Black Powder – The clash of Eagles test July/August 2018

In the last two months Ezio, Riccardo, Giancarlo and Alberto tested the new rules included into Black Powder supplement “the clash of Eagles”. They played several battles and they took many photos so I decided to write a kind of report for one of their clashes.

The match is a generic scenario between Russian and French troops (810 points each); the miniatures are 15mm on a table 180x120 cm.

Riccardo commands the French hordes while Ezio the Russians.

The initial deployment

Some details of French  ...

…and the Russian troops

Russian player decides to take the control of the strategic wood in the center of the table as first move

French commander replies moving forward his troops

Ezio moves the Russian cavalry and artillery on his right wing trying to encircling the enemies

Riccardo advances with his infantry till the wood and launches his cavalry against the Cossacks

On the left of the French formation the Russian cannons try to block the Napoleon’s troops advance but they are forced to retreat

On the center the struggle becomes ferocious and the Russian player send reinforcement

On the French right, the cuirassiers breaks the Cossack’s resistance while the infantries continue to push

All players continue their fires but …

… at the end French take the control of the wood

The battle continues in the center and …      
 

… even if Russian cavalry forces a French battalion to order the square formation … the Russians are forced to retreat

As I told at the beginning of the post my mates played also other battles during the summer … below a little selection of some photos taken. This time the armies were 1,000 points each

Lion Rampant – Battle of Hastings August 5, 2018

Also in August the activities at my club do not stop … Thanks to an Ezio’s idea, at the beginning of the month, some of my club mates decided to reproduce the Hastings battle using Lion Rampant rule set.

On the table there were around 500 miniatures painted by different persons (mainly by Riccardo, Flavio, Maurizio and me).

Ezio, Giancarlo lead the Anglo Saxon units while Aurelian, Flavio and Carlo controlled the invasion forces

Below the Anglo-Saxons troops and …

William the Conquer’s Normans.

Each army requests the help of his gods … the Normans have the favor of Pope Alexander II and his monks …

while the King Harold Godwinson harangue his men with the help of his bard

The real battle was fought on October 1066 with Harold’s forces deployed in a small, dense formation at the top of steep slope with the flank protected by woods and marshes; the same of the Anglo-Saxon starting position on our table.

The first movements of Normans is to move archers against the units on the hill.

Also in October 1066 the Norman archers opened the battle and the Anglo-Saxons decided to remains behind their shield walls on the hilltop …but, in our battle, Harold left wing decides to attack directly the enemies

On the right, Norman cavalry tries to attract down the Anglo-Saxsons but they held their positions

The Anglo-Saxon Fyrds on the left are followed by Harold’s housecarls that attack directly on the center the Norman troops

The Anglo-Saxon warriors on the center create with their axes the first victims

And William is forced to use his cavalry formations

On the left the battle continues …

but on the center Norman cavalry after two attack open an hole that break the Anglo-Saxon line

At the end also in our battle William the Conquer wins.