Thursday 5 December 2013

ECW Batrep - The Battle of Turner's Farm 1643


As you may have read in Fran and Lee's posts recently, The Rejects got together last Sunday for probably our last game of the year and what a great game it was too!!!
It was my first game of Posties new rules "By God or Might, we will Prevail" (Fran, Surj and Ian have all played before) The rules worked quite well and just need a little tidying up, which I'm sure Postie will have done when next we play the game.
As my post is the last of the 3 I tried to keep it a little more simple than my usual posts, but there's still far too many pics and there could/should have been more!!

"Prince Rupert's Army has been trying to bring the Earl of Essex to battle, thus forcing Essex to retire from the Midlands and giving the Royalist forces in the area some breathing space to fortify and re-supply various garrisons cut off by the Parliamentarian forces. A win over the Parliamentarians would give Rupert more fame and glory if he were to beat Essex. Essex as you can imagine will want to hang onto his stranglehold of the Midlands and its Royalist Garrisons, which are near to collapse. Both sides have come to the conclusion that it is now inevitable that a pitched battle is going to take place and both sides have built up their forces, confident of victory. They have now arrived at Turners Farm near the village of Stow ready to do battle".



A view of the Royalist flank from the left.


And from the right.....


Lord Henry Wilmot’s command (Me)
The Queen's, Prince Rupert's and behind The Prince of Wales' Horse
All were veteran troops


Royalist troops cross the bridge as support
Commanded by Robert Dormer, Earl of Carnarvern. Colonel Thomas 
Howard's and Lord Brougham Horse, the later being a Raw unit.


Lee’s troops led Lord Digby advance to close with the enemy
     Sir Arthur Aston's Veteran Horse at the rear and two Trained unit in the front
     Nicolas Crisp's and Sir Thomas Tyldesley's.


My and John’s Horse are set to charge.


The Parliamentarian's Surj and Dave move forward!!


Unlike these raw recruits, who continue to refuse to bloody move!
Come on Lord Broughton!!



Oh crap! John does his usual jammy git throws and smashes both regts of my Horse
 who both route back through both my other units of horse. I could be in trouble here??? Gulp!


Damn!! I was right it doesn’t look good, but the only good thing is all 
the Horse are disordered and cannot charge this turn.


But they can this turn, in desperation I charged Howard's Horse unit in column.
While John's unit Sir John Maldrum's charged my disordered Prince Rupert's Horse.


Prince Rupert's are destroyed and the charge carries on into the Prince of Wales Horse.


Prince Rupert’s Lifeguard, small but deadly move to the left flank to counter Fran’s Dragoons.


Lee and Fran Horse smash into each other on the left flank



The Royalist Infantry are still waiting for a decisive victory on the flanks to move forward.


The melee swings around in my favour, my column surprisingly beats and destroys the best 
unit on the table Sir Arthur Hasslerigg's Lobsters, killing poor Sir Arthur in the fighting. 
John threw at least 10 dice and scored no hits, while I threw 3 dice and got 3 hits!!


Fran’s Dragoons move down the road


With the victory and now a safe flank on our right Richard and Smiffy move their 
infantry forward, it was an agreement with Surjit the now lone infantry player as
 Dave had to leave early, to have a full scale advance with the infantry, mainly
 because they hadn’t had much of a game……….but BadBoy Surjit didn’t do 
as he agreed, this caused no end of problems!!!


Prince Rupert of the Rhine, with his dog, Boy.


The Prince of Wales’ Horse charged the rear of Sir John Meldrum’s Horse, there could
 be only 1 winner!!!!! The Royalist’s are victorious and  also capture the enemy leader


Richard gives fire as the Parliamentarian forces advance.


Fran and Lee’s Horse all meet, its bad news for the Royalists, Lee not only loses
 both melees but also his leader. Fran’s gloat was quite evil!


Fran trying to look serious??



The Earl of Essex


Fran dis-mounts his Dragoons and hops over the hedge to try and cause a little mischief.


With the flank is secure, I had to think what to do with my Horse?


Sir Charles Gerard's Foot advancing down the hill.



Will the infantry meet??


Its nearing the end of the game, but I’ve now got myself into a great position to charge next turn.


Now its Lee’s turn to have a little luck, he see’s off all the enemy Horse!!
 and captures Fran’s leader as well.


And there the game ends, as you've no doubt already read on Lee and Fran’s blogs, the
 game was a dead heat on points, it could have so easily gone either way. But if we’d played
 on for just one more turn, I've no doubt the victory would have been ours.


Well I would, wouldn't I??

60 comments:

  1. Poor Fran!
    Lee and Fran's horses smashing. That could bring up some interesting visuals.
    No shot of up Fran's nose? That's probably a good thing.
    Looks like an epic battle and a great way to end the year!

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  2. Adore that little bridge!
    And Fran looks like a monk in that picture :)

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  3. Great stuff, you guys know how to put on a good show :-)

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  4. Wow, as i've said before, great table and fantastic minatures! Shame the infantry didn't clash, but even so cav seemed the unit of choice for the time.

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    1. Yeh, it was a shame they didn't get in, I would have liked to see them in melee, there's always next game I suppose????

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  5. Ray, you weave a good tale! Outstanding layout and great looking figures. I am envious of your club outings.

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    Replies
    1. We do have a great time in the shed Jonathan!

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  6. That is a splendid table! And a good time was had by most every one.

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  7. That is a nice looking table Ray and the figures look great on it. It's worth all that work now isn't it. Fran looks so cute in that picture :0)

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    Replies
    1. Cute? Cute????? Fran's anything but Cute!

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    2. He's a cuddly teddy bear. You're just jealous.

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  8. Very nice AAR and a very good looking game !

    Best regards Michael

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  9. nothing to say about the battle: I'm not a specialist ....
    but, I like the terrain and your pictures.

    (Ray, you are very "soft" with Fran !! even the picture is good ...)

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    Replies
    1. Cheers Sam, and your right, I'm far to soft on that git Fran!

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  10. Great write up mate. It was a good game, even if we did only get a draw.. for a few minutes there we thought we had won. Pity our little victory dance was premature, but hey, at least we didn't loose. I think you're right though, another turn or two and I think we could have clinched victory.

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    1. Fairness went out the window when you started gloating about my captured leader. Very unsportamanlike if you ask me, you should be ashamed of yourself. I shall ask Postie to punish you appropriately next game!

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    2. He's a dirty rat alright!!!!!

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  11. Excellent report and photos Ray!!

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  12. I love the photo of Fran’s evil gloat. He looks like a seriously combat-hardened wargamer, the kind of man those little lead troops would follow into hell and back. :)

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    Replies
    1. Well I don't know about that Chris! The only thing that follows Fran around is his arse!

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  13. Great AAR with beautiful figures and pics, love the Prince Rupert of the Rhine!

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  14. I'm sure the victory would have been yours. I'm glad you had a closeup of the horses. They look awesome. Last game of the year? That sounds so sad….

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    Replies
    1. Victory was certain, that's for sure! We just can't fit in another game this year :0(

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  15. Lovely pics Ray. I am so attracted to the ECW but cannot afford another period. Keep repeating until palms stop sweating...

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    1. They'll never stop sweating, just give in and go for it John!

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  16. Great looking game and some real see-saws of luck there! Too bad the infantry didn't get a chance to get stuck-in. A push of pike would have been nice to see.

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    1. Totally agree, there were lots of swings and roundabouts, a draw was a fair result in the end. And it was a shame that the pike didn't get in, one more turn and they would have though, maybe next game????

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  17. Indeed, I did see the game on Fran's site earlier, but the game does look wonderful. I like that Prince Rupert fig with his dog. Best, Dean

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  18. Great Batrep, thanks for sharing! Must really get some ECW gaming in next year.
    Cheers, Ross

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  19. Looks a great game, ECW my first love

    Ian

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    Replies
    1. Its only the second time I've ever played the ECW, the first was years ago.

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  20. Great job Ray, smashing report.

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  21. As per the other Rejects blogs this looks to have been a great game with some really nice figures.
    Quick query are those 25mm ?

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    Replies
    1. Yep they're 25's, mainly Dixons and Foundry, I do believe.

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  22. Good write-up and piccies Ray, with the time honoured "Just one more turn...."

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    1. We had 'em, but just not enough time left in the day, damn it!

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  23. It sure is a shame that despite your certainty, the game ended where it did, isn't it? :P

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  24. Another great AAR, Postie can really lay out a good looking game.
    I've often said, "If I only had one more turn."

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  25. Ahh I need to unblock all content in order to pass comment now. Well that's a bit sh*tty! Ho do I know I can trust you?

    Anyway it looks like a very good day in the shed of war. I wish I'd been invited, but it looks like you were packed to the gunnels as it is. Excellent report well done on the win. (I feel sure It must have been a win and not a draw and I am equally sure you deserved it!)

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  26. Great looking game! I love that shot of the dismounted dragoons in the field. Great stuff!

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  27. As always sir a great AAR and nice piccies:-)

    Jason.

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  28. Yes, I thought like Alex, there would be a close-up shot of Lurker.

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  29. The best picture in this post is the one with the wise man called Fran! :-D
    Great battle report and pictures! Thanks for sharing!

    Greetings
    Peter

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  30. This really is the dogs dangles - great game report from you and Fran n Lee

    Roy

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