To Bradford!

 Casa Anderson is plague free and I am well, apart from all the other ailments I have collected in my mature years, I was lucky in that the unpleasantness only lasted one day and then I was on the mend.

I got back to the club on Tuesday night and managed to join an ECW game hosted by Stewart with his beautiful figures, the scenario had a Royalist force trying to hold back a Parliamentarian force on its way to Bradford, I believe it was historically based and from the Pike and Shotte rulebook. Stewart had tweaked the evade rule which nearly ended my wargaming career the last time we played and besides, I needed a fix after missing the previous two weeks.

There were three of us at the table, Stuart commanded the Royalists while Stewart and I split the Parliamentarian force between us, I held the left and he took the right. There was no real finesse to the game, we just had to advance and overwhelm the enemy and sweep into Bradford where we joked we had a table booked at a local eatery. 

Royalist Cavalry

Me.

My boys edge slowly forward

Stewart's less than enthusiastic right wing

And so the Gods played their own little game. Stewart's men moved once in seven turns, after that I think they made one decent advance in almost three hours of playing, both my own men and the defenders also suffered from a lack of commitment. Nevertheless I did manage to eventually advance to the defended hedge line and take out the enemy artillery. Previously the Royalist cavalry had clashed with my mounted troops who were very reluctant to move but nevertheless saw off the enemy, these now retreated or tried to as they failed time and again to move behind the nearby hedges, I was happy to leave them to it.

The Royalist position

I at last reach the hedge line

At 'em boys

As my infantry had broken the Cavalier's line Stuart countered by sending a cavalry unit to take them in the rear, instread they soon found themselves surrounded on all sides by artillery, cavalry and Stewart's now advancing infantry. Numbers were beginning to tell and we called a halt to the affray and handed the victory to Parliament, we would not lose our deposit on the curry house albeit we would be arriving a tad late.

I had to cancel a couple of games due to the damn plague, my game with Julian will now take place on the 30th and my game at the Dungeon with Matt will be the 24th, I don't know when I will manage to get the third installment of my Late Roman 'campaign' done as Aetius marches on Edicus 'Proceritas' in Northern Gaul. This Tuesday coming Jimi and I will at last get around to our Bolt Action game which has been postponed about three times now.

I continue adding to the Italian Wars French, this time it was mounted crossbows from Steel Fist, these are quite large figures on big horses, not suitable for mixing in with TAG, you might get away with Foundry, but I will keep them separate in their own unit. They are also very well armoured for skirmishing troops. I have another eight arquebusiers 90% finished and another eight cleaned and primed ready to go, these are TAG Landsknechts and are lovely figures, more anatomically correct than the other manufacturers but full of character. I think I will need to get more French Gendarmes before I move on to the Imperials, I had not intended to get these until much later but at least one unit is required, maybe two.

My good friend Charles Singleton at Helion with whom I work closely on many of his titles, sent me a copy of the new Italian Wars Volume 4 Ceresole book, I have just started reading the book and I can recommend it, of course I can. The battle was fought in 1544 and my own armies are based around the battle of Pavia 1525 however when I come to building a Spanish force I shall lean heavily on the information contained in this book.

 The TV Guide. I have watched Code 404 the daft police comedy where one half of the buddy team is a man brought back from the dead and made into a $6,000,000 man, no, more like a £6 Gameboy, I loved the first season, gave up with the second, and have actually enjoyed the third. Apart from that I am revisiting 24, the full run which is a sad reflection on the state of entertainment or just me.