English Civil War: Capture the Guns!

[nikharwood]

Preliminary pics of the ECW battle I've just set up: the Parliamentarians are defending across a wide front, barring the progress of the Royalist forces. The Roundheads are encamped in a large farm with their artillery dug into a redoubt on high ground commanding the valley to their front. The Royalists must take the guns in order to allow the army of the King to continue its push.

Solo battle - fought with Tony Barr's RenaissanceMaster variant for Warmaster Ancients - all set up, hoping to fight this later...

View along the Parliamentary line:


View along the Royalist line:


Roundhead dragoons & infantry in the farm:






The guns in the redoubt with infantry to their front:






The Roundhead left flank:




Roylist right flank:


Royalist centre:


Royalist cavalry on the left:


Battlelines drawn...

[nikharwood]

Turn 1: Royalists seize the initiative - sort of...only the commander on the right flank actually manages to get his troops (2 regiments of foot & a light artillery piece) to do anything - in a flurry of command rolls, they advance over the hill & the gun opens up on the nearest Roundhead regiment driving it back: as one stand of the regiment has impassable terrain to its rear, it is destroyed...







Their position is more than a little isolated though:


On the Parliamentarian turn, the central regiments regroup and advance to bring fire to bear on the Royalists - but to no effect. The left flank, under the General's command, sends its foot forward to open fire - and drives both Royalist infantry regiments back up the hill. The cavalry gallops further to the left and takes up an ominously threatening flanking position - at which point the General fails to issue any further orders...

[slinky]

Great stuff Nik, you may have tempted me to do ECW instead!!!

[nikharwood]

Turn 2: The Royalist left flank started well, the cavalry advancing swiftly towards the farm and the waiting dragoons - but then stalled...





Over the on the right flank, the foot that saw action last turn continued to fire to good effect, driving back the Roundheads to their front:






in the centre, the General finally got things underway and moved the brigade up the centre of the battlefield: this meant moving at the pace of the artillery though and everything stalled - at just the wrong point...this left the Royalists looking a bit vulnerable...







In return, the Roundhead dragoons in the farm sent one mounted unit out to the right and the dismounted dragoons, plus a single regiment of foot, opened fire on the Royalist cavalry to their front, driving two units back:


In the centre, the artillery fired from the redoubt, adding to the musketry from the foot to its front: this broke up the Royalist centre, driving units back and causing casualties:




The fighting on the left flank saw more musktery forcing the Royalists back up the hill as the Roundhead cavalry looked to press its flanking advantage - before stalling:

[nikharwood]

Great stuff Nik, you may have tempted me to do ECW instead!!!

Don't do it *instead* - do it *as well*  

Apologies this is taking so long to get fought: having one of those weekends when the house is teeming with kids & visitors - so I'm sneaking out to the games room for a Turn at a time  

[Jagger]

Good inspirational timing.  I just finished my first three ECW regiments.   I still have a few hundred more miniatures to paint as I have time.   They do paint very nicely.  I still need to settle on a rules set though or some sort of adaptation.

[jchaos79]

pretty cool batlground. the armies are also awsome!

[slinky]

Can you recommend any reading material for uniforms etc.....?

[nikharwood]

Thanks guys - after a hectic weekend & now back at work it's proving hard to get this one fought to conclusion! It'll be finished this week though...

As for reading - the Osprey's are pretty good & for basic info the Warhammer Historical ECW rules are OK as well - some decent articles here as well: http://www.renegademiniatures.com/articles.htm

[nikharwood]

Right - back again 

Turn 3: The Royalist cavalry on the left flank hurtle forwards - the gallopers on the left charging straight into combat with the mounted dragoons, the trotters using caricole fire to first drive back the dismounted dragoons and infantry before jumping the hedge line & plummeting into their lines...supported by the gallopers, who've seen off the mounted dragoons in short-order - this leaves the Royalist cavalry in a strong position occupying the farm & threatening the whole Parliamentarian right:









The Royalists on the right flank fail to do anything, leaving the centre to advance steadily forward to threaten the Roundhead infantry to their front - they're unable to do anything further though:

[nikharwood]

The forces of Cromwell respond immediately - any infantry that can fire on initiative does so - to good effect, driving back the Royalist right & causing confusion among the ranks in the process; under orders the musketeers fire again on the left - again causing some damage. The artillery in the redoubt find the range to the Royalist centre with devastating effect, taking out the two infantry regiments there through a combination of high casualites followed by a rout:



The advantage is pressed - the cavalry continues round the hill to threaten the Royalist rear while the infantry charge headlong into combat and annihilate the confused Royalists at the foot of the hill:





At the end of the turn this leaves the battle nicely poised: both sides have sustained significant losses and are both in danger of breaking...the cavalry on both sides are in threatening postions too:

[nikharwood]

Turn 4: The Royalist cavalry rampages through the farm & splits: two regiments heading to threaten the redoubt while the other turns sharply to its right and charges into the rear of the Parliamentarian infantry regiment, which it sees off in two rounds of combat:







It then wheels to face the guns...



On the right, the Royalist infantry careers into melee and routs the infantry to its front:



...everything is hanging in the balance until at the start of his turn, the Roundhead commander fails his break test and the army routs. The King has taken the guns and the whole army can advance.





Debrief:
A great game - plenty of ebb & flow with this one, with several conclusive combats bringing each army to its breakpoint: this could have swung either way! Really enjoyable - even if it did take me a week or more to fight it to conclusion...

[Kiwidave]

Sounds a great game! I envy your gaming space...

Although I didn't know there were any NZ forces involved in the ECW (middle left hand side of pic clearly shows a New Zealand regiment... )

[nikharwood]

  Thanks KD - well-spotted...they were ancestors of yours I believe - or certainly the Pike elements were 

Oh - and I spent 10 minutes today convincing one my young staff that I *do* in fact have a friend called Kiwidave - so I might bung you her email so you can confirm this for me...

[Kiwidave]

They may well be my ancestors, as Dad is form Bristol, and I understand that there were a few pike regiments form there, so you never know...

And I have duly informed Bex of my existence