Designed by the redoubtable Dave Blue Team, the Relief of
Hawarden is a battle based on a ‘what-if’ scenario, with the alternative
history timeline and background laid out below.
A total of 3 months was spent partly refining rules, and mostly making
and painting models and scenery, and the credit must once again go to Dave who
basic painted 5 regiments of foot and 3 of horse, as well as scratch building
an excellent river Dee, the roads, and Holt castle, and coordinating the rest
of us in our work.
For the other players it encouraged me to finish my
Royalists; a major task of which I am proud, but wouldn’t have managed without
the end target, and gave the same impetus to Luke, while Aidan and Michael were
once again able to shame us with their beautifully painted forces. Michael supplying the buildings for Farndon
and Holt and every hedgerow, and Aidan scratch building a superb Hawarden
Castle.
The battle was duly played at the Deeside Defenders annual wargaming
show; Gauntlet, with only once face; Red, being unable to attend on the
day. Luke changed sides to join mine and
Daves Royalists marching from the city of Chester, while Michael and Aidan once
more donned their Parliamentarian hats, with Aidan defending Hawarden, and
Michael beginning in the area of Holt and Farndon. I have spared any foolish reader the much
debated rules, but have included Dave’s very well written background in this,
part 1 of 3. The other two parts will
firstly be the battle report, and secondly some of the superb pictures Luke
took with his decent camera on the day!
The Relief of
Hawarden
An English Civil War battle with a fantasy
scenario on a grand scale.
"To
the Officer commanding at Hawarden Castle, and his consorts there :
"Gentlemen,
"I
presume you very well know or have heard of my condition and disposition, and
that I neither give nor take quarter ; I am now with my firelocks, who never
yet neglected opportunity to correct rebels, ready to use you as 1 have done
the Irish, but loathe I am to spill my countrymen's blood, wherefore by these I
advise you to your fealty and obedience towards his majesty, and show
yourselves faithful subjects, by delivering
the
castle into my hands for his majesty's uses, in so doing you shall be received
into mercy, but otherwise, it' you put me to the least trouble or loss of blood
to force you, expect no quarter for man, woman, or child. I hear you have some
of our late Irish army with your company, they very well know me, and that my
firelocks used not
parley.
Be not unadvised, but think of your liberty, for 1 vow all hopes of relief are
taken
from
you, and our intent is not to starve you, but to batter and storm you, and then
hang you all, and follow the rest of that rebel crew. 1 am no bread and cheese
rogue, but as ever, a loyalist, and will ever be whilst I can write a name.
"
T.
SANDFORD,
"
Nov. 28, 1643." " Capt. of Firelocks.
"I
expect your speedy answer this Tuesday night, at Broadlane Hall, where I now am
your neighbour."
Letter from Thomas
Sandford, Captain of Firelocks, Irish Wars Veteran.
Sponsored by
www.wargamestore.com and in association with Deeside Defenders and RGMB Gaming
clubs
Historical Background
After his defeat before Wem, Lord Capel shut himself up
in Shrewsbury. His army had been seriously weakened in the attack and a popular
local officer, Colonel Wynne, had been killed. The formerly Royalist county of
Shropshire now had a Parliamentarian presence. Lord Capel himself had become a
laughing-stock and the butt of popular satirical ballads. He feared that the
people of Shrewsbury would destroy the Royalist garrison if he left it
unguarded.
Under these circumstances, the Parliamentarians took the
opportunity to increase their territory by invading north Wales. Sir William
Brereton mustered his forces and collected detachments from his allies in
Lancashire and Staffordshire to make up a field army of about 1,500 regulars
with some Cheshire militiamen. On 7 November 1643, Brereton and Sir Thomas
Myddelton led their troops from Nantwich.
On 9 November, the
Parliamentarians stormed the crossing of the River Dee at Holt Bridge by
rushing the bridge, scaling the gatehouse and bringing down the drawbridge.
Most of the Royalist defenders fled, but some withdrew into Holt Castle, where
Colonel John Robinson defiantly refused to surrender. Leaving a detachment to
besiege the castle, Brereton and Myddelton advanced to occupy Wrexham with
their main force.
The next day, the invasion force marched north from
Wrexham. Colonel Ravenscroft surrendered Hawarden Castle on 10 November,
apparently without a fight. Brereton's forces occupied Mold on 11 November and
Flint Castle surrendered on the 12th. By 14 November, the Parliamentarians had
captured Holywell and Mostyn. Within a week of leaving Nantwich, Brereton and
Myddelton controlled the western side of the Dee estuary. The supply route from
north Wales to Chester was severed and the city was effectively surrounded by
hostile forces. As the Welsh Royalists withdrew westwards to the line of the
River Clwyd, Sir Thomas Myddelton opened negotiations with Colonel Salesbury
for the surrender of Denbigh Castle.
At this point, the victorious Parliamentarian invaders
suffered a sudden and dramatic reversal that drove them back across the Dee
into Cheshire.
In September 1643, the Marquis of Ormond concluded terms
for a one-year cease fire with the Irish Confederates on behalf of the King.
The Cessation of Arms allowed government troops stationed in Ireland to be
recalled to England to fight for the Royalists. Some of the returning troops
were to join Lord Hopton's army in the South, but most of them were to form a
new northern army that was intended to assist the Marquis of Newcastle in
countering the expected invasion of England by Parliament's new Scottish
allies. The King's use of troops from Ireland was controversial. Although he
hoped in the long term to recruit Irish Confederates to fight against
Parliament, his first reinforcements were battle-hardened English and Welsh
veterans of the Confederate War. This did not prevent Parliamentarian
news-books from playing upon the worst fears of English Protestants by
representing the returning troops as bloodthirsty Irish papists.
The first contingent of troops for the new northern army
landed at Mostyn in Flintshire on 16 November 1643. It comprised four regiments
of foot and one of horse under the command of Major-General Sir Michael
Erneley. The troops were directed to north Wales in order to counter Brereton's
invasion. Faced with Erneley's veterans of the Irish service, Brereton and
Myddelton abandoned north Wales and withdrew to consolidate their forces in
Cheshire and Lancashire, leaving only a garrison at Hawarden Castle, which
surrendered early in December. Erneley's troops quickly re-established Royalist
control of north Wales, then advanced to occupy Chester, where they were joined
by further regiments from Ireland during the following weeks.
Game Background
After requisitioning powder from the governor of Chester,
Colonel Ravenscroft left the city accompanied with a handful of troops. The treacherous Colonel delivered the powder
to Hawarden Castle and then handed the castle straight into Parliament’s hands.
Veterans of the Irish Wars have arrived in North Wales to
bolster the Royalist cause. Brereton
tells Ravenscroft to hold Hawarden until it can be resupplied. The Royalists in Chester would then be
surrounded and the City forced to submit to Parliamentarian control before the
year is out.
However, the gun powder reserve for the Parliamentarian
garrison in Hawarden is dwindling. Fresh
supplies are expected from Nantwich any day, but the crossing of the River Dee
at Chester is in Royalist hands. Forced
to go via Holt Bridge the powder carts and escorts make their way carefully
along the roads.
Meanwhile, Royalist engineers from Chester are making
hasty emplacements before wheeling artillery towards the walls of Hawarden
Castle. If they are unhindered in their
construction the mighty cannon will belch forth and smash down the walls before
storming the breech and then running each and every member of the garrison
through.
The battle for The Relief of Hawarden is on...
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