...interesting to see this approach - which probably gives much more a fog or war feel to the game, but I suspect requires a lot of work from the person running the game, to deliver all the updates and take the appropriate pictures.
You're not wrong Fred
Excellent, thanks Richard. Great terrain, figures, photos - the whole 9 yards.
Thanks Pete. Hope all is well with you
Apologies for intruding Captain - lovely game.
No problem
Turn 3 continued… Parliamentarians to go.
Okey’s dragoons immediately pass a rally test. Liburne’s Folorn Hope crosses the hedge and advances into the gorse…
Gibson’s commanded shot skirmish forward, passing their activation and making a half move and firing on Fondling’s pinkcoats in the mown field.
The commanded shot are ‘fleet footed’, so ignore rough terrain and make a full half move (4”). They’re also veteran, so don’t get hit with a minus one for skirmish moving and shooting.
Unfortunately, rolling their 12xD6, and requiring only 5’s or 6’s to hit, they succeed in rolling just 1 hit (poor on my part, sorry Steve!) which isn’t enough to remove even one of the target unit (stamina 2, meaning you need two hits to remove a figure).
Crowe’s commanded shot now move forward through the farmhouse garden…
A general advance now appears underway on the Parliamentarian right…
On the Parliamentarian left, the wall of shot now get ready to fire…
First up, Lilburne’s regt. of shot gives fyre, but only gets three hits. And the gallopers, with the cover of the wall, have a stamina of 4. So not enough to do any damage.
Next, Nathaniel Crowe’s veteran shot unleash hell, and manage to knock off one of Hopton’s Horse. Who promptly pass a morale check - having excessively high morale.
Gibson’s raw shot then fail to pass their activation (friction!) so they and the frame gun are stymied.
That’s turn 3 completed.
Turn 4.The Royalists win the roll-off, and off they go.
To start with, Hopton’s Horse are obliged to test for a wild charge, being (just) within 10” of Sir Melville Gibson’s Trayned Band of raw shot directly to their front.
Needless to say, they pass the activation test (only a 3+ required on 2D6 for these boys to attack), and - like it or not - they charge Gibson’s shot!
The melee takes two casualty figures off the shot unit (who have the advantage of a defended obstacle to boost their stamina from 2 up to 3).
In return, the cavalry lose another figure. But they push the shot unit backwards from their wall. Both units pass their morale checks with flying colours.
Being aggressive wild chargers, Hopton’s Horse now have to follow up and immediately fight a second round. Which they do, knocking three more figures off Gibson’s raw shot, for the loss of one more cavalier.
This time, Gibson’s shot do fail their morale check (they're now on a minus 5 for figures lost) and they start wavering, as well as pushed back for a second time.
Hopton’s Horse now pause for breath. Interestingly, now they’re reduced from 6 to 3 figures, so from now on they now roll only 6 dice instead of 12 in attack and defence. And have thus instantly become much more vulnerable.
Interesting rules question here... The rules say you can never come within 3" of an enemy unit unless you're attacking it.
But if you're attacking a unit in the middle of a line like this, with a unit on either side of it, then unless you always attack in an arrowhead formation (somewhat contrived and gamey), it's difficult to see how this works in practice.
I get it in the context of general moves - you shouldn't end up closer than 3" to an enemy unit unless you're attacking it. But not in the context of an outright attack.
I
think the idea is that this way, units of shot can be protected by units of pike positioned slightly ahead of them. But then you get a situation like the one shown above, which is just a bit silly...
In the end, I've dropped the attacking horse back a couple of inches after the second round of fighting (which they won) so they've ended up three inches away from the enemy units to either side of them. But it feels a bit odd.
Any thoughts on this conundrum from experienced Mersey Rules players would be welcome
Onto the rest of the Royalist moves…
Fondling’s veteran Folorn Hope keeps advancing, trying (by the look of things) to outflank the frame gun…
Hopton’s blew troop of dragoons are ordered to fire on the Parliamentarian commanded shot advancing across the gorse patch – but turn out to be out of range, so do nothing instead!
Spoon’s commanded shot, on the extreme left of the Royalist line, advance again…
Crawley’s dragoons rally and remove their wavering marker.
Astley’s newly arrived bluecoat shot advance…
Fondling’s pinkcoat shot now fire on Sir Melville Gibson’s commanded shot in the gorse patch, and manage to knock two figures off.
Despite this grievous loss, the veterans of Gibson’s commanded shot pass a morale check and stand firm.
Up on the other flank, Crawley’s troop of horse fail to activate, rolling a double 1
But then they roll a 4 on the 'double one results' table - the strange ‘negative’ result of which is: 'Immediately attack the nearest enemy'.
Meaning they move towards the nearest enemy, as no-one is in attack range - which is pretty much what they were going to do anyway!
(I can see how in some circumstances that outcome could prove a negative, but here, it actually did them a favour – ah, the vagaries of the rules…
)
That’s Royalist turn 4 completed. Now awaiting Parliamentarian orders…
It’s starting to get a bit more bloody now (and complicated!
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