Stow on the Wold 1646

[paulr]

Simon offered the opportunity to test a Stow on the Wold scenario and as the troops I had already painted for Montgomery were enough we decided to give it a go.

Some of Jacob, Lord Astley's infantry deploy ready to defend Stow on the Wold. (Apologies for the odd architecture, I need to order my ECW buildings.)


Game 1

The Parliamentarians had first turn and advanced as rapidly as possible but got the worst of the affair of Forlorn Hopes in the centre, failing to save.


The successful Royalist Forlorn Hope withdrew through the main line of foot and the left brigade of horse echeloned back hoping the hedges to their left would delay any outflanking move by the Parliamentary horse.

On the Parliamentary left their horse charged boldly and destroyed one of the two Royalist regiments. On the extreme left a regiment of horse manoeuvred onto the flank of the Royalists and prepared to charge. (They drew a 1 halting that brigade). In the centre the left most regiment exchanged fire with the regiment to their front while the right of Parliamentary infantry stalled.
 

On the Parliamentary right the right most horse advanced towards the hedged field to out flank the Royalists while the two remaining regiments threatened their front.


In the Royalist turn the lone surviving regiment of horse on the right launched a desperate charge before the Parliamentary horse on their flank could charge and promptly dispatched their opponents. In the centre the foot fired down from the ridge on the approaching Parliamentary foot.


In the Parliamentary turn the first of rightmost horse managed to manoeuvre over the hedges and prepare for a charge into the flank of the Royalist horse. (Their last card drawn was a 10 so they would be unable to activate again this turn.) The two regiments facing the Royalists decided to charge and both destroyed their opponents.


On the left the victorious unit of Parliamentary horse was rallied after its initial pursuit and manoeuvred towards Stow and the rear of the Royalist foot. The other horse moved up and prepared to charge the flank of the Royalist foot.


The Parliamentary foot attacked all along the line and managed to break the raw unit of Royalist foot causing the surrender of the Royalist army. (The Royalists had lost all 12 victory points while Parliament had lost 3.)


Game 2

We reset the game and as suggested by Simon swapped sides and replayed the game.

The Royalists had decided on a bold plan. They would withdraw their foot into Stow and the surrounding hedged fields while attacking boldly with their right horse. Their left horse were to move across to the right to support this attack. (This depended on both units of horse getting two activations to get clear of the Parliamentary horse, the second activation card for the first unit was a 1 – damning the brigade) 


The bold attack on the right didn't get off to the best start, the brigade advanced as a group but drew a high card to activate, an 8, making the charge activations unlikely. One regiment charged but it and the counter charging Parliamentary horse had little effect on each other.


In the Parliamentary turn their right horse caught the Royalist horse in the flank and just destroyed the first regiment. The second Parliamentary regiment scored 6 out of 10 hits totally destroying the remaining Royalist horse.


In the centre the Parliamentary foot decided to advance obliquely to make room for their successful horse on the right while one unit turned to the left in case the Royalist horse overthrew the Parliamentary horse. This lead to confusion and only one regiment crested the ridge before the brigade stalled. The two nearest Royalist foot units planned to counter attack this isolated unit but the first unit managed to draw a 1 stalling the brigade.


The two units of Royalist horse on their right charged, the first inflicted one hit that was saved and was destroyed by the Parliamentary counter charge. The second unit missed with all 5 attempts and was hit 4 times by the counter charge, it didn't save enough hits and was destroyed. 


The loss of all their horse and two generals caused the Royalist army to surrender. (The Royalists had lost all 12 victory points while Parliament had lost 0.)

Two games in just over 3 hours, including a tea break, not bad at all

[sunjester]

A very nice looking battle. 

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Brilliant pair of reports.

[FierceKitty]

Wrong people won.

[paulr]

The result of both games was historically accurate, if a little abrupt in the second

The actual battle was very one sided and the scenario accurately reflects this

I've made a suggestion to Simon on how he can perhaps give the Royalists a few more tactical options without shifting the balance too much

[Norm]

Lovely to see this wonderful project turning into games.

[Techno]

Excellent !!

Cheers - Phil

[pierre the shy]

Simon offered the opportunity to test a Stow on the Wold scenario and as the troops I had already painted for Montgomery were enough we decided to give it a go.

Some of Jacob, Lord Astley's infantry deploy ready to defend Stow on the Wold. (Apologies for the odd architecture, I need to order my ECW buildings.)

Could have sworn that I didn't see those woods, fields and trees in the background on Saturday  

[paulr]

Could have sworn that I didn't see those woods, fields and trees in the background on Saturday  

You must have been too focused on the games

[Womble67]

Looks brilliant

Take care

Andy

[Steve J]

Lovely looking game and great to see your minis getting an outing

[FierceKitty]

I wasn't implying a defective historical result - just a moral and political disaster.

[Poggle]

Great game reports. 

[Terry37]

Absolutely EXCELLENT! I too was anxious to see the fruits of your labors and thank you for sharing it so well with us! The rules sound like they might be good ones, but there are not enough years left for me to paint anywhere near that many figures....best for me to stay with HOTT!

Thanks again,

Terry

[d_Guy]

Lovely pictures and extremely well done! Just noticed the suit markers on your chits - what a great idea!