The Rejects 15mm "Battle of the Boyne" Game at Broadside 2013.......

.......using Beneath the Lily Banner rules and Ray's obsession for historical accuracy!

Finally got to post pictures of the "Battle of the Boyne"demo game we put on for Broadside 2013, we had already tested the battle before and the historical outcome was not achieved with the Jacobites giving the Williamites a bit of a kicking but the result is always going to be inevitable with the forces the Williamites had on the day but even the second game at Broadside didn't go to plan with the Jacobites giving a good showing and upsetting their plans (because of the mistakes made in the first game and now rectified the Williamite forces were across the river quicker but still made mistakes and Ray had to stop Jacobite cavalry charging raw Williamite infantry to get a historical result!)

Demo games are hard to plan and play as it frustrates players and umpires.....and then the dice gods start to feck things up!

There was talk of re-fighting the battle at a later date and letting both sides play as the players wanted but the numbers are too one sided for the Jacobites but all in all a good day and a good game which I didn't get to play a lot of as there was a lot of talking to interested parties, fellow bloggers and the time flew by!

Broadside this year was excellent and very well run, plenty of traders and games, I didn't take as many pictures as I should of the other great games at the show but I do have some but other bloggers have done better and have already shown some but a show now permanently on the calendar for me now.

What follows are some pictures of our game, the lighting where we were was not great and picture taking became a right distraction but the figures and terrain were excellent, Ray when he posts will probably give you better information but as Richard did most of the umpiring I don;t know........

The stressed one........

Postie adding that little bit of wargaming magic........

A gathering of Rejects, Postie, Mark, Surjit, John, Richard, Lee, David and Ray.......

John telling himself "I need to win, I need to win".......

The famous Henry Hyde of Miniature Wargames magazine.......

Tamsin presenting Ray with his sandbagging figure, just look at that cheesy smile.......

You'll agree it's a stunning likeness............

The town of Oldbridge now in Williamite hands.....

When the masses of Williamite cavalry crossed the Boyne the game was called.......

.....some pictures from our original practise and playing of the game and you can see the differences that were made for Broadside!

"The Rejected"

"It was only for the bloggers!"

15mm "Battle of the Boyne" refight for Broadside 2013 teaser or changing history!

The Battle of the Boyne was fought in 1690 between two claimants of the Irish, Scottish and English thrones, the Catholic King James and the Protestant King William across the river Boyne near Drogheda in the Republic of Ireland (not called that back then) which is situated on the east coast of Ireland. The battle, won by William, was a turning point in James' unsuccessful attempt to regain the crown and ultimately helped ensure the continuation of Protestant ascendancy in Ireland!

The Rejects met up yesterday for a refight of this battle which will be our demonstration game at Broadside 2013 on the 9th of June, myself, Smithy and Surjit played the Catholic forces with Lee, John and Dave played William's forces, the game was umpired by Ray (whose figures we were using) and using Beneath the Lily Banner rules.

I won't go too much into the battle as Ray is being very secret squirrel and is only allowing one picture per Reject blog, the forces are accurate (2 to 1 in Williams favour) and the Catholics forces are meant to lose as history dictates but yesterday we gave history a kicking with the aid of some biased dice gods.

We surprised Ray, ourselves and the Williamite forces, ultimately we would lose but on our terms.........

The town of Oldbridge (scratchbulit by Ray) which no longer exists and on the day only lasted 20 minutes under Dutch Blue Guards assault but on our day lasted a lot longer! The Guards can be just seen advancing.............

To see more you will have to go to Broadside 2013 and to read more of the battle you can go here.

.......and swearing at work explained!

15mm Nine Years War Game using Beneath the Lily Banners Rules.

Ray and Richard invited myself and Postie to a practise Nine Years War game using the "Beneath the Lily Banners" rules they're using for the period/project they are doing between them!

Now I've been mildly criticised by Ray and Richard for not expressing undying love for these rules, I know little of the period as it's the first time I've played NYW, the figures were beautiful, my dice rolling was not, I thought the rules were unduly harsh (routing and disordering) or not harsh enough (shooting after the first firing) but in other ways they were good with the command and control quite well done and made you think a lot.

 I was told that they (the rules) were correct for the period and the most accurate but after one game it's not accuracy that always interests me it's enjoyment and a bit of fun!

Also the first picture may have had some bearing on the game and my awful morale and firing dice rolling (awful just awful!)

Anyway some nice eye candy as Ray and Richard have painted some beautiful miniatures!

Postie bought us a Chinese dinner before the game and there was so much that even Ray brought it to work the next day, we were all stuffed like baby dragons??????

The initial set up with the British forces (Ray and myself) nearest......

Really lovely figures and units......

The bridge which had to be defended and no French unit could cross......

Richards (and Posties) French forces.......

Richard is a very good but time steady painter......

All units had a card like this for troop quality, casualties, morale and firing!

French infantry, 18 figures plus 3 pike at the back.....

Ready to go!

On your marks!

This one of Richards beautiful command stands....

.....and another!

We're off into the disaster that was the British cavalry versus better quality French..... 

Wallop!

Overall birds eye view!

The ongoing melee allows other units to join, this the boys told me had never happened before!

This is my poor boys running away.........disorderd and routing!

The infantry get ready for an exchange of musketry fire!

There was a lot of musketry and cannon fire!

This is the sheet that you use to give your units specific orders by rolling for how much percentage control you have.......

I foolishly try another cavalry charge....

The infantry clash......we put our elites at the back unlike Richard!

Postie still feeling the effects of dinner!

Our infantry heading back towards our lines......the game ended here and we went off for a cup of tea!

As I said the rules didn't rock my boat but Fire and Fury rules still don't either but I'll eagerly play another game of fecking ACW with them as I would with these after learning what not to do (thanks Ray) but great eye candy, company and food on the night!

Have a good weekend if you can?