Camp Cromwell Rules at Mutford

After a long afternoon battle using Mutford rules, after dinner I set up a small Napoleonic battle to show Tim how M2M works.  Rehretably I was o engrosed in showing how th rules work i forgot to take any pics un til the battle was almost over.

I commanded the Russians, deploying my infnatry on my left & cavalry on my right.
Tim also put most of his infantry on his left & cavlry on his right, but ith a leger battalion between them.

I decided to try & exploit my smal advantage in cavary quality by charging acroos the front at the Frencg cavalry.  The inevitable Russian command issues slowed the manoeuvre & allowed the legere to provide decisive support to the French cavalry. Onky 1 Russian dragoon unit made it back to support the infnatry's left flank.    

Meanwhikle the French infatry colunns were advancing around the Russian right flank.  The Russian infantry wheeled & deployed in line to meet the French.

The Frecnh cavalry then attacked thb left of the Russian line as their infnatry attacked the right end.

The cavalry attack took out the remaning Russian dragoons, but with sigificant casualties lst disposing of the Russian cavalry some good shooting by the Russian infantry flank guard stopped the attack.

On the other flank the first French attack was beaten off.   But superior French musktry & artillery supprt  was taking it's toll on the Russian centre, breaking a unit so the Rissians failed their army morale test.

I'm sure the progress of the battle would have been much the same in either set of rules. Both provided a great game.  The big difference being the speed of play in M2M.
 

Napoleonic battle at Mutford

While Tim's wargame shed has the table set uo for Naval battles, his garage has a 12'x6' table setup for land battles.  I devised a scenario for a battle using the Mutford Napoleonic rules, which are heavily modified Black Powder.

The French are on the near side of the table with 2 infnatry divisions & a cavalry division between.  Facing the french left is a mixed Austrian division.  Facing their right is a mixed Russian division.

On the left the French have advanced to the ridge as the Austrian infatry advance slowly.  The French advance was partly disruted by an opportunistic charge down the road by Austrian hussars  forcing the French artillery to evade & the right flank infatry to form square. 
On the right the French have advanced to a defensive line between the wood & village as the Russians slowly advance. 
In the centre the French cavalry have struggled with command dice as they try to gain the high ground.

On the left the French infantryhas taken up a defensive postion on the ridge (the church model has been removed to allow the occupying French legere to be visible).
In the center the Austrian & French cavalry have engaged & the French are getting the best of it.  On the right of the hill, the French have finally got theri cavalry up to face the Russian cavalry. 

On the left the massed Austrian columns have charged home.
In the centre, the French have beaten off the Austrian cavalry & are finally deployed facong the Russians on their right.
On the far right not much is happening beyond an artillery exchange & skirmishing in the wood. 

On the left teh Austrians have broken the French infantry on the ridge.
In the centre, the French cavlry are geting the upper hand in amassive cavalry brawl with the Russians.

The battle was terminated & the result adjudicated after turn 12.
The Austrian infnatry have decisively defeated the French infnatry on the left.
Nothing much happened on the right flank.
In the centre the Allied cavalry is all but destroyed.
The result was decided to be a narrow French victory.

I commanded the French.  I had no trouble playing the rules & enjoyed it.  As with all good rules, following sound military principles worked fine.  The Mutford rules are more complex & slow to play than M2M, but that's the sort of game my English friends like & they had some interesting concepts to consider for M2M.

Napoleonic Naval at Mutford

 Tim & I played the break his blockade scenario we had both played before.  I commanded the French & Spanish, Tim the British.

The Allies have to get the transport convoy into port on the RHS of pic.  The wind is blowing left to right in their favour.  In the fireground 2 French men o war lead the 3 transports.  In the ncetre left, 2 French & 4 Spaniosh men o warare coberging on the gap between islands while 4 British men o war are beating up wind towards them.  2 more british men o war are behind the island far right moving to intercept the convoy.

In the centre the Allies have formed neat line of battle & are pounding the lead british squadron, thouigh the last French ship mismanged their turn & ran aground.

In the centre, both ships of the first British squadron are disabled & left behind & the 2nd squadron is now being pounded by superior numbers.
On the right the 2nd French sqiadron has engaged the 3rd Brits which bar the way to port.

The transports are now about to run the gauntlet between the 2 British men of war in their path & the island, but the French men o war are inflicting damage on the blockaders.  

The transports have run the gauntlet with minimal damage, their escorts having caused enough damage on the Brits to limit their firepower.

The Mutford rules are based on Camp Cromwell rules but have evolved in different directions in some repects.  The basic principles remain the same & I had no difficulty playing the Mutford version.  The Allies were fortunate in that the wind remained steady in their favour for the duration, but they also showed un-historic skill in forming line of battle & concentration of fire.  



 

Travels in Scotland & Northern England

In my solo prologue to Camp Cromwell's 2023 expedition I flew to Edinburgh & picked up a hire car intending to do a tour of the north of GB before rendezvousing with Chris & SteveD in London.  My route has been Edinburgh - Huntly - Thurso - Ullapool - Fort William - Oban - Carlisle - Newcastle - York.  There were battlefields on the way like Falkirk, Stirling Bridge, Bannochburn & Culloden, but as with most British battlefields, the field is either a featureless piece of moorland , built over, or the site is in dispute, so site visits don't add much to one's knowledge.  Lots of ruined castles though, and interesting remains of Antonine & Hadrian's walls.   Tomorrow I head for Norfolk for some wargaming English-style with Tim, my English e-pal. 

Hadrians Wall

Abandoned Scottish castle

North Africa Mech War

The scenario is a British attack on Axis airfield defended by Italians.
15mm figures, Hohse Rules.

View from behind the British attack.
Mark's poorly trained Fusilieri are dug in around tthe airfield (12 infantry stands & 4 light a/tank guns.
On the left Mike has 12 infantry stands in trucks, 2 bugs & 2 2pdr portees.
On the right Mitch has 6 infantry stands in trucks & 2 Vickers light tanks.
In the centre Jim has 9 Crusaders.

The scenario has the Italians receiving reinforcements on turn 3 consisting of 10 M14 light tanks & 12 stands of Bersaligieri in trucks.  Their point of arrival was determined by drawing a card with 4 options.  The cards decided that Steve would come on behind the British right. 

The Brits turned their Crusaders & portees around to face the Italian reinforcements while their infantry dismounted to attack the airfield.

The British infantry have taken out the front line of Fucilieri.
The Bersaligieri are moving up behind on the right to counterattack.
The Italians are getting the better of a bloody tank fight.

Mike's infantry have over-run the airfield on the left & placed charges on the planes.
Mitch's infantry on the right have been over-run by Steve's Bersligeir, though with high casualties.
Jim's armour has been totally destroyed leaving the Italians with 6 M14's still in action.

The Aixis aircraft are in flames, but the British are below half strength & have to withdraw to their trucks with the bugs & Vickers covering their retreat. 

So the Brits have achieved their objective, but it's a phyrric victory, if a victory at all.  Both sides claim victory.

30 Years War

Empire: Mike & Jim: 4 tercios, 2 Landschneck swordsen, 3 Polish Hussars, 3 extra heavy cavalry, 4 medium cavalry, 2 guns.
Swedes: Mark & Mitch: 5 pike & shot, 4 musketeers, 8 extra heavy cavalry, 4 medium cavalry, 2 guns. 
Pics from behind the Empire's right flank.

The Empires deployed their tercios on the ridge on their left, swordsmen on their left flank, artillery in the centre with their medium cavalry behind in reserve, & their heavy cavalry on their right.
The Swedes put all their cavalry on their right, pike & shot plus artillery in the centre & musketeers in the woods on their left. 

The Empire immediately threw their heavy cavalry at the left end of the line of Swedish pike & shot, while their tercios advanced steadily on their left.
The Swedes began moving cavalry from their right to the centre.

The massed cavalry charge eventually broke a pike & shot unit, but was spent in the process & rallied back from the Swedish second line.  While that fight went on, the Poles held off the musketeers on their right but not without loss & the reserve cavalry came forward to cover the left.  The massed cavalry charge eventually broke the pike & shot unit, but were so badly mauled they had to fall back from teh Swedish second line.
The Swedish right is falling back slowly in the face of the advancing tercios.

The Empire cavalry on their right flank have fallen back with high casualties.
The medium cavalry in the centre won their fight & the other Swedish cavalry in the center fell back as the tercios advanced on their flank.  The victorious cavalry then charged the Swedish guns on the ridge.  they rode over the guns but recoiled with high casualties losses from the pike & shot behind.

Three tercios have finally closed on the Swedish pike & shot.
On the far flank the Swedish cavalry is neutralised by the 4th tercio.
Most of the Empire cavalry has fallen back where their general is trying to rally them.
The medium cavalry still fit to fight are covering the tercio's right.
Swedish cavalry from their right flank is redeploying on their left.

While the infantry slug it out in the cente, the remaining unshaken Empire cavalry are desperately holding off a Swedish counterattack.

The Empire's cavalry line has broken, but they held on long enough for the tercios to win the battle as 3 more Swedish pike & shot break causing them to fail an army morale test. 

Even though the butcher's bill was heavily in the Empire's favour, with them losing just 5 cavalry units broken while the Swedes lost 4 P&S, 2 musketeers, 2 cavalry. & 2 guns, the battle was in the balance to the last turn when the Swedish infantry line suddenly collapsed before the Swedes could exploit the fact they had cavalry dominance on the near flank.