Wednesday, October 24, 2018

English Civil War

I dug into the archives & set up a scenario "Gloucester" from an English Civil War campaign we fought in 1996.
Back then we were using 15mm figs & our house rules of the time  Marathon to Mafeking.
Now we are using 28mm & Hail Cromwell, our Hail Caesar based ECW rules.  The obvious difference is the reduction in room to move.
Both sides have 2 cavalry & 4 infantry brigades.
Parliament deployed first on the far side in a good defensive position,  The Royalists had the advantage of deploying second to balance Parliament's terrain advanatage.
Parliament have deployed with cavalry on each wing. The Royalists have put all their cavalry on their left wing.
The Royalists advance generally, but with their cavalry ahead on their left.
The 2 Cavalier brigades are separated by very different command dice & Jim's Roundheads try to take advantage by counterattacking Steve's lead brigade.
Parliament have noticed that the Royalists have weighted their flanks & Mitch is counterattacking in the centre.
The Roundhead cavalry attack was beaten back with some losses, but Rupert is getting ready to renew his attack as his 2nd brigade comes up.
On the other flank Mike's Roundheads have advanced to hold the creek line & is attacking Chris over the bridge.
Rupert has broken the Roundhead cavalry but have recoiled back from the line of infantry holding the creek line.  On the other side of the line of trees Parliamentary infnatry are attacking. 
On the far flank, Mike's Roundheads have thought better of firing pistols over the creek at musketeers & his attack over the bridge has been beaten off.   So he has fallen back.  In the centre Mitch is driving the Royalist center back.  
The Royalist centre has collapsed, but Rupert has pulled out from the left & is galloping to the rescue.
Chris has lost 2 infantry brigades in the centre, but Mitch's attack has been hampered by poor command dice slowing the advance of his reserve infantry to exploit the advantage.
Mitch's advance has been stopped by a counterattack by Royalist pikemen from their right flank & the timely arrival of Rupert's Cavaliers. 
At our 10pm nightfall, Parliament have lost 1 brigade (right flank cavalry) & the King has lost 2 infantry brigades in the centre.  Both sides had 6 brigades & needed to lose 3 to fail their Army Break Test.  So the result is a draw.

In 1996, Peter Moy's Parliamentarians also counterattacked in the centre, but they were defeated. This time Parliament's counterattack in the centre broke through, but their hopes of victory was frustrated by poor command dice for their reserve & Rupert's uncharacteristic move to the rescue. 

3 comments:

Jonathan Freitag said...

Great looking game!

Gonsalvo said...

Very nice, and an era I can't recall seeing your group[ game in the recent past.

Jim Gandy said...

Not since last May.