Bring on the empty horses

Apparently said by Cecil B DeMille according to David Niven and who am I to doubt David Niven.  He meant horses without riders but empty horses has a certain ring to it don't you think?  My version of said empty horses are accompanied by their riders though.  These are dismounted dragoons in a firing line.  It's a basing idea I came up with for my 2mm ACW cavalry and as I liked the resulting look I have gone for the same look for my 6mm pike and shot dragoons.  On the plus side it shows they are dragoons rather than skirmishing musketeers and reduces the number of bases I have to create, but on the downside the horse holders and dismounted dragoons are too close together.  Still I doubt anyone will complain.

The empty horses (Which would be a great name for a band don't you think)

As well as the empty horses, as a bonus, here are some full horses, AKA the mounted variant for these dragoons.  I have painted both the mounted and dismounted versions in the same style I used for the dragoons I already had, which were painted a couple or three decades ago.  It's not how I would do it now but it keeps the same appearance with the existing dragoon base they will be deployed alongside to form a combat unit.  So that's me out of the starting blocks for October's painting work.

And here they are all full of riders

The phone camera struggled with direct sunlight and over exposed the shots by a couple of stops.  I may have to play with the images and repost them.  The black background might have been part of the issue, who knows my phone camera seems to have a mind of it's own.  Strike one against AI?

Both together

It was fifty years ago today...

 ..the 5th of October 1975 to be exact, and I was sitting in my student friend Ron's car driving from North-East Lancashire to a small village just north of York.  We were just about to start our final year at University but before we did I had something to do.  Something I was really looking forward to.  When we arrived at our destination Ron asked me "are really you sure you want to do this?".  I don't know why, I suppose someone had told him he should double check, but I was sure.  I'm still sure it was the best decision I have ever made all these years later.  So I told him so. Ron nodded at me and solemnly warned me that if I changed my mind now he would break one of my legs if necessary so I couldn't back out.  He took these things very seriously, did Ron.

A few moments later he sat me on a bench patted his pockets nervously and then nudged me to stand and step forward....just as the first strains of the Wedding March started up and the soon to be Mrs E stepped into the church and walked down the aisle.

Yes good reader fifty years ago this very day I married Mrs E so today is our Golden Wedding Anniversary.  I haven't regretted a single moment.  I'm still not absolutely certain Ron was joking about the leg though.

Hitting milestones

I just spotted that I have just passed the 250,000 page views mark.  I'm thinking that my 45 followers will not have clocked that number of views up on their own (unless they are very, very bored) and as the number of views of recent posts has risen dramatically I'm guessing that I now have a substantial AI audience.  So I would just like to welcome my latest reader SKYNET and welcome it to sentience.  Now if you could just hold off on triggering nuclear war and sending Terminator units after humanity I'd be very grateful!

Thinking about Through the Square Window (again)

I know, I know.  Using my brain twice in the one week, I'm going to need a lie down after this!  However, after my last post Gordon has been kind enough to explain his thinking behind the rout and pursuit system.  He explained that normal movement represents the slow and steady movement intended to keep troops in their proper ranks and files and pursuit is where units go on a mad dash chasing a broken foe.  This is anything but slow and steady and the troops are disordered and so able to move much faster.  My own view, supported by experience herding cats (or as it is properly known marshalling re-enactors) leads me to agree with this.  Once troops move forward in a charge their officers have lost most of their control over what they do next!

Based upon this the rules provide pursuing troops multiple moves across the full turn to simulate such events.  It also creates unpredictability which again seems right.  Rupert's Horse and their tendency to pursue and loot rather than sticking to the job in hand comes to mind.

So to clarify how I think it works I need to show a simplified version of the turn sequence.

1.  Command phase.  This includes rallying routers and pursuers (where they were in rout or pursuit from last turn) and where they fail to rally from rout or pursuit making further rout and pursuit moves, BUT not any resulting combats which happen at step 7.

2. Player one moves and shoots.  This includes declaring charges and making tests on the charging unit and the testing unit.  There is a small chance that the target may rout rather than fight melee.  They may also retire or voluntarily evade.  Player two's rout, retires and/or evade moves are now made and player one.  Player one now charges, pursues or follows evaders.

3.  Player one shoots and player two again has a chance of routing if casualties are inflicted.  Player one may pursue routers arising from this step

4.  Player two moves and shoots  and reactions are tested as at step 3 above.

5. Melee combat.  Both sides fight so both sides have a chance to retire, rout, follow up or pursue depending upon circumstances.

Ah the Victorian idea of heroism.
It probably was not this heroic and involved far more running away

The turn now ends and you move back to the command phase.

So using a pair of units who haven't been in combat prior to the current turn as an example (and only looking at things from player one triggered combats).  Nothing happens until step 2 as there has been no previous combat so nobody has to be rallied.  Units can rout at steps 2 from the being charged test or from casualty reaction tests from shooting.  Units might pursue or follow up following these actions.  Either way there is one potential rout and pursuit move originating here either from being charged or shot at.

My boys are fleeing!  Damn those dice or is it di?

Ignoring player two's charges and shooting to keep things simple next we fight melees and again there are potential routs, pursuits and follow ups.  So player two has three possible rout triggers from the being charged test, being shot at and lastly melee outcomes.  Player one also has the same three events where they may pursue the routers.

We then move to the command phase of the following turn where failing rally tests will trigger another rout and pursuit move but not combat.  Add to that the fact that pursuers will make full pursuit moves until rallied and may contact other enemies where they will fight melee immediately and make further follow up pursuit moves from those fights as required and it is clear that it is possible for pursuits to cover a lot of ground very quickly.  Just to add to the fun pursuers are classed as "not rallied" in melee combat and will run the risk of becoming out of command on multiple pursuits moves!  Gordon did say he wanted chaos once units engaged!

I'm not sure I would be keen to hang about to face this TBH

Through the square window , some more thoughts!

The ruleset's author, Gordon Crawford, has been in touch via  Facebook and kindly shared his thoughts on why the game does things the way it does and what he would change if he were to make changes.  We also exchanged opinions on how to make the rules more closely mirror the combat experience of the British Civil Wars.  Rather than paraphrase here is Gordon's comment from my FB post on the '17th century wargaming' board.

"I agree about the out of command/army morale test order. It is quite difficult to fail the ACT unless your army has already largely voted with its feet. I wonder if I originally intended to have minuses in it for OoC units.

On the morale, use of D8s would mitigate any harshness. My knowledge of ECW battles is very superficial and I would like to hear any tweaks you think improve the rules for ECW

Of course the rules were written for 30YW battles

Most 30YW battles were over very quickly and the significant disparity between victors and losers loses is down to most casualties occurring during the flight of which only a minority seem to have been caused by the victors.

There are also numerous examples of units taking off while in in real peril and therefore I think the fragility of units under the morale system is about right for 30YW.

The dominant feature of battles as opposed to smaller actions is CHAOS. The examples of generals influencing events once the battle begins are few and much depends on the initiative of individuals at btn and sqn level. There is too the natural reluctance of troops to close and this is built into the morale system.

It also emphasises the superiority and importance of the "well trained".

Sorry to have gone on so long but lastly two things I would definitely change (there are plenty of other things I would do differently but I don't believe on 2nd editions when things are working ok).

1. In the morale results under 2. If a unit when charged gets a retire result it does not retire but instead halts. This anomaly has suddenly begun to crop up in our recent games.

2. Light guns unlimbered should have 2 actions but may only perform any action once.

Regards. Looking forward to your next blog"

I went on to suggest that for British Civil War actions an additional cavalry type mid way between Cuirassiers and the existing Arkebusier type would be a possibility. My thinking was that they would shoot like the current cavalry type, melee with 3D6 per base but not have the charge bonus or first charge bonus of the charging cavalry type. It is quite spooky how closely his thinking on pike and shot warfare aligns with my own as independently Gordon suggested 3D6 melee combat per base as an option.

This is the type of cavalry I have in mind as a 'later arkebusier'

He then raised the issue of Scots Lancers!  As I understand it these were not formed into separate squadrons but each formation had a troop or two armed with lances.  That leads me to think that they might be best modelled by giving Scottish horse a lower combat rating but a charge or alternatively first charge bonus against cavalry to account for the lance at first contact.  The alternative is to simply ignore them and assume they are included in the unit but only in small numbers, which is what I did in the play tests.

Scottish lancer (I think this is from a Blanford publication)

As for morale I have an idea to simply reduce the chance of a routing unit dissipating on a failed rally from rout test.  Instead of it dissipating on a 1,2 or 3 I'd reduce it to on a 1 or 2 and have a roll of 3 or 4 be continue in rout with (as before) 5 or 6 is a rally.  This coupled with only the roll of a second 6 allowing poor troops to rally would still leave those poor units at a significant disadvantage as they automatically dissipate at the end of a second rout move.

As for pursuit my issue is that rout and pursuit moves appear to occur both following melee and again after any failed rally from rout tests at the start of the following turn.  This may be intentional but I'm hoping Gordon can enlighten me further.

More markers!

As mentioned in the previous post I needed to create some additional markers to show when troops have; dropped their pikes on routing, haven't made their first charge (for Charging Cavalry) or are ready to fire a salvo.  These are all temporary statuses which I need to keep track of  hence the need for markers.

So these are what I came up with from left to right they are "Salvo fire available", "First charge available" and "Pikes Dropped".

The latter are used to show both where they were dropped and which units now don't have their pike for melee so I need two for each unit which routs as dropped pikes can be recovered.  I just need to glue them to some card now ready for next time.

More 6mm Pike and Shot troops

 A few weeks back I made a purchase from the new supplier of Irregular Miniature 6mm.  These consisted of some Cuirassiers, some early pike and shot (in helmets), light artillery and as a bonus a free base of sheep (of all things).  I have also been rebasing a few bits and pieces I hadn't gotten around to when I was doing the rest of my Irregular pike and shot figures.  I still have a fair number to paint but I moved these new figures to the head of the painting queue to see what they look like when completed.  The others, well that is a job for next month.  At the last count I actually have over 1,000 unpainted 6mm figures airplanes and vehicles languishing in the lead pile, so next month and quite a few months after in reality!

These figures are a joy to paint

And look just as nice from the rear

The pike and shot figures and artillery are nice castings but the cuirassiers are starting to show their age and have more flash between figures than I would like.  Rather more than I could manage to remove in fact.  Thankfully once painted it doesn't really show up too badly.  I could go with Baccus for any further cuirassier purchases but the rest of my troops for this period are from Irregular so I'm going to stick with them and maintain continuity.

The heavies!  Three quarter armoured cuirassiers

As always with Irregular's 6mm stuff they paint up far better than the raw castings suggest will be the case and I don't think they look half bad once finished and painted.  I have painted the foot as part of the Swedish Yellow Brigade, but will actually split them into two units when I add an additional pike base to give me two thirds of that brigade as it was deployed at first Breitenfeld.  The Cuirassiers are more generic TYW types who will be equally at home in several different armies for that conflict.  The same goes for the artillery.  As for the sheep they don't seem to care whether they are Catholic or Protestant sheep as long as there is grass to munch!

Artillery: smallest calibre to the left getting larger as you move right

Sheep may safely graze mainly because the Yellow Regiment is as far away as possible