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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.