English Civil War, 28mm using 1644 Rules

Twas early 1643 and The Kings forces are on the march to London, when they find forces of Parliament in their way. Battle ensues.

We used 1644 rules by foundry. Still a great set of rules and stand the test of time.

The two battalia set out their forces. Royalist's on the right are from my collection, parliament force was form Paul Williams collection.


Royalist Dragoons move to a copse in the center of the battle


Parliaments Dragoons counter this and a stalemate ensues for the entire battle


GIVE FIRE! Dash it wet powder


Sir Thomas Tyldesley's foote move forward at a brisk pace receiving casualties from both cannon and musket.


Sir Thomas Blackwell's foote supporting Tyldesley's left hold to allow the horse to advance around the copse and threaten the Parliament's centre


The King urges his troops forward


Parliament's Heavy horse are preparing to charge the Royalist's left wing


Royalist, Sir Arthur Aston's Brigade of Foote Horse and Dragoons


Sir Thomas Tyldesley's foote are close to charge range and still have good caommand!


Royalist horse are in position, but are now threatened by another Parliament horse Regiment beyond the copse


A stand off on the left, no one wanted to commit until the far flank was decided.



Tydesley's charge in push the opposing regt back. in the next turn the royalists get the upper hand and routs the parliament regt.

The day is lost for parliament as the cannon and regt to it's right failed command test so were fixed in place. Their flank would be rolled up by the Royalists.


On to Turnham Green

Fatimid Egyptian vs Byzantines - Sword & Spear rules

Byzantium, the prize of prizes. Once again we head into Byzantium.
From a couple of years ago, 28mm Fatimids from my collection and Byzantines from Alan Patrick's

500 Points using Sword and Spear Egyptians had 16 dice and Byzantine had 15 dice.

Egyptians won scouting and Byzantines placed first, The set ups
Byzantine:




Fatimids:




Turns 1 and 2 were of position and manoeuver.

Turn 3 saw the first clash:
Franks smash into a Ghilmen unit and caused only one casualty and received 1 Casualty


Fatimids also lost 2 light horse units to shooting


Turn 4 & 5:were very bloody for both sides and I forgot to take pics for turn 4,

Turn 5


The Fatimids were getting the better of the combats and the Byzantines were close to breaking.




The Fatimid Infantry were pushing the Byzantines center.


The last of the Byzantine cavalry, about to receive a charge.


The end of turn 5 saw the tide possibly turning in favour of Byzantium
Here are the casualties:
17 points, Discipline tests were all passed


19 points and a Captain failed 3 Discipline tests. The units that failed took a casualty


Last turn - 6:
Fatimids got the luck of the draw. Everything that could charge, did so!






Even the camelry moved up.


Along the line, there would be combat


The last turn, the Byzantine lost another 2 units which took them over half their army points and they broke. A Fatimid Egyptian victory. caused by bad dice rolling on the Byzantine side of the table. Although the Egyptians rolling was just as appalling in the early stages of the battle.

A hard fought enjoyable game.

French vs Austrian - Shako II rules

I had been dabbling in various sets of Napoleonic rules, such as General de Brigade, Principles of War, Black Powder (1 game, although I was always drawn back to Shako, so when the new set of rules for Shako II came out I bought a set and here was our first game with the new set. I believe they were published in 2008, but I did not get my set until 2016, considering the last time we played was about two or even three years before that using Shako I, the rules came back pretty quickly. Not many pics, enjoying it to much!


The D4s are Div nos. The D6s you see are Div Initiative dice.We used a couple of "pick up" armies from the rules, 1809 I think

The counters are Blue/ yellow= Staggered. Green/ White = Artillery fired this turn. Red = Failed Volley and Fallback. Green on cav = Blown.

Deployment. We both decided against better judgement to use 5 Divisions each. In doing this we were taking Div Morale at losing 2 units!


French Cav Div (Right Flank)


1st, 2nd and reserve Divs (Center)


3rd Div (Left Flank)


Austrian Right


Austrian Center


Austrian Left


Initial Moves


One of the central French divs move in!


French 2nd Div one move away from contact.


French left getting staggered by artillery


Lots of Cav Melees


Center, sees the Austrians starting to buckle


French 2nd divs Elite punch a hole in the enemy's line!


French 3rd div taking on Austrian left.


The end game finished with the Austrian center starting to buckle with divisional morale test causing 2 demoralised divisions,
I have a lot more games to add soon.

Snipe 27th October 1942

A couple of years ago, Big Jim and I played "Snipe" on the Bank Holiday at our clubs Big Game Day. Jim picked the scenario and we both gathered our forces for the day.From Rapid Fires' Monty's Desert Battles Page 60.


Al the terrain and Axis Forces were from my collection and Jim supplied the British.

The first three moves were night moves and nothing much happened, but, on turn four, all hell let loose form both sides. Not many pics I am afraid, but hopefully enough to get a feel of the intensity of the game.

Pre-game deployment:

The 2nd Rifle Battalion were deployed in the Snipe ( a hard cover depression in the centre of the table). The Germans had deployed an FlaK 88, PaK 38, a 20mm AA gun and a 47mm AT gun in hard cover dug in positions close to the Snipe. Gruppe Steifelmayer deployed close to the German end of the table. At the British end of the table were two large positions either end of a ridge. "Stirling" occupied by Brits and "Aberdeen" occupied by a small Battalion of DaK. The brits only avenue on to the table was through a 4 inch gap in a Alamein minefield.The German 12th Armoured(Littorio) entered on turn 3 The Italian Bersaglieri entered on turn 5 and the German 21st Panzer Division, reinforcements entered on turn 8.

Gruppe Steifelmayer


The German 12th Armoured(Littorio) and Italian Bersaglieri Regt


German 21st Panzer Division


Table from German end, Aberdeen on left of far ridge and Stirling on right.


"Aberdeen"


"Stirling" and Snipe in center of table.



British Artillery support


British 24th Armoured and Gordon Highlanders (enter from turn 1 through the minefield)


Turn 1 to 6 had a few bits and pieces hit etc.

Gruppe Steifelmayer attacked the snipe until it had destroyed all the AT guns then was to move onto the centre ridge between the two strong points.


Turn 7

German 12th Armoured(Littorio) advance behind a long ridge towards Stirling.


Attacking the armour on the ridge.


Stirling turn 7


Aberdeen turn 7 (about 5 Dak left)


Turn 8, Jim's air support arrived


It arrived OK, but my AA shot it down.


Turn 9, Lucky I shot Jim's aircraft down as mine arrived next turn. and dropped it's first bomb on a portee in Stirling and destroyed it.


Turn 10, Fighting around Stirling intensifies as the Bersaglieri start to support the armour.


One lone 6pdr was holding his own in the Snipe and causing casualties on the attackers


The 21st advances past the Snipe to support Aberdeen and take on the Shermans.


The Stuka rained terror over the next two turn hitting and destroying its 2nd and 3rd pre-designated targets.


By turn 12 Aberdeen had fallen to the British, but it was to late, the Germans had inflicted to many casualties and the Stirling defenders were forced back having no armour or AT guns left to support it.


The Snipe fell on turn 14, with the defenders losing a morale check and surrendered (being surrounded at this point).

21st Panzer were pressing on Aberdeen and the British had taken too many casualties and conceded Stirling and Aberdeen.

An overwhelming German victory, mainly caused by lucky hits on British Artillery FO's and bad Artillery dice by the British Players. Although German Artillery was not that much better.

Thanks to Jim and Darren his 2iC and to Graham, My 2iC who did what he was ordered.