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Phil, Mike and Darryl took on the Dark Tower.

It was close at times, with two players reaching two corruption and just a few skulls remaining. Nevertheless our heroes managed to defeat Ashstrider and win the day!

15mm Austrians finally painted to add to my Napoleonic Austrian Army.

8 bases of German Fusiliers. White uniforms, Shakos. Yellow and Dark blue facings. The Shako being introduced after 1808 and there being a mix of Shako and Helmet wearing regiments in 1809. My force is created for 1809 and the invasion of Bavaria. These Regiments have been issued with brand new Shakos from the supply depots.

Austrian Jaegers. Pike Grey, Corsican hats and Dark Green facings. The Jagers had a good reputation and were considered to be marksmen.

I also re-based 3 officer bases for my Austrians.

I have some cavalry and Grenadiers on order from old glory too, to add to the lead pile. If I get these done I will have a fairly large force to oppose my Bavarians.

Has arrived. Played through a learning scenario. Now ready for real play but iPad will need to be at 100% charge next time !

Darryl and Mike’s Royalists took on Bruce and Phil’s Parliamentarians. This is a free to download scenario available on the For King and Parliament to the strongest website.

The King deftly turns his gentlemen pensioners around and charges into Cromwell taking him prisoner in the ensuing melee!

At this point darkness began to fall and both sides began to withdraw. Victory medals were tallied and Parliament had 9 remaining versus just 8 for the Cavaliers. So a very narrow victory for the Roundheads who had saved the village of Soggy Bottom and driven off the tyranny of King Charles!

What a tough battle of attrition. So many cards drawn in the evening! Quite exhausting but hopefully fun for all and a chance to get all the ECW figures out in their resplendent uniforms.

1809 and the Austrians have invaded Bavaria . Marshall LeFevre gathers his Army and meets them outside the village Pfeffenhausen at an important river crossing.

The Bavarians deploy with the mixed brigades to the flanks, central brigade and heavy cavalry reserve in the centre.

The Bavarians advance across the line and cavalry wide to each side. The line infantry advance into the woods and the Hussars drive away the Austrian Hussars. This forces the Austrians to detach two heavy cavalry from the reserve to counter this threat. To the left flank one of The central line battalions has advanced too far and been caught unsupported when Wrede’s whole division falters entirely.

Wrede advances his brigade whilst the leader does the same in the centre. The Grenzers form an unsteady square seeing the Hussars wheel about and the heavy cavalry rush to their rescue and drive the Hussars back. Horse artillery and light horse are detached from the reserves to bolster the right

The Austrians counterattack forcing the light infantry back out of the wood land and the forces in the centre back in disarray. The Bavarian lines are too close and they also suffer bounce through from the cannons. When attacked by fusiliers in attack column supported by Grenadiers to each side the Wurtembergers are eliminated.

However on the Austrian right flank each time the Bavarians react before they can advance. Even though they push their foes back at times the cumulative disarray on the rightmost brigade begins to mount and it is shaken. Calculating the disarray plus the losses across the whole Army now at the end of this turn the Austrians are close to their divisional break point.

Can they turn things around before the end of their next turn?

Over the next turn events turned bloody as the Bavarians advanced. Seeing Austrians in disorder the Bavarians advanced in line and caused a rout amongst the green Austrian fusiliers already in disorder. However this opened a gap for the heavy cavalry who smashed into the infantry in line destroying them. In the centre the Bavarians pulled back their disordered units and held their positions when the Austrians counterattacked. They also fired shot at close range inflicting heavy casualties but the Austrian artillery reacting had less effect. To the right wing the Bavarians destroyed the Grenadiers who had faltered under fire from the horse artillery . The Jaegers took the woods but the Grenzers were destroyed when the Bavarian light infantry emerged from the woods. The Hussars failed to advance in support so the light infantry are likely doomed if the heavy cavalry act quickly on the Austrian turn.

Nevertheless at this point it was clear who the victor would be so it was time to finish.

The rules worked well. For the most part though I enjoyed the game and thought the rules worked well especially with the Song of Drums dice mechanism adding uncertainty and the opportunity to have reactions.

Time to dust off a set of rules I bought in 2014 and never played.

These rules use the same system as all the songs of rules which hopefully should give a fun game . It turns out I have enough Austrians now to create an army for a quick battle . Most though are based for Shako as I bought these from an open day whilst my Bavarians and my other Austrians are on wider bases. Nevertheless it should work with 120mm unit frontages . I have plenty enough Bavarians to create an Army to oppose them . For this I will use the French army list as the Bavarians fought using the French doctrine.

So will set up some terrain using my 15mm Napoleonic buildings and test them out . Took a look at Shako but it’s just not inspiring somehow. I also have black powder and Blucher I could try out . Maybe Grand Armee would be fun but I would need to buy that and probably it needs more Austrians.

An example list for Song of Drums:

The two Mike’s played the Royalists against Darryl and Phil’s Parliamentarians.

The forces deployed with the 20cm boxes for FKaP.

To start Parliament kept a reserve of cavalry off table and the Royalists two units of Dragoons, intending to bring those over the hedge eventually.

The Parliament left flank began with an artillery barrage that was ineffectual and moved its infantry and cavalry forward. The right flank simply chose to move everything forward and save the artillery gunpowder for any breakthroughs that might occur later in the battle.

On each flank the Roundhead horse fared badly against the superior Cavaliers. Fiennes on the left initially held well and disordered Legge’s cavalry. Seeing them in disarray he ignored the wisdom of Lord Brooke and ordered a charge. Unfortunately the cavaliers countercharged and not only did they inflict more casualties they wounded Fiennes.

On the right flank Lord Grey’s horse were put to flight and Godwin’s reserve had to be deployed to support.

However Parliament’s strength was its foot. To the right Ballard was able to steady his troops and rally when hit. He also held off the cavaliers. In the centre his brave regiments pushed close to the enemy along the road.

Facing pursuing cavalry to each flank and ahead to infantry on each side of the Roundhead army formed hedgehog. Fiennes was killed and his cavalry routed on the hill to their left but their commander kept them holding firm. This unit fired about twenty times against the cavaliers and never hit once.

To the right Goodwin just about managed to hold against the Earl of Northampton’s horse and the infantry second line turned to face.

One unit to the left faced off against the cavaliers who charged but were disordered by defensive musket fire and the infantry regiment just about managed to hold.

To the centre the infantry reserve were brought forward against the Warwickshire trained bands and eventually put them to flight with a glorious charge.

Lord Compton found himself holding the road with just his still mounted Dragoons and outflanked and outnumbered. So victory was awarded to Parliament, who had successfully managed to force the Royalists to withdraw their remaining cavalry and Dragoons where they could. Thus the Roundheads were able to march on and relieve Coventry.

An interesting scenario with the royalists outnumbered facing a stronger force especially outnumbered in terms of infantry but with better troops generally. In the end the Roundhead infantry were able to hold together with the support of their commanders and clear the way to Coventry before the cavaliers could outflank them.