Return to Shevardino

In July, Steve and I played through a Shako scenario based on the battle for the Shevardino Redoubt.  (link).  Although we had a good game, we thought that the position was rather cramped on my 6 x 4 table and Steve kindly offered his 8 x 6 table for a re-run.  The same terrain was used (see map below), except for increasing the depth of the woods and broken ground on the Russian left, through which the Polish infantry had to advance.

With the experience of the first game I bolstered Voyeikov's forces on the Russian right by adding a horse battery and a regiment of Uhlans; also Duka's cuirassier division gained a fourth regiment.

The Polish infantry move through broken terrain

On the French left Compans struggled to make decisive progress as a marshy stream ran across his front and Voyeikov had deployed his cavalry forward making it hazardous to cross unsupported, Eventually, the French did cross, but only after considerable manoeuvring to try and find an unopposed crossing.This delay allowed the Russian skirmishers to whittle away at the French infantry, the 5th Legere in particular really struggled.  In the centre, Teste had no such problems.  His main concern was the batteries of guns supporting the redoubt he had been ordered to attack.  As his men moved forward they began to take casualties as the roundshot tore through the columns.  On the right, Bruyere's light cavalry, led by the 2nd Hussars and 4th Chassuers, moved forward to try and pin the Russian jaegers in place whilst Krasinski's Polish infantry moved onto their flank.  To try and maintain some freedom of manoeuvre, Gogol ordered his hussars to charge the French cavalry. Sweeping forward the Alexandrinsk Hussars overwhelmed the 2nd Hussars, driving them from the field.  Without pausing they then charged the 4th Chasseurs and also defeated them, forcing the French to retire and reform.  Unfortunately, the exuberance of the Russian hussars had carried them beyond their supports and before they could reform they were charged by 4th Lancers.  Caught at such a disadvantage the Alexandrinsk were driven back in confusion and took so many casualties they were out of action for the rest of the battle.   Bruyere had only one fresh unit, the 3rd lancers and decided to wait whilst the rest of his command reformed.  This allowed just enough time for Sievers to bring forward his dragoons to support Gogol.  

The Alexandrinsk Hussars driven back by the French lancers

Sievers leading dragoon regiment, the Riga dragoons, crested the small hill on Gogol's right and Saw Sulkowski's Polish light cavalry which had just arrived. Supported by horse artillery, the dragoons charged the Polish uhlans.  As they swept forward they ran into fire from the newly arrived French artillery reserve which emptied some saddles.  The uhlans won the melee, but decided to fall back rather than take on the second Russian dragoon regiment, Neu Russland.

With all the cavalry in the area, the infantry of both armies mostly adopted square formation or, in the case of the 4th Polish infantry remained in the wooded broken ground.  However, when a battalion of the 15th jaeger formed line to attack the 2nd battalion pf the 4th Polish infantry as they moved out of the woods, the colonel  of the 4th Chasseurs decided to ride them down.  Unfortunately, his move was spotted by the colonel of the jaegers and the battalion rapidly formed square.  Inevitably the French light cavalry made no impression against the square, losing heavily from the volley fired by the jaegers as they closed.  With their morale shattered, the chasseurs fell back and took no further part in the battle.

Teste's advance continues

Whilst all this was going on, Compans was making slow progress on the French left.  The 3rd Etranger regiment (Irish Legion) had managed to move round the left of Voyeikov's line and caught the 2nd battalion of the 8th Jaegers in the flank and drove them from the field. Pushing on, the 1st battalion of the Irish attacked the remaining battalion of the 8th Jaegers.  As the jaegers turned to face this threat it allowed the 5th legere to cross the stream unhindered.  Voyeikov's cavalry was on his right, countering the threat posed by the battalions of the 10th line.  His horse artillery was doing a great job supporting the cavalry, but the pressure was increasing.  He was relieved when a courier arrived from Gortchakov with orders to fall back to support Beverovsky's position around the redoubt. However, this manoeuvre was made rather more difficult when St Germaine's heavy cavalry division (cuirassier and carabiniers) arrived and immediately moved in support of Compans.  In no time at all Voyeikov's infantry were all but destroyed by the combined attack of infantry and cavalry. The remnants were saved by the brave advance of the Tenguinsk and Bielevski regiments from Neverovsky's division and also the intervention of Emmanuel's dragoons.  The over-confident French heavy cavalry were repulsed by the squares and then driven back by the dragoons, blunting the French advance.  Gortchakov had been able to allow Neverovsky's counter-attack because Mecklenburg's Grenadier division had arrived and was taking up position on the right of the redoubt. Compans also received further infantry support when Morand's division arrived on his left.

St Germaine's heavy cavalry advance

In the centre, Teste continued his advance.  The French skirmishers were now engaging the Russian infantry and the infantry battalions were ready to close.  However, losses from the Russian artillerycontinued to mount, the 9th Legere in particular seeming to be the 'target of choice'.  The French reserve artillery was unable to support the advance as it had been slowed by the advance of Sievers' dragoons, so Teste's infantry suffered. 

13th Polish infantry caught in line by the Neu Russland dragoons

On the French right, the cavalry battle became more intense as Wathiers Heavy Cavalry Division (cuirassiers and dragoons) moved forward against Gogol's hard pressed infantry.  The battered remains of Sievers dragoons were glad to see Duka's Cuirassier Division moving in their support. Soon the field was filled with cavalry regiments charging, meleeing and falling back to reform. Gogol tried to extract his infantry, but Krasinski had at last managed to get his infantry organised and supported by the French reserve artillery they crushed the jager battalions one by one. Their stubborn resistance had tied up resources which should have supported Teste and also delayed the advance of the Polish infantry which should have combined with the Wurttemburgers of Marchand's newly arrived division on the left flank of the Russian position.  The cavalry melee was to continue for the remainder of the battle, with the French gradually gaining the upper hand, but the Russian cuirassiers had done enough to prevent the French cavalry intervening in the fight for the redoubt.

Heavy cavalry melee on the French right

On the French left it was predominantly an infantry battle.  Emmanuel's and St Germaine's commands fell back to reform.  Indeed, the French were so shaken by their losses that they took no further part in the battle; a great loss to Compans attack on Mecklenburg's grenadiers.  Compans and Morand moved forward, preceded by a swarm of skirmishers.  The Russian guns exacted a price for the advance, but still the French pressed forward.  The Irish found themselves in the front line yet again and were attacked by the Kiev and Moscow grenadiers.  As the grenadiers closed the Irish fired a volley which stopped both battalions in their tracks.  The Irish charged, ignored the Russian volley and drove the grenadiers backwards.

The Irish stand against the Russian grenadiers

However, this proved to be the high water mark of the French advance.  Morand's division had suffered severely from the Russian heavy guns and when the third of the battalions of the 46th Line was forced to retreat due to casualties, the attack stalled.  In the centre Teste's division had come to the end of it's tether.  Swept by canister and the volleys from the Russian infantry the battered remains of the French infantry began to fall back.  The Russians had held the redoubt and inflicted heavy casualties on the French, but had suffered themselves.  It would be up to Kutusov to decide whether to remain in position, or fall back to the Borodino line further back. 

Hadrian's Wall

I will get back to wargame reports eventually, but over the weekend we visited Hadrian's Wall.  It is 40 years since I was last in the Housesteads fort area and that was for a rather rushed visit.  With more time I was able to appreciate the use of terrain and the amount of work which went into the construction of this defensive wall.

A shot from near the Steel Rigg carpark, just west of Housesteads fort.  The route of the wall can be seen on top of the Whin Sill feature and in the distance, leading up to the small wood.

With the clouds brushing the tops of the surrounding hills and late autumn shafts of sunlight failing to instill any warmth, you felt every degree of windchill from the sneaky breeze.  For the garrison of 800 men it must have been a thankless posting, I bet many wondered which God they had angered.

The guiding within the remains of the fort is useful, helping to interpret the foundations which have been excavated.  From the north wall you can see the line of the wall to the east; the gap in the valley is the location of a later gate allowing easier access for wagons.  The original north gate being bricked up.

In the museum you can see a selection of late Roman arrow heads which were discovered during the excavations.

Once the Roman troops left the wall became a very useful 'quarry' for the locals to use.  Over a thousand years later they used the ruins of the southern gatehouse to construct a Bastle House as a defence against Border Raiders.

Farewell to the Vulcan

When I read that the Vulcan would not be flying after the end of this month, I thought that I had missed the chance to see it in the air again.  However, by chance one of it's final flights happened to pass within 10 miles of home and so yesterday afternoon I popped up the road to see it go by.

I found a quiet spot with a good view to the north, where the Vulcan was expected before turning west and flying past my position.  All went well until the Vulcan turned west further south, ie behind me!  Naturally, the other side of the lane was lined with trees and therefore I couldn't get a photograph although I did get a few glimpses through the branches.

Here is a still from a video clip I took at the International Air Tattoo six years ago, when the Vulcan made an appearance.  A truly iconic aircraft.

There is a website which gives details of the Vulcan

Lathom convoy; an ECW scenario for Pike and Shotte

Rather than return to Kelhamshire, I decided that the latest ECW game should have some element of historical fact about it.  The whole scenario was fictitious, but there was a protracted siege of Lathom House during the ECW.  For the purposes of the scenario the Royalist commander of Liverpool (Sir Roderick Murgatroyd), has organised a convoy of supplies to bolster the defenders of Lathom House. The Parliamentarian commander (Ferdinando Assheton),  prosecuting the siege has got wind of the convoy and ordered part of his force to take up a blocking position at a vital bridge.

This is a general view of Assheton's deployment.  In the distance on the Parliamentarian left are the two regiments of Starkie's brigade of horse; in the centre are three regiments of foot under Assheton's command and by the road in reserve are Shuttleworth's brigade of horse.  A unit of commanded shot is deployed on the far right covering the ford.  By the bridge is a light gun and in the toll house is a unit of dragoons.  The river is fordable by both horse and foot (not artillery or wagons, they must use the bridge), but there is a risk of disorder.  Assheton's objective is to stop the convoy leaving the table towards Lathom.
Sir Roderick has deployed Hoghton's brigade of horse (two regiments) on his right, Gerard's foot (3 regiments) is in the centre accompanied by a light gun and Tyldesley's horse (two regiments) are facing the ford.  On the road is the convoy, under the command of Sir James Moylneux.  The column is led by a unit of dragoons; with the wagons, escorted by two units of commanded shot, following. With the sides fairly evenly matched, Sir Roderick realised that forcing a crossing would not be easy; he therefore pushed his dragoons forward, intending to occupy the toll house.  In the centre his artillery moved forward to 'soften up' Gell's regiment, prior to a general advance by Gerard's brigade. He ordered his cavalry to move forward and engage the enemy horse with pistol fire, but not to cross the river.
As the dragoons trotted down the road and began to deploy they came under fire from the defenders of the toll house; surprised, they fell back and requested reinforcements. To their right, Hoghton's men had moved up to the river, but Starkie's men had moved back out of range.  On the Royalist left, the gun was quickly in action and soon found the range causing significant casualties in Gell's regiment.  Tyldesley's men remained a couple of moves back from the ford, waiting for the Parliamentary infantry to be forced to fall back due to losses.

Sir Roderick ordered the dragoons to move round the toll house and support Hoghton's cavalry by the river.  He also ordered one unit of commanded shot from Molyneux's command forward, to take on the Parliamentary dragoons in the toll house.   The commanded shot were to be supported by the green regiment from Gerard's brigade.  Assheton had begun to move his infantry more to the centre of his position to oppose Gerard's brigade, but he had had to halt Cunliffe's regiment to counter the Royalist dragoons.  Cunliffe rather exceeded his orders, because, not only did he reform to face the dragoons, he then advanced across the river and charged them!.  Not surprisingly the dragoons did not wait to receive the pike charge, firing a parting volley, they quickly mounted their horses and fell back.  In the process they fell into disorder and Sir Roderick had to gallop over and in concert with Sir James Molyneux rally them.

However, Cunliffe's impetuosity had placed his unit in a bad position.  Intending to support the dragoons in the toll house, he now instead found himself threatened by Hoghton's horse.  To protect themselves, the unit formed hedgehog, but now were vulnerable to fire from the second commanded shot unit and the reformed dragoons, in addition to the pistols of Hoghton's troopers.  They could expect no support from the dragoons in the toll house who were trying to beat off a determined assault by the green regiment.  In the end the dragoons were successful, but it was only a temporary respite.

Struggle for the toll house

In the centre, Gell's regiment  was struggling.  Losses from the Royalist artillery were increasing and, when Gerard moved forward Taylor's regiment the pressure increased further.  A devastating first volley from the Royalist infantry broke the defenders' morale and they routed from the field, leaving a gaping hole in Assheton's line.  Sensing that now was the time, Sir Roderick ordered Tyldesley to advance across the ford to support Taylor's men.  As the Royalists reformed after crossing the ford they were charged by Shuttleworth's leading regiment.  They had time to counter charge and won the ensuing melee, but were disordered in the process.  This gave just enough time for the Parliamentary horse to pass through their supports and begin to reform.  Assheton's commanded shot now began to fire on the Royalist cavalry and with casualties rising and threatened by a fresh regiment of Parliamentary cavalry the Royalists fell back across the ford.  Assheton was saved by Gerard's red regiment being very slow in moving up to support Taylor's men.  The delay enabled Assheton to get the yellow regiment in place to support his artillery and when Taylor did advance he was met by a veritable storm of musketry  and artillery fire.  Disordered by the river crossing and shaken by their casualties, the  Royalist infantry routed.  It required all of Gerard's efforts to halt them.

Starkie caught in flank

It seemed that the advantage lay with the parliamentary forces, but, on their left the pendulum began to swing in favour of the Royalists.  Cunliffe's regiment, thinned by musketry fire broke and routed across the river.  As the infantry milled around in disorder the Royalist cavalry gathered sensing easy prey.  Starkie placed himself in front of one of his regiments and crying 'Follow me brave fellows' plunged into the river with the intention of charging the royalist horse assembled on the far bank.  His men followed him across and the impetus of their charge enabled them to overcome their opponents. To his right, Starkie saw the commanded shot firing at the toll house and beyond them the supply wagons.  Waving his sword above his head he led his men towards the wagons, hoping to win the day with a decisive charge.  The Parliamentary cavalry closed on the infantry, but suffered heavy casualties from a closing volley.  They also lost men to fire from the dragoons who covered the flank of the musketeers.  Their charge lost its momentum and the melee was indecisive.  This allowed time for Hoghton to reform his men and lead them in a charge against the flank of Starkie's cavalry. Caught at a disadvantage, Starkie's men broke, their gallant commander losing his life in the rout.

Hoghton's remaining regiment now crossed the river and charged Starkie's second unit.  The melee was indecisive and both units fell back to reform.  Hoghton's men accomplished this quickly and charged again.  Their target this time was Cunliffe's regiment which was still trying to recover from their losses.  They stood no chance when the Royalist cavalry hit them, the majority turned and ran, a few stood, but they were cut down.  Hoghton's second regiment, fresh from their victory over Starkie now joined the fray and together the two Royalist units charged the last cavalry on the Parliamentary left.  If this attack succeeded few, if any of the Parliamentary army would escape.  Against the odds, fighting like demons, the Parliamentary cavalry drove off both their assailants, buying Assheton a little more time.

Cunliffe's men routed

The end was nigh for the Parliamentary dragoons in the toll house.  Casualties were rising and a second attack by the green regiment was imminent.  As the Royalist infantry charged home, the dragoons resolve cracked.  Assheton galloped over to try and rally them but he was felled by a stray bullet from a volley by the Royalist commanded shot.  The dragoons took to their heels and ran from the field.  Attempting to restore Parliamentary fortunes, Shuttleworth led his cavalry forward, but his leading regiment was hit in flank by Tyldesley's men and driven back in disorder.

With their general dead, four units routed from the field and the majority of the remainder in a shaken condition, the Parliamentary army quit the field, allowing the convoy to progress to Lathom.

Another seesaw action under the Pike and Shotte rules.  For this battle we watered down the 'disorder' result, For trained regiments it required 2 6's to impose disorder by  musketry and/or artillery.  This meant that in the whole game we only had 2 or 3 instances where musketry/artillery inflicted disorder, the majority of disorder results were caused by melee.  We felt that this gave a better game, though perhaps we may remove the recovery roll (the extension of the elite unit bonus instituted for the Gloucester game link   

Further thoughts on rules and another outing

Both 'Black Powder' family and 'Pike and Shotte' have a 'disordered' status.  This is the one aspect of the rules which seems to generate the most discussion.  Steve and I are familiar with the 'shaken' status in 1644 which is also generated by rolling a '6'.  However, the virtue of 1644 is that you only need to roll one dice, so the odds on obtaining a 'shaken' result remain constant at 1 in 6.  With BP and P & S you can roll 3 or even 4 dice, thus the odds on getting a 6 increase. So you can end up with the majority of your units disordered.

Steve and I have looked at this and he came up with the idea of extending the recovery roll from elite troops to all troops.  (In P & S at the beginning of your phase of movement, elite troops can roll to recover from disorder and thus, if successful, move normally.)  We used this in the large ECW game following the St Helens' show and it did help the game flow better.  The roll is modified by the quality of the troops; raw recover on a 6, trained on 5+ and elite on 4+.  A further modification would be to adjust the number of 6s required to inflict the disorder; 3 for an elite unit, 2 for trained and 1 for raw.  This total would be the sum of all the fire received by the unit during that firing phase.

Taking advantage of the good weather this weekend my wife and I visited Rufford Old Hall, which is run by the National Trust.  In the old Tudor period hall is a small collection of armour gathered by the Hesketh family in the 19th century.

As you can see the helmets come from a  variety of countries and periods.  Some of the attributions are suspect; this was said to be a dragoon breastplate from the Napoleonic period.

To close, a few more photos of Steve's Sudan collection used in the last game.

In the desert once again

For the last month a combination of holidays and other commitments has called a halt to our usual weekly game.  Just before the break Steve organised a Sudan scenario using the Battles for Empire rules as usual.  The Imperial troops are trying to recover a cache of weapons which the dervishes have obtained after successfully ambushing a supply column.  The location of the weapons is not known to the Imperial player, but it is likely to be in one of three settlements.  As we have the Dervish forces hidden and Steve sets up the table before I arrive, I usually take command of the Imperial forces.  With two units of cavalry, four units of mounted infantry and two guns (one machine gun and one artillery piece), I did not have sufficient fores to attack across the full width of the table, so I concentrated on my left, leaving a small force to cover my flank.

The table from the Imperial right

As my leading unit of mounted infantry probed towards the village on the left it was attacked by tribesmen lurking in some broken ground.  Fortunately, they manged to dismount and form a firing line.  Their rapid fire stopped the tribesmen in their tracks and drove them from the field in disorderly rout.  However, in the centre, another unit of mounted infantry  was ambushed by two units of Dervish  infantry and cut to pieces before supports could come to their aid.

The infantry beat off a Dervish attack

After this the balance of the game swung back and forth.  Steve used his numerous cavalry to threaten my flanks and rear and the Lancers were fully employed dealing with one crisis after another.  Where I manged to establish a firing line with sufficient open ground before it, the Imperial troops managed to deal with the Dervish charges.  When the charges came in from close range I tended to suffer heavy casualties in the ensuing melee.  Although the imperial units were tough, repeated charges wore them down.

The Lancers in action

By the end of the game I had managed to capture one village and drive the defenders from a second (the Royal Artillery really earned their corn in this action, subduing the enemy artillery and giving close support to the infantry).  However, losses had been so severe that to attack the third village (which happened to be the location of the weapons), was beyond the remaining troops.

Dervish success

In the post-game discussions Steve and I discussed the relative strengths of the Dervish and Imperial troops and the latter's susceptibility to a gradual erosion of their strength.  With that in mind we decided to run the scenario, but with a different set of rules.  The choice was the "Blood on the Nile" supplement to the Black Powder  rules.

We used the same OOB and once again I took the part of the Imperial commander.  This time I opted to probe both flanks, ignoring the centre.  The Egyptian mounted infantry and cavalry, plus the machine gun pushed towards the village on my right, whilst three units of British mounted infantry were to attack the village on the left.  This left the Lancers and the Royal Artillery in the centre to support whichever flank needed help.  It soon became apparent that it was the Egyptians  who would need the help.  The mounted infantry had dismounted and formed line before moving forward and the cavalry had moved to cover their flank.  However, the machine failed its activation roll and its firepower would be greatly missed.  A unit of Dervish infantry broke cover and charged the Egyptians from close range.  Their closing volley was ineffectual and the Egyptians then failed their break test, falling back in disorder.  Before they could recover, they were charged and again broke, this time in rout.  On their flank the cavalry had been attacked by another unit of Dervishes.  They had counter-charged, but had lost the melee; so they too fell back, leaving the machine gun crew as 'Billy no mates' facing two enemy units.

Fortunately, the Lancers were able to intervene, (the long move distances being a great help), and quickly dispatched one unit of Dervishes.  The other was driven off by the machine gun, which then jammed.

Egyptian cavalry attacked in flank

Meanwhile, I was making slow progress on my left towards the village.  A Dervish attack was held, but it pushed one unit out of the firing line.  The two remaining units fired at the defenders of the village for a couple of rounds, but could make no impression.  As a last resort I ordered a charge, one unit went in, but the other held back, surely the attack was doomed?  Against the odds the Imperial troops prevailed and then for good measure beat off a counter attack, even without support !  As a bonus Steve's units routed, leaving me in possession of the village; which happened to have the cache of arms !!  Mission accomplished !!!

Once again we sat down and discussed how things had panned out.  "Blood on the Nile" gives a very different sort of game.  Move distances are vast (up to 54" for cavalry, which even on a 8 x 6 table seems over generous).  The ratings for the  Egyptian troops seem a little low. It would be necessary to have mixed brigades of Imperial troops,  without British units a whole brigade could be swamped. (especially with my ability to roll low dice).  Rifle fire seems ineffective.  Not one Imperial unit caused a disorder in a Dervish unit by rifle fire during the whole game (though allowance should be made for my dice rolling, 6's are like hen's teeth as far as I am concerned).  The rules also have large Dervish units (4 times the size of Imperial ones, up to 60 figures strong).

One definite improvement was the ability to "rally off" casualties; which meant that a unit to step  out of the action, recover and then join the firing line.

So the jury is out on "Blood on the Nile".  I suspect that we will tweak the rules a little, try out some more scenarios and see how things go.
 

Sealed Knot at Chester

I can't remember the last time I went to a Sealed Knot event, it is certainly a good number of years ago.  When I heard that they were mustering at Chester over the Bank Holiday it seemed like a good opportunity to go and watch.  The venue at Chester Racecourse was spacious and the living history encampment very interesting to visit.  I had expected the 'Knot' to be camped there as well, but because of numbers (I think), they were a couple of miles away and marched to the venue.

The battle was based on Rowton Heath and the spectators saw a reasonable approximation of a clash between two infantry forces.  There was a lack of cavalry, but then with the cost associated with the animals and the difficulty of organising large numbers of them; not to mention the H & S implications of having dozens of them charging around you can understand why.

There was plenty of noise and smoke and yet above it all the beat of the drums could be heard. Different rhythms for different orders, but the insistent driving beat for the advance really stood out. You got a clear sense of the importance of those drummers.  Overall, a really good day out.  The action was a little confused so I will just add a few photos of the action, rather than a description of the battle.  There are several posts already on Youtube regarding the action this is one

Waller's Horse

Royalist Infantry

Pikes preparing to melee

Rupert's musketeers

Cavalry melee

Parliamentary advance

Frame guns

Scottish infantry