Warcon 2014: Musket & Pike Edgehill

I kicked off this years' Warcon with a game of Musket & Pike Battle Series. The scenario was the battle of Edgehill from the "This accursed civil war" set. Hex & Counter games are not exactly ideal blog fodder so I'll be brief. The game series is excellent and I recommend it fully to wargamers though.

The game after the frist turn. The royalists under king Charles are advancing towards the lines of the parliamentarists. The royalist cavalry on the right engage the skirmishers sent to harry them and draw in some of the parliamentarist cavalry waiting in reserve.

Cavalry clash as the battle lines draw closer.

After the cavalry engagement, king Charles rides to the scene to rally his troops. He underestimates the speed of the parliamentarist cavalry however, and is caught by their charge. The king is slain in the ensuing mayhem, what a tragic day!

The royalists, shocked by the loss of their king lose the initiative and the parliamentarists manage to charge their line with their infantry

The situation becomes chaotic and casualties are high on both sides.

In the end, only tatters of both armies are still in fighting order, but the parliamentarists have managed to seize victory (and would have even without the massive VP score from the slain king)

It was an interesting scenario as the armies were quite symmetric and even. I think anything may happen in this scenario and it would probably work well as a tutorial game for M&P as there are virtually no deviations from the basic series rulebook. Tactically there were quite a few choices to be made. I definitely had no clue on how to use the skirmishing troops to their potential and they were easy prey for enemy cavalry. I got a lucky prey in taking out the king and managed to charge the enemy with my infantry and gain momentum bonuses. It was a close cut thing however, and I had some luck with my dice.

Stay tuned, I still have a Here I stand game to report as well as Signal Close Action!

Into the Abyss

We haven't been using our cellar this summer and I went to clean it so that we can store our potatoes, mushrooms, juice and whatnot for the winter. I was not prepared for the unnatural horrors waiting for me in the dark.

The entrance to Dungeon Level 1. It is guarded by black giant spiders not visible in the photo.

I must be cautious for there are fouler things than orcs in the deep places of the WHAT THE?!

It appears the few potatoes left lying around in the darkness have begun to spawn new life!

This is starting to look like invasion of the body snatchers!

Delving deeper I neared the source of the Lovecraftian horror hidden from the light of day..

..and faced THE THING THAT SHOULD NOT BE!

Realizing a mere broom is no match for the horrors lurking within this forgotten crypt I planted a device to cleanse the vault of the corruption that had taken over.

With smoke and fire I will purify this place!

I made my escape as the crypt of horrors filled with smoke intended to kill the fungus infestation and slammed the door shut. Now I dare not return and see whether my efforts were successful or not.