Sunday, October 15, 2017

Lessie's Moor: Battle of the Three Ninnies, Act 2


Welcome back, dear readers, as the curtain rises on Act II of our narrative. We trust you enjoyed your ale! In case you missed them, you may wish to  peruse the Background and Act I   prior to proceeding.


Well, the action re-commenced with a dramatic moment indeed, as the pistol packing Cavaliers of  The Honorable Frederick's regiment of Horse, with the gallant Colonel Josh Archer at their side,  trampled under the purple coats of Alderman Grundy's own Foote. It seems the finery of their raiment was not matched my their fighting spirit! Seeing their collapse, the nearby Parliamnetarian units shrugged off their concerns and were unaffected. 


Colonel Archer's entreaties notwithstanding, the men of Frederick's of Horseywood pursued the shattered remnants of Grundy's Foote, only to run into the solid but raw and untried ranks of the Borchester City Auxiliaries, some of whom wielded rusty Bills from another century! 


On the far Royalist Left, the commanded shot under Captain Heathcliffe moved into position to fire on to the flank of sir Robin Fairbrother's Horse. The men were well supplied with ammunition for this task.


Off on the Royalist Right, Sir Nigel belatedly recalled the heretofore neglected men of Colonel Perk's regiment of Foote. Of course, he had partly *tried* to forget them, the men being composed of the dregs of Borsetshire society... untried,  ill trained and worse armed, and with few muskets among them. Leaving the comparative safety of their hedgerow position, the men grudgingly moved forward to keep the Roundhead cavalry honest.


Back over on the Roundhead Right, the demise of D'Arcy's doomed Dragoons was soon  accomplished. Their collapse unmasked the flank of  the redcoated Lord Stoke's commanded shot. With Colonel Rex not even trying to restrain them, the pursuing Horse of his brother Toby's regiment slammed into the hapless shotte. "We'll *enjoy* this!", exclaimed the riders, as they scatted the shotte in red ruin. Well, alright, they were already wearing red, but allow for some poetic license, eh Guv?


Frederick's bull headed pursuit into the Borchester City Auxiliaries was beaten off, somewhat to the surprise of their captain, the Right Hon. Tomdick Harry. In the farground, it can be seen that the battle of attrition between the Foote in the center is gradually going the royalist way, the ranks of the  Roundheads falling into ever increasing Disorder!


Captain General Grundy managed to maneuver his Cavalry to shore up his vulnerable left flank.
Two regiments of indifferent "Dutch" style "trotters" opposed to  two regiments of well trained "Swedish" "gallopers"and one hot headed (and hot blooded) Prince?  What could go wrong? 


In the Roundhead center, another performance of the "Shuffle off to Borchester" brought the Borsetshire Trained Bands (who were, amazing enough, in fact actually *trained*) in to a most satisfying position on the flank of the Penny Hassett (un)Trained Bands sheltering in the Elves' Copse. 


Situation on the Roundhead right, near Loxley-Barret manor. 


Prince Phillip, in a moment of military genius (at least for an arrogant 16 year old!) dashed forward Prince Edward's Horse to stabilize his own flank.


Overview of the rest of the battlefield; Sir Nigel's small troop of Cuirassiers pulled back to provide some obstacle to the rampaging Parliamentarian horse. 


Over by Loxley-Barrett Manor, Sir Barrymore Heathcliffe ordered volley after volley of long distance fire into the exposed flank of Sir Robins, Horse! Sir Barrymore swore as his men ran very low on ammunition, and the cursed Roundheads seemed little worse for the wear!


In the Centre, Colonel Sterling, himself hardly a Ninny, pulled back his battered and and outflanked regiment. This unmasked the Parliamentary guns, such as they were. To everyone's surprise, not the least surprised being the gunners, the whitecoats of Colonel Aldrige's regiment had enough for this day, and break! In the process, the brigade's commander, Colonel David Archer was hit! Barclay, his trusted servant, was quick to inspect the injury "It's just a Flesh Wound, Milord!"


The cavalry melee swirls, as Grundy used his superior numbers to get in a flank attack on Prince Edward's Horse. 


More of the "Borchester Shuffle" stabilized the Roundhead Center... for the moment, at least.


The badly battered Roundhead center attempted to rally under the shelter of the gunnes, but the men were too weary to have much luck restoring order to their ranks 


Situation in the Centre from the Royalist vantage point; the repeated charges by Frederick's Horse have ground them down, with surprisingly little impact on the Borchester City Auxiliaries.  


Of on the Royalist right, Prince Phillip at last ordered the charge! His gorge having risen (along with certain royal nether parts at the thought of enjoying some post-victory vixens after the battle, although the gentlemen readers will perhaps recall how little it takes for those parts to rise at age 16 anyway), he and his men plowed right through Bellamy's regiment of Horse!


Titchner's Dragoon's, hit in the flank, were the next to be swept away by the hard-charging Prince and his Lifeguard!


Continuing across the fields of Borsetshire, the Prince and company reach the flank of the Borchester City regiment, their horses well and truly blown!


    On that thrilling note, dear readers, we must once again leave affairs in Borsetshire lay for a bit. Let me entreat you to take advantage of the services of another of our sponsors, Grundy and Company, Esquires, "Barristers to the Bors". Remember their slogan "Where there's a Will, there's inveigh!"

- Reginald Soggybottom, your journalist-at-large.

22 comments:

  1. The epic-ness continues! Most enjoyable.

    Cheers,
    Aaron

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  2. So many exposed flanks. Peter, your storytelling brought a smile more than once. Really enjoy seeing your large ECW collection out on the table. Buildings are first rate too; store bought or homemade?

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    1. Yes, and exposed flanks are A Very Bad Thing in Tts!/K&P.
      Glad you enjoyed the narrative, which is of course every firmly tongue in, err, cheek!
      The ECW figures are really enjoying being out of their boxes for a spell. After having lived on top of my dresser in college for 4 years, they have been shuttered away the vast majority of the time since then.
      The buildings are from the truly excellent Hovels range, painted by me many, many years ago. The buildings use a sort of "forced perspective, so that the height is in scale with the figures, but the footprint is much closer to in scale with the tabletop (almost like using 15mm buildings with the right height). I also have the whole set of their Spanish and Northern European village ranges as well, all highly recommended.

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  3. Great looking and great fun game, an alternative universe for the radio 4 stalwart, a soap opera invented to keep farmers up to date with the newest innovations now reimagined!
    Best Iain

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    1. Thanks, Iain! I read a little on the background of The Archers. The closest US equivalent might be Garrison Keeler's "A Prairie Home Companion"; those familiar with that radio show might think that I have borrowed his idea of "sponsors" for the program... and they'd be right!

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  4. A real pleasure for us to look at such wonderful units, very impressive...and bloody!

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  5. Very much enjoying this. My money's on the Royalists.

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    1. We had a lot of fun playing it, and now I am enjoying writing it up as well.
      Rooting for the King, eh? So much for liberal politics! :-)

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    2. Only as far as the ECW is concerned Peter. I was never much of a fan of Cromwell, although I suppose we wouldn't be where we are today without him.

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    3. There is certainly far more to recommend Cromwell as a general than there is as a ruler!

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    4. I was of course yanking your chain, definitely being of the liberal persuasion myself, at least for the past 25 years!

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  6. Again, a cracking account! We intend to put half-a-dozen Borsetshre battles together in a campaign book, to follow after the rules come out.

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  7. PS do you do Facebook? Would you mind if I copied these onto Facebook?

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    1. Yes, I do facebook; I figured I would post there (as well as TMP, LAF etc) when the series is complete (probably 1-2 days)

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    2. Would you mind providing a link to your Facebook page?

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    3. I don't have a FB page (aside from my personal one, which I don't use a heck of a lot), but I do post to some wargames related groups on FB.

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  8. Cool- I look forward to it. It seems to me that Facebook is gradually taking over from Blogger; which is a pity.

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    1. I think they are just different ways of reaching people. Facebook is reasonable for "Hey, look at what I'm doing right now!", but it is ephemeral. Sure you can set up a facebook "Page" but it is a very weak tool compared with blogger.
      The samwe thing is true of sites like TMP, LAF, The Wargamer's Website, etc. Without getting into their pros and cons, there is both overlap and differentiation between Blogs, FB, and Discussion groups.

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  9. Excellent stuff, and an entertaining read. thanks Peter!

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