A couple more games of Liber Militum Tercios

We played the games, I took the photos, but I never got around to posting the battle reports of the last two games. Sorry! Anyway here's a quick run-down, with what I remember.

The fourth game was, predictably, the fourth scenario in the book, "Question of Honour". This was quite similar to the third game in style being played short-end to short-end, but had symmetric objectives. Each side had a vanguard and a rear guard. I'd added a few extra Pike and Shot units into the forces for this one.

Deployment: Royalist on the left, Parliament on the right.

The plan was that at the top of the table the cavalry would clash and the lower half of the table the infantry would fight.

However once the cavalry got close together the Royalist cavalry actually changed direction and headed towards the centre of the table where the Parliament infantry were starting to cause some real damage. This left the the Parliament cavalry a bit at a loss as their target had vanished.

Royalist cavalry arrive in the centre where the infantry is struggling.

Parliament cavalry chase after them.

However the Royalist cavalry does not really make the difference in the centre and a lot of units are destroyed in the melee. Troops are spotted around the battlefield, it's very bloody. But in the end the Parliament troops are victorious, but not my much. Only a "Fair" Victory for them, but their first one nonetheless.

At the end the armies are both in disarray.

Plenty of casualties on both sides. Royalist left, Parliament right.

The fifth game was, again predictably, the fifth scenario, "Capture the Hills". In this one there are between one and three hills in the middle of the table (we rolled for one) and the deployment is on the diagonal. Victory goes to the forces with control of the hills, with some interesting ways of calculating the victory points for that. I'd added some mounted arquebusiers to Parliament, a musketeers unit to the Royalist forces and more artillery for both.

Parliament got to choose sides and used that choice well to choose the far superior side. I was stuck with my Royalists with loads of terrain bottle-necking my troops and blocking my artillery fire.

I didn't realise until the game started that the rocks in front of my artillery in the foreground blocked line of sight.
Of course I couldn't move them as limbers have not arrived from Heroics and Ros yet!

A narrow gap between the town and rocks.
The Parliament forces had loads of walls to hide behind.

On the left flank our cavalry forces clashed, but his was larger than mine and soon he had my cavalry on the run. But that didn't matter, at least I'd diverted his cavalry from the hill, that was the only objective.

Cavalry clashes. Some of my infantry marches through the wood.

I marched quickly up the hill to gain the advantage. The Parliament infantry stood behind the walls and shot at me. I had to cycle units to the front, have the front ones fall back to recover and repeat. My infantry was taking heavy damage but holding.

I have plenty of units on the hill.

Brendan timed his attack on the hill with perfection. With a roar, the Parliament troops climbed over their walls and up the hills. They were fresh, but my troops were heavily damaged. Units started to rout but still I held on, not allowing him onto the hill.

Eventually though the Parliament forces were too much and the hill falls. Though again only a "Fair" victory to the Parliament forces. They'd taken hardly any losses. The Royalists on the other hand had taken a hammering, but today it was that hill that mattered, not the blood of Englishmen.

As we play more and more the rules get more fluid and we enjoy it even more. The next scenario is the last in the main book, but there are another six in the expansion, and of course they all have good replay value.