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.