In March 1644 a Parliamentarian army marched upon the West Midland region. Recruitment had been successful for their army which had pay from monies raised by Excise Taxes. The opposing Royalist army struggled with recruiting and was the smaller force when both forces met near the town of Upper Windrush.
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| Deployment at Upper Windrush |
As both sides deployed their forces. The Parliament commander was mindful of previous battles where a stronger Parliament force had succumbed to defeat. The lessons learned from those battles were to engage Royalist cavalry early in the game to minimise their strike power. Even if this meant the loss of all their own cavalry.
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| Royalist Forces |
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| Parliament deployment |
The battle began about noon after both sides had settled upon their deployment. Parliamentarian cavalry pushed forward between the woods and the majority of Royalist cavalry charged them and soon took the upper hand in the ensuing engagement. This caused great concern and the Parliamentarian commander respond by moving his reserve lobster cavalry to support the cavalry engagement. Meanwhile on the other right flank, a strong force of Parliamentarian dragoons had moved onto the hill and soon saw off a weaker force of Royalist dragoons.
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| Cavalry engagement and dragoon in the distance |
In the centre Parliament infantry, cavalry and artillery pushed forward in line with the woods. Once the cavalry engagement on the flank had ended with neither cavalry in the ascendancy, the centre pushed forward to be met by the Royalist centre. Musket fire was exchanged until both sides were out of ammunition.
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| The centre push forward and engage in musket fire |
Parliament's dragoons having disposed of their counterparts on their right flank started to engage the Royalist flank units supported by cavalry. Outnumbered the Royalist rolled their last dice (so to speak) and threw their cavalry reserve at the weakened Parliamentarian centre, which were able to just hold on. Any last chance of a Royalist victory disappeared, as their left flank units whittled down by dragoon musket fire routed as Parliament's cavalry charged.
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| Royalist cavalry charge in centre, while Parliament cavalry can be seen about the rout the Royalist left flank |
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| Battle moves |
A victory for Parliament to help redress the previous month's loss. The rest of 1644 is now looking promising for Parliament with an additional infantry unit being available for each battle fought this year, thanks to Excise Taxes.
Excellent! Parliamentary commanders are learning from their earlier shortcomings. The King may be in a pickle now.
ReplyDeleteYour hand-drawn maps add much to the enjoyment of the battle.
Yes, the Parliamentarian forces are picking up their game. It is still early in the year and 1644 could prove a difficult one for the Royalists. I find it always interesting drawing the force movements on the map and essentially reviewing the game's actions.
DeleteI like the battle maps very much. Reminds me of games my brother and I I used to play with our Dad. My Dad was trained as a surveyor and also worked as a printer when he was young. He made a number of battle maps for Dylan and I as well as several game tables with terrain details drawn in with Sharpie pen.
ReplyDeleteThank you, the maps are quite fun to do. What great fun to have had a Dad who helped out with your hobby when you were growing up.
DeleteI thought the cavalry reserve were going to do it .... but the Royalists faced too many pressures. Could parliament get too confident I wonder .... or is the die cast!
ReplyDeleteThey came close, and could have caused many problems if successful. The Royalists are under pressure, but do still control more regions than Parliament. It could be a case of hanging on in 1644 and wait for the next year.
DeleteConsidering their disadvantages, the Royalists did well to hold ion as long as they did, but numbers told in the end!
ReplyDelete(and yet another two thumbs up for your maps!)
Thanks. Drawing the maps helps clarify the game moves which are not always obvious in the photos.
ReplyDelete