Before the campaign… Foundry decided to lay on at their shop a one day ECW Campaign, so Derek and I both entered. A rather hefty (but becoming more common me thinks!) fee of £20 was needed to enter, which on the face of it would have been quite steep for a single day and two games, but Matt (our host and organiser) was quick to point out for that £20 you get three free blisters from any foundry range on the day – ‘nough said (I got myself three packs of pre cast Orcs – nothing to do with the fact the Kevin Dallimore himself was there with some of these beasties painted – inspirational or what! – Derek got some super Dwarfs – I think he’s after my Orcs with them!).Now as I was supporting the One true King, King Jesus on the day, my army was already to go, alas Derek the would be king supporter had quite a ways to go with his painting, sympathy was given and in the end I had to loan him one of my “trayned bands” – of course I did say they would return to righteous side given half a chance…
We decided that Nottingham being so far away (well 1.5hours) but who’s telling the wife that one, we would need to go up the day before, so off we went, checked into a super high class hotel (Gresham – If I said they dealt in cash only that would give you a measure of this fine establishment!) near the train station, but more importantly a mere stone’s throw from the pubs – a wonderful Italian Meal (thaks Derek!) followed by 1 or 2 more beers (ok maybe there was more than 1 or 2 more comsumed!) rounded out a good night completly dominated by talking about wargames (yes ok we did stray a few times and comment on the ratio of women to men ion nottingham – and why do you think Foundry anmd GW are based there?)
Campaign Day…
We turned up at the Foundry (eventually after finding somewhere to park that was under a £10 for the day!)… the remainder of the Generals turned up – in all there was 8 players which was a goodly number, in fact we were informed it was the largest turn out for an ECW game (competition) in the UK to date!
Sides were chosen, and our generals were portrayed on a wonderful map drawn up by our excellent host Matt, mounted generals were used to show our armies positions and that we were fighting along the length of a river.
Game 1…
My first game against our royalist foes saw my massed “raw” pike and shot face off against some pretty forbidding Royalist veterans.
But I get ahead of myself, Matt had a trick up his sleeve, we were each handed an envelope which contained an event. I was extremely lucky and received a unit of Lifeguard, and those darned royalists received a blacksmith which enabled one mounted unit to have an extra inch movement!
Now no guessing what Derek received – yes one of his units deserted – I did warn him that my trayned band would return to the one true king:)
Anyhow, back to my game, I received a nice hill on my left flank, which I promptly deployed my one regiment of veterans on(Ok they were not all “raw”), together with support from several regiments of newly raised troops… to the right yet more newly raised troops stiffened by my two Sakars and a regiment of Cuirassiers.
The royalist faced off the hill with the Kings Guard, some skirmishers and then on the right their Gallopers with more Foote.
The opening salvo from my guns caused horrific casualties in the enemy Foote Regiment, some superb gunnery from the Master Gunner!
We then proceeded to manoeuvre against each other, with each side taking severe casualties from each other salvo’s, as the hours passed by each side was running low on powder, and the units started to move closer together, a rash move by my Trotters on the left flank so them receive high casualties with the last powder from our foes, enough to send them back behind their own lines for protection.
Just as we were closing to melee time got the better of us and we called a halt. Both sides received heavy casualties, Parliament was on the just on the offensive, with one Royalist unit destroyed, although the brittle nature of the raw troops was starting to tell (would they charge home was a question at the forefront of my thoughts!), and several were in flight. Overall we agreed to a draw.
An excellent game – and worth the trip alone