The lead up to game 8 of the English Civil War campaign has Parliament choosing to raise forces and attempt to control the South West region.
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| During Parliament's turn they decide to move on the South West region |
Cards are used as determine the terrain layout which includes a fordable river running East to West across the tabletop. All units, except artillery, can cross the river at any point, but will suffer one hit when fording and not crossing at the bridge or shallow ford.
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| The selected terrain cards. The river will run East to West and be fordable along its length |
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| Tabletop setup and waiting for units to be deployed. |
The Kings supporters had been very active and a strong Royalist force was recruited. Parliament support was not as strong and all promise of support seemed to fad away, even with support coming from the adjacent South Coast region recruitment was poor. So we
have the following Order of battle:
Royalist Forces (14 Units)
5 x Cavalry (Gallopers)
4 x Infantry (Pike and Musket)
2 x Dragoons
1 x Commanded Shot
1 x Elite Pike
1 x Artillery
Parliament Forces (9 Units)
3 x Cavalry (Trotters)
4 x Infantry (Pike and Musket)
1 x Dragoon
1 x Artillery
The Parliamentarian commender reluctantly deploys his forces near the small town of Otterly St Mary, and hopes Royalist forces will be slow in deploying allowing for a late start to the battle. A late start may allow Parliament to get away with a marginal loss and escape the battlefield with few losses.
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| Royalists deployed and Parliament cavalry face them on the right flank |
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| A wider view of Parliamentarian forces (near tabletop edge) |
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| Parliament foot positioned in fields guard a shallow ford |
In this game I have incorporated a game clock again. Dice decide the battle was to start to be 3pm (6am plus the score of a D10 dice adding a number of hours). Each game turn takes 1 hour. This late in the day will require Royalists to attack quickly or risk the smaller Parliamentarian forces slip away under the cover of darkness.
Parliament may be hard-pressed in this upcoming battle.
ReplyDeleteYes, their recruiting has left them short of troops for this battle.
DeleteDarkness can't come soon enough!
ReplyDeleteThey just have to survive 5 turns.
DeleteDoesn't leave much time for the Royalist to cross the river and attack in force. Parliament was dashed lucky that a river was rolled.
ReplyDeleteI'm trying to think of an ECW battle (rather than skirmish) with a river in it and coming up short, there were lots of rivers around, I suppose it must have been either mutual consent or refusal by an attacker to attack at a disadvantage? If the game is a draw presumably the territory remains neutral? or does Parliament hold it if they don't lose?
The Battle of Cropredy Bridge (River Cherwell) is an interesting example, it highlights the importance of bridges, cavalry and dragoons. I have not taken time to study the nature of the Cherwell, but maybe our rules should show rivers to be greater obstacles than we do and that in turn would bring the importance of bridge / road hubs into sharper strategic focus.
DeleteI am looking forward to see how this game proceeds given the force mismatch, river and limited time.
DeleteRivers have certainly turned up more frequently in my games than they historically did. I have limited the terrain cards to two rivers (one impassable and one fordable) but they keep turning up. I am viewing the battles in 1642 as being smaller actions. This will change when the marching armies come into play in 1643 of the campaign.
I will need to think about how to deal with a draw, maybe another game.
Peter I was looking at the campaign situation, based on the previous posts it looks to me like this was a non-aligned area which Parliament invaded. So if darkness prevents the Royalists from driving Parliament from the field, who gets the territory? Parliament because they got there first? or does it remain neutral?
DeleteThe options in consideration at present are: 1) refight on different terrain with remaining units, or 2) using their positions at darkness units fallback 12 inches from enemy. Then all units can reposition and battle commences again in the morning. My inclination is to go with option 2 so I don't have to set up another tabletop. I may also allow additional troops to joint the fray.
DeleteBoth sound reasonable, 'B' sounds like less work!
Delete