The King is impatient and wants to keep momentum however his command roll is poor and with only 4 activation chits it will need carefully thought.
On the Royalist left flank Wilmott retires his regiment of horse in order to reform and rest.
In the centre the musket exchange was slightly in favour of Parliament with Cholmley’s regiment causing Dutton to retire.
On the Royalist right flank the Prince of Wales regiment reforms and Ushers dragoons cause Ballards detached musketeers to retreat.
Brooke’s and his Purple coated regiment fires on Prince Maurice’s regiment and causes them to retreat.
Suddenly at 3.40 the Royalist army appeared to find new impetus, on the left flank Astons horse advances to support Digby whilst Wilmott continues to fall back.
In the centre three Royalist regiments of foot charge,
Fenton charges Saye, Fielding charges Roberts and Pennyman charges Mandeville
Dutton reforms his regiment and Charles Gerard’s regiment advances and fires on Cholmley with no effect.
In the melee the Royalist foot do well, Mandeville is forced back by Pennyman.
Fielding and Roberts both inflict casualties although Roberts attached light gun is destroyed
Finton’s regiment is bounced by Saye and forced to retreat disordered.
On the Royalist right drama unfolds as Rupert leads his regiment in an attack on Holles foot regiment, with only half of their musketeers attached ( the others had been detached to support the cavalry and had fled) and failing to form stand of pike Rupert men hit home and inflicted 4 casualties causing Holles men to break and flee the field. In a break through move Rupert leads his men forward in an attempt to repeat the success on Lord Generals regiment, on this occasion both sides inflicted casualties and Rupert men were forced to retreat.
The regiment now had blown horses and would have to retire.
Brooke’s regiment fired on Prince Maurice and inflicted casualties.
As the time moved towards 4pm the Royalist cause appeared to be in the ascendancy although the first line of Royalist foot had taken many casualties and were becoming exposed.
4pm On the Royalist left flank Astons horse charges Saye’s foot to prevent him from attacking Fintons regiment which has suffered heavy casualties and is trying to reform. Aston doesn’t caus any casualties but forces Saye to retreat disordered 12”! Aston follows through and hits Balfour but again fails to cause casualties and receives one in return causing him to retreat.
In the centre most of the first line Royalist regiments look to reform although Fielding charges Roberts although causing casualties Roberts regiment holds its ground causing Fielding to fall back, likewise Dutton charges Cholmley’s foot again no casualties are caused but Cholmley is forced to retreat.
On the Royalist right flank Rupert seeks to retire his cavalry to rest and reform. Ushers dragoons continue their private battle with Ballards detached musketeers and forces them to retreat from the battlefield.
In response Parliament seeks to hold its lines and apply pressure where it can, Wardlawe’s dragoons on Parlaimenta right causes the Roayalist dragoons to fall back and the reserve cavalry troops,( including Essex’s lifeguard) moves toward their left flank in an effort to prevent the Royalist horse threatening the infantry
The clock moves on and some lethargy seems to strike the Kings army.
On the Kings left Astons horse reforms but their dragoons are driven from the field by the intense fire from the Parliamentarian dragoons.
In the centre Duttons regiment fires on Whartons causing them to retreat but Dutton is now out of ammunition
Fielding falls back battered and Finton who also has heavy casualties fails to rally off a hit.
Fairfax’s regiment has advanced and fired on Digby’s horse causing them to retreat and Sayes regiment after reforming starts to advance back towards the centre.
At 4.20 the King only receives 4 activation chits on his left Wilmott continues to rally and Digbys horse comes under fire from the Parliamentarian dragoons who have redeployed in the enclosures and are posing a serials threat to the Royalist cavalry.
In the centre the out of ammo Dutton charges Cholmley’s regiment both inflict casualties on each other but Dutton is forced to retire disordered.
Pennyman fires at Mandeville to no effect and is now also out of ammunition.
Gerard and Brooke’s engage in melee and Gerard is forced back. The Parliamentarian artillery now makes its presence felt again firing on the battered Fielding causing the regiment to retreat further.
On the Royalist right flank Rupert can see he needs to buy time and apply pressure on the enemy he moves and joins the Prince of Wales regiment and charges what’s left of the Parliamentarian cavalry and inflicts one hit in reply the cavalry including the Cuirassiers inflict a casualty and causes the Royalists to retreat but more importantly Rupert is wounded. A quick check and he suffers a light wound and will be out of action for 30 minutes.
The loss of Rupert at a critical time will put a strain on the Royalist army as they need to try and rally off hits on their infantry.
4.30pm
On the Royalist left Wilmott seeks to bring all his horse together and continue to reform and rest.
As he does so the Parliamentarian dragoons in the enclosures fires on Digbys horse causing them to retreat.
The King has ordered Salisburys regiment to clear the enclosures of those annoying dragoons!
In the centre Pennyman out of ammunition charges Mandeville in an attempt to stall the Parliamentarian foot, Mandeville takes two hits and breaks. Essex’s infantry regiment is on the slope behind Mandeville. The regiment holds firm and is now facing Pennyman.
Dyves charges Brooke’s regiment in order to take pressure off the disordered Royalist foot, unfortunately Brooke’s repulses Dyve and inflicts two hits.
On the Royalist right flank Ramsey with the remaining 3 troops of Parliamentarian horse charges the just reformed Rupert horse and inflicts 3 hits taking one in return!
During Parliaments turn cracks start to appear in the Royalist forces, the artillery fires on Fielding and breaks the regiment!
Essex’s foot charges downhill into Pennyman and inflicts 4 hits driving them back, Brooke charges into the disordered Dyves and inflicts 3 hits and Cholmley charges into Dutton inflicting 2 hits and driving him back.
Certainly Parliament this round was in the ascendancy inflicting multiple casualties on a number of Royalist regiments bringing a number of them close to breaking.
4.40-5.00pm the King continues to struggle with activation chits. Salisbury’s regiment on the left flank fails to charge the dragoons but the battle takes a dramatic twist in the centre
Under fire from Saye and Balfour, Bolles regiment of foot breaks, Essex’s regiment of foot charges again into Pennyman inflicts 3 hits and breaks them,
Wharton and the Lord Generals regiment fires on Dyves regiment the casualties are sufficient to break the regiment and the artillery fires on Fintons regiment the artillery fire rips through the regiment and causes them to break. With four regiments breaking over two bounds it Brough the Royalist casualties beyond the break point!
The Royalist forces had 63 BP out of 63 and Parliamentarians 48 out of 56, so close . In the last few bounds the Parliamentarians managed to shield their regiments who had sustained high casualties whilst the Royalists had three or four consecutive bounds where they did not receive many activation chits with the result the King couldn’t pull back the forward regiments and replace them with fresh regiments.
The army break point was set at 40% of total points with a troop of horse being 1 and a regiment of foot being 6 or 7 etc.
Certainly a cracking game and very close. Points to consider for me and the rules, there is nothing in the rules re the effect of friendly units breaking, I cobbled together shaking 1 or 2 dice with a flag meaning the unit becomes disordered. Two flags disordered and retreats but I think this can be developed further for different quality troops.
Also I can’t decide if I should have a regiment break if it is forced to retreat too far one flag on the dice equates to 4” and a standard infantry move is 8” if three flags are rolled and none are cancelled through support or generals should they break? To be considered.
A few smaller games to tweak the rules a bit more I think! And maybe later in the year Marston Moor 🤣
More than happy with the rules though I don’t think I will be trying any others.
Hope it’s not been too long a report but recorded for posterity 🤣
8 comments:
Wow what a grinding match. Liked all of your rules amendments too, which worked well within the overall framework. Interesting to see the rules used without hexes - seemed like an easy conversion?. Enjoyed that, thanks for putting together the batrep.
A great end to the game. If only the Royalists could have received more chites they just might have won the day
A ton of action across the table, the casualties seem about right, with armies slowly deteriorating. Is the out of ammo a status that stays with a unit for the rest of the game?
The King must have been pleased to see Rupert stay on the battlefield for a change :-)
A smart looking battle Graham, thanks for sharing.
Willz.
JBM
yes the rules worked fine hexless have to have a bit of flexibility and I give units a ‘sticky zone’ 4” to front and flank so enemy units can’t move through those areas. Couple of things to work through but almost there.
Ray,
Yes it’s funny sometimes how the game takes a life of its own, I think there were 3 bounds the King threw low which coincided with Rupert getting wounded so the Royalists lost the auto 2 activations on the right and with the Parliamentarian attack inflicting a lot of casualties and causing the Royalist foot to fall back disordered just not enough points sort it out!
Norm
For this battle the ammo status stays on as it seemed to play quite a part later in the real battle. It’s a rule to introduce, drop or tweak depending on scenario or battle I think.
Quite a game Graham. I will be interested in your take on Marston Moor, a battle Ive never actually fought. God knows why.So well done for staging a great game.
"rules re the effect of friendly units breaking".. like that... nicked! :o)
Looking great Graham!
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