Holding Rupert ~ Last Battle for 2016

Holding Rupert - Is that the town or Parliament's objective?

A Parliamentary army is holed up in a strong defensive position in a small town. They have stone walls, buildings and  a swift, yet shallow river. They are out numbered by about two to one with the hope of reinforcements arriving on one of the flanks.

As with our last game one of our players was missing. This time it was Leith. As previously we started the game with the proviso that when Leith arrived he would march his troops onto the table in the nick of time to save the day.

So this time it was Tom and I with our brave Kings Men led by Prince Rupert who had this one chance to crush the Roundheads led by Essex (Neil). Chee-Yan Hiew (Chee) joined in to help Neil out on the Parliament right. King Charles was also in attendance in a non-command role and basically bringing  the Devil's own luck to my command rolls.

Royalist Deployment

We were pretty much packed into our deployment zone. Some idiot had placed several fields in our deployment zone making things very difficult (okay it was me). Both Tom & I deployed in the aggressive Swedish style with our musketeers forward.

A King's eye view of the battlefield.

The Roundhead Defence.

Let the Battle Commence

I managed a modest advance on the right flank but in my center I was hampered by the wheat fields. My horse, which started off the table failed to arrive. I guess they were still under the weather from the previous night's carousing. Tom failed to get off his start line on the left but, by using Rupert's command, he go his center to advance.

Turn two: I failed all of my command rolls. My horse still failed to arrive. Tom managed to advance but one regiment of horse rolled a Blunder and left the table (no doubt to plunder some baggage). His cannon managed some accurate shooting and did some nasty work on one of Chee's musketeer units.

I got moving again on my flank and my horse arrived ready to dash forward and rout the enemy (well that was my plan).

First blood of the day: The unfortunate musketeers below (center) and the accurate 

gunners that dealt them a harsh lesson.

Cannon fire was being exchanged on both sides. My dragoons on foot managed to plough through the wheat field and get off some shots at the Roundheads' near the bridge in the center. My commanded shotte on the right made a mad dash to a hillock only to find Cromwell and his Ironside's waiting on the other side of the river. All would have been fine but the rest of the battallia stayed put and so they found themselves isolated way out in front of the rest of the army.

In the center Vaughn's regiment was still bogged down in the wheat fields partly due to poor command rolls. But I did get one regiment around and into musketry range thanks to a command role via Rupert. Tom was making a slow but steady advance with his guns continuing their deadly fire into Chee's ranks.

As I expected, Cromwell called to his cuirassiers, "Follow Me." But they didn't. 

The King's influence on my command roles continued and the battallia on the right flank again, refused to move. As did my horse, those doughty chaps on whom I placed much faith. Drunk again, think I.

Again Cromwell called to his men and this time they followed!

Commanded Shotte: 3 dice, plus an extra dice for First Fire, hitting on 3's for close range... I rolled one hit and the Ironside's shrugged it off like an annoying blowfly. Amazingly, the commanded shotte stood their ground in the first round of combat and even managed to inflict some casualties. I even managed to get a full regiment in support for the second round.

Unfortunately the commanded shotte didn't survive the second round of combat.

Time to form a hedgehog, men!

Tom's steady advance continued on the left. He was further away from King Charles so my guess is that the influence of his Devil's Luck on Tom's command roles was less than the infernal influence on mine.

More Parliament horse crossed the river and I was forced to form two regiments into hedgehogs. The royalist musketry and cannon was beginning to tell and a few of Neil's unit's fled the field as our slow advance continued.

See these units? This is the result of a poorly worded order. "Advance", said I, and I rolled very low so they had to advance as far as possible, only to get bogged down in the river.

I attempted to charge the cuirassiers and only managed to trot slowly forward which failed to contact. Neil, in his turn managed to charge home. I counter charged and the cavalry battle was on!

William Waller, attempted to rally one of his musketeer units and failed miserably. He blundered and they had to charge the closest enemy unit. They jumped the wall and into the river but they were already in bad shape and they lost and routed.

Horse v's Horse 

The cavalry battle that started with the cuirassiers charging ended up going on for a few turns. I lost the first round and the Ironside's followed up with a Sweeping Advance and sent my horse packing. They then managed to pull back.

I did get another regiment of horse up to deal with them using a Follow Me order, and they managed to push the Ironsides back in disorder. Unfortunately my horse couldn't follow up because they were forced to retire.

But Cromwell, that wily warty faced scoundrel, called another Follow Me and smashed my second regiment after following up with another Sweeping Advance. They didn't rout but they were shaken which was enough to break the battallia.

Tom's foot were now in a strong position and able to pour an overwhelming amount of musketry across the river.

The Parliament left was looking thin and despite the success of their horse the battallia was now broken. 

Outcome:

We called the game at this point. Parliament would have been able to make a controlled withdrawal even though their left was broken. The river and a need for my troops to reorganize would help them and I had no horse capable to chasing them down. Their center and right were still in good order but flagging. 

What happened to Sir Leith and his reinforcements?

We don't know. Just like our game two weeks previously, the reinforcements didn't arrive.

Bonus pic:

Using photoshop & one of the pics above I decided to design a cover for

a fictional 1970's set of rules that might have been had they ever be written:

More ECW Flags for Christmas

Greetings folks,

I've noticed that the ECW flags I posted are popular so I made some more. As with the others, feel free to download them if you want them.

These files are much larger than the previous ones as they are full A4 sized. Ar a result they may take a bit longer to download (I'm just guessing here because I really have no idea).

The sheet for Bard's Regiment of Foote is for my Casualty Flag project.

Some of these newer flags have  four symbols on them because I forgot in Pike & Shotte that the pike blocks have a Stamina Rating of 4 (not 3).

Anyway, here they are.

Happy Christmas,
IanKH

Croydon Bridge ~ A Fictitious ECW Battle

A few chaps and I got together for an almighty English Civil War bash today at Nunawading Wargames' Assoc at Croydon. We set up three tables (12' x 6' all up) and pretty much put all the troops we had on top of it. We initially set up a 8" x 6" battlefield but found it wasn't big enough.

And there was a bridge and we were in Cyordon. Hence the name.

And a what a mighty bash it was. On the Royalist side we had The bold Tom Brake, the daring John Waligora and Me being very gallant (as a Cavalier should). On the Parliament side were a bunch of traitorous ne'er do-wells who I shall name and shame: The nefarious Welshman, Neil Hughes, The bearded Covenanter, Jon Bunce and Sir Leith Golding (yet another Roundhead). Traitors all, say I!

Jon, Neil, John & Tom (Leith and I are at this end of the table)

What do you call a group of wargamers - Ii think an Argument of Wargamers sounds about right.

Anyway, the game saw the Parliamentarians and their Scottish allies led by Essex attacking the Royalists led by the King, himself  with Prince Rupert on the right flank facing off against Old Warty Face - Cromwell!

There was another Royalist player who was supposed to play, Robin Peat. We decided that if he turned up he would enter on the road at the bottom of the photo. I kept looking down the road but his reinforcements never turned up. How's that for a realistic reinforcement mechanism?

We didn't use any of the special rules for the commanders, instead we opted for Command Rating 8 for brigade commanders and 9 for the Army Commander.

The Battle

We Brave Cavaliers won the initiative and moved first. Well not on my flank we didn't because both of my brigades failed their first command rolls so they just sat there picking their toenails. I think Tom advanced a bit in the center but I have no idea at all what happened on the other end of the table. In fact I don't have much idea what happened on our right flank for the whole game.

On with the battle: The Roundheads moved and did little better than we.

My new King Charles figure. On the table for the first time.

And so it played out, we slowly crept towards each other. Although I did manage to make a fast advance to the road and set up a strong defensive line. I then waited until the enemy came into range of my guns and gave them a few turns of roundshot.

First blood of the game went to me when I shot up a regiment of Leith's horse. But he did manage to secure the wood (on the left in the photo below) with a small company of dragoons.

Jon's Covenanters. They started off well but had trouble getting off the hill to cause any real threat although they did invest one of the buildings.

Did I say invest? I meant to say infest. They got into the wainscoting and started chewing holes in it.

My dragoons finally get into wood and get themselves shot. but did I worry?

No, because I got to use one of my new Wound Markers (the guy holding the flag with a pip on it - 

see previous posts).

Meanwhile, Tom was contesting the town against Jon. There was a lot of shooting going on all over the table but I have no real idea of what was happening outside of my own area. It seemed to me that at the other end of the table Rupert and Cromwell were staring each other down.

On the far left I managed to stall Leith's brigade with some lucky shooting which resulted in causing Disordered results. But my dragoons were not so lucky. Leith's second, larger, company of dragoons entered the woods and my cunning plan to charge the small group was thwarted when my own men were charged and sent packing.

After slowing down Sir Leith Golding's advance with canon fire it was time to take the fight to him. I made a general advance with my center brigade (4 regiments). This brought us into musket range and I managed to get the jump on him. My musketry caused several casualties and, more importantly, disorders. Leith's shooting was less effective. He did cause a couple of casualties but no disorders so my advance was nice and steady.

Hang on. Here they go. The big cavalry regiments are starting to get into each others' faces.

This could end up being a very bloody affair.

 

 

WHAT!

Leith charged through his front formations with his second line and stopped right in front of my guys (he ran out of movement to charge home). Some of his troops became disordered but he still managed to get off a couple of short-range volleys. One of which disordered my central pike block.
The Bastard!

I wasn't expecting that.

But I was now able to charge home using initiative moves and because of the proximity of my formations my charges had plenty of support. I smashed the musketeers on his extreme flank and maneuvered into position to charge into his rear formations.

Another close-up of one of my flag wielding "wound token" standard bearers (the musketeers have 3 wounds = 3 pip flag). They certainly do look better than a bunch of dice littering the field.

There was a lot of fighting going on on our right and I believe that our horse faltered and one of the brigades was broken. Neil was certainly happy so I guess that was probably the case

But Essex isn't looking too happy.

Jon's Scot's were somewhat depleted in the center. They were still stuck on the hill due to a series of very crappy command rolls. 

The last push of pike. It was getting late so one final move to see if we could break the Roundhead line ended in stalemate.

The game was called a draw by all concerned. Our right was looking poorly. In the center Jon's Scots were looking worn out and Leith's foot were under pressure. On our left flank I was holding off the enemy but it was time to start pulling back over the bridge. Alas, our reinforcements never did arrive.

Aftermath:

What a great game. We decided to get our act together for next year and try for a large historical game. Marston Moor was touted several times however that may be a little ambitious. But who knows?

One thing is certain, we're all eager to play more Pike & Shotte ECW so that we can get a better handle on the rules. We know them pretty well but with more experience we can add more flavour with special rules and such things.

P.S. Some photos I stole from Neil. These give a nice picture of the size of the game and more of the action taking place on Cromwell/Rupert flank.

I need a better camera.