Kirkburn Bridge at WMMS

Last weekend saw the 38th West Midlands Military Show take place at Aldersley Leisure Village, near Wolverhampton, and as I briefly mentioned in my last post we took along our "Kirkburn Bridge" game to show. The four of us (Gary, Paul, my old man Kev and myself) had a very enjoyable day out, and to top it off, myself and Paul (the Young 'Uns) led the Scots to victory over the Old Guard (Gary and Kev) which means that Scots are currently 2-1 up in the overall scores for this scenario! 

What follows are the collection of photos I took on the day at various points, which hopefully give a flavour for the course of the game. 

The two forces at the start of the battle - the Scots ensconced in the corner,
with the English moving onto the battlefield from two directions.

Another view showing the English flooding across the river near
 the "kirk" and the bridge (hence the name of the battle!)

Youth vs. Experience - Paul (right) moves the Scots against Gary's (left) English.
Somehow, Youth managed to come out on top (despite Paul's best efforts!)

The Scots in the foreground (mine) shuffle out into a battle line to confront the two incoming English brigades; in the background, Paul makes hard work of defeating Gary's numerically inferior knights.

Hereford's command (background) slogs its way across the field, while in the foreground
Gloucester's command form up to confront the Scots guarding the stream crossing.

What's wrong with this picture? A couple of missing Scottish units,
 as a result of Paul's unusually poor dice rolling!

Meanwhile, the Scottish reinforcements of Moray's command
continually fail to take advantage of the exposed English flanks

Edward Bruce stalwartly prepares the defences on the Scottish left flank, holding up Gloucester's command for the whole game with a couple of units of peasants!

Hereford's command continue their slow progress across the field;
Robert the Bruce wanders over to see what's taking so long...

Meanwhile, Paul's Scots continue to decline all opportunities to break the English resistance -
despite having less than half the number of units, Gary still has the upper hand!

The Duke of Gloucester finally reaches the stream,
while the Scottish peasants taunt him from the higher ground.

Finally, the English resolve breaks (no thanks to Paul!) and
the Scottish flank is cleared, with King Edward taken prisoner! 

Meanwhile, Gloucester's knights finally charge across the river -
Gloucester's retinue (foreground) push back the peasants, and will eventually break them,
while Clifford's retinue suffer the ignominy of defeat and are subsequently routed!
In the background, the rest of the Scots spearmen impatiently wait for Hereford to engage... 

Having defeated and routed Clifford's knights, the De La Haye/Annandale spears decide to take the fight to the English - this proved to be a mistake, as I wandered off leaving Paul in command of my units, and Paul conspired to lose this fight as well! Subsequently, the heroes of the flank turned into villains as they were routed by lowly Welsh archers!

Hereford still shying from engagement, as the Scots continue to hold the line,
with reinforcements arriving in the form of Scottish knights...

Having finally broken the Scottish peasants, Gloucester's remaining cavalry make their way
into the rear of the Scottish lines, but are on the verge of routing themselves...

The view of the field as the battle draws the a close - the English have lost one division (Pembroke's) and are on the verge of losing another (Gloucester's), with Hereford reluctant to commit to the fight. Meanwhile, the Scots hold a strong centre and have a complete division and the remains of the Highland division available as reinforcements. A clear Scottish victory!

And just to round out the day, we were subsequently awarded two awards for our efforts! We were very happy to receive the trophies for 3rd Best Demo Game, and for Best Painted Army! 

So all in all, a very successful day! The Young 'Uns carried the day, despite Paul's best efforts to botch our superiority on the right flank, but more importantly we all had a fantastic day, and thoroughly enjoyed playing, shopping, chatting and meeting lots of people who expressed an interest in our game. 

Many thanks to all those who stopped to look, and to those that stayed a bit longer to stop and chat too! We're hoping to next take the game to Phalanx at St. Helens in June, so for anyone in the North West - look out for us there!