Naseby 1645 Re-Fight (15mm) Royalist Win

Facing seemingly overwhelming numbers the King and his stalwart Royalists are forced to fight a battle not of their choosing. Starting from the top and they progress down the table to attack the Parliamentarians force defending the hill at the bottom of the picture. On the right hand side of the battlefield is a considerable body of Parliamentarian cavalry under the command of one "Oliver Cromwell" (see below - the time lapse sequence reveals all):

However Cromwell falls during the fighting on the Parliamentarian right and this change of fortune gives the Royalists the opportunity they need to take the initiative and take the centre of the battlefield with their redoubtable infantry. A remarkable Royalist victory and a very close run thing. (Note: In the above photographic sequence the smoke denotes combat and the orange markers denote a "state of disorder.")

1644 Battle of Aberdeen (Montrose) Re-Fight under FGK&C Transcript

Apologies for the "long post" (see below) but this is my 28mm ECW (North of the Border) project under "For God, King and Country" rules returned to life after a long hibernation. First off is to collect the figures (mostly looking at Warlord Games) and then stage another re-fight akin to the one I fought back in 2004. Sadly no pictures survive from this memorable encounter (I was the umpire).


The 1644 Battle of Aberdeen, Justice Mills Scenario. 
Re-fight, May 2004, Redcar England.
 

Notes: Through pre-game player negotiations the Covenanter force was given seven pikes (as per map) instead of the scenario OoB five, but the Irish were factored at Melee 4. Both sides ignored the sunken road terrain feature.

The wind was chilling and carried on it the foreboding foretaste of drizzle, surely the prelude to the ubiquitous Aberdonian rain. The Commander of the Covenanter Army Burleigh looked dismissively at the Royalist forces arrayed below him in the valley. They did not impress Burleigh, they were a rag tag bunch of misfits, ill clad and looking comically irregular, their ranks filled with the Highland rabble that he loathed and worse still "The Irish". With a look of disdain and affront he haughtily declared, “We outnumber them by seven to three in pike, so we shall take the matter to them. Drummer beat the advance.” The matter already seemed to be in motion, for on both wings horse played to and fro in a confused melee, with as yet no side gaining a discernible advantage.

Summing it up nicely from within the Covenanter pike ranks came this remark: 

“Fit like?” “His nibs, the nob, has taken leave of his heed!” “Wa’r to rush at ‘em” “What? At tha’ Irish?” “Aye!” “What’s in his heed must be sawdust.” “Aye, Fine.”

Immediately as the Covenanter Army began their forward movement things began to go awry. The centre advanced slowly and unevenly. The Covenanter C-in-C dashed for one regiment to another chivvying them on in a most ungainly fashion. Montrose could only look on is disbelief and remark, “This goose means to cook itself.”

Just as Burleigh thought his house was in order a peeling crash of thunder spelt disaster as successive cannon shots hit their mark and disintegrated a pike block of Aberdonian levies. Seeing ranks of pike flung to the four winds was too much for the young, raw recruits who turned and fled. A collective shiver went through the Covenanter forces. The Covenanter Army was already well off the sanctuary of their vacated hill and were approaching the deployed lines of the Marquis of Montrose forces, to whom now looked grim with determination and not the rag tag rabble they spied in the morning mist.

The centre became clouded with smoke as the muskets began their staccato chatter, the feeble beck with its trickle of water was lined either side with the opposing forces, discharging volley after volley. The matter did not last long as the Royalists maintained a punishing weight of fire. The Covenanter Army became disordered, recovered briefly, but lost another regiment of Aberdonian levies, who downed pike and ran for it. Then real disaster, under the persistent rain of shot, a unit of the Aberdonian regulars broke and fled.  With gaps appearing in the Covenanter's battle-line the Highlanders now took the opportunity to charge and carried away the Covenanter's cannon. Menacingly the Irish advanced with lowered pike and blood curdling curses.

It did not come to push of pike. The Covenanter "Army Morale" the broke first and they fled towards the supposed sanctuary gates of the city. The crimes that followed on the populace of Aberdeen will not be chronicled here, but Montrose lamented at the behaviour of his troops and the obstinacy of the provost of Aberdeen who earlier dismissed his warning to remove their children and womenfolk to a safe haven as ‘mere bluster’. Montrose could not afford to delay in Aberdeen. He already had news that the third Covenant army was approaching from the south. Already his Highlanders were heading homeward with their plunder. He would follow them, burying the captured cannon en route and take to the highlands where the lowland Covenanter army would be ill suited to follow.

Additional Notes:

Scenario thoughts: We intend to re-play the scenario again with a less audacious Covenanter battle plan. Reading S.R. Gardiner’s History of the Great Civil War: Volume Two 1644-45 (p143-149, ISBN 0-900075-05-8) we are also inclined to alter the scenario by using these optional rules:

(i)            Decreasing the Royalist Cavalry to two bases in total, Rollo(ck?) and Gordon. According to Gardiner’s account there were only fifty-four Royalist horsemen on the day split over two wings (24 horse to the left, and to the 30 right).

(ii)          If the Royalist Horse fight on the same wing there is the option to combine them (taking one action) into a superior unit, of Melee 4. The force could be split at the cost of one action later, with each stand retaining any damage incurred. 

(iii)         Having the Covenanter Cavalry being always acting as if out of command. They seem to have been really poor commanders on the day.

(iv)         The Covenanter Gordon Horse stand is cariole only. The young eighteen-year old Gordon was ill-informed and not schooled in the ways of war, “the boy knew of no tactics other than those which had been long abandoned in England.”  

The general comment was that this was an infantry battle decided in the middle by push of pike. The Covenanter Cavalry though numerous were extremely badly led and a fair portion simply did not engage.

(v)          Allowing the Covenanters to use the sunken road to attempt a spoiling attack on the Royalist Left with a FH and four stands of horse. However this force would have to start out of command of their wing commander.

Note on (v): Montrose did have to react to a pre-emptive Covenanter move like this, by bringing all of his horse to the left wing and deploying a FH shot of his own.

(vi)         Reduce the Royalist Artillery to one gun (or possibly none!). The battle account seemed to imply that the Royalist’s were inferior in artillery.  

The above are only suggestions and dangerously based on the reading of one book. If you have alternative sources of information I would gratefully appreciate any references. As a final footnote the Justice Mills battle site is now a cinema complex at the end of (or rather just behind) Union Street in Aberdeen. It is rather a steep climb as I know from my own personal youthful experience. I had the pleasure of studying, then working in Aberdeen for over six years and have many happy memories from that time. In fact I lived not far from the Castle Gate where the Covenanter soldiers must have run to for safety, but of course to no avail.

The Battle of Bedford Beetfield: 1644 ECW Hypothetical [7] Parliament Falls

Conclusion: 

The Royalist left command attacks, attempting to overrun a Parliament light artillery piece and in the process hold back any reinforcements to the Parliamentarian center. It all hangs on a dice roll (see below): 

The center looks terrible for Parliament, a clumsy looking Parliamentarian column has been formed in a desperate attempt to force an 'opening' against the Royalist line, but at the same time it is being massively outflanked by Royalist shot and pike (see below). Even worse is the fact that the Parliamentarian center is now worn to near breaking point while the Royalists have been carefully husbanded and are still fresh.  

The fight on the Parliamentarian right results into two rounds of "standing draw" where both sides avoided deadly do-or-die situations. A lot of dice rolls but no stands lost (see below): 

Parliament's attack fails and then the front ranks of Parliamentarian pike succumb to deadly Royalist shot and artillery. The center Parliamentarian formation breaks and becomes a huddled mass of struggling humanity, lowering pikes and asking to parley (see below):

And so Parliament fell in the year of Our Lord 1644 and the monarchy was retained ... roll on the next campaign (This time with tanks please and no DBx rule systems!)

The Battle of Bedford Beetfield: 1644 ECW Hypothetical [6]

The Parliamentarian Right:

Strategically the plan was to pull troops from the secure right flank to reinforce the Parliamentarian Center and be a form of reserve. What occurred was a comical sequence of marching "up a road" only to march "back down the same road" with a Pike Block. The C-in-C bequeathed only a few PiPs to this third command, which meant the 'strategic' plan stayed but a twinkle in the "mind's eye" of the Parliamentarian commanders. When the Royalist horse turned up and threatened the baggage the command was effectively pinned (see below):  

A minor fire-fight broke out as the Royalists tried to press a point but they suffered under 'bad dice' rolls representing good Parliamentarian marksmanship. The Royalist right lost two stands of shot recoiling into their own cavalry - by a quirk of fate dying by the very DBR rule which was 'refused or deemed unacceptable' to the other Royalist (Right Wing) command (see below, at one time there had been four Royalist shot). The less said about DBR's rules of 'recoilment' the better methinks ;) 

Finally interior distances meant that a thin wall of Parliamentarian Pikes sealed off the Royalist horses root to the Parliamentarian baggage (see below). But more Parliamentarian stands were being fixed in position by an inferior Royalist force, which meant ultimately the Parliamentarian Center was being hard pressed.

Indeed the center of the battlefield was looking very messy (see below). Gradually the Parliamentarians were getting worn down. The Parliamentarian Pike had been committed while the Royalist Pike Phalanx was  moving out from a reserve position lining up for a deadly "push of pike". The Parliamentarian command was forced to commit to several do-or-die combats, suffering badly from their absence of artillery.

To ensure no reinforcements could be committed from the Parliamentarian Right to assist the in peril center of the battlefield the Royalist Left gamely "did their duty for Rupert" and fixed the enemy (see below):

What would become of the middle?

The Battle of Bedford Beetfield: 1644 ECW Hypothetical [5]

Subtitle: Trying to get an answer to the question of WHY we play wargames and reasoning to find out when it is best not to play ones that disagree with digestion: 

After his recent run-in with the almighty (they were very God fearing folk in the days of 1644) the Royalist General leaves a "be back later note at the pearly gates" and decides to fight his way out of trouble (see below). The battle is confused and hectic and many more dice are rolled:

However despite numbers and terrain (where the Royalist cavalry were forced back onto the rough of the "Beetfield") were on Parliamentarian side the DBR "dice" go in the way of the Royalists and it was Parliamentarian stands that started disappearing (see below) urk!

The Royalists sense an opportunity to roll it up but somehow lose their "luck of the devil" General in a freak 'I read it in the rules' moment of DBR history - an odd/even roll on a troop type in an enemy/friendly bound that results in a push back being turned into a kill (or something) when 'the moon hangs over yonder tree'. To his great and ever lasting credit it was the Royalist player pointed this out to a bemused group of DBR players who were lost in the complexity of DBR arcane law. Reading the various sets of DBx rules is sometimes more "legalese" than common wargaming sense but the upshot was that the Royalists were suddenly within a hair's breath of going demoralised (see below, the Royalist General had been in the top left corner bit is now 'gone' to Parliaments amazement).  

If the previous picture showed the noble side of the DBR sporting player explaining 'how he died' the next picture shows the fictional "billimeter" nonsense that DBR (or any) rules can degenerate into. Any loss from the Rolyalist command now means "the end of their right wing", so when the little red horsemen (see below bottom left quarter) suffered a recoil from the shooting from Parliamentarian pistol and light artillery it should have been "Goodnight Vienna" as it recoiled into friends/enemies facing the wrong way, but the Royalist player invoked the "blind billimeter DBR defense". Groan ... my head started swimming.

(For those interested in the plain inanity of it all: The stacked up combat behind the Royalist stand in question was a recoil result of a base depth and the thing to remember is that a base depth is always shorter than a base width - as in "you can'na change the laws of Physics captain". The gap is therefore a 'base depth' wide and the recoiling larger 'base width' is trying to fit into it - impossible sire BUT the table and stands had been shuffled and knocked slightly in the course of play and the 'physical bases' weren't uniform size SO the very same "sportsman of the highest noble order" is turned into a HEELS IN THE MUD OVER MY DEAD BODY so after a long debate Parliament gave way [sigh] - this despite showing him the photographs above - we let it pass, but their and then I vowed to burn my copy of DBR and make this the last game I play argh it brings out the worst of a gamer, myself included. It is Impetus for now on for me!)

Did it matter? Nope, because next turn my mounted troops from the right flank swarmed over a Royalist hanger on was dispatched and the Royalist right wing command was now demoralised and broken (see below):

Thus ended a tiring wargaming night. For the record "no quarter" was taken over this last stand but the owning player of the figures stopped me short and said I was not allowed to break the figures off the base despite the urge, only kidding. 

;)

The Battle of Bedford Beetfield: 1644 ECW Hypothetical [4]

Parliament rolls high on their PiP dice (see below), but what can we do with them?

Parliamentarians from the right try and trundle to the left (see below) sounds vaguely logical:

Parliamentarians on the left perform all sorts of strange line out manoeuvrings (sounds more like DBx now), with the dragoons out front displaying reckless abandonment considering the proximity of the Royalist psychopathic cavalry (see below):    

Er, told you so, this is going to hurt (see top left) as the enemy Royalist General runs them down, ow! 

The infantry battle in the Beetfield closes in range so you can see "the whites of your opponents eyes" (see below). No stand losses more of a wiggling of the lines:

After mowing down one stand of Dragoons a second stand becomes a follow on target and thus seems bound to become a "speed bump" to the Royalist General's search for battle filed glory (see below). Being in the Parliamentarian army seems to be one endless learning experience of "what not to do" with the various different troop types at ones disposal! But there is a humorous moment as a Parliamentarian Light Artillery piece unexpectedly guns down a charging Royalist cavalry stand (see bottom left below versus the previous picture - two above): 

Things all get very messy, as the Parliamentarian dragoon doesn't "read the script" and inexplicably rolls good dice 'and fights the Royalist General to a standstill' so the Parliamentarian General tries to seize his moment and kill the opposite number (see below middle):

But it all goes horribly wrong (aka bad dice) as Parliament bounces off the Royalist General's armoured hide and another brave Parliamentarian dragoon alas dies (see below): 

The Royalist cavalry seems to have brought the luck of the devil with them.

Hoggerton Moor 1643 [Hypothetical]: Part VI - The Final Cut

The Parliamentarian Cavalry collide with their Royalist counterparts and the seething mass of man and horseflesh writhe over the now muddy morass of Hoggerton Moor (see below). The first vital round of combat are rolled for and the Gods of War favour the True Blue Bloods over the democracy of the business and small estate owning classes.

I am meanwhile rather busy over on the left of the battlefield trying on "two legs" trying to catch a bunch of "four legs" for some shooting practice (see below):

You line out, you point and then you shoot (see below):

You roll good high dice and your opponent rolls low and you knock a stand off his command, but then the rest of his forces run out of your range, so the fun is over (see below). But casualties are casualties and at least Royalist command is starting to look peaky. If only we could punish those Royalist Blue Jackets in the Hoggerton Moor enclosure, we could then break it.  

Meanwhile Parliament announces the start of the catastrophe as our Right Wing of Horse "breaks" and the center infantry is put in deadly peril (see below). It now becomes imperative to take out those Blue Jackets and avoid a "Major Defeat".

We press them hard (see below) "closing the door" on any chance of escape:

But their metal stands the stress test some four times (pretty cool dice throwing by their commander) which is time enough for the swing Royalist infantry Phalanx to crack the Parliamentarian Center and so an embarrassing 'minor defeat' turns into a 'major rout'. A young serious faced chap in my command called Cromwell mutters that "this will never do", gathers his remnants of horse together and heads off to London with intent and a large Bible. He has good cause to be discontented, not with the DBR rules this time but rather our (Parliamentarian) Generalship as we misused our troops (two legs cannot catch four legs), forgot to use our interior lines (my command should have just shuffled back to the center where it could have been at least used. Even a greater crime is that we as Generals appeared as "not want to fight" our opponents and tried our very best to "hide" behind rather than use terrain! Alas I stand as inept and incompetent as the rest. Perhaps it is time to let this young Cromwell chap have a crack at the whip.

Indeed the campaign swings towards London as the Royalist armies pursue and in early 1644 (hurray for the turn of the year and better cavalry troops) the Royalist attempt to take London ... is this the fall of the Republic?

Above, see the field of battle as it stands today, Hoggerton Moor. Look closely and you can still see the impact marks made from the dice.

Hoggerton Moor 1643 [Hypothetical]: Part V - Parliamentarian Highs and Woes

Mine was now a remote action (bottom left in the picture below), distanced from the main event (top right in the picture below) where the dim of battle was reaching a mighty climax:

Meanwhile my Shot tried to shoot some four legs, but suffered bizarre consequences (see below). Instead of knocking them off their horses I "skittered" them away behind my flank. An unsavory prospect for the following turn.

Note: DBR rule mechanism, I shot and rolled low (poor), the defender unable to shoot back rolled high (good) which gave the defender follow up/advance movement of the dice difference in bases, hence the gallop away by the horse in the way they were facing (away from my shot, which I guess seems quite reasonable in the circumstances). I must give DBR credit where credit is due.  

There ensued a frightening and confused melee to the flank of my Pike and Shot as the Royalist "hand-to-hand" Pistols suddenly fancied their chances (see below):

Despite being supported by Pike a stand of my shot were ridden down, but with combat success in DBR comes the danger of being enveloped by the mass of infantry. The victorious horse found themselves in deadly peril (see below):

The Royalist horse now had its flank exposed and their comrades were not on hand to counter the infantry "closing the door" by locking them in a 'zone of control'. The outcome was a fatal roll of the dice (see below):

'Piecemeal attacks' inevitably have but one outcome (see below) as my command scored its first Royalist kill of the day:

For all the joy of my solitary success there were bigger fish being fried in the center of the battlefield (see below):

The Royalist Pike were 'bloodied' but had 'got in'. They had pushed back the Parliamentarian Shot protecting our artillery and were about to strip the middle with a deadly wheel, who says the Phalanx has had its day, this one is alive and kicking.

Despite being outnumbered and inferior quality it was now "do-or-die" time for the Parliamentarian Right Wing of Horse to attempt to 'save the day'. All they needed was a good set of dice ...

Hoggerton Moor 1643 [Hypothetical]: Part IV - My Battle with a Wing of Horse

As George Orwell said, "Four Legs good, Two Legs bad". I would say "Two Legs 100 paces (with Pike), Four Legs 200 paces (250 if charging)". In short "Four Legs wins the foot race", even if they get shot up a little on the way in and disorganised by two Parliamentarian Saker Cannon (see below):

Somehow I managed to form a semblance of a column to expand out from, although how legal some of the moves were is at best dubious. In the spirit of the game, as in "we don't really know how to do it otherwise", the Parliamentarian forces ending up looking like thus (see below):  

Meanwhile the "big boys" were getting to grips with each other  in the center of the table. Parliament was looking to be at a disadvantage and would need some excellent dice throwing as the Royalists were about to lap round an exposed flank (see below):

Oh "Darn", on my flank I found to my annoyance that (not surprisingly given the laws of physics some would say) Cavalry are faster and can out manoeuvre Infantry (see below): 

Even if the Infantry deploy out of column quick as a flash (woof, woof [BlackAdder II]), my flank was always being turned (see below):

Again back in the middle matters were getting "hot" (see below) as the Royalist left Wing of Horse chose it's moment to attack. The Parliamentarian horse braced itself in trepidation, their mettle was about to be tested, just a few loses would take the command away as the Parliamentarian Horse fought in 'supported line'. A case of 'win' or 'lose' big (see below):

In the middle the Parliamentarian Infantry staged a counterattack but the Parliamentarian right was refused awkwardly waiting a hammer blow, just a few loses here (as they fought in supported line) would take the Parliamentarian Right command out of the game (see below):

Two thirds of the Royalist Arm was effectively hitting less than half of the Parliamentarian Army. I could see no good coming of it, even wearing my tightest Puritarian breeches. I saw and felt pain!

Hoggerton Moor 1643 [Hypothetical] - Part III

The antagonists face off, Royalist to the left and Parliamentarian to the right (see below). Note: The Hamlet of Hoggerton is off camera bottom right "below the guns":

While the Gentleman Generals of Parliament were pondering on what strategic course of action to take the King "humbugged" his former servants. Much to the consternation of Parliament the King took advantage of a school boy error. No pickets had been deployed by the Parliamentarians and this allowed the Kings effectively "three full movement turns" and sprung Parliament's forces into the jaws of a terrible trap. The leisurely readjustment of Parliamentary positions had to be abandoned and our infantry had to fight where it found itself (see below): 

My "Swine-Herd boys of Hoggerton Hamlet" emerge in column in what appears to be a rather desperate race to 'get involved in the battle' before it's all over. The bad news is that a large band of "four-legs" is ideally positioned to intercept them before they descend on the exposed Royalist flank (see below):

It is also rather a long way to travel, strategic moves or not (see below):

It all looks a horrible muddle of mixed up Parliamentarian columns and in all honesty it probably is. One can but only hope the dice give Parliament enough PiPs to extricate the mess before the Royalist 'horse come to play'. In the background the main infantry battle starts to get underway (see below):

Meanwhile the Parliamentarian right 'Wing of Horse' have 'refused their flank' hurtling back to a central position (see below):

Sadly no sign yet of a plan from Parliament.