Sunday, February 12

"Firing into the Brown" #26 - archives, "Hatch End" 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..

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Retirement with time on my hands, and a bout of crappy weather in the UK (non-stop rain, cold, rain. cold and repeat) has seen me in the loft tidying, and chucking stuff out... going forward then, some of the more interesting bits and pieces will find their way here...   well interesting to me anyway....  

First off the chocks then, "Databooklet No. 6" from Military Modelling in December 1981 and written by the inestimable Peter Gilder...  









Difficult to believe how much a of a boon these little pamphlets were in the pre-Interweb days - in general the Internet wasn't even up and running until 2 years after this, and it would take years before it became the font of all the stuff useful (and un-useful!) that it is today...  so bottom line - that's why I kept it to throw away 42 years later...  😁

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Way too long since I had the little metal men out for a jaunt, so whilst engaged in the same clearing out session that unearthed the above, I found a scenario in an old Wargames Journal magazine [clicky] - it was a sample issue, so I'm guessing I picked it up at one of the wargame shows back in the day, and as Board Game Geek reckons it started with issue 1 in November 2005 I'm going to guess I picked it up at Salute that year (that's so long ago they were still at the Olympia venue!)

Anyway - a fairly unexceptional scenario but for some reason it caught my imagination and I decided to use it as an excuse to the get the English Civil War guys out.. they have been in their storage boxes far too long..

Scenario Notes:

  • Parliament is on the table at the start with the exception of their cavalry - this is a Parliamentary incursion into an area sympathetic to the Royalist cause, so they have garrisoned and looted (err..  "requisitioned supplies needed for the war effort"...) the village, seen top centre in the picture. Their cavalry are off forging for further supplies..  they will arrive back sometime up to turn 4 dependent on dice throw, and will appear at the far end of the road leading left/right in the picture following.
  • The Royalists arrive in two tranches - cavalry advance guard first on turn 1, the rest of the troops from turn 3.
  • Royalist reinforcements may arrive from turn 6 - throw a D6 and on a 6 there is then a 1:6 chance of one infantry unit or one cavalry unit arriving...  the odds are stacked against any Royalist reinforcements arriving.. 😀
  • The Royalist commander is a bit of a buffoon, and in an 'all fired hurry', and the cavalry arrive on table with orders to attack immediately, even if it is a fully formed infantry regiment with pikes set.. 😏

Stay turned for battle report and a ton of pictures - but in the meanwhile here's the table with the opening move taking place.....

Royalist advance guard arriving right.. Parliamentary infantry (top) deployed, but redeploying to face the threat...

OOB as follows:

Royalist/Attacker:

Unit

Notes/Type

Morale

SP’s

Gun 1

Medium (Saker)

0

6

5

4

3

2

1

skull

Gun 2

Medium (Saker)

0

6

5

4

3

2

1

skull

Pennyman’s

Regular/Steady

+1

 

5

4

3

2

1

skull

Blagge’s

Regular/Steady

+1

 

5

4

3

2

1

skull

Belayse’s

Regular/Steady

+1

 

5

4

3

2

1

skull

Grandison’s

Trotter

+1

6

5

4

3

2

1

skull

Byron’s

Trotter

+1

6

5

4

3

2

1

skull

King’s Life Guard

Cuirassier

+2

6

5

4

3

2

1

skull

Carnarvon’s

Galloper

+1

6

5

4

3

2

1

skull

Reinforcements:

Gerard’s

Regular/Steady

+1

 

5

4

3

2

1

skull

'tba'

Dragoons

+1

6

5

4

3

2

1

skull

Parliament/Defender:

Unit

Notes/Type

Morale

SP’s

Gun 1

Light (Falconette)

0

6

5

4

3

2

1

skull

Gun 2

Light (Falconette)

0

6

5

4

3

2

1

skull

Brooke's

Veteran

+2

6

5

4

3

2

1

skull

Wharton’s

Regular/Steady

+1

6

5

4

3

2

1

skull

Mandeville’s

Regular/Steady

+1

6

5

4

3

2

1

skull

Cholmley’s

Regular/Steady

+1

6

5

4

3

2

1

skull

Essex’s

Recruits

-1

6

5

4

3

2

1

skull

Innes’s*

Dragoon

0

6

5

4

3

2

1

skull

Wardlawe’s

Dragoon

0

6

5

4

3

2

1

skull

Fielding’s

Trotter

+1

6

5

4

3

2

1

skull

Gramson’s

Trotter

+1

6

5

4

3

2

1

skull

*Using Royalist dragoons as a proxy/stand-in

Stay tuned..

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

at
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8 comments:

  1. The Jolly Broom Man12/02/2023, 10:33

    Lovely looking table matey. Going to get some popcorn for when the after action report is posted!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Norm12/02/2023, 19:12

    Some good nostalgia - enjoyed seeing databook 6. Good to see a game coming to the table

    ReplyDelete
  3. Ray Rousell12/02/2023, 22:59

    Looks like it should ve a good game.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Steve-the-Wargamer13/02/2023, 12:56

      Ray - table top games are like glaciers round here.. they move slowly... :o)

      Delete
  4. David13/02/2023, 08:39

    I think I would have kept the booklet myself, for nostalgic rather than practical reasons. It shows how far we've all come though doesn't it? And how much we owe the founding characters in our wonderful hobby.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Steve-the-Wargamer13/02/2023, 13:01

      David - if you get in touch with me via the 'contact me' widget (over on the right of the main page) with your address, it's yours.. much happier to see it in good hands than the recycling...

      Delete

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