ECW Game Report - The Battle of Hopton Heath 1643

I have been tinkering with the D3 English Civil War rules for a few weeks now. Originally, they were a variant of One Hour Wargames using D3 dice, but I have made further modifications to the artillery rules and turn sequence. The turn sequence was the largest change and uses homemade cards which determine the order in which a player’s units perform their actions. There are 10 cards in all:

5 Red cards

• Horse Activation
• Foot Activation
• Dragoon Activation
• Artillery Activation
• Commander Activation

5 Blue cards

• Horse Activation
• Foot Activation
• Dragoon Activation
• Artillery Activation
• Commander Activation

The deck is shuffled together into one card deck at the start of a turn. One player is assigned blue cards and the other red cards. As the cards are revealed, one at a time, a player activates the unit types on the card. Once complete, take the next card from the top of the pack and repeated until all cards have been drawn. Then shuffle the card deck for the start the next turn. 

This mechanism is trying to reflect the difficulty of commanders coordinating the various parts of an ECW army. Players don't know the order that their unit types (infantry, cavalry, or dragoons) will be activated, or of their opponents. The updated rules can be found above or click here.

For the game I used the Battle of Hopton Heath description from the book "With Pike and Musket" by C.F. Wesencraft as inspiration. The Battle was fought 19 March 1643 between Parliamentarian forces led by Sir John Gell and Sir William Brereton who attempted to combined their forces to face a Royalist army under the command of the 2nd Earl of Northampton.

I decided to draw up a map to help show the positions and tabletop layout. It has been a long while since I drew one of these diagrams for a game. I do enjoy drawing them, but they do add time to creating a blog post.

Map of the Royalist deployment and Parliamentarian off table units.

The game uses the weather barometer as described in the "With Pike and Musket" book. I made one a couple of weeks ago (see here). I have no idea as to what the weather was like on the actual day, but on my tabletop the day was looking pretty dismal with the possible threat of rain to come. A roll of 9 on 2D6 determined the weather which is adjusted by a D6 roll at the end of each turn, a 1 or 2 moves the peg up one slot on the barometer and a 5 or 6 move the peg down one slot.

Weather barometer

The Royalists begin the game deployed between the two roads. Parliament forces arrive one unit each turn along one of the roads. The units arrive in the order of cavalry units first, then infantry units, and finally artillery units.

Initial deployment of the Royalist forces. Two Parliamentarian forces will arrive one unit each turn on the roads. (As a quick note I am using two bases for each unit in this game, artillery are still on a single base.)

The game report in pictures...

The first Parlimentarian cavalry arrive along the road as Royalist forces move up.

The weather did not remain fine for long and soon steady light rain began falling.

A second Parlimentarian cavalry unit arrives on the other road. While on the left flank two Royalist units move towards their Parliament's cavalry.

Parliamentarian infantry arrive and are quickly engaged shooting at Royalist cavalry. They were able to keep their powder dry.

The weather continues to turn for the worse with heavy rain. All artillery pieces become bogged, including  Parliament's artillery which is yet to arrive.

More infantry arrive on the tabletop for Parliament near the building, but their artillery is delayed due to the heavy rain.

Royalist cavalry head towards the other flank as Royalist forces concentrate their attacks on the right flank.

With artillery ineffective Royalist forces close in on the outnumbered Parliamentarian forces.

Casualties are starting to mount as the forces engage.

The weather has become stormy and all movement will be halved and artillery fully bogged and useless for the remainder of the game.

Royalist cavalry attack on the flank and Parliament's situation looks dire. Their infantry on the other flank is being delayed due to the storm (and half movement).

Parliament forces are routed and a Royalist victory.

While the Royalists won, they were aided by the weather which delayed Parliaments artillery and the ability for both forces to join up.