Scraping Off The Rust and Oiling the Joints

 What a wonderful day! 

Turn 2 or 3. The armies have marched on and begun to deploy prior to the clash.
Sorry for the quality of the pics. The lighting in the space where there was room for the table was not the best for taking pictures of miniatures, so the flash on my phone had to be used to get any pics at all.

It was a cool grey morning with the threat of showers and/or snow flurries in the air and on the radio and I was a little behind my time, so instead of my usual route of taking the secondary highway which cuts across the peninsula, I took the longer divided highway, nipping onto a secondary road shortcut which would also skirt Halifax and avoid the heaviest traffic.......at least it used to 15 years ago.... Crikey! The woods have exploded with subdivisions, malls, stop lights etc etc since I used to frequent that road. I should have realized that since the process had begun before I moved out of the city.  Next time I'll stick with the quiet path.

All of the troops on the table are 70's era Minifigs painted back in the 70's by 4 or 5 different people, including a handful of those wonderful kilted...pikemen!? and highlanders painted by me back when. (They are in the background here with the big Macfarlane crest on one flag and the cross of Saint Andrew on the other.) 

Anyway, I was still the first to arrive which was good because I had all the terrain. Naturally there was as much catching up as laying out of terrain and troops, interrupted  periodically by a new arrival and a new round of catching up! We were five in the end, in addition to myself there were 2 of the old (sic) gang that I've been friends with since I came to Halifax in the late 70's and 2 veteran recruits from  the boardgaming world that we had met at a local open gaming day in the year before COVID. Still, eventually we got troops and terrain sorted, players briefed and the game began.  Since there were five of us, two of which were new to miniatures, and it was only the third outing for the 'one side of a page' rules that I had written up hastily for a group game in 2018, I offered to be GM and coach.

An overhead view shortly after the previous picture. The Highlanders are recoiling from a surprisingly tough bunch of raw Covenanters. 

We managed a couple of turns before the excellent chili was ready....then with the troops fed and rested we resumed. It seemed like no time at all that the intended departure time had gone by and darkness with showers tending towards snow flurries were imminent. Luckily, the last turn had set the Royalists back on their heels and it was looking like a long reach for them to be able to turn the tables and rout the Covenanters, so we were able to call it and hurriedly pack up and head out. 

More Highlanders but these guys are being a bit tougher. The fact that I painted most of the Highlanders on green bases doesn't really have any significance at all, nope.

The scenario was designed by Paul based on the Battle of Tippermuir. He had written some special scenario rules such as dicing for the quality of some of the newly raised troops on both sides, limited ammo for the Irish, and so on. We made a few unfortunate choices about things such as how to categorize the open woods under the rules and the what effect the special rules would have, but nothing serious. 

We didn't have enough time to play the game through to the point where the Royalists could make a come back, due largely to the socializing and learning how the rules worked, but the socializing was the main event and we played enough turns to declare that Montrose was unlikely to achieve the sort of victory he won historically, if he could win any sort of victory give how the first part went. Indeed more very special scenario rules would be probably be needed to reproduce the historical quick collapse and rout of the Covenanter army but I'm not sure there would be any way to do that AND have an enjoyable GAME rather than an exercise.  

The scenario was interesting though and the game presented some good but different challenges to both sides so, with a little tweaking to the special rules, we plan to play it again. 

The one side of a page rules are available from my rules page (here). They treat units much like a board game counter and aren't likely to satisfy knowledgeable ECW or Pike & Shot aficionados, but were designed to be easy for inexperienced miniature wargamers to pick up and play. So far, the test games have all been enjoyable with new players picking it up fairly quickly, so I am resisting tinkering.

Game's end: The first Royalish assault has been held. The approach of bad weather and darkness have convinced Montrose to pull back rather than renewing the assault.

I have a feeling that it will be a while before there is another public miniature wargaming event here in Nova Scotia but that smaller gatherings like this one, in people's homes, will continue to happen more and more frequently, at least until the next wave comes.....