Moscow 1650s

[paulr]

On the 24th May with New Zealand's Covid-19 Alert reduced to Level 2 groups of up to 10 were allowed to gather. So our hosts took the opportunity to stage a 10 player 28mm For King & Parliament game.

The game was set to the west of Moscow in the early 1650s and used a number of eastern adaptations that can be found here,
https://www.talesfromawargameshed.com/17th-century-wars-in-ukraine.html

Nearest the camera (North) is the Moskva River with an English trading settlement in the bottom left. On the left (East) of the table are the Muscovite forces with a grand battery protecting the Moscow road in the centre and Tartars covering the southern flank. On the right (West) the forces of the Polish Confederation are rapidly advancing supported by Cossacks on their southern flank.



While the Polish Confederation advanced the Muscovites held in their centre while advancing slowly in the north supported by the English. Their Tartar allies in the south advanced rapidly leading to large and confused cavalry melees.



In the north and centre the Polish Confederation continued their advance while trying to dislodge a small escort for the Tsar Cannon that had taken shelter in a village in the centre of the table.



On the southern flank both sides were heavily engaged with heavy fire and multiple melees raging each turn. On the southernmost flank the raw Tartar light horse learnt, the hard way, the danger of being orthogonally adjacent with one hit units. They failed multiple cascading rout tests.



In the north the Muscovite and English forces continued to deploy while there were some light horse clashes. The small escort in the village continued to frustrate what should have been overwhelming opposition.



We broke for a very pleasant curry lunch accompanied by a particularly appropriate beer.



After lunch the forces in the north came to grips with mixed results for both sides. The eastern adaptations allowed a number of the cavalry units to pass rally tests and not automatically pursue.



While the Tartars had suffered on the southern flank it had also been very costly for the Poles and Cossacks and the scenario organiser allowed some Cossack reinforcements, arriving in the distance.



By now both sides were down to two coins, although the Poles received a late boost to their coins by capturing a Muscovite fort on the Moskva River (out of picture in the north-western corner of the table). There were several turns with both sides carefully husbanding their disordered units while trying to focus on their opponents disordered or exposed units.

Finally the brave escort to the Tsar Cannon were destroyed costing the Muscovites their last two coins.



Victory in a hard fought and really fun game was the Polish Confederation's.

My thanks to our hosts, the scenario organiser and all the players, it is great to be playing again.

[Techno]

Belting ! 

Cheers - Phil

[mmcv]

Good game, interesting to see FK&P adapted. I note there was even a boat in play

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

Bottled virus on the table !

[Sunray]

I believe you guys have established the best way for Wargamers to come out of lockdown and set a precedent for us to follow.

Thank you very much indeed!

James

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

I am seriously jealous on many counts, the comradeship, the beer, the curry, the figures, the game...

Fab

[FierceKitty]

The day I use cards on the table, melt my armies down for fishing weights.

[mmcv]

The day I use cards on the table, melt my armies down for fishing weights.

You can use chits or D10 as alternatives if you're a pectophobe...

[paulr]

I must admit I prefer less conspicuous chits to cards, but when in Levin...  

I was a little reticent about reporting this game given the circumstances of others  

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

Paul - it's good to see an end so thanks for the report 

[FierceKitty]

I love cards in their proper place, which is for bridge or cribbage. I have spoken.

[Shedman]

Lovely looking game

I have no problem with cards - I use smiley face counters in red, yellow and green

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

I have spoken.

Yet again 

[fred.]

Cracking looking game - glad that NZ is moving out of lockdown effectively - you guys have managed the situation much better than the UK.

The cards are part of FKaP but are very much an optional part. We use much smaller cards - not least as we play in 10mm. And on a recent online game used d10 to let the players roll their attack rolls, which we think we might keep for actual games. As several of the players get confused between activation cards and melee cards. So having cards for activations and dice for melees might help them (or perhaps not...)

[Steve J]

Cracking looking game ! Glad to see you've been able to ease the lockdown down under. Here we still have until 1st July before our household MAY be able to return to something approaching normality.