Battle of Naseby 1645

 Will came over during the weekend and we decided to have another go at an English Civil War battle. Naseby turned out to be the venue for the game and the board was duly set up.  I would play Parliament and Will the Royalists.  The field consisted of a shallow valley, largely open, with just a couple of small wooded areas, although on one side were some high hedge enclosures.  The hills were not steep enough to cause movement penalties but gave cover from view and uphill troops had a melee advantage.  Here is the battlefield as set up at the beginning, with Parliament forces nearest the camera.

The two commanders meet prior to the action:

I was feeling rather smug as, in the real battle Parliament wins and has a considerable numerical advantage.  I kicked off the battle with an artillery bombardment that had little effect.  Will immediately responded by pushing forward all of his cavalry regiments, hurtling hell for leather towards my lines.  Having more cavalry I ordered four regiments forward to counter attack. Soon the Royalist cavalry were amongst my artillery lines:

My cavalry counter attacks on the right:

Over in the enclosures a regiment of Parliamentary dragoons begins to harry the enemy infantry and Will sends two regiments of foot to clear the dragoons away.

Will's cavalry continue to charge forward, this time on my left.

Over on the right a significant cavalry battle begins:

And, back on the left my cavalry begin to engage the Royalists:

An exchange of fire between the dragoons and Royalist foot begins, with little effect, although the dragoons take a few hits from Royalist musketeers.

Over on the left a confused battle between the horse units of both sides continues.  My foot units hold the ridge:

The action in the enclosures continues and the dragoons now are being pushed back, losing half of their number:

An overview of the battle, with the horse from both sides on the flanks fighting it out.  The dice was not in my favour and bit by bit I lose initiative points and seem to be failing in combat:

Will begins to move his infantry forward and one of my guns is destroyed.

On the left the Royalists begin to take casualties, but continue to hit back.  A Royalist general falls as his cavalry rout.

The same on the right with the cavalry of both sides continuing to fight.  By now all of the Parliament cavalry have been committed to the fray:

Having broken through my cavalry, the Royalist horse charge up the ridge:

Will's foot regiments advance and clash with their opposite numbers in the centre:

Meanwhile the dragoons and Royalist foot pop away at each other.  One of the Royalist foot regiments is beaten off:

Close quarter action in the centre:

At this point in the battle most of the Parliament horse have either been destroyed or routed, two guns are lost and Parliament's nerve is weakened.  Cromwell's army pulls away from the field and although badly battered the Royalists claim victory.  History is reversed and the monarchy is saved - for now!

This was a terrific game.  Once again we used the rules from the Portable ECW Wargame book and they worked very well, providing a fast moving fun game.  

This was a big action involving a lot of troops, however, the whole battle lasted just over two hours as we adjourned for lunch!

ECW by Norman

 Norman recently sent me some more pictures from his vast collection of 1/32 scale figures.  In this case we have a force of Royalist troops forming a last ditch defence against a Parliamentary assault.  I think the figures are mostly from the 'A Call to Arms' range. Very fine they look too:

Parliamentary troops advance towards the town:

Royalist pikemen

Royalist cavalry emerge from the town gate:

Battle is joined:

Battle of Eydar Down 1642

A Parliamentary Force had been reported in northern Chilternshire, moving south attempting to cross the river Eydar intent on the capture of a Royalist town and armoury. A small Royalist force of three regiments of foot, two of horse and a gun have deployed onto the high gound of Eydar Down to block the advancing Parliamentarians. The commander of this force has been promised reinforcements as soon as they can be sent.

Soon the Parliamentarians arrive on the field, with five regiments of foot, four of horse and two guns. Both sides deploy their forces:

The Parliamentarians deploy their guns forward in the centre with the cavalry split between the wings.

 

The Royalist single gun sits on their left with cavalry on both wings. The battle begins with a Parliamentry bombardment of the Royalist centre and for several turns the Blue regiment is hammered. 

In an attempt to force the  Parliamentarians hand the Royalist commander orders his cavalry to take out the guns and so the two Royalist regiments of horse gallop forwards:

But as can be seen above this prompts the Parliamentarians to launch their cavalry.  A major cavalry battle begins in the centre, while the infantry of both sides look on. Initially the Royalsit Cuirassiers see off one of the enemy horse regiments, but on the ridge, with artillery rounds still falling amongst the Bluecoats, the infantry unit breaks:

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The Royalist commander hopes to delay the Parliamentarians, as each minute passing allows the much needed reinforcements to arrive; however it is clear that his cavalry will soon be overwhelmed. 

Now down to just two foot regiments he attempts to bolster the morale of his men, being narrowly missed by a roundshot!

Then to his relief he hears the drums of more Royalist troops arriving in support:

 

The cavalry melee continues in between the two armies, but it is clear that two against four regiments of horse will not succeed, although the Royalist cavalry regiments have destroyed the first two regiments of Parliamentarian horse,

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But the Cuirassiers are beaten by the second attack :

The remaining Royalist horse regiment manages to break away and forms up behind the infantry just as the Parliamentarian infantry begin their advance. Throughout the battle the Royalist gun has been totally ineffective allowing the enemy infantry to advance unmolested:

Once again the Royalist cavalry surge forwards and rout the Parliamentarian Grey Coats:

But, next turn they are attacked by two regiments of cavalry:

And after a heroic struggle they collapse and flee the field:

Now the infantry from both sides are closing in.

 

The Parliamentarian musketeers pour volleys into the Royalist line as they deploy and two regiments rout:

With all of the cavalry gone and most of the infantry falling back the Royalists concede defeat and begin to withdraw from the field. The  Parliamentarian army lets them go in order to rally their cavalry and continue their mission to cross the Eydar River.

 

For this interesting and fun battle I used the rule set from the Peter Dennis paper soldiers book, adapted for a hex mat. They worked well, although the morale rules can be devastating. 

All figures are by Miniature Figurines.

Lockdown 2 Project - Part 2

 I have continued to work my way through the huge pile of Minifigs ECW figures and another five foot regiments have come off the production line.  As before, I am painting these figures in imaginery colours as a generic force so that they can be used by either side (apart from a few).  Here are the latest completed units:

This gives me a total of 10 foot regiments.  There are two more cavalry units nearing completion and another three foot units to finish off this project.  I must say these colourful troops look really nice en masse once painted.

Lockdown 2 Project - ECW

 During Lockdown One last year, I set myself the project of painting my Ros Figures Prussian Army, with around 20 battalions, guns and cavalry.  This worked out quite well and helped pass the time and also gave me something tangible at the end. The theme of this project is Pike and Shotte, based upon the English Civil War.  My reason for this is that I had a reasonable pile of Minifigs 25mm ECW figures that had been sitting unloved in a drawer for decades, and when I purchased a large portion of the Eric Knowles SYW collection, I discoverd that a number of Militia units were made of of ECW castings.

When I had sorted them all out there were enough figures for 10 -12 infantry regiments consisting of four stands with 16 figures; three gun batteries and six cavalry regiments (of six figures).

I already had acquired some command figures, half of which were beautifully painted, just in need of basing and touching up.  Here are the forces so far:

 

I have taken an 'imagi-nations' approach, painting the units in generic ECW colours.  This will permit me to mix and match to play out different scenarios.  In the coming days I hope to finish off four more infantry units and two more of cavalry.