Preparing for a ECW Marston Moor game

This weekend’s English Civil War (ECW) game is based on the Battle of Marston Moor fought on 2 July 1644 near the village of Long Marston in Yorkshire. Here are some details:

• The Parliamentarian army was 28,000 strong, while the Royalist army was 18,000 strong.
• The Parliamentarians were led by Lord Fairfax and the Earl of Manchester, while the Royalists were led by Prince Rupert and the Marquess of Newcastle.
• The Parliamentarians won the battle which led to the capture of York by the Parliamentarians.

Will a Parliamentarian victory be repeated on the tabletop?

A close up on the Parliamentarian forces looking from Long Marston. The village of Tockwith can be seen in the background.

Marston Moor is a big battle so the game is going to be very much themed on the battle. I am also using pretty much using all my available units for this game. My primary inspiration for this game is based on the scenario from the book “With Pike and Musket”, but I also had a look at a couple of other books in my collection for ideas.

“With Pike and Musket” is the primary inspiration for this game.

The tabletop set up has an open area with a few hedgerows. The prominent terrain feature is a ditch across the Royalist army's front. Though crossable, it is treated as difficult terrain, impeding movement and any units crossing it will not be able to move and shoot. Defenders in a melee gain bonuses when holding their ground.

The tabletop setup with the ditch running across the front of the Royalist forces.

The ditch is an important terrain feature.

The plans…

The Royalist planned to defend the position and were not expecting to engage in battle until the following day. However, the Parliamentarian plan was to launch a surprise attack on the Royalists at around 7pm, which would give them a good few hours of daylight for the battle.

A view of the deployment.

Order of Battle…

The orders of battle for the armies is partially based on numbers and the ratio of forces, particularly cavalry on the flanks. Parliament’s cavalry appears to have been pretty much split evenly between both flanks and their infantry in the centre.

Parliamentarians

Parliament Right Flank

• 2 x Cavalry units in two lines.
• 1 x Commanded Shot detachment (I used dragoons to represent them).

Parliament Centre

• 4 x Infantry units in two lines.
• 1 x Artillery piece.

Parliament Left Flank

• 2 x Cavalry units
• 1 x Commanded Shot detachment (I used dragoons to represent them).

Their commander has one staff officer.

Royalists

Royalist Right Flank

• 3 x Cavalry units in two lines.
• 1 x Commanded Shot detachment (I used dragoons to represent them).

Royalist Centre

• 2 x Infantry units in one lines.
• 1 x Artillery piece.

Royalist Left Flank

• 1 x Cavalry unit
• 3 x Commanded Shot detachment (I used dragoons to represent them).

Their commander has three staff officers.

This is where having only a few units can create problems. The Royalist right flank had a stronger cavalry force than its left flank, but not by a 3:1 ratio. I wanted to make it stronger, so I chose to place 3 cavalry units on the right. Parliament had twice as many infantry units, so the Royalists had half as many infantry units. However, as a game, this could prove too one-sided, so I opted to have an additional 2 commanded shot supporting their left flank.

The Royalist commander has 3 staff officers to the Parliamentarian’s 1 staff officer. This reflects the better trained Royalist forces.

A view from the Parliamentarian side

A view from the Royalist side

Starting the game…

To reflect the surprise Parliamentarian attack, the Royalist command will subtract 1 from all their movement orders for the first 2 game turns. See the D3 ECW Rules here, they were updated last week and a few amendments made yesterday to clarify rules and correct typos (thank you for feedback).

As with the previous game I will be using the solo decision cards to direct both armies. The ditch will be considered a game objective which will influence the Royalist army stance.