English Civil War

Jim & Mark's Parliamentarians v. Mike & Steve's Royalists

Each player had a cavalry & an infantry division.  The cavalry divisions were all 4 heavy cavalry.  Steve's infantry had 2 pike & 4 shot, Mike's 1 pike, 3 shot & 2 light guns, Mark's had 4 pike & 4 shot.

Pic taken behind Parliament's right.  Mark on the left, Jim on the right.  Steve is facing mark, Mike is facing Jim.  Both sides have strengthened the infantry on the far side intending to use the village of strengthen their weaker infantry division.

 Better command dice allowed the Royalists to advance to the village first.

Mark tried to charge the pikes through the shot, but only got 1 move and the pikes didn't charge home, leaving them vulnerable to the enemy's shot.

On the near flank the infantry engage in a fire fight while the parliamentary cavalry are delayed by poor command dice.

On the far flank the cavalry both wins some & lose some and end up breaking off.  Mark's pikes were disordered by Steve's shot & were withdrawn.   A firefight ensues. 

Jim's shot break an enemy shot and advance.  Mike's foot retires.  The cavalry are slowly coming together.

 Mark renews the attack with his horse as his fott get the worst of the firefight.

Jim's tactic of extending his line to get in a flank attack pays off with 2 enemy units broken, but the other 2 hold on, one even pushing superior numbers back.

The cavalry on the far flank have bounced apart again, but the Royalist horse is getting on top.   Mark's foot is in trouble.

Mike's cavalry has broken, but his foot has got good command dice that allowed them to fall back on their artillery support before Jim could regroup and get at them.  On the far flank, Mark's cavalry has broken leaving his foot in a hopeless position.  It too now breaks.  Parliament still have 2 divisions left out of 4 & have broken an enemy division, so still pass the army break test, but their remaining divisions are clearly not capable of taking on the remaining Royalists so they concede the battle.

Both sides had sound plans.  Parliament came unstuck with their pike & shot tactics on the left.  They deployed shot in front & pikes behind, then tried to charge with the pikes through the shot.  Even with the CIC giving them 2 goes, they only got 1 move when they tried to charge, leaving the pikes in front of the shot, but not charged home.  Royalist shot then disordered most half the pikes so only the other half could charge home the turn after.  This piecemeal attack gave the Royalists an advantage in support & the pikes were easily defeated.  Maybe this wasn't the best way to make an infantry attack with mixed pike & shot.