ECW Braddock Down

 Another week another game. I was invited down to Erik's for an ECW refight of Braddock Down with all his usual attention to detail. The scenario was for an historic action fought in January 1643 and on arriving there was once again a beautiful table set up, I noticed some new troops as Erik's collection continues to grow, they were on my side and we all know how new troops behave.

Anyway I was Parliament and was deployed on a hill facing the Royalists on another hill across a valley, I had an artillery train but it was only just leaving the town of Liskeard and would take quite some time to reach the front line. I could withdraw and meet the artillery or I could simply attack before the Royalists used their numbers to outflank me, I chose the latter.

The Royalists in the background.

Parliamentarian position.

Close up of the Royalists.

Erik had not expected such an attack and I got off to a good start, I sent one reserve regiment to my left and the other to my right along with cavalry to support. My dragoons lost a fight with some Royalist dragoons but I then swept these away with my cavalry, the enemy cavalry looked like they would accept my challenge but decided not to and kept withdrawing from danger. I had now moved a foot regiment to the right but this turned out to be a bad decision as Erik continued to funnel everything into the fight in the centre.

I move forward into the valley of death.

Shot flies.

I seemed to have the advantage in numbers on the edge of the valley and sent two Royalist regiments running for home, however more turned up and I had taken some quite severe casualties by now, but my boys held on. I am unsure now what exactly went on as I forgot to take pictures in all the excitement, but my tactical genius was now the end of me, as my men pursued down the hill they found themselves with enemy on both flanks, I was undone, the pendulum had swung. I was preparing for an early tea.

Things looking dodgy.

My cavalry victorious.

The end.

Two moves later my right wing cavalry had swept away a second unit of dragoons and the Royalist cavalry, riding down their artillerymen in the process. They now threatened the Royalist centre but it was too powerful and they instead turned on the Militia on the hilltop, sweeping these away as well, bravo! But it was not all going my way and I was reduced to the cavalry and one foot regiment. As the enemy closed in my infantry led by my commander in chief put up a stalwart fight while my horse manouvered to threaten the Royalist hedgehog. My guns had now arrived but proved useless while my mounted troops could not feasibly frontally attack the enemy, I called a halt as my last foot regiment collapsed and fled.

Now they turn up, too late.

A very good game, luck was almost even, Erik threw 6's a few times when he needed them and I managed three or maybe four snake eyes at the wrong time. Victory swung too and fro a couple of times and I was pleased overall with my performance, moving the infantry to the right was a bad decision I think it was still a good move to attack. An excellent little game and it was a pleasure to play it.

Nothing on the horizon yet for next week although I believe a trip to Matt's might be on. I am continuing with the Yanks and have completed another squad, the third is now on the tray. I will do what I can with them as I am still a bit busy with the last maps for the Atlas, 14+ to go and around 140 finished.

I was wrong about Alexander: God, King, Man, I thought it was a biography, it is more about his taking the Persian Empire, nonetheless it is a good read with some very interesting snippets spread throughout. Alexander captured 2,500 tons of gold when he took Persepolis, and there was enough left when the Romans took Macedon to cease direct taxes on their citizens for one hundred years. The oldest dirty joke was also found written down but the author fails to share it, and then there was the "A man walks into a pub with a dog" the punchline however is lost to us. Fascinating stuff.

I almost forgot that I took along Matt's super dice to Erik's hoping to have an easy time of it, yes, you are right, they didn't work. Matt is now looking for a discount should he buy them. 

I start systemic anti-cancer therapy (SACT) tomorrow, not over the moon about it but no alternative is available and they cannot cut anything more from my liver, I have fingers and toes crossed that I do not suffer badly from side affects, so, onwards and upwards.

Crushed

 I am still coming down from the great surprise ACW weekend. I was supposed to venture north to Penritha and a Napoleonic game with Matt but I am having a real hard time with our World Beating NHS and could not take the chance of missing an important phone call in the depths of the Dungeon so I offered a game in the Bunker (which is not underground).

I didn't have a huge amount of time due to real life so settled once again on the battle of Ceresole 1544 which is easy to set up and as Matt wanted a larger game than our last one so I jiggled the OOB a bit. Matt arrived attired in suitable summer gear but without dice or measuring tape, I have plenty of both so sorted him out, something I was to regret later. Matt took the army nearest the door so became the French commander, I was the Spanish. Now although the French have the edge in this battle it didn't seem like an overwhelming edge so I was happy enough.

Imperials left, French right.

Imperial lines.

French left, Imperials right.

As battle approached my troops showed a reluctance to get to grips with the enemy, my skirmishers and artillery were less than enthusiastic and merely played at being warriors and for the most part stood still or could not find a match for the cannon. My light cavalry went forward without arquebus support and were destroyed by the French light cavalry tout suite as the Frenchies say, they continued to pursue the remnants off the table for the rest of the game. My infantry painfully slowly moved forward but not before my right wing was crushed, again my light cavalry was destroyed as were some skirmishers and my aristocracy.

Matt's die rolling simply could not be beat, if I got four or five hits Matt countered with six to eight, and my average was two, I knew I should have offered that chicken up, I have won only one Italian Wars game since I put the troops on the table, how long does 'new troop syndrome' last? 

Imperial camp.

Get a move on lads!

The French move forward

The Swiss looking for a fight, in the background.

One group of Gendarmes had flung themselves at a Neapolitan pike block and against all the odds eventually routed it, the other bunch of Neapolitans later met the French infantry and also ran. The Spanish on my right came up against one of the Swiss units and, yes, were cut down without mercy, my Landsknechts whom I had wanted to throw at the Swiss were still way behind. Before too long I only had the Landsknechts left, one was trying to move to defend my non existent right flank while the other went head to head with the second Swiss block. again they were cut down and routed. My whole army had disappeared in quick fashion and one of my commanders had been taken prisoner. One small block of Landsnechts now faced the might of the French army. 

Neapolitans about to be charged.

 

Neapolitans about to be rode down.

Imperial centre about to crack.

Matt has paella for dinner in the Imperial camp.

 

I normally do a map for these battles but looking over the debacle that had just happened the drawing would only consist of French units. Matt's die rolling had been nothing but spectacular, he offered me a king's ransom for the dice but it was no deal. As usual I actually changed my dice near the end but it did not save me. Crushed!

I am being left in Limbo by the NHS so have nothing planned for next week, although Matt is away if I knew what was happening I could organise something but as of this moment I can't.

I have finished Goldsworthy's book on Athens and Sparta, not a great read for me, it is a broad history and not simply a military history so if you are looking for that this book is not what you want. It was also fairly wishy washy with a lot being described as maybe or might or we don't know, fair enough but there was also a lot of repetition, I got it early on that hoplites could be stopped by city walls for instance and didn't need to be told this time and time again. I found it disappointing, maybe I was looking for something different.

'Alexander: God, King, Man' I knew was good from the first chapter, I didn't find myself falling asleep after a couple of pages. The two battles which have been covered already were far better described than the book above and I found myself googling them to find out more. Alexander comes across as a chancer when fighting battles (I have always thought this) and the Persians perhaps just a tad unlucky? The Greek mercenaries at the Granicus did not fight against Alexander and expected therefore to be captured and ransomed, he killed them all, or nearly them all. I can certainly recommend this one.

 Nothing much on the telly these days, I caught 'Obsession' which is being hailed as a marvellous kick in the teeth to Hollywood but I gave up, I just couldn't empathise with the main character or his girlfriend and why do they have to film everything in the dark, put the bloody lights on. I was caught out by 'Sugar' on Apple (I think), Colin Farrell (now he played Alexander as well) stars and is pretty cool as a private investigator driving a beautiful blue corvette, my wife caught the sting in the tail, it was lost on me. But will it have legs, who knows.

 My family north of the border were of course rooting for Scotland in the World Cup, I took the opposite view and knew they would be home on the next plane, but I also take the view that I would rather England win than be beat by foreigners, I am therefore a turncoat, but it was all played out in good humour online helped by Photoshop. In reality I would not watch a sport if you tied me to a chair and superglued my eyes open.

Never.

Now you're talking.

It's All Greek To Me.

 A trip to the Dungeon this week, I asked Matt to surprise me and he managed, Italians vs Greeks, early war. The new Greeks Matt has almost completed look really nice, and if I may say so without annoying any snowflakes typically Greek, I can see them having day jobs serving Gyros, a splendid bunch. I took the Italians.

The object was for the Italians to capture a road junction in some hilly terrain, to do this they had infantry and armour, can you call Italian tanks armour, I digress, I also had a biplane and artillery. Although outnumbering the Greeks they were ensconced in some heavy defences and were Elite, while my boys didn't want to be there and would suffer from a lack of enthusiasm during the game. My plan was to push for the junction and take out the anti-tank guns defending the gorge before bringing up my tanks, I would also probe both flanks just in case.

 

Somewhere in Greece, a lovely table.

My secret weapon.

Greeks dug in.

Things went reasonably well and within a short time I had killed off both anti-tank guns thanks to my artillery and a quick strike from the aircraft but had also lost the plane to some well aimed AA fire, a big disappointment for me. No matter I now felt brave enough to bring on my tanks, especially the little flamethrower, my armoured car was not up to scratch and Matt's anti-tank rifle ensured its crew became extremely cautious for the rest of the game.

So much for the air force.

Go for the centre guys.

A formidable defence.

The Greek infantry had no answer to the flamethrower which I kept out of range of possible assaults and the squads defending the road junction were cut down mercilessly, while this was happening I sensed victory and pushed more infantry towards the objective, well I tried but it was slow going due to their dodgy morale. Matt now did a Christopher Plummer (Waterloo) and told all his troops to make for the centre, both sides were now involved in some desperate fighting.

My real secret weapon.

My other tankette was not so lucky.

So close yet so far.

The gods now deserted me, my vanguard refused to move and support the tanks at the junction, Greek infantry assaulted and took out one tank while another squad late to the fray took out one of the unenthusiastic squads. Despite this the flamer routed the tank killers using its last gallon of fuel, it now held the junction, Matt in desperation threw his command forward to contest the victory, I now made a horrible mistake, instead of shooting them and wiping them out I foolishly assaulted them with my commander, he failed and was cut down, my only other squad anywhere near the junction was now so heavily pinned it was useless, the rest of the Italian infantry was too far away to intervene. It was a draw.

Another excellent set too in the Dungeon and Matt has done a really good job on those Greeks, nice chunky figures from Great Escape Games. I think for our next clash in a couple of weeks we will be back to France in 1940 continuing our Abbeville campaign.

Next up is American Civil War with Erik here in the Bunker, Chickamauga, Georgia 1863, a 'what if' scenario allowing Breckenridge's division to plough into Negley's Union division instead of being pulled off to the north by Braxton Bragg. I have played this before and it is an interesting scenario and a desperate fight for both sides. Eric chose the Union so I was Breckinridge which is fair enough as he was a handsome devil.

I decided not to attempt a full on charge and instead advanced to hopefully win the firefight due to the numbers involved, I did manage to rout the crews of one Federal battery and things looked good. As the turns progressed the return fire from the Federals in the woods was devastating while mine was extremely poor, my assault faltered. I brought on another brigade and attempted to extend my line to the right, a skirmish unit which should have been chased away was not and this delay allowed Erik to retreat into the nearby woods. I now brought on my artillery battalion and spent time finding space for it, I was hoping for great things from these guns, I had Bob Hope instead.

The Rebs arrive out of the dawn.

I had managed to extend my line and as frustration mounted and I suffered from the deadly volleys from the Yankees I threw almost everything I had into a wave of desperate charges. Some were halted but a couple broke through the Union centre, two regiments now had a chance to turn and roll up the blue line on both sides. A Federal sharpshooter put a halt to this as the brigade commander took a hit and had to be carried to the rear, no advance orders could be given so my boys had to disengage rather than strike. This still left a large hole in the Union centre but it looked like I would lose the race to take advantage of it. During one melee the Louisiana Tigers fought to the last man in an effort to beat the 4th Minnesota and just narrowly failed to rout their tormentors it was an epic fight against the odds.

My right attacks with high hopes.

They are halted and I bring up the guns.

Desperate volleys from both sides.

On the left I was still getting nowhere against the Union defenders in the woods and their return fire was still causing me problems, my third brigade had now arrived and although tempted to put fresh troops in harms way I pushed them towards the centre instead. At this moment Erik charged the 44th New York into the gap in his line and it failed to catch my disengaging troops but now found itself the target of every Reb gun and musket within range. Once again Erik pulled a rabbit from the hat and the 44th stood their ground. If Erik had played the game before I doubt he would have charged however he had once again halted a Confederate advance as everyone turned their anger on the 44th, my chance to get into that gap was slipping away.

The action hots up.

More Rebs turn up, but where to go?

I start looking to the fight flank.

We had to call a halt at this point with the Rebs struggling and the Union winning the race to reform their line. I have nothing on next week so will leave the game up and play a few more turns although this might not take long and the Federals have a chance to hit the Confederate right a devastating blow. The game was good but I could not match Erik's die rolling, he threw at least 10 - 12 double sixes along with many eleven's and ten's for shooting and morale, he was averaging for a time seven casualties on my boys. Granted three of his doubles meant the Second brigade lost it's commander and two replacements but sadly his men shrugged these losses off.

Confusion amongst both sides.

The 44th New York in trouble.

The curtain falls for now.

Looking over the battlefield this morning I might not manage a lot of turns and get a few hours enjoyment out of the chaos.

I have completed an anti-tank gun and a .30 cal medium machine gun for the Americans, they only need based now but that will take another day. I have chosen to build one of the tanks next, a 75mm Sherman from Rubicon, I was tempted to get a 3D print but do not have transfers for American armour, hence Rubicon. I must admit though, although you get a really good sheet from Rubicon they do not give you any idea of where they fit on the tank. The stars and registration are no problem but they give you quite a few other markings and personal art, but don't tell you where they fit. They are particularly bad with this on their Russian vehicles, would it hurt them to show details on the building sheet?

I have given up on 'Nasty Little War' as the author (female Reg) seems to have a beef against the West and the British Empire in particular, the Imperial characters resembling actors from a 'Ripping Yarn' episode, I also think she overplays the American intervention to the detriment of the rest. I am a third of the way through almost and have heard basically nothing of the White forces or their leaders. So I have picked up Goldsworthy's book on Athens and Sparta.

Morecambe is having an Armed Forces Weekend today and tomorrow so I am popping down with my Veterans card and badge in the hope I might get a couple of quid off a hot dog or burger. I have never really felt like a veteran as I did not fight anyone or was involved in anything out of the ordinary, I just did my duty and deterred the Red Menace and Yellow Peril from overwhelming the West, oh, and had a whale of a time doing it. I nearly got a medal but fell short by one day for Northern Ireland, it always makes me wonder about modern service personnel with enough medals to make a Russian general jealous, what are they all for? The Royal Navy for some reason was absent from all the tents in Morecambe, maybe they couldn't spare a trailer and half a dozen guys or were simply too embarrassed.

Surely you are not that old?

Royal Navy unveils its new fighter.

Give it some noise darling before the Old Bill come for the flags.

On the subject of armed forces, Gabrielle Anderson is a new corporal!

Father's day tomorrow and my boys have come through, Stewart got me the new book on Alexander the Great and Graham has booked a talk for Andrew Robert's on Napoleon's Marshals along with his book on the subject. Very happy.