The Battle of Bedford Beetfield: 1644 ECW Hypothetical [7] Parliament Falls

Conclusion: 

The Royalist left command attacks, attempting to overrun a Parliament light artillery piece and in the process hold back any reinforcements to the Parliamentarian center. It all hangs on a dice roll (see below): 

The center looks terrible for Parliament, a clumsy looking Parliamentarian column has been formed in a desperate attempt to force an 'opening' against the Royalist line, but at the same time it is being massively outflanked by Royalist shot and pike (see below). Even worse is the fact that the Parliamentarian center is now worn to near breaking point while the Royalists have been carefully husbanded and are still fresh.  

The fight on the Parliamentarian right results into two rounds of "standing draw" where both sides avoided deadly do-or-die situations. A lot of dice rolls but no stands lost (see below): 

Parliament's attack fails and then the front ranks of Parliamentarian pike succumb to deadly Royalist shot and artillery. The center Parliamentarian formation breaks and becomes a huddled mass of struggling humanity, lowering pikes and asking to parley (see below):

And so Parliament fell in the year of Our Lord 1644 and the monarchy was retained ... roll on the next campaign (This time with tanks please and no DBx rule systems!)

The Battle of Bedford Beetfield: 1644 ECW Hypothetical [6]

The Parliamentarian Right:

Strategically the plan was to pull troops from the secure right flank to reinforce the Parliamentarian Center and be a form of reserve. What occurred was a comical sequence of marching "up a road" only to march "back down the same road" with a Pike Block. The C-in-C bequeathed only a few PiPs to this third command, which meant the 'strategic' plan stayed but a twinkle in the "mind's eye" of the Parliamentarian commanders. When the Royalist horse turned up and threatened the baggage the command was effectively pinned (see below):  

A minor fire-fight broke out as the Royalists tried to press a point but they suffered under 'bad dice' rolls representing good Parliamentarian marksmanship. The Royalist right lost two stands of shot recoiling into their own cavalry - by a quirk of fate dying by the very DBR rule which was 'refused or deemed unacceptable' to the other Royalist (Right Wing) command (see below, at one time there had been four Royalist shot). The less said about DBR's rules of 'recoilment' the better methinks ;) 

Finally interior distances meant that a thin wall of Parliamentarian Pikes sealed off the Royalist horses root to the Parliamentarian baggage (see below). But more Parliamentarian stands were being fixed in position by an inferior Royalist force, which meant ultimately the Parliamentarian Center was being hard pressed.

Indeed the center of the battlefield was looking very messy (see below). Gradually the Parliamentarians were getting worn down. The Parliamentarian Pike had been committed while the Royalist Pike Phalanx was  moving out from a reserve position lining up for a deadly "push of pike". The Parliamentarian command was forced to commit to several do-or-die combats, suffering badly from their absence of artillery.

To ensure no reinforcements could be committed from the Parliamentarian Right to assist the in peril center of the battlefield the Royalist Left gamely "did their duty for Rupert" and fixed the enemy (see below):

What would become of the middle?

The Battle of Bedford Beetfield: 1644 ECW Hypothetical [5]

Subtitle: Trying to get an answer to the question of WHY we play wargames and reasoning to find out when it is best not to play ones that disagree with digestion: 

After his recent run-in with the almighty (they were very God fearing folk in the days of 1644) the Royalist General leaves a "be back later note at the pearly gates" and decides to fight his way out of trouble (see below). The battle is confused and hectic and many more dice are rolled:

However despite numbers and terrain (where the Royalist cavalry were forced back onto the rough of the "Beetfield") were on Parliamentarian side the DBR "dice" go in the way of the Royalists and it was Parliamentarian stands that started disappearing (see below) urk!

The Royalists sense an opportunity to roll it up but somehow lose their "luck of the devil" General in a freak 'I read it in the rules' moment of DBR history - an odd/even roll on a troop type in an enemy/friendly bound that results in a push back being turned into a kill (or something) when 'the moon hangs over yonder tree'. To his great and ever lasting credit it was the Royalist player pointed this out to a bemused group of DBR players who were lost in the complexity of DBR arcane law. Reading the various sets of DBx rules is sometimes more "legalese" than common wargaming sense but the upshot was that the Royalists were suddenly within a hair's breath of going demoralised (see below, the Royalist General had been in the top left corner bit is now 'gone' to Parliaments amazement).  

If the previous picture showed the noble side of the DBR sporting player explaining 'how he died' the next picture shows the fictional "billimeter" nonsense that DBR (or any) rules can degenerate into. Any loss from the Rolyalist command now means "the end of their right wing", so when the little red horsemen (see below bottom left quarter) suffered a recoil from the shooting from Parliamentarian pistol and light artillery it should have been "Goodnight Vienna" as it recoiled into friends/enemies facing the wrong way, but the Royalist player invoked the "blind billimeter DBR defense". Groan ... my head started swimming.

(For those interested in the plain inanity of it all: The stacked up combat behind the Royalist stand in question was a recoil result of a base depth and the thing to remember is that a base depth is always shorter than a base width - as in "you can'na change the laws of Physics captain". The gap is therefore a 'base depth' wide and the recoiling larger 'base width' is trying to fit into it - impossible sire BUT the table and stands had been shuffled and knocked slightly in the course of play and the 'physical bases' weren't uniform size SO the very same "sportsman of the highest noble order" is turned into a HEELS IN THE MUD OVER MY DEAD BODY so after a long debate Parliament gave way [sigh] - this despite showing him the photographs above - we let it pass, but their and then I vowed to burn my copy of DBR and make this the last game I play argh it brings out the worst of a gamer, myself included. It is Impetus for now on for me!)

Did it matter? Nope, because next turn my mounted troops from the right flank swarmed over a Royalist hanger on was dispatched and the Royalist right wing command was now demoralised and broken (see below):

Thus ended a tiring wargaming night. For the record "no quarter" was taken over this last stand but the owning player of the figures stopped me short and said I was not allowed to break the figures off the base despite the urge, only kidding. 

;)

The Battle of Bedford Beetfield: 1644 ECW Hypothetical [3]

Parliament scrambles to deploy "to the edge pf the world" before the Royalist Curaissier's charge hits home (see below):

The Parliamentarian right wing (me) tries to find something useful to do. The plan was to get its infantry as a reserve for use with the middle command (see below): 

"Bang" a crumpled explosion denotes the end of 50% of the Parliamentarian 'Heavy Cannon'. Not the time to roll a "one" when your opponent rolls a "six" (six below):

The "Beetfield" musketry dual commences. Nine Royalist shot to the eight Parliamentarian (see below):

The far left of the Royalist line of battle, a wing of horse and shot starts its journey to take the long way round to the Parliamentarian defended right hand side hamlet (see below): 

The poor old crop in the "Beetfield" gets trampled underfoot (see below) as the Royalist and Parliamentarian shot exchange "hand bags at dawn" and shuffle their lines:

Here comes the Royalist Cavalry juggernaut (see below):

Brace yourself 'Percy' the Cavaliers are coming.

The Battle of Bedford Beetfield: 1644 ECW Hypothetical [2]

The Royalists get a bundle of Command PiPs, 18 "plus two" from Rupert's command bonus, him plus the dog no doubt [Note: Rupert always carried about a large poodle hunting dog called "Boy"] (see below):

The Royalist right flank cavalry were off to the races to find out how good these new Parliamentarian Cavalry were (see below):

Into the "bloody beetfield of Bedford" the Royalist shot stormed (see below):

And the Royalist  phalanx of pike did its best at a game of hide-and-seek with the Parliamentarian cannons, choosing as much of the Royalist army it could to hide behind (see below): 

All did not go to plan as the Left Flank Royalist horse took a parting shot from the Parliamentarian cannon before it jumped completely out of arc (see below):  

The Parliamentarian line then turns to commence the long awaited heavy artillery duel with their Royalist counterparts (see below): 

Next: The "big guns" speak

The Battle of Bedford Beetfield: 1644 ECW Hypothetical [1]

Defending London from Rupert: 

Parliament is in crisis. Two Royalist armies are approaching London, either of which could defeat the "retrained" Parliamentarians. As a result the ground chosen to defend the approaches of London at Bedford was a curious mix of psychology and defensiveness (or should that read deafeatist mind-set). The Parliamentarians deployed in a corner triangle (see below):

The points of the triangle were a hamlet BUA (top right), a baggage camp behind a wood (bottom right) and a "Beetroot Field" (far left). A "flying column" of upgraded Parliamentarian cavalry forms the left wing of the army, infantry dominated elsewhere (see above).

The Royalists deployed a "wall of shot" with excellent cavalry on both wings, hiding a Macedonian Phalanx of Pike away from the attentions of the enemy (Parliamentarian) artillery. It would be interesting to see which way the artillery dual went (see above) as both sides deployed two large cannon. Parliament's center anxiously waited the opening rounds from the 'big guns' (see below).

The Parliamentarian right wing commander (me) wondered how to get his some of his mass of "shot" involved without opening the door to the Royalist mobile left wing (see below): 

A close-up of the base of the Parliamentarian right hand triangle and the curious "flying column" something lCromwell must have been thinking about over the winter (and who said he didn't drink, I think too much eggnog is at work here). Dragoons, Shot, "vastly improved"Parliamentarian cavalry" and then Light Guns in the wrong place at the rear of the line (see below):  

The "Beet Field", the namesake of the battle, full of Parliamentarian "shot" and soon to be the scene of one of the bloodiest  slug-fests in our ECW campaign (see below):
 

To which the Royalist Right Wing (and he probably was to be fair) said "I'll 'ave 'em all" and promptly charged at the Parliamentarian Left (as they were politically leaning that way) in a aristocratic 'death or glory fashion' (see below):

Meanwhile the Royalist (far, far) Left could barely see the enemy and would spend most of the game marching to meet up with them, but were a useful "shot" and "cavalry" pack (see below):

A view from the Royalist Baggage Camp of the Royalist Artillery and "reduced" Pike Block, being kept in reserve as a sort of Triari formation, partly due to their vulnerability to artillery, partly due to the "no where to put them in this bad terrain" (see below):

The Royalist Baggage, where Rupert keeps his bloomers, would Cromwell get his hands on them? The Royals seem to be keen on oxen? (See below):

Deployment "configured": Next let the action commence ...