Its been rather a while since I’ve done one of these,
various factors including life and football taking over somewhat from
wargaming, but it’s a busy week with a trip yesterday to a good friends
establishment to use his wargaming shed, and on the Thursday I will return to
Broughton for the first time in six months for a game of Saga.
Onto yesterday and my English Civil War troops took the
windy road and beautiful towards Ruthin, via Llay (and another car repair) and
Mold. The opposition was fielding his
Royalists; the Earl of Newcastle and his Whitecoats no less! My troops normally take the Kings side, but
given the ‘enemies’ sympathies I suspect that made my men, who are usually part
of the King’s Oxford army, the baddies.
Deployment
The rules used were pike and shotte, with victory going to
the side that broke all of the enemies brigades first. The armies were evenly matched in makeup and
numbers. Both sides fielded several
foote regiments, with Newcastle electing to divide his into two brigades, while
Sir Hugh of Beeston (ever after to be Sir Hugh) massed most of his foote into
one large brigade. These worthies faced
each other across a rural scene somewhere in a Welsh valley, while their
respective cavalry wings eyed each other up.
Sir Hugh’s plan (by which I mean my own) was to use my own horse aggressively
against the other, while pinning the enemy foote with my own until they could be
flanked. I felt my choice to included
more dragoons and packets of musketeers within my horse wing would give me
enough of an edge.
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| The battle field seen from behind Newcastle's horse wing (near on the left), faced by Sir Hugh's horse, while the bulk of the foote are on the far side. |
Pacifism and Barns
The battle started brightly with the Earl of Newcastle
failing almost all of his command checks, and his army stood around comparing
the effects of Daz vs other lesser known brands. Their dragoons faltered at the door to the
large barn that dominated the centre, leaving Sir Hugh’s musketeers ample time
to establish a stronghold within under their noses. Sir Hugh’s left wing of foote moved into
stronger positions ready to receive the enemy, while his horse was more tardy
in their efforts, and despite desperate shouts of ‘charge!’ they didn’t. This was to prove a theme for the mounted
contingent on both sides well into the afternoon, with plenty of pacifism on
show.
Lighting a Fire
In the foote department Newcastle lit a fire under his men
and they forgot their laundry and marched swiftly forwards to engage the enemy
at close range. The whitecoats had superiority
in numbers of musketeers and they looked to make this count, disrupting Sir
Hugh’s efforts at using his pike blocks to counter attack. The exchanges of lead gave way to melee near
the barn in the centre as two of Sir Hugh’s pike regiments; Talbots and Hopton’s,
charged into contact, but were unable to push through their enemy, and were
subsequently counter-charged by Newcastles own pikemen, in the case of Talbot
this was in the flank. Not even a break
for lunch and hot pies could prevent Sir Hugh’s men from being worn down,
Stradlings pike followed the others, and soon the large foote brigade was
broken and in full retreat, with only the ordinance; a solitary Saker, sticking
around for longer to take a toll on the enemy, complete with smoke marker.
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| Sir Hugh's dragoons giving fire near the barn. |
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| The two lines of foote move in for the clash. |
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| It begins to go wrong for Sir Hugh's men, with the enemy pike pushing them back. Strykers commanded shotte can be seen in the bottom left putting up a fierce resistance against the enemy horse. |
Winging It
On the cavalry wing, however, things were different. Sir Hugh’s horse had managed to break Strykers
commanded shotte near the barn, and despite some valiant charges by Newcastle’s
horse it was not enough to see off the mounted enemy and the northern horsemen
were swept aside. Unfortunately for Sir
Hugh too much time had been spent trying to achieve this result, and most of
his mounted gallopers were shaken or nearly so.
In the hope of rescuing the battle he turned them to wheel around the
rear of the barn to try and take the whitecoats in the back, but too much time
had passed, Sir Hugh’s foote had long gone and Newcastle was able to form a
battle line facing the gallopers and a skirmish line of dragoons.
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| Sir Hugh's horse moving around the barn to try and attack Newcastles men from behind. |
The gallopers dashed themselves against this line several times,
hoping to break through and then turn again and take their enemy from the rear
while the dragoons occupied their front, but time and time again they were driven
back by accurate musketry. Long after
they should have quit the field the gallopers, and their supporting dragoons
and packets of musketeers, were finally beaten into submission by the volleys
of lead, and, very roughly handled and almost entirely shaken, they departed to
the jeers of Newcastle’s troops. Victory
to Newcastle and his whitecoats.
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| But the whitecoats are ready, and it is all for nothing. |
Analysis:
Two similar, and well matched armies, with Newcastle’s foote
able to get the better of the slightly outnumbered Sir Hugh’s infantry before
my horse could sweep round, and then able to turn and see off the shaken cavalry
with musketry.
