The Battle of Tipperishmuir

Lenin paid another visit and we played a series of games.  The first was a chance to get my 28mm Montrose figures to the table.  I don't quite have the right mix for the Battle of Tippermuir in 1644, so our engagement became the Battle of Tipperishmuir inspired by the actual engagement.

I was in two minds as to which rules to use for the game but ended up plumping for Pike & Shotte as I wanted to give them another try and they had most of the stats I needed for the game already worked out!

Having offered Lenin the choice of sides he decided to take the Covenanters and left me with the the Royalists and a real challenge - not just the historic lack of cavalry and ammunition but also the benchmark of the historic result!

Deployment was broadly consistent with history (despite the overall reduction in forces) with the Royalists behind the burn and the Covenanters on the ridge.  The Royalists had Kilpont's archers on the left, the Irish under McColla in the centre and the Highlanders under Montrose on the right.

Initial deployment

With the Covenanter commanders rated much poorer than Montrose, Lenin had a few issues with getting his troops to move.  He rather regretted deploying them in line an not column on the road which might have made all the difference!

I advanced the Highlanders and the Irish to threaten the Covenanter left flank.

The Highlanders advance

The Covenanters stood firm (despite Lenin wanting them to advance!) and fired their artillery.

The Covenanters stand firm

With the Covenanter horse threatening to charge the highlanders decided to pre-empt that and the real fighting began.

Battle is joined!

With the fighting on the Covenanter left in full swing and the Royalist Irish advancing in the centre, Lenin decided to advance one of the Covenanter levy units on his right flank down from the ridge to try to either outflank the Royalists or secure the town.

Coventanter flank march

The Irish formed up in the centre under increasing artillery and musket fire but held their single volley.

The Irish stand under fire

But the highlanders had cut through the Covenanter cavalry and charged on across the ridge finally engaging the Covenanter musketeers and throwing them back too.  A final push broke the Covenanter army morale and the day went to Montrose!

Covenanter Artillery 2

And another artillery piece for my Scots (once again on a 4Ground scenic base):

Covenanter Artillery 1

After a little bit of a break I made some progress with the artillery to support my Scots forces.  I decided to experiment with the scenic bases from 4Ground which allow the artillery piece and crew to be displayed together (as seen below) or separately on their individual bases (which also allows for casualty removal in both cases.

I don't think these bases will work for the even lighter artillery (frame guns) which I have still to do though.

Montrose Himself!

And to lead the Royalist forces, none other than the Marquis of Montrose:

The figures are once again from Redoubt but the flag is a modified version of one from The Inevitable Spark blog.

Covenanter CinC

And to lead my Covenanter forces here is their commander:

The figures are both from Redoubt and the flag is from Wargames Designs.

More Scots Horse

And another unit of Scots horse (perhaps a little more Scots this time!):

28mm figures from Redoubt again.

ECW Officer No. 3

Here's the third mounted commander for my Scots forces:

As before its a 28mm figure from Redoubt.

Scots Horse

Here's a unit of Scots horse:

As you will probably have guessed by now - the figures are 28mm from Redoubt.

ECW Officer No. 2

Here's another officer for my Royalists or Covenanters:

The figure is 28mm and from Redoubt.

Scots Lancers

The next unit I finished basing this weekend consists of some Scots Lancers:

Once again the figures are 28mm from Redoubt.

ECW Officer No. 1

Clearly my growing force needed some leadership - here's my first commander figure:

Another 28mm figure from Redoubt.

Scots Dragoons

Apologies for the lack of posts recently - I have been up to my neck in work.  Here are a couple of photos of two Scots Dragoons that I finished basing recently:

The figures are 28mm from Redoubt.

I am hoping that I will get some more basing done this weekend - so watch this space!

More Covenanter Foot

Here's the latest addition to my Covenant forces:

As with the Aberdeen Militia the figures are from Redoubt but the flag is from Wargame Designs.

Rules for Montrose

With my figures progressing, albeit slowly, I now need to decide which set of rules I'm going to use for my Montrose project.  At the moment I have three candidates, two of which I have played:

The first is For God, King and Country by Bruce McFarlane published by the Canadian Wargamers Group.

As with the other CWG books, this is a guide to the period with a set of rules and scenarios.  The mechanisms seem to be a mash up of the melee rules from Flower of Chivalry (their medieval rules) and the musketry from Habitants & Highlanders (their French Indian rules) with a few specific rules added.

Of course it, like their other rules, does suffer from some rather poor proofreading (as you can see from the cover!)  But as the book contains scenarios for Montrose (Tippermuir and Aberdeen) it's a pretty good place to start as it requires the least work anyway.

Next up is Pike & Shotte by Steve Morgan published by Warlord Games.  I've played these once before - using my Tudor Ireland figures - and quite enjoyed them.  Obviously they're a derivation of Black Powder but with enough changes to make them period specific (or annoying if you're too familiar with BP I suspect).

Unfortunately Pike & Shotte doesn't have any pre-prepared scenarios like For God, King & Country but it does have army lists for Montrose and the Covenanters which is a good start.

The third alternative I have is Bloody Kingdom by Stephen Danes published by AB One Games.  I believe this uses some of the same mecahnisms as his Thirty Years War rules Father Tilly but with some specific Civil War elements added.  Since I haven't yet played either set I can't yet voice an opinion but they look interesting based on a quick read through.

As with Pike & Shotte, Bloody Kingdom doesn't have any pre made scenarios for Montrose; however, it does have sample army lists for Scots Royalists and Covenanters.

I'll be trying each of these out in turn once I have enough figures based and will then report back.  But in the meantime if you've played any of them I'd be interested in your opinion!

For God, King and Country is available from Caliver Books for £17.50 in softback or from Sabers Edge as a PDF for US$9.00.  Pike & Shotte can be sourced from Warlord Games for £30 or you can save yourself some money (as I did) and get it from Amazon for only £19.20.  Bloody Kingdom is available as a PDF from Sabers Edge and Wargame Vault for US$16.00.

The Aberdeen Militia

The next addition to my Covenanter force is the Aberdeen Militia from the Fecht of Aberdeen or the Battle of Justice Mills as you prefer (although I do intend to do another standard eventually to make the unit a little more flexible).

One again the figures are from Redoubt but the flag is from Wargame Designs.

Covenanters - Advancing

As I mentioned in my project update, I have been continuing (albeit slowly) with my Montrose project. Here is my first Covenanter foot unit:

As with my Royalist units the figures are from Redoubt Enterprises and the flag is from Project Auldearn 1645 (which I would highly recommend visiting if you are at all interested in this period!).

More to follow as I finish the Covenanter infantry and then it will be onto the horse, artillery and the officers.