Battle of Guisborough 16th January 1643

 I recently acquired a very nicely painted 15mm ECW figure collection from Lee Gramson and I have been quite eager to get them on the table. Most of you will know I quite like the Command and Colour rules system and Tony on the Prometheus in Aspic blog has produced an ECW variant together with the requisite cards and chance cards. 

He has also produced what he calls a ramekin variant which does away with order cards and replaces them with a chit system.

So armed with these this morning I decided to take a break from the painting and treat myself to a small game. I didn’t wish to spend a lot of time with set up etc and therefore chose to refight the local battle of Guisborough with each unit representing a company of infantry or a troop of cavalry.

Tees archaeology have prepared an excellent booklet on the ECW in the region 

http://www.teesarchaeology.com/home/documents/TheFirstGreatCivilWarintheTeesValley.pdf

So by way of a brief background in late 1642 and early 1643 arms were being landed for the Royalist cause in the North East of England and these were then transported onwards to York.

Guilford Slingsby loyal supporter of the King landed in the area and returned to his estate inHemlington where he commenced to raise troops.

The Earl of Newcastle ordered Slingsby to protect the convoys and to place a garrison in Whitby thus creating access to another ports in the North East for the Royalist cause.

Sir Hugh Cholmley Parliamentarian commander of Scarborough heard about Slingsby’s activities and his intention to occupy Whitby. Cholmley with his 130 foot and his troop of horse and Dragoons was joined at  Malton by two further troops of Dragoons and he marched the 40 miles to Guisborough across the Moors - no mean feat at that time of year.

Slingsby had brought with him a troop of Dutch mercenary horse and had raised 4 companies (400 men) of enthusiastic but raw foot who were all suitably equipped .

Hearing of the approach of Cholmley, Slingsby moved out about 1 mile to the South West of the town.

I will leave it to you to read the detailed account but in essence Slingsby charged some of the mounted Dragoons driving them from the files of battle whilst Cholmley’s men attacked the four companies of Royalist foot. Accounts say that the Royalist had placed their foot ‘under hedges’ and that they held Cholmley for around two hours !

Slingsby upon seeing his foot struggling resolved to charge the enemy foot, he was badly wounded and captured and his army was broken. Due to his wounds Slingsby had both legs amputated and died three days later.

So onto the battle Slingsby’s army consisted of one unit of veteran galloper ( 4 bases rather than 3) and 4 units of raw foot ( 3 bases each -)

Cholmley had threes troops of Dragoons each 3bases)  1 troop I left mounted on the left flank to face off against Slingsby, 2 units of infantry and 1 troop of horse. The horse were Trotters and all the troops were classed as trained.

Other tweaks to the rules I incorporated were 

1. It takes two hits to remove a base ( otherwise I felt the battle may be over before it began)

2. The Jolly Broom man on his Mud Blood and Steel blog suggested  that after two charges mounted troops were classed as blown and couldn’t make any further attacks. I decided to amend this and say that whilst blown mounted troops can still make attacks but do so with half the number of dice.

3. Due to the low number of units involved I decided that each commander would generate order chits on the throw of an average dice.

So onto the battle (apologies for the photos really bad light today)

The armies deployed on the left the Royalists - Slingsby is with his troop of veteran horse facing off against a troop of Dragoons then the four units of foot are deployed across the battlefield - 3 of them are lining the hedgerows.

Cholmley’s men on the right has deployed two troops of Dragoons on foot ready to contest the hedge lines with their opposite numbers

The two units of foot are deployed and they will be seeking storm the enclosures as whilst they are equal to the Royalists in firing, in melee they have a distinct advantage to inflict casualties. Cholmley is attached to the extreme right foot unit. To his right is his troop of trotters..

The opening turns saw Slingsby charge the Dragoons who despite suffering casualties managed to hold him for a couple of rounds .The Royalist unit in the open advanced to hedge line to their front and the other units waited for the enemy to attack 

Which they duly obliged to do.

The red dice are the rolls for the activation of orders. Units more than a set distance from the Officer ( I used 9” ) can be given an order (the black chit) but then need a 5 or a 6 to activate on it.

On the Parliamentarian right their two units of foot closed in on the Royalist units whilst their troop of Horse worked the oar way to the rear of the left most Royalist unit.

Slingsby eventually defeated the Dragoons facing him and after a round of pursuit and shaking to see if he lost any men to further pursuit ( he didn’t) he brought his men around to engage the enemy Dragoons.

Meanwhile Cholmley’s foot units were engaged in melee with their opposite number ( in the rules Raw units forced to retreat ( flags on combat dice ) must fall back double distance (6”) but there was both a distinct lack of flags and casualties on either side.

Eventually Cholmley’s troop of horse also charged the Royalist unit and after inflicting casualties forced them to retreat from the hedge row ( they were hanging on from being removed)

Slingsby’s horse had charged the Dragoons inflicted some casualties and forced them to retreat but his horse were now blown and of limited value, the second troop of dismounted Dragoons had fallen back and caused some more casualties on Slingsby’s horse.

Then over the next couple of turns the Royalist left flank disappeared the unit furthest on the left was shot at and received enough casualties to remove them from the field, the unit in the adjoining field was then subject to a ferocious round of melee from the unit of Parliamentarian foot and a charge from the Parliamentarian horse who were now blown , and they to were removed from the field of battle.

Slingsby left his horse to join a unit of foot, his horse who were truly spent and on the verge of breaking withdrew towards the base line and the remaining two units of foot sought to form a line amongst the hedgerows. 

Despite some successful shooting Cholmley continued to apply increasing pressure charging Slingsby’s foot unit with both a regiment of foot and a troop of Dragoons despite Slingsby’s attempts his unit was forced from the hedgerow and forced to retreat from the field. 

At least he survived!

Overall I was pleased with the tweaks I made to the rules, putting the hex terrain down would have made life easier but I didn’t want to spend too much time on setting up for a trial game.

Certainly looking forward to another encounter.

This final photo shows endgame, Slingsby’s men have been forced from the enclosure, his unit is down to one combat dice and he is effectively surrounded by enemy and very close to the edge of the board!