Battle of Benburb 1646

This is a scenario from the Pike & Shotte supplement To Kill a King.  A battle in Ireland in the aftermath of the English Civil War.

The Anglo/Scots army is on the left with Mike as general Munro.  The Irish army is on the right with Mitch as Mitch as Owen O'Neil CIC & Jim as Henry O'Neil commanding the cavalry.The Irish foot regiments have large pike blocks but only 1 musket block each.  2 of the musket units are large.  The A/S infantry regiments are standard with 1 pike & 2 musket blocks each. Only the A/S have artillery.
The Irish immediately attack rather than endure artillery fire to which they could not reply.

The Irish lancers charge up the hill at the English cavalry but the rest of the Irish horse hang back.  On the far flank the A/S foot advance & the Irish foot halt at the creek line.

On the near flank the Irish lancers were broken while the rest of their cavalry refused to advance.
In the centre the Irish have crossed the creek & charged up the hill over-running the guns.
On the far flank there is a general firefight across the creek.

The English cavalry units shaken while beating the lancers have been withdrawn while the 3rd unit delays the timid Irish horse.  In the centre both sides are having mixed fortunes.  The firefight continues on the right.

The Irish attack in the centre has faltered & fallen back but they have now crossed the creek & attacked on the right.  Their horse has finally advanced on the left.

The Irish attacks have faltered all along the line, but the A/S's also have heavy casualties & can't land a killer blow

The battle has turned into an exchange of musketry between largely shaken opponents, but the A/S have the most units left & have the upper hand.

Eventually, the bad break tests mount on the Irish & they fail their army break test.

The Irish plan was for their superior numbers of horse on the near flank to sweep away the English horse on that flank & then support the infantry attack on the enemy centre to roll up their line.  Their failure to do so due to poor command dice left the Irish foot attacking frontally uphill with no tactical advantage to counteract it.  The uphill advantage then seemed decisive in blunting the attack.


The mix of large & standard sized units is something we hadn't tried in this era before & it was an interesting twist we will try again.