Had a pretty satisfying weekend at Call to Arms over the weekend.

We played two games of the Advance on Leith scenario using FK&P on Saturday, with honours even between the two sides when the smoke cleared. I will put up a couple of reports in due course but both games were very close, the second one literally coming down to the last combat to see who would be victorious as the local lads went to the "push of pike" against Monck's veterans and saw off Cromwell himself at the head of the aptly named Colonel Hacker's regiment of Horse (they fought several combats but only ever managed one hit IIRC - the regimental quartermaster later denied claims that he had issued the regiment with rubber swords).

On the Sunday the RN were I think going to be splicing the mainbrace after they gave the Kreigsmarine a fairly bloody nose, although the Prinz Eugen's gunnery officer certainly had a good day late on in the game.

I was a good boy and just looked at the bring and buy, though most of it was GW related stuff anyway.

Having used up most of my brownie points its back to reality today          

Sounds ace

Yes, sounds interesting. Look forward to repost and pics! 

Was there sunshine?

There was sunshine

Both Leith games were incredibly close with several twists and turns

It is a great scenario with lots of tough decisions and Pierre the Shy has got the balance spot on

On the Sunday the RN's fire control radar was working very well on all but one ship, this meant that the Kriegsmarine were illuminated by starshell and immediately hit by effective salvos

My dice rolling, particularly early on, was outstandingly good
Rhys, the other German commander, commented at one point, the British actually missed

Prinz Eugen's arrival certainly was dramatic with two British Heavy cruisers badly damaged

The Advance on Leith – 31 July 1650

Parliament Briefing
Between Edinburgh and the border with England, the Scots adopted a scorched earth policy, thus forcing Cromwell to obtain all of his limited supplies from England, mostly arriving by sea through the small port at Dunbar. Knowing that his logistical problems would only increase over time Cromwell decided that a rapid advance to attempt to take Leith, Edinburgh's nearest port, was the best way to solve his supply problems. Such a move would also force the Scots to fight and, if successful, help bring an early end to Charles II's royalist aspirations. To lead the advance on Leith Cromwell decided to put Major General Lambert's experienced brigade of horse and Colonel Monck's infantry brigade in the van, with Lambert in command. Cromwell's own brigade of horse would stay in reserve to start with, eventually deploying where he thought most advantageous once the Scots army's deployment became apparent to the English. To support Lambert's opening attack Cromwell ordered an artillery battery be established on the Eastern most heights of Arthur's Seat prior to the attack. This battery could then dominate the Scots trenched defences and would be defended by a detachment of foot drawn from Mauleverer's Foot.

Covenant Briefing
Leslie initially showed no inclination to fight Cromwell's advancing force on the open ground East of Arthur's Seat, the large, long extinct volcano that dominates the surrounding low lying coastal plain. Despite Leslie's superior numbers, Cromwell's reputation, together with the variable military experience of his own men led him to believe he could use the strength of his defences to greater effect. Why risk fighting in the open when the English could waste their strength against them? In fact, he had already made good use of Edinburgh's natural features, placing an outpost on Arthur's Seat overlooking Holyrood House. By far the most notable of his man-made defences was a multiple line of trenches, in front of which spears were embedded in the ground to counteract charges from cavalry. These ran from the port of Leith in the north along the path of the present Leith Walk to Holyrood. However, his defensive plans were thwarted by the continuing interference from the Kirk and the all powerful Committee of the Estates, both of who insisted that Cromwell's force be engaged before reaching Edinburgh's defences. Unphased, Leslie acted swiftly to put together a plan to counter Cromwell's bold move using roughly half the total forces at his disposal. Two brigades of lowland infantry, commanded by Colonel Sir James Campbell of Lawers and Colonel John Innes respectively, would advance to the east to confront Cromwell's forces as they advanced on Leith, supported by the Earl of Leven's cavalry brigade and long-range fire from field artillery deployed within the Scots defences. A detachment from Campbell of Lawer's regiment would hold the Eastern slopes of Arthur's seat against any English intervention. Meanwhile a further cavalry brigade under the command of Major General Sir Robert Montgomerie would take the road round the south of Arthur's Seat to Jock's Lodge and fall on the advancing English from their left flank and rear.   

Game 1 – Covenant (Peter) and Parliament (Paul)

The battlefield, with Arthur's Seat nearest the camera and the Scots trenches on the left:



The Scots deployment:



The English arrive, Monck's infantry on the left and Lambert's cavalry on the right:



Lambert's brigade advanced briskly across the open heathland and was engaged by the Earl of Leven's small brigade made up of the Earl's own bodyguard of Dutch style Cuirassiers and Lord Brechin's Lancers. The Earl's bodyguard is quickly overwhelmed by Lambert's veteran regiment, though not before Lambert himself takes a pistol ball in the shoulder, seriously wounding him and forcing him to retire from the field, leaving the English leaderless until Cromwell himself arrives on the scene. Meanwhile after a stiff fight Brechin's Lancers rout Colonel Edward Whalley's Regiment.



As it pursues Whalley's Horse Brechin's Lancers is in turn flanked by Fleetwood's Horse (left hand side). Somewhat fortuitously they fail to score a single hit on my unit and I can turn to face them, meanwhile Monck advances most of his brigade forward, leaving a single battalia to guard the road to Jock's Lodge (very top right). I advance to the meet them (hope those sheep move out the way...).   



Montgomerie's cavalry brigade arrive from the south and I charge the lone infantry battalia in the rear repeatedly, but only inflict a single hit....I need three to destroy it.



While Montgomerie is busy trying to break into the English infantry formation Cromwell's cavalry arrive to save the day.....literally.



There is a huge scrap between the two cavalry brigades. When the smoke clears two of the Scots regiments have disintegrated and Arnott's Lancer's still can't get the last hit on Monck's veteran foot in order to destroy it. The next turn they themselves take a further hit and are removed since they are a two hit unit.



In the centre the two infantry forces come to grips indecisively. Its handbags at close quarters but the English do not manage to roll up the raw Scots units. The Artillery and forlorn hopes on Arthur's Seat exchanged a bit of fire during the game but with their brigade commanders both having higher priorities elsewhere there was not a lot of action on that side of the table.



With the destruction of Montgomerie's and Leven's brigade I handed over the last of my victory medals, giving a final total of 12 to 8 to the English.

I was very happy how the scenario played out and the result was about what I would have expected. We both had occasions where units saved 3 hits in one turn, while in other turns seemingly no one could hit a thing, especially amongst the infantry. We've played enough FK@P now to be quite familiar with the rules and I do like the period feel that they give. It was really great to be able to finally play a game with the Scots as I first became interested in them many years ago but other projects and events have always precluded getting on to them till we found the right combination of scale and rules last year.

Peter is rather generous at a couple of points in his description of the battle

The battalia "Monck left to guard the road to Jock's Lodge" had fallen behind as it repeatedly failed to activate, yes it drew 1s

It surviving being charged repeatedly in the rear was a combination of poor to hit chits from Peter, great save chits from me
If I had lost that unit, as I should, and another couple of units of horse, which I was close to doing, it could have been anyone's game

As I said above, a well balanced & fascinating scenario with some tough decisions to be made by both players

 

More !! 

Cheers - Phil

Excellent looking game, scenario and nice AAR .

Hi

Great looking games and write up. I think both For King and Parliament and To the Strongest! are now officially my favourite rule sets, and that is from some one who was very, very dubious about using grids.

Cheers Paul

Fab battle and write up. 

Excellent photos and report. Cromwell's invasion and the maneuvering around Edinburgh are often overshadowed by the debacle at Dunbar. Thanks for highlighting the former and hope you will continue to provide scenarios. Await the second AAR with great anticipation.
 

Great looking game and excellent report!

Quote from: T13A on 10 August 2019, 08:22:33 AM
Hi

Great looking games and write up. I think both For King and Parliament and To the Strongest! are now officially my favourite rule sets, and that is from some one who was very, very dubious about using grids.

Cheers Paul

We haven't dabbled with TtS yet but the rest all applies for this Paul as well 

On the Sunday as already mentioned we played a naval game

The Germans were trying to get a convoy from Norway to Germany, the RN had other ideas



The above was taken by one of the convention organisers, we were too busy having fun
Near left is the German convoy, screened by minesweepers and illuminated by star shell
Centre left are RN destroyers closing in, also illuminated by star shell and under fire from the German coastal battery on the point behind them
Centre are two heavy and one light cruiser, the main RN force
Near right are a sinking German light cruiser and destroyer, plus a damaged destroyer withdrawing while taking evasive action
Just off the point in the distance are two small and one larger radar contact

Looks fun

Quote from: mad lemmey on 10 August 2019, 09:20:27 PM
Looks fun

Unless you were playing on the Kreigsmarine side.....on the plus side one of my Z class destroyers actually fired torpedoes at the British crusiers and survived ☺

The early RN dice rolling was extremely effective

Game 2 – Covenant (Paul) and Parliament (Peter)

Here's a view of the overall convention held at St Patricks College Main Hall in Kilbirnie near Wellington Airport:



I didn't take many pictures of the other games but there was a very nice 28mm Anglo-Zulu War game played right next to us over the two days. They were using TFL's Sharpe Practice rules:



Last time I wandered over for a look things were not looking good for Lord Chelmsford's boys with the remnants of the thin red line being forced back into their camp.    


After lunch we swapped sides and played again. Deployment was pretty much as the first game:



I decided to attack from the outset in order to avoid Monck's brigade being pinned by the flank marching Scots cavalry. Lambert's veterans spurred forward towards the enemy and charged in fearlessly. Monck's brigade soon followed, crashing into the Scots line to Lambert's left:



Things didn't go quite to plan from the start....Brechin's Lancers rode down Fleetwood's Horse and Lambert's charge against Forbes's raw and untried foot battalia only caused two hits. Even Leven's small bodyguard was able to initially withstand Lambert's charge at the head of Whalley's Horse.
Monck's men didn't do much better, inflicting only single hits, while Mauleverer's veteran 2nd battalia reels from two hits from their opponents....ouch! The English need something to go to plan...

Cometh the hour cometh the man.......Cromwell and his cavalry brigade duly arrive, though he failed to activate very successfully despite his re-roll and Montgomerie's Scots cavalry brigade gallops onto the field to Cromwell's left, eager to engage:



Cromwell's left most unit, Colonel Robert Lilburne's Regt of Horse is flanked and easily rolled up by  Arnott's Lancers. Next turn Cromwell, at the head of his own regiment, is able to return the favour:



Before he himself is lightly wounded and is forced to join his last remaining unit, the aptly named Hacker's Horse, as Montgomerie's Lancers turn Cromwell's men to chaff ("they were like chaff before our swords"  or whatever the saying is):



Meanwhile in the front line Monck's and Lambert's men were still looking to push through the Scots infantry...



By this time Whalley's Horse had destroyed Leven's small bodyguard and Lambert's Horse would eliminate Forbes of Leslie's foot, but they pursued off the table and are not returning anytime soon. In turn the General of Artillery's regiment inflicted a third and fatal hit on Mauleverer's 2nd battalia.....another 3 VP lost to the Scots....I am running out of units fast. The other Scots infantry I am fighting are taking hits but hang on doggedly.



Monck's three remaining battalia attempt to push through the Scots defenders. Note that all three of the Scots units facing them only have one hit left....but for at least two turns no one hits anyone and Innes' regiment attempts to flank Monck's right hand unit.

But help is at hand as Cromwell manages to outdistance Montgomerie's pursuing cavalry and charges into the flank of Innes' Regiment. Its handbags at zero paces again as no hits are made by either unit and Innes is able to turn to face Hacker's attack.  



The next turn I managed to finally destroy Campbell of Lawer's Regiment (the middle Scots unit) but Monck's left battalia is also lost, leaving me 1VP from defeat.



The final chapter is played out on the right, where Hacker's Horse live up to their name by again failing to get the one hit they need to destroy Innes's Foot, who go one better and inflict a second hit on the English regiment which is enough to remove it. Cromwell rides off the battlefield with his retinue, pondering if the invasion of his former ally was a good move after all and promising himself that a Parliamentary Inquiry would be held into the English army's suppliers to ensure that for the next campaign they were properly equipped with steel rather than rubber swords.      

The game could have either way since so many of Paul's units only needed a single further hit to be removed. (I didn't count the final score but it was about 12 – 6 or so if I remember correctly as I did remove some Scots units).  
So two games each with a fairly close result and one win to each side.......developing and playing the scenario was very rewarding for me and we got some good feedback from visitors and passing gamers, so no complaints from me overall, though actually winning a scenario I wrote would be novel  

Pierre the Shy is again generous in his recounting of events

There were several more English hits scored but they were saved by some embarrassingly good chits

The scenario granted each Covenanter foot brigade a Melee Weapons marker, one of d_Guy's special rules which were each allocated to one battalia of each brigade
I resisted the temptation to use them to redraw a failed to hit card
Both were used for their other special feature, canceling the final hit on their battalia, so two of my battalia were saved at the last stroke  

QuoteI didn't count the final score but it was about 12 – 6 or so

I definitely WAS counting the score, it was 12 - 3 or possibly even 12 - 1 if using the Melee Weapon markers costs a victory point

I managed to desperately hang on for several turns with one more hit on any of four Scottish battalia breaking my army
Including one turn where one battalia was charged in the flank

I then managed to draw a 10 so the volley from Colonel John Innes' raw disordered Regiment hit
Pierre the Shy only needed a six or better for Hacker's veteran Horse to save the hit
He drew a 2

This game was even tenser and closer than the first  

Thanks again for a great scenario and two games played in great spirit, a really enjoyable day