I hosted my mates John and Eric from Banchory today and so we decided to game the Battle of Corrichie once more. John and I first discussed fighting this battle many many years ago. John reminded me that it was when Grampian Battles by Peter Marren, was reprinted, which would be around 20years ago!
Having played it before using Pikeman's Lament I set the kitchen table up to represent the Hill o' Fare above Garlogie and Raemoir. The rules can make a battle swing either way with their initiative mechanism and the first game was no exception.
The battle got off to a start with the Gordon foot charging into Errol's horse and coming off the worse for it, routing back into the rough ground to the rear with Huntly himself becoming separated and hiding in the bog. However Bissets foot now saw them off and and pushed forward towards the raw Aberdeen foot. These too were seen off but the rebels were now in a poor shape. Moray's foot came up and a desperate charge was launched by the Irvines, in an attempt to force their way clear and get home to Drum castle. Moray was wounded but saved by his men and Irvine's unit was broken.
Game over and a pause for lunch to reflect.
As this was a refight and not a balanced scenario the odds were stacked against Huntly's men. Even so , they were able to inflict losses and drive back the Aberdeen men. They were just too worn to make an impact on the well drilled Lothian troops. Losing Huntly and his unit so early also reduced the rebels chances of winning.
After lunch we gave Neil Thomas's One Hour Wargames a go. A very simple but well thought out set with limited unit types. We refought Corrichie and then had a larger across table game with randomly diced for units. Corrichie, using only three units a side was really too small but the second game was more interesting and looked and felt like a decent battle. These rules are worth a revisit sometime soon. I have some landsknechts languishing in a box and these would be perfect for a fun afternoon.
Corrichie, Tillyangus, Corgarff and Craibstane are battles which will feature in my next book. They're all small encounters perfect for Pikeman's Lament.
I've sold a few of my books from my last post .- but there are still bargains to be had and of course both Sugar Islands and Against Spain are still available too.
3 comments:
Yes, an excellent game although unbalanced. However as the wounded* B@stard Regent of Scotland I have to admit it was closer run thing than I would have liked. With Clansmen you have to attack and the problem is that once you have beaten the first unit you are probably in no fit state to take on the second rank. Second time round as Gordon, it was again an all out attack , eventually running out of steam (or men). A couple more units and Gordon would be very difficult to beat. An enjoyable afternoon of wargaming using rules I haven't played before although PL is pretty close to most of the other Daniel Mersey sets.
* It was just a flesh wound!
Wot he said...
Good summary John!
A great looking game Stuart…
And a period I know very little about… Which is always nice to see.
All the best. Aly
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