This week we had some strong storms move through, with strong winds from the south-east for two days. On Friday the wind died down and the day turned out to be a beautiful fall day. I went down to the pond to look for Odin, hoping that the winds had carried her back towards the beach. Alas, there was no sign of Odin.
While building the new boats, I looked up Napoleonic gunboats. In one picture, there were Royal Marines sitting in the midsection of the boat. Somewhere I had seen some Peter Laing sitting Marines. I wish I had some of them; they would look good in my boats.
I used my 2mm blocks to fight a quick battle based on Edgehill. I used The Wargame, by Peter Young as the guide. The board main feature was the ridge line the Royalists set up on. Forces were picked based on 1 stand for every 1000 men, rounded up or down. This gave the Royalists 4 stands of cavalry, 10 of infantry, and the Parliamentarians 3 cavalry and 12 infantry; Dragoons counted as cavalry.
The Royalist cavalry charged the Parliamentarian cavalry and drove it back. They pursued and the rest of the game were occupied trying to eliminate the remains of the cavalry. The Royalists charged downhill, and at first drove back the Parliamentarian infantry. Eventually the Royalists were driven back up the hill and the Parliamentarians took the ridge and won the battle. From my limited knowledge of the English Civil War, it seemed the game played out much like the actual battle.
The game turned out to be rather enjoyable, and I am now thinking of using a similar system to fight other historical games. In Practical Wargamer, there was an illustrator by the name of John Parke, who did illustrated battle maps. His maps has me thinking of using them for games based on his battle maps.
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| Two new "Odin" gunboats being built. |
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| My battle of "Edgehill". The Parliamentarians (grey) have taken the ridge. A unit of Royalists cavalry is attacking the Parliamentarian right flank belatedly. The Royalists have lost too many units and cannot recover. I had no intention of reporting on this game, so only have this one photo of the end of the game. |
