2nd Battle of Newbury - 27 Oct 1644

 

Next up in my vaguely sequential run of English Civil War battles is the 2nd Battle of Newbury. I did the First Battle of Newbury back in Aug 2019 in 6mm, but decided to run this one in 20mm.

It's a tough ask for the Royalists. The Parliamentarians spent the night and morning before sending about half their force on a right flanking march so that they could attack the Royalists form the rear. Charles and Maurice got wise and managed to deploy some of their forces to Speen village and even rig some defences - but it meant that the Royalists were fighting off Manchester on the E and Waller/Cromwell on their W. The only saving graces were a late start after all that manoeuvre - so only they only had to hold the Parliamentarians off for a few hours fighting before darkness came, and Manchester missed his cue and started fighting late (and in fact wasted some troops even before that).

Here's the opening positions, looking E from behind Waller's position, with Speen village in the centre, Shaw House beyond that, the castle at Donnington on the L, and the the Lambourne snaking though, with Donnington Mill just L of centre. Manchester is around the far hill (Clay Hill), Charles facing E (so up picture) based around Shaw House and Maurice facing W (so down picture) based around Speen.

I'm playing the scenario through twice. Once with my own rules (currently called “We Die By These Things”, and derived from my Napoleonic rules), and once with "The Kingdom Is Ours" - the new set from Bicorne Miniatures. Figure ratio was about 1:100, and ground scale about 10cm = 200m.

The Battle

Wallers first assault on Speen was swiftly repulsed. Manchester rolled to get engaged at the earliest possible moment and started to approach Shaw House, with his first battalia again being pushed back. Cromwell's cavalry came forward from the W on both flanks, getting the better of the Royalist horse, but pursuing into the depth of the Royalist position where it was picked off by horse, the Donnington guns and the dragoons in the Mill before it could recover back. A second assault on Speen was more successful, driving off the first Royalist line, and then a brief melee in the village and Speen was taken.

The fight for Speen

 

By the end of Turn 4 things were looking pretty bad for the Royalists, as many of their units had taken a battering, they'd lost Speen so the back of the pincer was closing and they only had 2 horse left.

In turn 5 the dice gods were with the King. Attacks from Manchester were beaten off, the Donnington guns and the dragoons saw off Parliament's dragoons and damaged Waller's advancing foot. Maurice's cavalry took out another Roundhead unit of Horse, but unwisely chased them off the field.

Maurice pursuing off table

But all the combat was taking its toll, and the King was really left with just a thin line of 3 Foot and one battered Horse units, and there were still 4 turns til nightfall. Manchester's foot fell on the flank of one Royalist unit which had unwisely swung out to try and take another of Manchester's battalia in the flank. The commanded muskets had left Shaw House and lined up along the hedges, but were themselves then taken in the flank by Manchester's Horse. With only a few units left, and the escape route N now blocked ENDEX was called, and a convincing Parliamentary victory.

Manchester's troops about to deliver the final blow

Thoughts

I think that played pretty well. About 3-4 hrs playing time solo. The rules were a bit aggressive in places, but at least that meant that units weren't hanging around after combats. Cavalry seemed a bit too disinclined to go chasing off after routers, so need to fix that. 

Still not 100% happy though. The root cause is not really being able to find out (despite asking various authors/reenactors) what actually happened when two foot units came into contact, and in particular:

- What did the Shot do whilst the Pike was at push-of-pike

- How long push-of-pike lasted until it became a general melee

- Were there ever situations where the two sides separated in good order and backed off

- If one side was "beaten" did it ever fight again in the battle or was it totally spent, possibly as a result of dropping its pikes since I for one don't think I'd run from a melee lugging a 16' pike along!

Need to read more first hand accounts I think (although if anything like Napoleonic ones they always tend to skirt over the key details) and go to more re-enactment events to ask around.

Anybody with any good sources to answer these questions please let me know in the comments.

Battle of Cropredy Bridge 1644 - AAR

Just finished fighting the Battle of Cropredy Bridge, where Waller tried to encircle the rearguard of Charles's army as it crossed a large meander of the Cherwell. Fawkes map gives a reasonable view of the forces and terrain.

I started the game with the Parliamentarians just crossing the bridges and fords on the W, and with Charles' main body already across Hay's bridge in the North.

View from behind the Parliamentarian lines looking E

The rules were my own, based on the SLS mechanics but with units more brittle, braking at 4 damage not 5, and due allowances for different troop and weapon types.

STARTEX - looking N

Parliament made their biggest blunder in the first move. The Royalist dragoons were lining the hedges by the central bridge, and rather dispatching them with the cavalry they left the job to their own Dragoons, who failed miserably. So the Royalists caught two successive Regiments of Foote in enfilade effective rendering both hors' combat until Heselrigg's Cuirassier finally put paid to them.

Some nice pics of the pesky Royalist dragoons

The battle went pretty much like the real one. Heselrigg saw of the lead cavalry of Cleveland, and then turned S to help to help Waller see of Northampton. Two of Waller's units went chasing off the table after routing Royalists, as did one Royalist returning the favour. With the cavalry effectively out of the way the Royalist infantry recrossed Hays Bridge and advanced on Cropredy Bridge, pushing the weakened Parliamentarian back over, and that, as in 1644, was pretty much it. About 9 turns.

The Royalists counter-attack

All the rules worked pretty well. I'm still a bit unsure about what to do about the units with 3 damage, they can't attack, but they haven't routed and so just sit there typically on the base line unless the commander can rally them - but command points were in short supply. I might significantly up the number of command points compared to SLS so rallying is more feasible, and also allow them to be used to speed the return of off-table units. Since ECW battles can be a bit flavourless giving the player/commander more to do by thinking about the CP allocation - and making that more the centre of the game - might be a good way forward.

ENDEX

The new rubber tile boards worked well, just one board from an earlier flock mix standing out, but that will be retired to "undertier" duties next time round. The "field" areas gave some nice variety too, especially when edged with hedges. The green marks were quite hard to spot though, so doing bold black on the next one. I also need to codify how units move between squares - and I'm even toying with the idea of vertex not square movement.

Some final pics of the game...

Guarding the ford

A Russet Regiment about to receive a charge

Royalists advancing through the hedgerows

First Battle of Newbury - 1643

I finally got the 1st Battle of Newbury played through. I used my ECW rules based on SLS ("By These Things...") on a 4cm hex grid. The only real change I made to the rules was to default each using to only 4DP not 5DP, so that they disappear once they get to 4 rather than lingering round on the base line which doesn't seem realistic. Still trying to get some answers to my key ECW questions - see later.

This was the start-up positions, looking N with Parliament on the L, and Royalist on the R.

The Battle

The game played pretty well, but saw a reverse of the historical outcome. On the N the two cavalry units faced off, with the Royalists eventually seeing off Parliament and in the final turns were about to charge the flank of the Parliamentary Dragoons.

In the N Centre it was classic hedge fighting, the Parliamentary dragoons seeing off on Royalist regiment, and the Tercios on either then getting bogged down either side of the hedges. Parliament's Trained Bands were coming up as reinforcements as the game ended.

The fight for the hedges

In the Mid Centre the Royalists started of on top of Round Hill - and stayed there. After a couple of prolonged melees they saw off the Parliamentary attack. At game end reserve Parliamentary brigade was moving up to have another go.

The attack on Round Hill

In the S Centre Royalists made short work of the Parliamentary brigade in the open and by game end had made it across the main road and where swinging N ready to take the Parliamentary reserve brigade in the flank.

In the S the open country meant it was primarily a cavalry battle, as in real life. The clash of first lines was a bit inconclusive but the Royalists had a stronger second line. With the rest of the game stagnating, and by this time Parliament only needing to lose on more Brigade to lose I decided to just fight the last few turns on this flank only. Parliament held out better than expected but with two regiments blown and pulled back in disorder the Royalists still had fresh regiments to put against them and so started a chain-reaction of morale failures which took two brigades off the table.

Parliamentary cavalry sweeping forward on the S flank

All over in about 10 turns, Royalist cavalry controlled the field, and the remaining Parliamentary troops were around to be flanked and encircled.

ENDEX

Thoughts...

I think that the rules worked well. The fragility change worked well. I finally picked up a decent book on the minutiae of ECW combat (Going to the Wars by Charles Carlton) which has begun to answer my question about what happens with musket at push of pike (they fire and then melee, there's no real stand-off), but still doesn't answer another one:

• If a pike based unit loses melee does it just drop its pikes and run

The biggy for me though is finally coming to the realisation that hexes don't really match ECW very well which is very linear, so I play the next game on a 5cm or 10cm square grid.


And a final few photos:

Battle of Adwalton Moor - AAR 1

Next in my series of chronological ECW battles is Adwalton Moor. It's quite a different one as the ground is dominated by the enclosures right in the middle, and the inbalance in pikes and muskets (and horse)  between the two sides. But it's a nice sized battle (c. 8-10 regiments each) and a better test of rules than the brief skirmish at Roundway Down.

Gog and Magog - the big Royalist guns

The original intention was to play this with For King and Parliament, and I set it all up with 20mm on the Hexon (so ground scale about 100m per hexon, frontage scale of 50m per hexon - so a bit crowded). I ordered the rules, and then due to a postcode mixup with auto-completion the rules spent about a week or so in the Birmingham sorting office. Not wanting to hang around I decided to crack on with the game with my own rules (currently called  ""I die by these things" - not 100% happy).

View looking NW from the Royalists lines towards the Parliamentarians

The Royalists went straight into the attack, with the big cannon doing a bit damage the musketeers in the enclosures before friendly-fire became too dangerous.

Defending the enclosures

On the Royalist left flank a the Purple regiment rolled Elite for quality (I roll only as each unit needs to know) and ploughed into the weaker commanded musketeers defending it. The musketeers were pushed back, but a second line Red regiment moved up to block the Purple's exit as they made there way through the enclosures.

The "elite" Purple Regiment pushes forwards (excuse the orange plumes!)

In the centre it was even bloodier, with commanded musketeers and dragoons suffering frontal attacks from  infantry and horse, and a flank attack from the Royalist dragoons. It eventually all got too much and the Parliamentarians pulled back over the ditch and out of the enclosures, and the weakened Royalists poured in.

The fight in the centre

On the right flank the Royalists tried the outflanking manoeuvre which had worked so well in real life, but another Red regiment blocked their way, and good musketry saw one horse regiment off, but no worry, a second was on it's way.

Royalist high water mark - about Turn 8/9

That was pretty much the initial Royalist high water mark, because then the tide turned.

The Purple's finally grind to a halt at push-of-pike

On the left the Purple's were pretty weak by the time the reached the far end of the enclosures, and the combined fire of the Red and the now recovered musketeers broke the Purples. A regiment of Horse was though still trying a southerly outflanking manoeuvre.

Going round the S flank

In the centre the Royalist units holding the enclosures were pretty fragile from losses suffered on the way in, so once the Parliamentarians had reformed outside the enclosure, and now protected by the ditch they were able to cause several units to fallback, and then domino style there was a pretty comprehensive rout of the Royalist 1st line.

Valiantly fighting the Royalist cause!

On the right the Royalist 2nd line cavalry was no better than the first line, driven off by fire, and taking its recovering partner with it.

With a bit of breathing space the Parliamentarians moved back into the enclosures, ready to receive the Royalist 2nd line in the centre, but now with a safe left (P) flank.

It then went downhill quite rapidly for the Royalists. On their left flank the probing cavalry came up against well positioned Parliamentary pike and shot who sent them packing. Roundhead cavalry then gave chase, but the Royalists kept in reasonable order as they pulled back, their pursuers being slowed by some good shots form the guns. In the centre the Royalists pike couldn't penetrate the enclosures, with Fairfax's dragoons and commanded musket pouring fire into them, but they managed to push forward a bit on the left, but then started to receive flanking fire. On the right flank the Royalist reserve Pike tried to come through the empty enclosures and onto Fairfaxes flank, but again the defended hedgerows were too much.

Fairfax's muskets catch some Royalists in the flank.

The mounting damage and demoralisation had the Royalist on the verge of withdrawal for a turn or two (they dipped below the 50% level mid-term, but some prompt rallying saved them), but then the Roundhead cavalry caught up with the Royalist cavalry just as they pass through the gun line, and Newcastle's vantage point - it was carnage and it was all over.

Parliamentary Horse on the counter-attack

Thoughts

A good game I think, and pretty messy with all those enclosures so no great crashing together of pile lines and push of pike. Slight feeling that musketry was too powerful - regularly seeing off the cavalry, although holding the hedges was more balanced. Also not many real infantry melees as resolve waivers before that - but that is exactly what SLS was always meant to make happen - probably need to double check if its as true for ECW. Also not sure that the SLS Retreat rule is right for ECW - particularly if you're carrying a huge pike - if you do have to withdraw my guess is you drop the pike and run - again more reading needed. But otherwise pretty happy with the rules.

So now time to play through with For King and Parliament as the rules have now arrived, and swop out all the 20mm troops and hedges for 6mm ones - so should have a less crowded battlefield and 1:1 frontage to hexon ground scale (both 100mm).

Battle of Hopton Heath v3!

Finally played the 3rd version of Hopton Heath - this time with the non-BOD version of my SLS based ECW rules. It certainly played slightly differently to the other two, it went on a bit longer, units lingered spent rather than disappearing, and all in all I felt worked the best of the lot. The overall shape was pretty similar though:

• On the Royalist left the dragoons seized the enclosures, pushed the Parliamentarians spent into the rear enclosure and positioned themselves to bring flanking fire on the Parl' cavalry - only time this was achieved
• On the R flank, the Roundheads beat the Royalist dragoons, and threatened the Royalist runs until the cavalry came to scare them off
• The cavalry conflicts typically separated after 2 turns with blown horses, neither side having enough of a benefit to beat the other - it was 1 on 1 after all. Also cases of refusing to charge.
• Artillery fire caused damage, but no excessive
• The cavalry charging through the warren suffered form both that and first fire which stopped them in their tracks. They tried to walk in and if the infantry had had the sense to go hedgehog then the cav would have run off spent, as it was the cav, reasonably, managed to get in to hack the infantry sleeves, but it was a close run thing.

So I think I'll abandon the BOD mode, but I will play Hordes again on my next Medieval outing to refresh myself on what I liked about it before deciding to stick with that or write my own - and of course I will try a few other rule sets - such as Bloody Barons that I bought a while ago.

Battle of Edgehill - 1642: Part 2 (final)

Royalists in a fighting retreat as dusk falls

The last couple of turns of the game went even worse for the Royalist than expected. A Pike heavy Parliamentary regiment (Yellow)  fell on the flank of a recovering and battered Royalist regiment, sending it swiftly home. The Yellow's then followed up into the rear of another Royalist regiment, despatching that too. On the rise the Royalists finally won their melee, but were then stranded deep in Parliamentarian territory and so were swiftly routed - causing morale damage to the cavalry on their way pas. In the last turn the Royalist focus was purely on trying to get out of range of Parliamentary attacks so as not to lose any more units. As it way they has 3 out of their 5 brigades spent (>50% lost or at retreat), and so Army Morale had collapsed and it was game over on the last turn as night fell.

Final positions, Royalists on the right

Overall pretty pleased with how SLS-ECW is working. Possibly a bit bloody, and the DMs a bit extreme, may change +2/4/6 to +1/2/3 - which reduces the differences between units but makes a bit more playable and limits the number of times that a unit might be wiped out in one encounter. No chance to test the new multiple unit melee rules. The "bag of markers" approach worked well - so although quality was randomly assigned each side had the same potential mix, and no need to roll. The small coloured q-tip tufts also worked fine in the dice holders to show quality and first-shot, and a lot easier to handle than 5mm dice!

So good game, and now time to work up the campaign I think before I do any more historical battles.

Battle of Edgehill - 1642: Part 1

As well as doing the Napoleonic Decadal battles I'm also trying to do a year-a-year through the English Civil War. I'd hoped to get Edgehill in before Christmas, but in the end had to pack it away halfway through to make room for the turkey! Rules were my ECW version of SLS, with 100m hexes, and 1 element= 1 regiment, 1 turn = 20 mins.

The above image is looking NNE across the battlefield, Parliament on the left, Royalists on the right, with Edgehill itself just off the board on the right (not got that much Hexon!).

Royalists lines in front of Radway

The opening moves saw dragoons on each flank fighting for the scrub on the left (all directions from the Royalist lines), and the enclosures on the right. Parliament won on the left, the Royalists on the right.

Battle underway for the scrub on the Royalist left flank

The cavalry then moved up on both flanks in the traditional manner. The Royalists got the upper hand in both encounters, but true to form chased the Parliamentary cavalry off the field and it was unlikely they'd get back before nightfall (I operate a double random system for returns to keep you guessing to the last moment).

Prince Rupert (left) in action on the Royalist right flank. Enclosures behind.

Then the main Royalist line started to move forward. Given the late start (2.30pm) there were only 8 turns of battle planned, so they knew they needed to get a move on. The Radway ditch on their left caused more of a problem than I think it did historically, the 70% to cross may have been too low. The urgency also meant that the Royalist line came forward piecemeal.

Left Flank: Royalist cavalry pushing deep past the scrub

Centre: Royalist infantry about to make contact

Right: About to cross the Radway Brook

The first wave of Royalist attacks made contact and did OK, but the lead units were not well supported, whereas Essex could bring his whole line off the rise to batter recovering Royalist units after the first melee. To the left of the Radway Brook one Parliamentary regiment retreated a Royalist unit back across the Brook, and being of poor quality gave chase itself. On the Radway Brook the lead Royalist regiment made it across, disordered, but was of excellent quality (quality is assigned randomly when first needed) managed to beat off an attack from inferior Roundhead unit. It was joined by a second regiment, but both were still disordered when hit by further Roundhead units. With the second Royalist regiment routed it took two other Royalists regiments with it in morale-dominos, but the Royalist reserve cavalry saved some face by wiping out the Roundhead units which had strayed across.

Parliamentary regiments victorious on the Radway Brook

A vulnerable Royalist unit on the left flank

A Yellow Parliamentarian regiment ready to descend the rise

By the end of Turn 6 things were looking pretty grim for the Royalists. Their main attack had foundered and two of their 5 brigades were either eliminated or under withdrawal orders. The time has probably come for a general Parliamentary advance to push them from the field.

End of Turn 6 situation - not many Royalists!