Scots Wha Hae

The Scots pike shelter behind the hill. 

By happy circumstance, my Scots had exactly the right number of stands to hold the pass in turn. Six of pike, 3 shot, 6 Highlanders, 1/2 bow, 1/2 swordsmen, 3 Border Horse and 2 guns. Which means of course that I really ought to paint more. The plan called for at least 18 stands of pike, not 6 but the mold is faulty and has been waiting nearly 6 years now for me to test out my vulcanizer and spin caster. Maybe this year? If there are no new life upheavals to deal with?

The Earl of Belmont. These are all Elastolin figures.

I divided the English cavalry into 2 slightly larger Battles this time, leaving 1 stand of Gentlemen Pensioners to escort the Earl. There weren't enough Bills and Bows to do the job so some German mercenaries were employed as usual. The dice were kinder this time. Both cavalry Battles came on the South, but so did the Whitecoats while the Redcoats and Germans came on the other road, reducing congestion.

The Red Coats deal with the narrow streets of Cornerton.

It seemed to me that anything that could push the pikes off the hill wasn't going to be bothered by a handful of light horse so I sent Lord Home out to do what he could to delay the English. I'm not sure they entirely noticed. The English foot smoothly navigated the town and deployed behind a screen of archers. I tried to send the White Coats around the village but by the time they agreed to follow an order, any order, the road was clear anyway.

The English cavalry covers the march of their army.

The Scottish shot and Highland archers tried manfully to hold the English  light cavalry back from the guns and then to out shoot the English bows but eventually the remnants had to retreat to safety. The Highland swordsmen fell back behind into dead ground behind the hill, meaning to reoccupy it time to hold the English bills but the Redcoats were a bit too fast for them. An uphill charge to retake the hill ended with the Highlanders  streaming off the table. It looked for a moment like the Scots pikes could hold their side of the pass till nightfall. Neither the German Pike nor the White Coat Bills could come up in time to push them, though their shot and bows were taking a heavy toll, and a charge by cavalry was easily repulsed. The Red Coats came through again though, wheeling about, without  waiting to order the ranks (6 on the control test), they charged  across the gap and pushed the Scots back to the edge of the woods. Just far enough to be able to claim control of the pass at last light.  A draw by the book.    

Apart from a desire to give my 16thC troops an outing, these games were played to test out a slightly modified control test (reduced chance of units misbehaving), a switch from saving throws for armour and cover to a die modifier and some tweaking of the melee rules. I'm happy with them but I'm going to pop the troops back on the shelf for a few weeks until I paint some more and until Rob and I have a chance to discuss the changes more fully.

I've just about done in this scenario for now but being familiar and thus good for testing new rules, I just may play 1 more game. There is one collection on my "active" list that hasn't been out in nearly 3 years and I'm thinking about a test game of Bob Cordery's Memoir of Modern Battle rules. I don't have the special die, but it will be easy enough to give a numeric equivalent to each symbol. The short name of the rules is  MOMBAT. The "BAT" bit reminds me that I still I have my old Britain's BAT anti-tank gun and a score of Crescent and Herald troops and gives me an itch to do it in 54mm but I should stick to my guns and pit Roscia vs Naryatria in 20mm.