Final CoCv2 Practise Game

This was another practise game with John using the new 2nd edition of Chain of Command (CoCv2) before starting the Caesar's Camp pint-sized campaign.  Also, to get a bit of a feel for the 1940's forces we opted to actually use the 2nd scenario from the campaign, "The Seaforth's at Trois Foetus" (don't ask me how it got that name).  Anyway, the scenario map (north at the top) is shown below ...

... and this is our representation of it on the table-top (viewed from the west).

The broken blue line represents the German deployment area in this 'Flank Attack' scenario and the green arrows indicate the two sides from which the Allies may enter the table.  The hedge running along the southern edge was just to mark the limit of the playing area.

As I don't have any early war forces, all the terrain and troops, in this game (and in the forthcoming campaign) are from John's 15mm collection.

For support John had opted for: an adjutant, an additional infantry section and 2" mortar team; a Vickers MMG; and a Char B1 tank for a total of 16 points[1].

I chose a tripod-mounted MG34 and three entrenchments for a team (6 points). 

Our rolls for Force Morale saw me with a Force Morale of 10 to John's 9.

The Patrol phase was fairly predictable as the Germans can deploy their Jump-Off Points (JOPs) anywhere in their deployment area so, it was fairly easy to rapidly lock down all my JOPs before John's could get anywhere interesting.  The resulting JOPs are shown below.

The game started with John deploying a scout team from the JOP in the cornfield (counts as light cover for stationary troops).  The small counter next to the team is a unit ID marker as 15mm troops can be harder to distinguish from each other.

I hadn't expected this but immediately realised this was intended to pressure me into deploying early.  Meanwhile, the local in the cornfield, just looked on with a knowing grin on his face as if he'd seen it all before and knew how it would end.

It was clear I was going to have to keep an eye on this team but I wanted to delay deploying until I could inflict significant harm on as many of the attackers as possible.  Consequently I took no action in my phase.  I was however hoping to collect as many CoC points from my command dice while holding back from deployment (needless to say I was to throw not a single '5' until later when I did finally have to deploy my troops!).

The next phase saw John's scout team move tactically so as not to offer themselves up as an easy target; it was clearly going to be some time before they had to be dealt with at this rate. 

Also, in this phase more British deployed; a section in the large wood and an entrenched Vickers MMG nearby.

The Brits were starting to show their hand, but I deemed it was still too early to show mine so I continued to pass.

In his next phase John brought on a senior commander who put the Vickers onto Overwatch.

He also brought on another section from the JOP in cornfield to back up their scout team; their junior leader instructed them to go Tactical. 

Sorry but no picture of this, and as the action heated up pictures became very few and far between so the rest of this AAR will be very broad-brush.

I decided enough was enough, and brought on my third section (with an old MG08 in place of their would-be MG34 - they were second wave troops) and an entrenched MMG, a tripod-mounted MG34. 

While the MMG took on the scout team the section with its MG08 targeted the rest of the section in the cornfield.

DUMMKOPF!!!  I had overlooked the fact that neither of the targeted troops had moved so gained soft cover from the cornfield, which, with their Tactical posture brought them up to Hard Cover!  As a result, this only killed one man (in the section's Bren team IIRC) and put one shock on each target.

John's Vickers on Overwatch targeted my section then in his phase (only inflicted shock), to pile on the pressure, deployed a section on the northern road and another on the eastern road.  Also deployed was a 2" mortar which successfully dropped smoke to protect the section in the cornfield from my MG34.

In my phase, deciding I didn't want my section caught in a firefight with an entrenched MMG their junior leader removed their shock and withdrew to seek cover.  Meanwhile my entrenched MG34, unable to fire at the section in the cornfield by the smoke continued to engage the scout team which lost a man.

John then thew a double phase for the Brits and decided to make most of it; deploying a section to advance down the northern road and advanced the section in the wood.  The section advancing down the northern road receiving cover from a 2" smoke road landed one the road ahead of it.

In my phase I countered by deploying a MG34 armed section in and around the Green Farmhouse; the MG34 in an entrenchment out front and the rifle team in the first floor of the house behind it.  An overview of the situation at this point can is shown in the photo below.

My newly deployed section (in, and in front of, the Green Farmhouse) mainly piled shock on, and killed one of, the Bren team of the leading section advancing alongside the northern road.  Also, the MMG MG34 put another point of shock on the scout team who were now teetering the edge of being pinned.

John then threw another double phase!  This time he concentrated in both phases on laying more smoke and trying to eliminate the MG34 team in front of the Green Farmhouse with his Vickers and HE from 2" mortars.  The latter only inflicted one casualty and three shock as shown below (I use the brown puffs of dust to indicate shock).

The photo above shows the MG34 team as pinned, we realised shortly after this that this was a mistake and the rest of the section were just behind them in the house (at this time one the ground floor as I had foreseen the need to reinforce the MG team).  My initial actions in my phase were to rally off some shock and fire again at the scout team hoping to pin them this time.

I only have one photograph showing the overall situation at this point but it's not great (my old camera struggles taking detailed photos of these smaller figures and this photo was particularly bad for some reason).

What the photo does at least show is the extent of the smoke, a speciality of the British who can link together individual smoke bombs within 6" of each other to create a wide screen.  Also, shown is the now pinned scout team - another error very quickly rectified as in inflicting two shock took it beyond being pinned to break.  The resulting 11 on the 2d6 (+6") for a routing team saw them leave the table, but the Bad Things Happen (BTH) test left the British Force Morale unchanged (the last good throw they would ever get on BTH table). 

With all the Brits now deployed (only their French tank support remained to deploy), I sent my section sheltering behind the Green Farmhouse back to their previous position to take on the Brits coming down the northern road and deployed my final section with my last two entrenchments in front of the Red Farmhouse ...

... to take on the section advancing tactically along the eastern road.

I can't recall exactly what this shooting achieved as the section had already taken some hits earlier in the game.  In fact, as the photos dried up about here, I'm having to rely totally on my hazy memory for the sequence of events.

John's response was to immediately bring on his French Char B1 up the eastern road to take on the entrenched section by the Red Farmhouse.  Killing one and inflicting a point of shock.  He also extended the smoke screen further to the north-west.

I then moved my section out from their entrenchments away from the tank's line of fire while elsewhere inflicting losses on his sections coming down the northern road.  I also transferred all the rifle team in the Green Farmhouse to the MG34 team as it was clearly going to struggle to survive otherwise.

John then threw a treble 6!  This removed all his smoke left him unable to do much else with his first phase.  The photo below shows this situation (note the German section that abandoned the entrenchments by one of the ruined barns at the bottom right of the photo, and the British section that they had fired at on the eastern road has got off the road to avoid their fire and obstructing the tank behind them).

The next British phase saw a fair amount of shooting but what hits they did score only translated to a few points of shock and even fewer kills.  Also, the Char B1 drove flat out down the road, why I am not sure but I suspect that moving flat out was designed to lower the chances of my off-table Flak 36 88mm gun from taking it out (I had completely forgotten to even try this in my previous phase).  

Anyway, at last it was my phase and I spent the two CoC points to activate the off-table '88' engaged the tank needing 6 or more on 2D6 to hit; I rolled 3!  never mind, with smoke gone it was time to punish John's infantry.  The section in the cornfield had it's Bren team wiped out and the rest broke, fleeing off the table leaving behind their stunned leader.  The two BTH tests for the stunned junior leader and the broken section both caused the British Force Morale to drop by 2 points, falling from 9 to 5.  Just not quite enough to start the 'Final Countdown'.  However, the furthest advanced platoon coming down the northern road was then hit, taking enough shock to see it pinned while the senior leader was wounded.  The latter saw the British Force Morale drop a further point to 4 at which point it lost a Command Dice and I elected to start the 'Final Countdown' (to last 4 phases as that was John's Force Morale value).  

This sorry state of affairs can be seen in the final photo taken in the game.

The return fire in John's phase was much reduced by the losses, pinned units and appalling dice throwing with just the odd casualty and point of shock spread across the German units.  Final Countdown = 3.

So, with things now going my way it was now going to be simply a case of continuing to pour in as much fire as possible.  And just to make life even easier threw two 6's for a double phase!  In the first phase I couldn't do much with my command dice but did spend a further two CoC points to fire the 88, only needing a 5 on 2D6 now the tank was no longer moving; I rolled another 3!  Final Countdown = 2.

In my second phase my off-table '88' I finally hit the Char B1 inflicting a net 2 hits, for 2 shock and wounded commander.  The BTH test for the wounded commander dropped the British Force Morale down to 2 which triggered a 'J Rating' event - a withdrawal to a JOP.   As John had a 2" mortar near a JOP that fell back to the JOP; this seemed a very underwhelming result (see discussion of the 'J Rating' in the wrap up).

All of this was soon moot as the next team that fired killed one of the British senior leaders and their Force Morale collapsed to zero and they retreated from the field - GAME OVER.  

POST MORTEM

The key point to emerge over a cup of tea was that we had made no significant mistakes and now felt we were ready to tackle the Caesar's camp campaign in earnest and scheduled that for a fortnight hence.

Of the rule changes in v2 we felt they all added to the game and removed some 'super weapons' like the previous mechanics for mortar bombardments.   We especially liked the use of CoC points as well as CoC dice.

In terms of new rules, we are unconvinced about the Final Countdown and Ticking Clock as they have seemed irrelevant in our practise games with forces being defeated before the clock could bring the game to an end.  They seem a lot of mechanic for little effect, but maybe they'll prove themselves in future games.  

The J rating however seemed a waste of time as the player can choose which unit withdraws to a JOP and in our case this was just a 2" mortar team that were already close to one.  Why that team would withdraw when there many others units further forward and under fire seems counter-intuitive.  We also questioned whether a pinned section could be selected as the unit to withdraw in this way but decided that seemed wrong as it made 'J' event an ideal way to extract a unit from a bad situation, i.e. a benefit rather than a penalty for failing morale.  Anyway, if anyone knows whether we got this wrong do say in the comments.

Notes:

[1.]  The points costs were used as in the campaign guide which, preceding CoCv2, has slightly different point costs for some items.

CoC v2 - New Rules vs Old - Questions?

This was my first game using the new (2nd edition, or 'v2' for short) Chain of Command (CoC) Rules.  The table / scenario was covered in the previous post but for clarity the table is shown again here with the names used to describe various features.

The Set-Up

The Force Morale dice favoured me with a starting value of 10 while John was unlucky to only start on 9.

I felt the patrol phase went badly for me, with John (German) getting a jump of three moves before the phase started.  That, the large amount of cover, and the fact that defender jump-off points (JOPs) have to be at least 12" in from their base edge saw all three of mine constrained to being in and around the buildings; two of them looking quite exposed in the farmyard.

The German JOPs were well advanced and more handily placed, two either side of the road leading to / through the buildings and a third over on the German's righthand edge of the table - see composite image from the German viewpoint below.

This meant John's panzergrenadiers were going to start pretty close my JOPs and have a good head start on their right to get a team to my base edge.  This game would've been over pretty quick under the old rules, where exiting a team off the defender's base edge was all that was required to win a Probe scenario.  The new victory conditions for this scenario require the attackers to capture a JOP in addition to exiting a team off the enemy's table edge; there's also a turn limit to put the attacker under time pressure.

At this point I forgot (D'oh!) to place my barbed-wire entanglement (1pt.); my other support options being a Vickers MMG (3pt.s) and an additional 2" mortar team (2pts.s) for a total of 6 support points.  Unlike my last game, this time I treble checked my sums and so didn't end up deploying more than the allowed level of support.

John's chosen support options were: a tripod mounted MG42 (3pt.s); a mortar bombardment (4pt.s); a sniper (2pt.s); and, a Red Command Die (2pt.s), for a total of 13 support points.

The Game

John as the attacker took the first phase and immediately decided on a left-flanking and right-flanking approach to prevent me concentrating against a single line of attack.  To this end he brought on two sections: one from his far right JOP heading towards my unprotected left, and the other, plus a senior leader, from the orchard JOP moving towards the Compressor Building.  These can be seen, viewed from the British perspective, in the top left corner and middle right of the image below.

My Command Dice didn't allow me to bring on a section in response, although at this stage I wasn't sure I was ready to commit one.  I was able to deploy my lieutenant (senior leader) in the upper floor of the Derelict House with a 2" mortar team behind it.  The lieutenant immediately directed it to fire HE against the German section on their right flank but to no effect.  The Germans continued their advance on both flanks and this time I responded by deploying a section in the Compressor Building (but not yet in a position to fire out).  Also, I deployed my PIAT team in the ground floor of the Derelict Farmhouse (why I did this I can't think[1]), and a second 2" mortar behind the farmhouse.

The deploying 2" mortar immediately lobbed HE at the left flanking German section inflicting a point of shock (the photo also shows the appearance in the next German phase of the FO controlling their off-table mortar battery.

This was all looking rather threatening, but with a section in Compressor Building and my 'massed' 2" mortars I was feeling a little more secure.

That nice warm feeling was quickly shattered as the German FO (see previous photo) called in a mortar bombardment targeted against the Derelict Farm (the red Pin Marker being used to denote the aimpoint).  Even worse the bombardment came in on target and immediately fired for effect.  Luckily not a 'Devastating Bombardment' but bad enough, especially for my exposed mortar teams (4 dead and two shock), one being wiped out (British Force Morale dropped to 9).

Even the section in the Compressor Building (one dead and two shock) ...

... and the PIAT team in the Derelict Farmhouse[2] (one dead) were not safe!

Now I was starting to panic!  The only good news was that the Germans approaching the Compressor Building were caught 'Danger Close' and so needed to stop for the duration of the bombardment.

In my next phase, my senior leader rallied the shock off the surviving mortar crew and the section in the Compressor Building advanced up to the end of the building to be able to fire at the German left-flanking section[3].  As they couldn't all fit in the extension at the end they still suffered from the next bombardment phase (one dead and one shock); elsewhere the bombardment only managed to kill one 2" mortar crewman. 

Next in line to fire at the section in the Compressor House was the panzergrenadier section facing it[4].

This was all at close range, even for the Obergefreiter's MP40, but, thanks to the hard cover, it only inflicted five shock, which left them teetering on the brink of being pinned (8 figures with 8 shock).

At the same time the German left-flanking section continued to advance ...

... and a third section, followed by the second senior leader, deployed in the woods heading towards the farmyard.

If I was panicking before, I was bricking it now, which probably explains my forgetting to take photos for the next couple phases.  

In my phase the section in the Compressor Building fired back at the panzergrenadiers outside and, despite the large amount of shock, did inflict some damage as the Germans were in the open.  Realising this was not going to be enough I deployed my Vickers MMG team by the Compressor Building on the side away from the road (the photo is one taken from a later phase but is just as appropriate here).

This inflicted a lot of casualties on the panzergrenadiers, without photos I can't recall the numbers but wiped out one section causing German Force Morale to drop to 8.  

The next German phase was the final phase of their mortar bombardment which, apart from pinning the British section in the Compressor Building with a couple of shock, was curiously ineffective - a sign of things to come?  However, the left-flanking panzergrenadier section inflicted a hatful of shock on them and they broke (British Force Morale dropped to 8), a lucky low die roll seeing them stop just short of leaving the table.  

Also in this phase, the central German section in the woods advanced to the wall surrounding the farmyard, perilously close to my two JOPs (actually only one team made it to the wall the other being a few inches short.  

My next phase was a double phase; this was heaven sent!  With no '1's on the other Command Dice, I was unable to fire the Vickers MMG against the now depleted left-flanking panzergrenadiers.  But, more importantly, I needed to do something about the section threatening my JOPs in the farmyard and I still had a section in reserve.  But where could they usefully deploy?  Could I line the wall the Germans had just come up to?  Deploying so close to enemy troops did not seem something likely to be allowed in the rules, or so I thought, but we both searched long and hard and could find nothing prohibiting it![5]

So, that's what I did, deploying my last section, and my platoon sergeant (senior leader) to man the wall for some point-blank firing on the enemy[6].

John immediately used his available CoC die to interrupt and fire first - I was hoping he'd forget, but he didn't.  The shooting was at close range with one team at the wall firing at me in the open, and the other being further back having to afford me hard cover.  The resulting 16 fire dice was catastrophically bad, only resulting one shock on each team and one dead Bren gunner!  

In reply my sergeant ordered up a couple of grenades (both hit) before unleashing 13 fire dice at close range against a target in the open - it was pretty ugly with their junior leader going down stunned dropping German Force Morale to 6.  

The next phase gave me a CoC die to end the turn[7].  The section at the wall now finished the job, wiping out both teams (German Force Morale drops to 4 losing one Command Die and their Red Command Die!), and at this point I picked up the camera again.

The junior leader survived as he was stunned in the first phase's fire so escaped being a casualty in the second and then recovered as it was the end of a turn.  We have always played that leaders with no troops left under their command leave the table (removed).  Once again, we searched the rules but could find nothing covering this situation so played it that way anyway.

HELP!  If this is wrong, please correct us and point out where in the rules it says what does happen in this situation.

Also in this phase, I deployed another section in the Compressor Building vacated by my broken section, and the Vickers cut down even more of the Germans facing the Compressor Building but with a surprising lack of any shock.

In the next German phase, John decided his depleted section should double away from my Vickers MMG to get out of what was an increasingly one-sided fire-fight.  Unfortunately for him, their movement dice did not allow them to disappear into the depths of the orchard and safety.

Next was John's third attempt to deploy his 'hesitant' sniper, which again failed with no senior leader off-table to chivvy on the men.

In my phase I got my second CoC die which again had to be used to end the turn[8] and this time start the 'Final Countdown', which with John's Force Morale at only 4 it would only last four phases. 

With John pulling his forces back to reorganise for a second attempt I, believing the final countdown to be just that, relaxed and focused on rallying off any shock.  

John then, finally, deployed his sniper, missing my platoon sergeant but killing one of the riflemen in the farmyard ...

... and continued to advance his right-flanking section, shown here with some shock from my remaining 2" mortar that had replenished from a friendly JOP.

It was now, as the final countdown ended, that I found out it was anything but final, as the game continued!  I really should've read this bit of the rules more thoroughly.  So in my next phase, to provide more protection to my JOPs, I brought my section in the Compressor Building across the road to the farmyard.  Unfortunately, the Bren team didn't make it all the way across the road.

In John's next phase the depleted panzergrenadier section that had fallen back from the Compressor Building were now in position to fire down the length of the road and promptly wiped out my Bren team caught short crossing the road.  A lucky roll of '1' on the 'Bad Things Happen' table left my Force Morale unmoved and John's four Command Dice did not allow anything else of note in the phase.

My next phase saw me roll three '6's to end the game, a win for the plucky (or should that be lucky) Brits.

That all took longer than I had anticipated as we were doing a lot of rule checking, as in retrospect more had changed than I'd realised - I'm obviously not good at reading rules cold.

So, OLD vs New - what do I think!

I can't think of a single change that wasn't (IMO) a better representation of the action represented.  The mortar barrages and limits to British 2" mortar ammunition are much better.  

The contents list and index are much improved; the sequence is probably better laid out but being familiar with the old set did see us looking in the wrong place a few times.

Storm of Steel for the weapons we used worked well, although I hate the name and have concerns (untested) about it being used for any small arms.

The deployment of heavy support weapons coming with entrenchments seems much better as these would be unlikely to deploy out in the open.

The changes to the Force Morale tables, such that different units lose Command Dice at different levels didn't seem to offer much in our game, but maybe in other games, who knows?  That said, my peg-boards tracking Force Morale, CoC and Command Dice, now need to be redesigned and re-made.  The same goes for my platoon orbat trays as both the British and German standard infantry platoons have changed - still it's better than re-basing figures.

The use of CoC points as well as CoC dice is useful giving more ability to react in an emergency and varying the cost of these actions is an improvement.  

Overall, on one play through, I think the changes are an improvement, but we've decided we need at least another game before diving into our next campaign.

What do you, if a CoC-player, think?

Notes:

[1.]  The only utility I can imagine I saw in this was being able to use it to fire at any Germans taking cover behind the wall around the farmyard as the lieutenant was in the building and could direct them to do so.

[2.]  As mentioned in previous AARs I don't put figures in my building (no removable roofs) but place them off-table on card floor-plans the same size as the buildings.

[3.]  Being in what, we agreed, was a substantial building of two or more stories, the section in the Compressor Building was not pinned by the bombardment.  Also, while the extension at the end nearest the Germans was only single-storey it was out of the bombardment zone and troops getting there could fire out and be fired at.

[4.]  My barbed wire (1 support point) can be seen just peeping in the right-hand side of the photo.  As I forgot to place it at the right time we put it somewhere out of the way - and this fleeting glimpse is its only contribution to the game.

[5.]  I have since found the rule that allows you to deploy into close combat (section 9.1.2).

[6.]   The wall, as a medium obstacle, allows the active player to choose whether or not to enter close combat if within 4".

[7.]  In accordance with the Probe scenario rules, any CoC die gained by the defender must be used to end a turn.  After the second turn is ended in this way the game starts to draw to a close placing the attackers under time pressure as the next end of turn will end the game.

[8.]  My broken section didn't leave the table recovering to pinned status as I had rallied off some shock since they broke.

 

Battle of Langport, 1645 - AAR

After my recent attempt to refight Adwalton, I picked another lop-sided encounter for my next ECW game, this time with Iain, the Battle of Langport, 1645.

I had little about this action in any of my books, but luckily was loaned a copy of David Frampton's booklet[1].  As well as details on the forces engaged on both sides, it included an inspiring diagram of the forces as deployed, which I used as the basis for the game set up (I have not included the image here as I am unsure of the copyright implications of doing so).  And as a picture is supposedly worth a thousand words, here's a picture of the deployment with some words, surely worth even more?

The units not labelled (Royalist labels are blue and Parliament are yellow) are all either regiments of pike and shot, or horse.  In case anyone thinks they're seeing things, I'll point out that I don't have figures for Fairfax and Goring so Essex and Rupert are standing in for them.  The odds are such, that despite the good defensive position, the Royalists will inevitably be beaten, so for this game their 'win' would be to get all their siege trayne off-table, en-route to Bridgewater.  Historically, Fairfax sent a large force on a wide outflanking move around the Royalist left flank and cut off the siege trayne, although the speed with which the Royalist defence collapsed meant it was also caught from behind.

So, with both sides ready for the off, Fairfax (Iain) determined to force his way through ...

 ... and Goring (me) equally determined to hold the line while the siege trayne gets away - will he do better this time?

The Royalist cannon started the ball rolling opening fire at the veteran ironsides lined up to storm across the ford[2] ...

... which was returned with interest by the Parliamentarian batteries.

Surprisingly, with all this powder being expended, neither side inflicted any damage, and nor did they for some time.

Then, out of the blue, a random event generated a group of clubmen sympathetic to the King's cause who appeared alongside the Bridgewater Road.

While not a significant accretion of force for the Royalists, it used up all my clubmen (I must get more!) who were scheduled to turn up in support of Parliament once they had successfully got some units across the Rhyne - so quite a useful event for me.  Even more so as it gave me a unit near the retreating siege trayne that was looking like it might get intercepted by the Iain's dragoons who had moved off at speed towards my open right flank.

Knowing that the clubmen were unlikely to make more than a speed-bump for the dragoons Wilmot turned one of his regiments of horse to counter the outflanking threat posed by the dragoons. 

Meanwhile, around the ford, the artillery continued to thunder away without effect as Parliamentarian commanded shot advanced into the marshy ground and started a firefight with the Welsh foot on the far bank.

Parliament's dragoons continued their outflanking manoeuvre, and more horse followed in their wake to keep my right flank under pressure.

At the same time the persistence of their gunnery finally paid off ...

... and finally eliminated the cannon guarding the ford.

With ford unguarded, veteran Parliamentarian horse moved up ready for a coup de main against the Royalist position.

Then as the dragoons reached the Rhyne ...

The Royalist commanded shot across the Rhyne were surprised by the ironsides executing a sharp right turn to charge them in the flank!   

I really hadn't seen this coming, albeit the random turn sequence hadn't provided me with any opportunity to do anything about if I had.  Luckily, while taking a beating, the commanded shot held firm, and the horse withdrew to reform and try again.

I seem to have a dearth of photos around this point in the battle which saw the dragoons continue their flank march while the Royalist cavalry redeployed to stop them were could olny watch thanks to the fickle card-driven move sequence.  Also, with Parliamentarian horse advancing against my right flank this cavalry unit couldn't now be spared to chase after the dragoons, so Maurice took personal command of one of his cavalry units and set off to try and get to the siege trayne before the dragoons could do too much damage.

The threat to my siege trayne was compounded by their very slow progress.  This sluggishness had become so questionable that a quick review of the play-deck was called for and revealed only one card allowing them to move[3], when there should have been two - another was quickly shuffled in.  OOPS!

Back at the ford, and against the odds, the raw Welsh foot, despite its losses[4], had finally won the firefight, destroying the opposing commanded shot; the remnants of which can be seen fleeing in the photo below.

This good news was offset by Parliament's dragoons routing the clubmen, who were trying to shield the siege trayne, and then destroying them in the ensuing pursuit.

Maurice was getting closer but looked unlikely to prevent the dragoons getting in amongst the waggons.

And so it proved, as the dragoons promptly got stuck in, eliminating one element and then stopping to loot a second.

Things were looking little better to my front as another regiment of horse drove my commanded shot by the ford back across the Rhyne.

It was at this point in the battle that Goring roused himself from a drunken stupor.  In reality it was our realisation that neither of us recalled having seen his card drawn from the play-deck, and another quick check showed that his card had also been omitted by mistake.  His card, actually Rupert's as I lack a card for Goring, was quickly shuffled into the deck.  DOUBLE OOPS!!

As Fairfax's horse pressed forward, they reopened a field of fire for his artillery, or at least those that hadn't run short of powder owing to a random event, to engage the Royalist horse ready counter-attack any break-in.

And this time they seemed to get their eye in from the very beginning.

While one of Maurice's regiments of horse was having to sit and suffer an artillery bombardment, he, with his other regiment finally caught the dragoons as they were looting an element of the siege trayne.

Needless to say, the dragoons were soundly thrashed and ridden down in a ferocious pursuit.  Unfortunately, but unsurprisingly, Maurice and his men continued pursuing off into the wide blue yonder (off-table) and despite several attempts (dice throws) during the game never returned to the field of battle.

Although my siege trayne was now safe for a bit, elsewhere things were coming unstuck as more horse charged across the ford and broke a regiment of foot.

While yet more, over on my right flank, crossed the hedge and charged my cavalry waiting for them on the other side.  Although my men managed to counter-charge they were badly routed, with three consecutive retreat moves (circa. 40-45") meaning they left the table in disgrace.

A little light now appeared through the gloom as my siege trayne got moving again, my prized giant mortar managing to exit the table, ...

... my broken foot regiment by the ford managed to rally and hold off another charge by Parliamentarian horse ...

... and my commanded shot, safely ensconced behind a hedge on my right, held off yet another. 

However, what was left of the siege trayne on the table was now threatened from behind by Fairfax's horse that had broken through on my right and in front by another group of clubmen, this time with Parliamentarian sympathies.

So, with dinner beckoning, the Royalist siege trayne doomed, and more Parliamentarian units lining up to break what was left of Goring's forces the game was called.  A win for Fairfax.

In retrospect I think more of the Royalist forces should have been rated as raw to represent their demoralised state as the war was clearly unwinnable at this time.  While this might make Fairfax's task easier, getting the correct cards in the play-deck would have seen the siege trayne move a bit faster and Goring better able to move troops to counter any outflanking move.

Anyway, the key thing was we both thoroughly enjoyed the game, and in the end that's what counts.

Notes:

[1.]  'The Battle of Langport - the 350th Anniversary' by David Frampton, An Academic Artizan Publication.

[2.]  The Wagg Rhyne was ruled to be fordable everywhere so the actual ford had no significance other than it was unobstructed by marsh and/or hedge.

[3.]  When turned up, each element of the siege trayne threw one average die (2dAv), the score indicating the number of inches it would move.  With no overtaking allowed, if the front wagon rolled a '2' then no-one was going to go any faster than that, and gaps would open up as those towards the rear threw less than those in front.

[4.]  Losses are indicated by red makers (tiddlywinks), units being destroyed when they have taken as many losses as they have bases.  These can be rallied off by commanders if they expend their orders to do so, and roll a 'Flag' on the dice, a 1-in-6 chance so rarely worth trying.  Green markers indicate disorder, which affect a unit's combat ability but can be recovered more easily.  Yellow markers indicate a unit has been activated so cannot be activated again in the current turn.