Foot

1 Light Cannon

1 Commanded Shot

1 Clubman Foot that were Unmotivated Fighters

3 Generals rated Poor/ Average / Expert

Basing in this scale takes a little getting used to. Each base is 18x6 cm (7"x2.5"). This means no formation changes. Units are always in line. The rules advice breaking foot into 3 60x60mm squares and horse into 90x60mm. This is what I did to allow for use with other rules (namely Victory Without Quarter). As you can see this also allows units to flex with the hilly terrain. I love the look of the big units too.



Now all I needed was an opponent. Being out in the country on a snowy day I was lucky to find a local volunteer to man the dice for the Royalists.

Major General Eli deploys for battle

The rules for setting up terrain were dispensed with although there are rules for gaining the initiative and setting up terrain to your advantage. The rules do not allow for much terrain and you can expect a fairly open battlefield. This is reflective of the period as generals chose to fight in fairly open terrain. My table had steep hills in both deployment zones and a gentle hill on the flank. There was a river and town on the other flank. I had a forest on my flank and the road was lined with a hedgerow in part. More terrain than I needed but I like to get my scenery on the table when the opportunity arises.

Roundhead Centre

Each of the three generals were assigned a command of certain units. We had an historical set up with the cavalry split on the flanks and the infantry in the center. Each turn is played in phases. Both sides select a general and his command and roll 2d6 for initiative. Leader quality can improve the roll. The winner orders all the units under his command, one at a time. Then both players select another general and roll again until all commands have been activated. Then a new turn starts and all generals and units become eligible for activation again. 

The fun part about these rules is they are very interactive. Units can react to enemy activity by opportunity firing or charging. On turn one I advanced my Pike and Shotte unit to close the range with my muskets. The cavalry opposing me rolled to opportunity charge me and did so successfully. My move was halted as I suddenly was in melee with rabid horse men. In addition, you can "go for it" during movement. After your initial move you can move again. The first move is free and the next and successive moves come with an increasing chance of becoming disordered and halting. As always every action can cause a reaction from your opponent. Units can only react once per phase whether it is successful or not. This means you if your first move results in a reaction you are safe from that unit if you want to continue moving, shoot or charge. Good tactical depth, lots of decision making and fog of war, as you never can be sure if things will go as planned (also very true of the period).

I made labels for units and commanders. M= movement. Each movement is 90 mm or 3.5". Foot have 1 M and Horse 2. VBU is basic combat value. This goes down as you take damage and is also a units # of wounds.. I = Impetus. This is a units ability to do more damage in a charge. Units with 0 Impetus cannot charge. D= Discipline. C= poor, B= Average and A= superior. All the units in my battle were Bs. Discipline is used to do things like react to enemy moves, make extra moves and rally from disorder.

Movement is basic and fairly generous. The large based units are difficult enough to maneuver without adding lots of rules that restrict movement as well. Close order formations are disordered when moving through difficult terrain but are not otherwise slowed. For example, in my battle I my flanking Horse defeated their opposition but took forever to redeploy to exploit their success. Skirmishers, commanded shot, artillery and dragoons can interpenetrate and be interpenetrated by all and horse can interpenetrate horse. P+S will get in each others way when deployed in depth. I like the horse interpenetrating horse rule. This allowed my defeated horse to fall back behind the supporting unit of horse and this seemed a proper historical reflection.

Handy unit labels

Royalists foot and cannon deployed on a steep hill

Shooting is simple enough once you get the hang of it. Roll dice equal to your combat value. Modifiers include -1/hit, -1 per move before firing and -1 for disorder. -1 for disorder applies to any roll you make except rally. P+S in this period shoot at -2d6. The greater the ratio of pike to shot in a unit gives a modifier of -4 (Early Tercios) to -1 (late period P+M).

Hits are on 6s and pairs of 5s. This rule applies to melee as well. If you get any hits this will cause a cohesion check. This check can be wildly random. A unit may be devastated by a single hit or shrug off a devastating volley or melee charge. Fresh units are relatively immune to this but after that watch out! I like to think of it as the vagaries of war and it prevents the game from dragging on too long. Perhaps the units loyalties were not as sound as we assumed or the unit hit some soft ground before making contact or the musketeers had poor powder. The writers have taken certain players concerns into account by offering an option to purchase of up to 3 re rolls of cohesion checks per game.

There are a number of weapons represented from the lowly bow to the mighty heavy cannon. Cavalry tactics of the period are covered with simple rules. Gallopers have high Impetus and must pursue. Trotters get "point blank pistols" for 3d6 damage just before their first combat. Reiters have a chance to shoot a second time to represent Caracole.

A volley from Royalist dragoons



Melee is similar to shooting but generally more decisive. The big difference is that under the right conditions a unit can add it's Impetus to it's combat value. Impetus represents the shock of the charge. This can be nullified by things like pikes vs horse, defended terrain or being caught flat footed. Like shooting, a unit rolls a d6 for each combat value + the impetus value if applicable. The most common modifiers are -1/hit and -1 for disorder. Once again, any hits cause the dreaded cohesion test. The losing side took the most damage and will retreat. Retreat and pursuit distances are randomized. Units with 0 Impetus cannot charge.

P+S vs Horse  

Firefight!



Royalist Horse driving off their opponents

Parliamentary Horse return the favor on the other flank

Disorder and rallying are important aspects of the game. Disorder is easy to get. Any hit by shooting will cause at least disorder. Fighting in a melee causes disorder even if you did not get hit. Failing a subsequent move or moving through terrain can cause disorder. Luckily, all units get a free rally roll at the start of their activation. For average troops this is a 4+. If you blow it, your leader can step in and let you try again but you can do nothing else that activation. It felt like I never made my rally rolls when it was critical but I am sure it was 50% just like the odds allow.

Casualty markers denote disorder. These units are hoping to get the initiative, rally and charge.

When a unit takes hits equal to its basic combat value, it is destroyed/ routed. A unit below half is exhausted and can no longer react. When a unit is exhausted it reduces army morale, when it is routed the effect on army morale is doubled. There is an option to withdraw badly damaged units. Withdrawn units do not count as destroyed. It is hard to do and my opponent and I chose to battle to the death in our game. When a command goes below 1/2 strength, all units take a cohesion test to remain in the fight. If the army goes below half strength, it quits the field. Our battle was close. We were both one unit away from collapse before the Roundheads routed the Foot unit defending the hill for the win. The game played pretty quickly and I will definitely use the rules again. My only complaints are that the writers assigned different values for low and high rolls. Sometimes you want to roll high and sometimes you want to roll low. I spent a long time looking at the rule book to decide if low was good or bad. Another beef is the lack of an index. This is compensated by a thorough table of contents. I have never liked that the unit stats and titles are not translated from Italian. For instance, VBU stands for Basic Combat Value, why not call it BCV??? Light Cav are CL and not LC etc. These are minor quibbles for an otherwise solid rules that gave a fun game in a reasonable amount of time. Two thumbs up!

Final battle in the center