“Gold.. errr.. Copper.. on the Scales” - Game ♠♥◆♣

For me, as a solo player, the narrative is always key, but I accept some find the mechanics interesting as well, so each move has both - you can read one or the other (or both), as required..😁

For the dramatis personae I refer you to the previous post [clicky].. the scene opens with four nefarious looking characters creeping up to the back corner of the hotel/saloon...

Move 1:

First the bad guys: Colt J◆ (card partially obscured), Emmett 10◆, Bart 8◆, Joe 4♠. Then the good guys, Jesse (in the General Store) 9♠, Nugget (in the Hotel)  J♠, Wyatt (on the wagon) 5♣ and finally Waylon (in the Assay Office) 5♥

The four outlaws crept up stealthily behind the hotel, bandanas up...  all looked pretty quiet in Cedar Gulch but across the way they could see the wagon pulled up outside the Assay Office, the horse almost more asleep than the driver..

In the hotel, a dreamy look on his face as a result of the overnight ministrations of the extravagantly coiffured "Hairy Mary", Nugget is contemplating his coffee and the imminent return to his claim up in the mountains when his peace is rudely shattered by the sound of a six gun...

.."four outlaws crept up stealthily behind the hotel"..

Out front of the hotel the gangs boss, Clay, the six gun still smoking in his hand, curses as he sees his shot has only winged the driver. Next to him his second in command, Emmett, also takes a shot but misses completely.

Nugget is not the only one who's surprised by the fusillade of shots. In the General store, Jesse Cassidy - the town deputy - had been chatting amiably with the store owner over a shared pot of coffee while he kept an eye on goings at the Assay Office. 

Dropping his coffee he runs out of the door of the store, and heads towards the shots. Running into the alley between the store and the saloon, he throws himself through a side window and into the foyer of the Hotel where he comes face to face with an old prospector, clutching a cup of coffee, and with an alarmed look on his face.. 

"Holdup at the Assay Office, haul your iron" he shouts before taking up a position at the front window.

Back outside, Colt gestures at Bart, the youngster in the gang, to get down the back of the saloon and General Store and come round from the other side - Bart nods and starts running.

On the wagon, Wyatt has had a rude awakening, spotting the gunsmoke across the street he knows 'it ain't wise staying where he is' and throws himself off the wagon and into the Assay Office for cover. Inside the Office Waylon nods at his partner from his position by the front window and fires across the street at Colt. "Hold up I reckon, mate, but I just got one of them!" he shouts. Across the street Colt grasps at his leg and ducks down.

Joe looks on in horror as he sees his boss hit, but sheer greed drives him to run across the street to the slight rise running along the side of the Assay Office. He takes cover in the scrub where he can get a good view of the front and side of the building.

Mechanics behind the narrative (and in order of activation):

1. Nugget (in the Hotel)  J♠ : with no one in sight, and no issues seen, I played a pass for him this move (but in hindsight I could have allowed him to delay his phase to later in the turn).
2. Colt J◆ : moves to the front corner of the hotel (1 action) and fires at Wyatt once (1 action) - he hits but only scores a "graze" on the to hit table. Wyatt then passes his Toughness (morale) test.
3. Emmett 10◆: moves to the front corner of the hotel (1 action) and fires at Wyatt once (1 action) - he misses.
4. Jess 9♠: moves via the alley by the side of the hotel and jumps through a window to enter the hotel (1 action)
5. Bart 8◆: moves twice down the back of the hotel and towards the back of the General store - two actions
6. Wyatt 5♣: jumps from the wagon (1 action) and moves into the Assay Office (1 action)
7. Waylon 5♥: moves to a window (1 action)  and takes a shot at Colt (1 action). He hits, and gets a leg wound on the to hit table. Colt then fails his toughness test and becomes "lily livered" (ie. "shaken")
8. Joe 4♠: moves twice (2 actions)  to the cover provided by the slight rise, and the scrub.
9. Tension Clock result: 5 (no action)

Move 2:

First the bad guys: Colt 6♣, Emmett Q♠, Bart 5♠, Joe 2◆. Then the good guys, Jesse (in the hotel) 5◆, Nugget (in the hotel) 4◆, Wyatt 3♥ and finally Waylon 8♥

By the side of the Hotel, Colt grunts with the pain in his leg, but he can see the boys are putting up a good show so decides to find out what the crash was that he'd just heard in the saloon - ducking up to the window, he takes a quick glance inside and sees an old prospector, and a guy with a badge - trouble! He fires off a shot and is rewarded with the sight of blood on the deputy's leg! Jesse, spins and returns fire at Colt who's outlined in the window but misses, but Nugget also fires off two shots at him, and is rewarded with a grunt of pain, blood, and Colt disappears from the window.. "no varmint is taking my stash", he grunts..

Emmett, who was that man, decides to get in to cover, and follows his compadre across the street and also takes cover behind the scrub covered rise. Up the street, Bart skids to a halt by the far corner of the General Store. He's got his eye on the Barbers across the street, not for a haircut but to give him cover for an approach to the other side of the Assay Office.

.."Emmett decides to get in to cover"..

Over in the Assay Office Waylon has seen one of the bad guys come running across the street but he can't see him, and buoyed by the success of his last shot he fires twice at the guy who had been standing next to the man he hit - "damn, missed him!" Wyatt reckons it's more than past time he started fighting back, and crosses the Office to the window that faces the rise where Emmett and Joe have taken cover - spotting Emmett he fires off a shot at him but can see he has missed. He ducks down as the wood round the window is splintered by the other outlaw leaving a cut on his cheek..

Mechanics behind the narrative (and in order of activation):

1. Emmett Q♠: swaps his card with Colt (who is "lily livered"/shaken), so Colt goes first but the face card also allows automatic recovery from being lily livered... he moves (1 action) and then fires once (1 action) - hitting Jesse, and getting a leg wound on the the to hit table. Jesse then fails his toughness test and goes "lily livered".
2. Waylon 8♥: fires twice (2 actions) but misses both times.
3. Emmett 6♣: moves twice (2 actions)
4. Bart 5♠: moves twice down the back and up the side of the General store - two actions
5. Jesse (in the Saloon) 5◆: test to recover from lily livered failed (1 action) and fires at Colt (1 action) - short range, hard cover, lily livered = 9+ (on 2D6) and misses (by 1!)
6. Nugget (in the Hotel) 4◆ : fires two shots at Colt (2 actions) - short range, hard cover = 8+. Hitting him once and rolling severe wound and unconscious on the to hit table
7. Wyatt 3♥: crosses the office (1 action) and fires out the side window at Emmett (1 action) - short range but hard cover = 8+, but misses
8. Joe 2◆: moves up besides Emmett (1 action) and fires a shot off at Wyatt (1 action) - short range, hard cover = 8+, hits him but only rolling grazed on the to hit table. Wyatt then passes his Toughness test
9. Tension Clock result: 5 (no action)

Positions in the Assay Office

Move 3:

First the bad guys : Colt Q◆, Emmett 3◆, Bart K♠ and Joe 7♥. Then the good guys, Jesse (in the Saloon) K◆, Nugget (also in the Saloon) 7♠, Wyatt 10♥ and finally Waylon Q♥

Up the street Bart is breathing heavily from his run up behind the Hotel and general Store, but can see the way is clear and runs across the street to the alley between the Barbers and the Assay Office. In the Hotel Jesse pulls himself together and moves to one of the front windows just in time to see Bart run across the street - he fires but misses "damn!"

Waylon, by the front window of the Office has also seen Bart cross the street and can hear him just by the open door - springing up he charges out the door and launches himself at Bart. The ensuring fight is savage, Bart viciously kicks him in the leg and Waylon staggers back badly hurt. Wyatt looking to help his buddy also comes out of the Office and attacks Bart. In the ensuing fight Wyatt is similarly beaten savagely by Bart, and staggers back dazed...

At the hotel Nugget can see Clay just below the side window and taking the opportunity to grab some curtain pulls he climbs out and ties him up..  "you ain't going to do any more harm" he mutters, but as he glances up he sees the outlaws across the way start moving in in on the side of the Office.

"you ain't going to do any more harm"

Emmett's seen what has happened to his boss and is beginning to get angry, "this should have been a push over and it ain't". Crossing the rise he fires off a shot at Wyatt, who's only just recovering from the attack on Bart, hitting him in the leg

Mechanics behind the narrative (and in order of activation):

1. Bart K♠: moves twice (two actions)
2. Jesse (in the Saloon) K◆: gets an automatic recovery from lily livered because of the King activation card, moves (1 action) and fires (1 action) but misses
3. Waylon Q♥: moves twice (2 actions) into contact with Bart - in the hand to hand Bart wins by 1 pt resulting in two wounds to Waylon, and a push back. Waylon passes his toughness test.
4. Colt Q◆: Clint is out cold and with no A's/4's in the group he tests to recover but fails and remains unconscious.
5. Wyatt 10♥: moves twice (2 actions) into contact with Bart - in the hand to hand Bart wins causing two arms wounds - Wyatt passes his toughness test.
6. Nugget (also in the Saloon) 7♠: out of the window (1 action) tying up Colt (1 action) - I made an error on this move - a 7 allows three actions
7. Joe 7♥: moves twice (2 actions) - like Nugget Joe should have had another action
8. Emmett 3◆: moves (1 action) fires (1 action) - hits and gets a leg wound on the to hit table - Wyatt passes his toughness test though he is beginning to look like a pin cushion!
9. Tension Clock result: 5 (that's the third time!) - no action 

Move 4:

First the bad guys:  Emmett J♣, Bart K♥ and Joe A♥. Then the good guys, Jesse (in the Saloon) 10♠, Nugget (standing next to the now bound Colt) 4♥, Wyatt J♥ and finally Waylon Q♥

"How the pendulum swings, and all down to Bart!" thinks Emmett...

By the side of the Office Joe, ducks through the window and fires off a shot at the heavily wounded Wyatt hitting him in the leg. As Joe laughs Wyatt ducks down, but he's looking hunted, and then Bart also opens fire on him, drawing more blood!

Out in the open in front of the Office, Waylon is not doing much better, he's stuck between a rock and hard place - he's got one bad guy in the Office, one ahead of him and another behind him.. and all of them are either out of sight or in cover apart from the guy in the fancy duds.. he turns, pulling his revolver as he does, and fires, but "fancy duds" beats him to the draw, hitting him twice, and killing him outright.. Waylon slumps to the floor

Wyatt groans at the sight, he's had enough - he stumbles to the Barber Shop window and collapses through it into cover just as more shots ring out from the Hotel. 

On the rise Emmett grabs his arm and ducks down.

Mechanics behind the narrative (and in order of activation):

1. Joe A♥ - move 1 action and fires 1 action - he hits and gets a leg wound on the to hit table. Wyatt fails his toughness test and becomes "lily livered"/shaken
2. Bart K♠ - Bart fires twice (at -1 for his Greenhorn status) hitting once but only grazing him on the to hit table
3. Waylon Q♥ - no action as beaten to the draw and killed
4. Wyatt J♥ - moves (1 action), and through the window (1 action) 
5. Jesse (in the Saloon) 10♠ - fires twice at Emmett (2 actions) but misses
6. Nugget (standing next to the now bound Colt) 4♥ - fires twice at Emmett (2 actions) hits once, and gets an arm on the to hit table. Emmett fails his Toughness Test
7. Emmett 3◆ - fires twice at Waylon (2 actions) - hitting in the leg and also a severe wound - the third leg wound is enough to kill him 
8. Tension Clock result: 4 - no action 

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....and I think this is getting long enough for now, so I'll bring this episode to a close...  stay tuned for next weeks conclusion to this bloody tale, children! 😁

 Laters, as the young people are want to say...

“Gold.. errr.. Copper.. on the Scales” - Setup ♥◆♣♠

Time for another update.. and a game is in the offing..

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A dusty Cedar Gulch, shortly before noon. 

A shipment is being weighed inside the Assay Office, and word has spread that in addition to the copper, there may be some slightly more precious metal in there as well - the talk in the town is that some itinerant prospector got lucky up in the hills and sold his stash before moving on - "there ain't nothing else there..  trust me.."

Outside the Assay Office, a wagon waits, the horses ears occasionally flicking the flies off..  the driver quietly smoking..

Players & Factions:

• Town Law (A Deputy) 
• Outlaws (Four of them) 
• Prospector ("Nugget" Turner) - an (extremely) interested party
• Assay Office Guards (two of them - one is the driver)

Key Terrain:

• Assay Office : 
• There is a wagon drawn up outside the Assay Office
• 1 entrance - three windows (front and side)
• Lockable strong room (currently open)
• Inside is The Shipment: Represented by 3 large bags in the middle of the floor
• Next door is the Barber, across the road is the Saloon, and next door to that the General Stores

Deployment:

Good guys with black identifiers, bad guys red..

• The sole representative of the law in town is #4 the deputy (the Sherriff is out of town on other business), Jesse Cassidy - Jesse knows that there is a shipment going out that morning and has also heard the gossip about possible other items being shipped, so has walked up main street from the gaol to keep an eye on the Assay Office from across the street inside the Trading Post where he's enjoying a cup of coffee with the owner.
• Nugget (#3) is just about to leave the Saloon, he's having a last cup of coffee having enjoyed a good breakfast after a night spent in the arms of the fragrant, lovely and extravagantly coiffured "Hairy Mary" Malone.
• The two Assay Office Guards (hired for this specific job) are positioned one on the wagon (Wyatt Parker #1), and one in the office (Waylon Garrett #2)
• The Outlaws have left their horses just off table behind the Saloon (so that is their entry point) and comprise:
• Colt Edwards (#1)
• Emmett Williams (#2)
• Joe Barton (#3)
• Bart Johansson (#4)

Scenario Specific Rules: 

• In the Assay Office each bag is classed as heavy (movement penalty : requires 1 action to carry, can't run, can't move twice) 
• The Tension Clock : at the end of each round, roll 1d6: On a 6 the bell rings noon in the local church, and the game enters its last 2 rounds. 

Victory Conditions:

• For each bag the Outlaws escape with they get 2 pt.; for each bag they don't escape with they lose 1 pt.
• For each injury (including gut shot and winded) to the Good Guys the Outlaws get 1pt; for each of the same to the Outlaws the Good Guys get 1 pt.
• At least one of the Outlaws or Good Guys has to be alive at the end of the game in order to receive victory points - "dead men tell no tails" 😏

• Victory goes to the player with the most Victory Points.. so not necessarily the most bags.

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 Laters, as the young people are want to say...

I have been to... The Imperial War Museum

Time for another update..  and SteveTheWargamer has been travelling..

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Had an opportunity to pop up to the smoke this week with a couple of beer drinking mates - the plan was to visit the museum (as they also have an interest in military history) and then go search for some pubs with decent beer..

Didn't start too well with the news that one of the trio wasn't going to be able to make it as a result of a medical issue with one of his AP's, and then we found the day definitely wasn't getting any better for some unfortunate who had had an altercation with the train directly in front of us, just as we were about to get in to London Waterloo.. 😔 Sum it all up, the train reversed, and then took a circuititious route back in to Waterloo, but the 90 minute journey turned into a 3 hour one..

By that point we were definitely in need of a beer so a stop off at "The Hercules", a Fullers pub, for a pint of "Grand Slam" was very much needed...  what can I say - first beer of the day, it was OK...  was it worth the £7+ per pint (😱) not really, but those are the London prices..  

Pushed on past the old Kennington Miniatures shop, which (funnily enough) was in Kennington Road, and the Museum comes into view... what I didn't know until afterwards is that the building the Museum occupies is not purpose built - it was originally the central portion of the old Bethlem Royal Hospital, a psychiatric institution known locally as "Bedlam". Entry is free by the way (to the museum anyway, and I guess the hospital as well..😏)...

I reckon the Museum must have one of the more dramatic entries!

As you pass under the two 15" naval guns..  

..not my picture - it was piddling down with rain and I wanted to get out of it! This one is courtesy of the Museum..

you push through the front doors and are presented with this vista..

...quite astonishing - those are all originals by the way..  the white thing is a Japanese WW2 jet powered bomb, a Yokosuka MXY7 Ohka Model 11 [clicky]. That thing was carried slung under a bomber and released once they were within reach of the target where the kamikaze pilot would then glide to the target before engaging the rockets for the last dive. Above it is a Mk1A Spitfire [clicky], and above that a Harrier GR5A [clicky] - this particular Harrier flew over 40 missions in Afghanistan before being withdrawn from service...

...and then skulking in the background..

...in addition to the V2, note also the square of brown'ish metal bottom right - that's all that
remained of a car from the site of  9/11.. 

..an original V2 [clicky] that was gifted to the museum in 1946 - you forget how huge these things were, look at the guy standing next to the rocket exhaust for scale ... a 100 of those a week - each with a 1000Kg warhead - were landing on Antwerp in December '44 as part of Hitlers Ardennes/Bulge offensive. Which begs the question, they were frightening for sure, but a drop in the ocean next to a fully loaded Lancaster that carried 14 times that, and came back, and could be used again. In military terms it seems to me to be the same difference as between playing the Lottery, or buying Premium Bonds - one is a one shot could win, the other can be used over and over for the win...  why did the Germans spend so much of their scarce resources and time on these things?

The Museum is on multiple floors and most of the ground and first floor are WW1/2 themed, loads and loads of exhibits, but these are the one's that caught my eye..

On the ground floor a RHA WW1 13pdr and limber [clicky]..  when I was a boy I had a spring loaded model of this (it may have been the 18pdr 😏), so it caught my eye...

This one has an amazing back story (it's worth clicking on the link) but in summary served with the 1st Cavalry Division in 1914 and was present at Le Cateau where it received the damage that can be seen ..

Note the shell scrape on the (lower) barrel..

..and then see what the shell did when it came through the gap in the shield..  trunnion completely destroyed..   and I don't want to even think of the damage this would also have done to the crew sheltering behind the shield in this area.. 

Note also the damage to the end of the muzzle...

Elsewhere..  the remains of a Zero (an A6M3) found 50 years after the war in the jungle on the island of Toroa by an archaeologist - amazing how well the aluminium shell has lasted - apparently they found a British bullet lodged in the air frame of this one, and the remains of a dried Lotus flower in the cockpit, carried by Japanese pilots for luck. ..

I was quite surprised at how big it was, but I had a look on Google afterwards and it is shorter than the Spitfire, but had a wider wingspan and only weighed 60% of the (more heavily armoured) Spitfire..

The mighty German 8.8 cm Flak 36/37 anti-aircraft/anti-tank gun, bloody enormous!

...but such a high profile...  I had no idea by the way that the first iteration of this gun dated to WW1 (the Flak 16 version)

...and speaking of Lancaster's..  this is the nose section of "Old Fred" a Lancaster Mk. 1, which flew 49 sorties over enemy territory during 1943 - 1944 with 47 Squadron (RAAF)..  I was hugely taken by the sheer amount of Perspex, and the simplicity of the fittings..  make no mistake they were brave men...  but I wondered why they stopped at 49 and didn't do the 50?

....on the car restoration YouTube sites they call this (following) "patina" 😁This is a Chevrolet truck used by the LRDG [clicky] and only discovered in the Egyptian desert in 1980..

...it's a Chevrolet WB (Wide Body) 30cwt four by two, and the markings on it when it was found indicate it was operated by the New Zealand contingent of the LRDG, and was abandoned sometime mid-1941..  this one was named by Trooper Clarkie Waetford (who was in W Patrol) as "Waikaha"

..the remains of what I think is a circular Union Jack on the tail..

Next - one of my favourites in my WW2 miniatures collection are the Peter Pig German motorbikes so this was a draw.. a BMW R75 750cc with sidecar.. no known history but the Museum does known that the grey paint job is incorrect for the age of the motorbike, as it is a late war model..

....and last of all - how can you not love a Sherman? 😏When this one [clicky] was given the Museum they had no idea of the history, but when they stripped the paint back they found the markings for a tank that would have been in the 2nd Battalion of the Grenadier Guards, Guards Armoured Division. It's the M4A4 variant (it had a longer engine) and dates to 1944/45 in Western Europe...  note the additional pieces of armour welded on the side (to protect the driver I think - there's the same on the other side to protect the bow machine gunner who was backup driver) and also in front of the their respective hatches on the front of the tank..

...and that was it with the pictures as from here we went to the Holocaust Gallery which describes the various pogroms and industrial killings of ethnic and political groups (but of course mostly the Jews) not only by the Nazi's, but also by the Russians - it's a sobering visit - hugely informative, and tries to explain the timeline of how the Nazi's escalated from political prisons like Sachsenhausen when they took power to the inception of the death camps exemplified by Auschwitz..  it describes the Nazi's preoccupation with eugenics, racial purity and all the rest of the shit show they used to justify the killing.. not a place for photo's but I found it hugely informative, sad, sobering as I said, but also depressing - we as human kind are still doing it...

Last stop was almost a palate cleanser in comparison, one of their special exhibits at the moment is to do with Britain's involvement in independence conflicts after WW2 - called "emergencies" by the British government (apparently for insurance reasons, as calling it a war would invalidate insurance of any British civilians in the area!) the exhibition covers the emergencies in Kenya, Malaya, and Cyprus...  very good I thought - I learnt a lot more than I knew about all of them - the Cyprus part of the exhibition was particularly good, of the three of them, the ramifications of that "emergency" are still felt to this day, and still not resolved.. 

Time for some more beer, and after an "OK" pint in the local Wetherspoons (mostly to get some food) the final stop of the day was a pub from my bucket list..

Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese is in Fleet Street. The current pub dates from 1667, when the original pub that was on the site from 1538 got burnt down in the Great Fire - it's an absolute belter and is one of the last of the old London Chop houses. It's owned by the Sam Smith's Brewery so we were drinking their Old Brewery Bitter, about as traditional a British bitter as it's possible to get these days! Very tasty, and the pub lived up to all the expectations - pubb'ier than a pub thing, a right rabbit warren of wood panelled rooms with squashy sofas, chairs, and comfortable benches, coal fires, and a ceiling that's been painted by 300 years of nicotine smoke..  lovely...

...we were in this bar, couldn't get my own picture as one, it was full of people, two it was too dark, and three I was busy slurping beer... 😏

😍

Brilliant day out, only improved by the fact that the train home was quick, and not delayed!

Further reading stuff if you're interested:

• https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/big-guns-londons-imperial-war-museum-195081 - some history on the two 15" guns at the entrance
• https://truck-encyclopedia.com/ww2/us/chevrolet-WB-30cwt.php - excellent review and descriptions of the Chevy trucks used by LRDG
• https://theliberatingkind.wordpress.com/2025/02/24/m4a4-willie-pusher-ii/ - more detail on the Sherman
• https://ye-olde-cheshire-cheese.co.uk/about/

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 Laters, as the young people are want to say...

"Firing into the Brown" #99 - mines, claims and stuff

"So Carnehan weeds out the pick of his men, and sets the two of the Army to show them drill and at the end of two weeks the men can manoeuvre about as well as Volunteers. So he marches with the Chief to a great big plain on the top of a mountain, and the Chiefs men rushes into a village and takes it; we three Martinis firing into the brown of the enemy".

Kipling "The Man Who Would Be King"

Time for another update..  just a short one... 

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Meanwhile....  out in the Solent... (😁)

Russian warship deploying a moored contact mine.
Painting by the French artist Louis Charles Bombled (1862-1927)

Russian Sailors Saluting a French Transport (Marins russes saluant un transport francais )

also by Bombled

....shades of the excellent Siege of Portsmouth! 

To be fair though, the first picture is from a series illustrating the Russo-Japanese War, and the second is from the book "La Guerre a Madagascar" (by H Galli) 😁

Could find very little about Bombled - he was hugely prolific though, and his military subjects definitely appealed to me. There's more than a shade of "Look and Learn" about them (and if nothing else does, that dates me!)..  

More pictures here [clicky] if you fancy a look..

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It was midday in the the peaceful (😏) town of Cedar Gulch, and "Nugget" Turner (Joe to his mom) had just stepped out of the Assay Office where he'd been depositing his latest finds..

It was one of his three monthly visits to town to stock up on chewing tobacco, flour, and salt before he returned to his remote and lonely claim two days ride up in the mountains behind the town where he mined and dug for copper.. 

He'd leave tomorrow morning.. before that there was time for a long soak in a bath, followed by a glass or two of something in the Saloon, a good steak dinner, and then perhaps a visit upstairs to see if any of Ma Kelly's girls were free....

Across the way in the Saloon though, envious eyes had followed him into the office, and then across the street towards the barber.. pausing only to finish his drink, Bart (Bartholomew to his mom..  or rather that is when she was sober enough to remember it..) Johansson had seen enough, that was the third deposit to the Assay Office in the last two days... time he let the boss and the boys know that their was rich pickings to be had..

😀

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 Laters, as the young people are want to say...   and maybe that game...

Attack on Brill - setup and game..

Time for another update..  and a game for once, a vaguely historical refight of an actual engagement in the English Civil War - the Attack on Brill - which was promoted by a post on Farcebook by the excellent Battlefields Trust

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Historical background.. 

December 1642, and after their defeat at Turnham Green and their subsequent withdrawal to Oxford, the Royalists had established winter quarters for their army in the towns and strategic points around their new capital. 

Banbury, Reading and Abingdon were major garrisons but others, like Wallingford, Burford and Islip guarded important crossings of the Thames and its tributaries. Then to the east of Oxford there were a number of small garrisons in Buckinghamshire, there purely to retain their control of the county - one such garrison was established in the small hilltop village of Brill. 

Worth noting that the village was equidistant between Oxford and Aylesbury - roughly 15 miles from each but slightly closer to Oxford..

The village had been an important royal manor during the Middle Ages, but in the December of 1642 was home to two Royalist Lancashire foot regiments, under Lord Molyneux and Sir Gilbert Gerard, who proceeded to fortify it with banks and ditches around the church. 

The nearest Parliamentary garrison was at Aylesbury. There, Colonel Arthur Goodwin the Parliamentary Commander-in-Chief for Buckinghamshire, had three foot regiments (Bulstrode's, Holmstead's and Tyrell's) along with his own regiment of horse and Browne’s Regiment of Dragoons. 

Portrait of Arthur Goodwin in about 1639 by Anthony van Dyck

Goodwin had decided to eliminate the Royalist presence in Brill, and marched out of Aylesbury in late January with his horse, Homestead’s Regiment of Foot, and Colonel Browne’s Dragoons but he also had with him two pieces of ordnance (described as sakers [clicky] ie. slightly smaller than a 6pdr) in order to breach the defences. 

The refight..

Parliamentary entry point is bottom of table..

...with a church and village, surrounded by makeshift earthworks

Royalists deploy within the earthworks

OOB:

Royalist:

All regular foot, and at full strength (6 Strength Points or SP)

• Charles Gerard's Regiment of Foot
• John Belasyse's Regiment of Foot (standing in for Molyneaux's)

Parliament:

All units are regular and at full strength (6 SP)

• Brooke's Regiment of Foot (for Homestead's)
• Gramson's Horse (for Goodwin's)
• Wardlowe's Dragoons (for Browne's)

Scenario specific rules:

• Rules will be my SYW variant [clicky]
• It seems likely that the sound of gunfire would clearly have been heard in Oxford which was only 12 miles away, so I am also assuming that there was a clear need to get this done quickly - my moves are quite short in terms of time so the scenario is limited to 15 turns (roughly two or three hours)
• Artillery ammunition was not plentiful at the time [clicky], and as this was also a bit of a flying column, I'm assuming Goodwin didn't bring a lot with him - the guns are therefore limited to 10 shots between them (ie. 5 each)
• I am going to assume* the earthworks were not substantial as the Royalists had only arrived in December, and Goodwin attacked in January - so they would be almost trenches with a raised parapet. Accordingly, each earthwork section is worth 3 SP's, once this is reduce to 0 by any artillery fire (only) that section is removed... 

* This is probably an unsafe assumption, but I have done it for playability reasons, as normally an assault on a fixed and defended position needs a clear 3 or 4 to 1 advantage (if I had been Goodwin, I would have brought both the other foot regiments with me, and probably any other units I could scrounge or lay my hands on as well. Shock and awe always works...😏) 

The refight:

Initial deployment was as follows..  Goodwin's sole foot regiment on the right flank - then cavalry in the middle, and the dragoons ready for a quick advance on his left. The sakers are deployed on his far right on a slight knoll..

In the village - following - the Royalists are limited in what they can do, so both regiments sit waiting while 'enjoying' the hectoring of the local monk.. 😁

I figured the real Goodwin wouldn't do anything before his sakers had done their work, so other than a general advance to just outside of musket range by his foot and horse, the only other major tactical move for my fictional Goodwin was to send his dragoons off to one flank - when the time came for an assault then an attack on two fronts could only help..  the following shows about move two., with the general advance by the horse and foot, and the flanking move by the dragoons..

..note the purple dice in front of the earthwork section in the following - the sakers are doing their stuff..

...and the plan worked surprisingly well - one of the trench sections has been blasted into nothingness (black pom poms - see following) and the sakers then switched what was left of their fire to the now unprotected Royalist foot regiments..

To forestall the inevitable, and because if they just sit there they're going to continue being shot at by the artillery, Belasyse's charge down the hill into Brooke's, but are repulsed bloodily and rout (see following - red dice). Meanwhile the Parliamentary dragoons are ready to climb the hill - the intention is to occupy the church, the cavalry also stand ready...

In the next turn Belasyse's recover their moral though, and halt shaken, only for Brooke's to then charge up the hill, banners flying (the mental image puts me in mind of Sir Bevil Grenville leading his Cornish regiments up that hill at Roundway 😊). Unlike the Cornishmen though, and against all the odds, Belasyse's stand and send the 'Butchers and Dyers' reeling down the hill in rout!

Regrettably though, it was all too late for the Royalists, the Parliamentary dragoons had now occupied the church and were peppering Gerard's with musket fire from their flank, and Goodwin's horse now charged up the hill causing Belasyse's to rout from the village and the hill. 

Then Gerard's also failed their morale and followed them, Gerard and Molyneaux cursing and trying to rally them as they went, and Goodwin advanced and took control of the village..

Just a small action in the greater picture of the war, but a much need propaganda fillip for Parliament I think..

Post Match Analysis:

• what a fantastic little game - in the end we got nine full moves in, and I had no idea that the Parliamentarians would be so successful, but they did get good dice throws, the sakers were very effective, hitting 60-70% of the time 
• still felt that it all rested on a knife edge though, so the scenario specific rules worked..
• butchers bill was as you would expect - Parliament losing 6SP's, 50% casualties. The Royalists lost 3SP's, just less than 20% casualties (not counting the sakers in the overall total)

...and what actually happened??

Arriving before Brill on the 27th January, Goodwin had ordered Homestead’s foot regiment to assault the defences as the artillery opened a breach. Browne’s Dragoons were to stand-to until the breach was affected at which point they were to also launch their attack. Unfortunately, due to some confusion, the Parliamentary artillery did not concentrate its fire long enough to affect a breach and although Homestead’s men launched several charges, their firing was ineffective against the earthen defences. 

The fighting continued for two hours, but the Parliamentarians could make no impression on the defences. They were eventually forced to retreat due to the Royalist’s use of a smokescreen to drive away the attackers as detailed in a letter to Parliament: 

‘The Fight continued two houres, the Parliaments forces not giving way on one side in all that time; but at last the winde, and so the smoke being so in the face of them, which was made greater by wet straw which the enemy set on fire, they retreated, which the enemy perceiving made out after them in great triumph, pursuing them 4 miles with their horse...’  

(I wonder where that horse came from, reinforcements from Oxford I wonder?? Google tells me horses can trot at between 8 & 12 mph, and Brill was only 15 from Oxford - so given the battle/skirmish lasted a couple of hours that would have given the Royalists time to put a relief force together and also get there in time.. Theoretically.. 😏)

The Parliamentarians claimed that they lost between 10 and 17 dead including a captain, but the Royalists claimed (a probably highly exaggerated) 70 killed. 

Following the battle, the Royalist’s reinforced the garrison with cannon and sent tools to further improve the fortifications. 

Although Parliamentary forces moved up to Brill on a number of further occasions, the garrison was never attacked again and in April, needing troops to help relieve the besieged garrison at Reading, the King withdrew the garrison in order to reinforce the Oxford Army

Brill was not occupied again, except in passing, for the remainder of the war. 

More Reading:

• Wiki article on Goodwin
• The Farcebook post that started this off..

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 Laters, as the young people are want to say...