Wednesday 1 December 2021

The battle of Bridgetown

Okay then, welcome back to the world of eye strain that is 2mm gaming. Best get yer specs on I reckon.

Given the victory conditions required to win this battle (see previous post) I felt it was better to concentrate on capturing just the one bridge rather than splitting my forces over the two. The enemy on my right flank seemed the weakest so I deployed the more mobile part of my forces accordingly.

The two C&C cards I chose out of my four card hand allowance support this plan, and the remaining two, drawn randomly, turned out to be useful too. Of course once the chosen cards had been used I was dependant on what came out of the deck…which seemed fair since no plan ever survives contact with the enemy.

My initial intentions. Foot in blue, small units of horse in red, and artillery in yellow. There you go. Clear as mud.

I’ve felt for a while that I needed an actual opponent in my wargaming, and as you can see “Small Clanger” took on the role of opposing generalissimo for this occasion.

Don’t be fooled by all that children’s tv cuddliness. He’s got a drink problem, bad breath, and a foul temper.*

I got to kick off proceedings and the first card I played allowed me to move all eligible units in one game section. For those who’ve never played C&C before the battlefield is divided into two wings and centre, and I offer that up only for general info…there won’t be a test afterwards I promise.

My small regiments of horse were sent straight off in the direction of the bridge, determined to do their worst against  any enemy blocking their path.

Turn 1. My small horse regiments gallop over the heath towards the bridge. Using the pre chosen cards meant I was able to get off to a good start.

Turn 1. SC moves his right flank Dutch school horse cautiously towards my forces, masking his artillery in the process. 

Turn 2. The cavalry charges go in, with mixed results. A regiment of horse is forced to retire by preemptive fire from the defending foot and while casualties are inflicted on the foot nearest to the bridge they are prevented from retiring by their heroic Brigadier.

Turn 2. Small Clangers foot advance down the road and into the first of the enclosures, while his mounted dragoons move through the narrow alleyways of the town in the hope of preventing me seizing the best defensive terrain.

Turn 3. And just like that the Parliamentarian left flank collapsed. My reorganised horse charged the guns previously on the right of the picture, destroyed them with no loss, took a breakthrough move into the empty hex and then hit the next enemy unit in line with a bonus attack. An almost identical outcome occurred to the right of the picture. If the destruction of units had equated to victory banners (for me) I’d have gained four out of the five required!

Turn 3. The Clangers reserve horse regiments cross the river to reinforce the centre - or intervene on his left flank.

Turn 4. Disaster! The first regiment of horse to cross the bridge and hit the defending foot on the far side helped to determine the Roundheads “raw” status (red counter) but were rudely handled and thrown back in confusion. The follow up regiment of horse also took a hit when attacking but this damage was doubled when they were unable to retire into the hex behind them as required by the dice. 

Turn 4. The disaster continues to unfold. Clanger’s brave foot wade into my retreating unit on the bridge and finish them off in melee. The only bright spot is the loss of his foot unit on the riverbank which came about in a spirited back and forth that cost me another hit. The score is one nil to him at this point.

Between turns 5 and 8 there was a lot of manoeuvre and further casualties were inflicted - mostly on my forces. 

By turn 9, pictured below I had captured the bridge, giving me three victory banners and he had destroyed 3 of my units giving him three victory banners. I needed to hold the bridge for a further two turns to give me the 5 victory banners required to win. 

My small horse regiment holding the bridge was battered and only had one hit left in it. My foot were making best possible speed (given the cards I had) in their direction, ignoring the enemy dragoons now firing into their flank from the enclosures and the two full regiments of Dutch tactics horse marshalling on the road outside of the town. Clanger needed to destroy two more of my units to reach his five banner target.


Turn 9. I control the bridge and try to hurry my foot along to give the horse some support. The raw Parliament foot still holding the far bank refuses to die

Turn 10. I held the bridge against a final do or die attack by the raw Parliament foot, which resulted in their elimination and me effectively gaining one more victory banner for holding the bridge for a full turn (4 out of 5).  Unfortunately his cavalry charged from the road and destroyed one of  my advancing foot units giving him the 5 banners he needed to win. Another case of a bridge too far I suspect.

Thoughts and observations

Unfortunately 2mm doesn’t really make for a blog friendly picture fest, as you will have observed, but it does have a small playing footprint and still gives an enjoyable game. Set up took 10 minutes and the game itself was over in two hours. I suspect its the sort of game I’ll probably play without bothering to report on it here, and now the units and terrain have been created I’ll have the freedom to experiment with my own hexed rules in the future as well as C&C. 

If 2mm was an itch…I can now consider it well scratched.

In this battle I was keen to capture the bridge as quickly as possible, using fast but brittle small horse units to get to it before  Small Clanger could counter by redeploying reinforcements. As it turned out I might have been better grinding slowly forward with my more resilient foot, but hey ho…could’ve would’ve should’ve, eh. Despite this mistake the outcome was in the balance right up to the end and was the closest fought engagement I’ve played for ages.

Something bigger next time I think.

And finally…

Small Clanger taunts me with a brief victory dance before going off into the cupboard to get drunk.

TTFN

*After the series was cancelled in ’72 most of the cast had trouble coming to terms with their lost celebrity status. Many tragically turned to drink and drugs. 

In 1975 The Soup Dragon was caught shoplifting in Finefayre and in ’76 the Iron Chicken was arrested for possession with intent to supply. 

Tragic.



17 comments:

  1. Well done Small Clanger, don't let him drop you!.

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    1. Hi Paul, thanks for dropping by. Someone was bound to do the “dropped a Clanger” joke weren’t they! In fact the toy was given to me as a joke after a mistake I made at work many years ago. It’s fair to say I’ve dropped a few times clangers over the years since then.

      Being bested by a failed 70’s Children’s TV personality is a new low, even for me.

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  2. Parliament saved by a clanger, hurrah! Nice moment when the unit status of raw was revealed. A ton of good story fell out of that and as you say, very close. An engaging battle.

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    1. Thanks Norm, I was pleased with the game and the fact that the flow of it made narrative sense.

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  3. Very nearly spat my tea reading the postscript JBM. I think everything worked perfectly there, the units look great and the terrain, quite hard to believe it's all so diddy. I really like the ECW variant of C&C. Have you considered using smaller dice to mark the losses? I have loads of black 6mm 'micro dice' that I plan to use with my 6mm's, bit fiddly but can still clearly see the numbers. Anyway, you have achieved a great result there in a truly portable game, love it :)

    General Clanger played a blinder, he would suit a little buff coat very well.

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    1. Hi Lee, you wouldn’t believe it but those dice were, like yours, only 6mm across. Yeah. Exactly. Something smaller would have been more scale appropriate - but impossible to handle I suspect. I’ll give it some more thought. Sorry about the postscript - I hope no childhood memories were spoiled, lol.

      I’ll have a word with TCMB about a hat or something for the little chap.

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    2. Blimey, yes I can see those dice ARE 6mm looking again! Guess you can't go much smaller than that :) The units do look very good 0on those bases BTW

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  4. Well I now have to get a Clanger like opponent for my solo games, as I think it's simply a brilliant idea!!! Oh and the post script on what happened to the cast in the 70's made me laugh out loud, as I loved the Clangers as a kid. The Trouble is I won't be able to watch it again without thinking of what happened to the Iron Chicken;).

    Anyway, back to the game, which I think looks great and works a treat as a game. Please post more of these as I enjoy seeing them, even of others don't.

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    1. Hi Steve there’d be loads to choose from. Moomintroll, Bagpuss or the cast of the Magic Roundabout maybe? Word to the wise though, steer clear of Basil Brush. I hear the Met still haven’t returned his hard drive. Yeah. Glad you liked the game. I’ve a few things in the pipeline at the moment, but I’m sure I’ll slot the odd 2mm one in from time to time seeing as they’re so easy to set up and take down.

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  5. Finefayre. That’s a blast from the past.

    “Do do do do do do”
    What’s that Small Clanger? You’ve finished the voddy but even half-pished you’ll still beat the big bastard.

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    1. Knew you’d appreciate the finefayre reference. You’re right he has finished the vodka, thankfully he’s now gone off down the offie to get a pack of 8 Ace lager (it’s on special at the mo) - so we might get some peace until the police bring him back in the wee small hours. Lol.

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  6. Splendid stuff sir…
    I disagree with you… your tiny game is very photogenic…

    As for your opponent…
    Small Clanger… Soup Dragon?…. You were eating dragon puke 🤮

    All the best. Aly

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    1. Cheers Aly. Dragon puke or dragon poop? The origin of the soup was never fully explored in the program. It may explain a lot.

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  7. That post and the comments afterwards has had me laughing out loud and other family members wondering WTF (they are a rude lot!) What was it all about...oh yeah C&C ECW - looked good - but the Clanger jokes were the highlight for sure!

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    1. Hi mate, glad you had a giggle. The post went off course pretty quickly didn’t it. I try to keep my warped sense of humour in check…but sometimes the subject matter takes on a life of its own, especially when you get a few witty contributors in the comments section. I’ll be back to proper wargaming next time I promise.

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  8. Great fun and enjoyable even on my phone! I say keep posting 2mm gaming, especially if it's as entertaining as this,obviously I enjoyed you getting beat by small Clanger, wouldn't like to say what happened between bagpuss and the mice, even if "Emily loved him"!
    Best Iain

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    1. Iain, OMG…Emily, Bagpuss and the mice engaged in some sort of unnatural ménage a trois. Say it ain’t so. Lol.

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