More civilians and a game...at last...

I have completed another seven civilians for the Napoleonic era. There is one field worker, left over from the previous set, and six townspeople.

We also capped off the weekend with the annual birthday game and lunch for one of our group. This year we played an English Civil War game using "For King and Parliament" rules. Parliament won the day.

English Civil War Game

Today we played an English Civil War game. I played Robert Bertie, 1st Earl of Lindsay, in command of Royalist force. My briefing was as follows.

In September 1642, King Charles I’s party is travelling south from Nottinghamto Oxford where he hopes to support his army in its attempt to drive Parliamentary forces from the city. 

The king’s party is protected by a small mixed force commanded by Robert Bertie, 1st Earl of Lindsey

The Royalists have spent the night at Claydon House, Buckinghamshire, the home of Sir Edmund Verney who would become the king’s standard bearer at Edgehill later in the following month.

Lindsey’s forces include the following:

Horse:  Prince Rupert

Sir Richard Astley’s regiment (large)

Sir Charles Gerard’s regiment (large)

Marquis of Winchester’s regiment (standard)

Sir James Shaw’s regiment (standard)

Foot: Sir George Digby, 2nd Earl of Bristol

Prince Rupert’s regiment

Lamplugh’s regiment

Stradling’s regiment

Dragoons and independent musketeers: Sir Marmaduke Langdale

Sir Henry Washington’s company (standard)

Sir George Strachan’s company (standard)

Colonel Rogers’ company of musketeers (standard)

Artillery

1 field gun

At daybreak, following an excellent evening enjoying Sir Edmund’s hospitality, the king and his party are preparing to leave when an observant dragoon reports the presence of a party of, presumably hostile, horsemen outside the Boar’s Head Inn to the southwest

Lindsey immediately gives orders for his force to deploy in case the horsemen’s presence across the valley indicates the arrival of a much larger and potentially more dangerous force.

At the commencement of play, Lindsey’s forces are deployed as follows:

• The horse is off the table behind Claydon House;
• The foot is encamped near the woods to the east of Claydon House;
• The dragoons and musketeers are camped immediately north of the barn/stables;
• The artillery and baggage are outside the front entrance to Claydon House as is the king’s coach.

Lindsey’s imperative is to protect the king and, if possible, to ensure that his force is able to forge its way through any opposition in order to join the rest of the Royalist army outside Oxford.

The table, looking towards the Oxford road, Clayton House and the King’s entourage can be seen on the extreme right.

So how did the game go? Well not quite as planned.

Above and below the King and his entourage prepare to depart

Dingy and Langdale formed up and moved towards the tavern.

Near the mill Digby came under fire from the Parliamentary guns.

The Royalist horse charged the dismounted Roundhead dragoons…

…but despite all the advantages in their favour were beaten off! Another attempt by the Royalist horse against some Roundhead cavalry were similarly beaten off, until finally two units found the Parliamentary flank and gained the upper hand.

By this point the Royalist forces had reached the bridge with the King’s coach, but further passage was blocked.

The Parliamentary forces closed around the carriage only to find that the King was not in it, having taken to his horse and made his way around the enemy forces.

Here the game ended. The King had escaped into the Oxfordshire countryside, but Lindsay’s force was all but destroyed.

And so a few extra images..

For King and Parliament

 Friday night saw a gathering to play a game with our collective toys. A pike and shot game using For King and Parliament rules.

Keith and I took on the other three. I commanded four units of Dutch cavalry while Keith had five units of foot and two guns.

Above, Keith’s initial deployment and below, my deployment to his right.

The fighting started on the right, where the Swedish cavalry attacked my cavalry. They managed to disorder, but not break me.

I managed to hold on and eventually destroyed the Swedes and rallied back. When the Swedish cavalry withdrew to reform my troopers gallantly rode forward, catching the Swedes in the the rear.

But when I failed to score any hits, the Swedes turned and destroyed me.

On the opposite flank the enemy cavalry was rampant and destroyed Keith’s guns and a unit of pike (I didn’t manage to get any images of that fight but doubtless Keith has a bunch of pictures on his blog). In the centre the infantry battled it out.

In the end we won…only because we had one coin left in our stack and they had lost all their coins. But the result didn’t really matter…five of us had a fun evening of banter, food and drink…and moved a few toys around a table

English Civil War Game

Today we played a fictitious English Civil War game. I have managed to lose my original briefing sheet so I will try to remember the setup as best I can.

It was set a short time after the action at Cropredy Bridge in June 1644 where Waller, played by me, was defeated and lost most of his artillery train. Waller concieved a plan not only to retrieve the guns, but also to capture the King who was enroute to Oxford. The forces were more or less equal and arrived on the table from opposite ends. 

The field of play from the Royalist end of the table

And from the Parliamentarian end 

The King and his entourage 

The arrival of the Parliamentary foot

By chance, and possibly by the umpire's design, the opposing cavalry forces quickly confronted each other along the road and an indecisive fight erupted, after which the Royalist cavalry retired.

 

In the centre of the table the dragoons of each site engaged in a fire fight in which Parliament soon gained the upperhand.

Action then centred around the hill opposite the Parliament horse

The battle see sawed for some time while the Scots swung wide out on the rught flank. 

After a prolonged struggle the Royalist were beaten and most of their troops quit the field, allowing Waller to recover his guns, but more critically capture the King 

So it was that in late June 1644 the English Civil War ended.

Tarawera Week - Day One

The first day of gaming in our dawned a little grey after a night of intermittent rain. A good breakfast of bacon, eggs, mushrooms, toast and strong coffee started the day before we walked the few steps to the garage, where an English Civil War game was to take place.

We had six players and one umpire, each commanding four or five infantry units, two or three cavalry units and  a couple of guns. I fought for Parliament. Many of our troops were raw so we chose to stand on the high ground and await the attack with our centre and right while the commander of the left chose to take it on himself to try to turn the enemy right.

My position on the right, with the all important baggage in the foreground

The Parliamentary left 

The Royalist line

All went to plan at first as our left wing commander got himself into a good position. The enemy then struck at us on my front with some Scottish and Irish troops which had some initial success against my dragoons, but were soon held back and dealt to by the pike and shot unit.

We get into position on the left

The repulse of the Scots

Then disaster struck when a bad result in a cavalry melee saw one of my cavalry units driven off, then a second one was also beaten and suddenly the enemy was amongst our baggage. This was the critical thing we had to protect and when it fell we had technically lost the game.

My cavalry is gone and the baggage is lost!

However it was only mid-day and we decided that the battle simply wouldn't finish there so we would play on after lunch. But things didn't improve much for Parliament. While our right made good headway (well their infantry did, but their cavalry performed abysmally), my command was soon cut off and slowly taken apart. Our centre struggled to make any headway at all and as  5:00 PM rolled around a Royalist victory was declared.

Action near the end, with the cavalry on the left in disarray in the forground, but the infantry advancing boldly in the upper left

At least the weather had improved as the sun went down, but a strong south west wind kept the temperature low.

We damaged defeated Parliamentarians retreated to the house for aperitifs and wine, followed by some excellent dinner of venison and cheesecake.

Tomorrow's game, a Napoleonic affair was set up ready for play