ECW Movement Rates and a Renaissance Joke

My early games with my ECW miniatures rules based on Commands and Colors have shown a common theme – a tendency for the cavalry to race around the place, wiping each other out, while the foot are pretty static in the centre – slow to get into action and ponderous once they get there.

This may well be an authentic representation of what 17^th Century warfare was like, but I have been giving some thought to making the foot a little more mobile – nothing outrageous, but a little more – how do you say? – oomph when deploying. For my next couple of games I propose to allow foot to fire only if they stand still, to move 1 hex and still have the capability to initiate a melee combat, or to move 2 hexes with no option to carry out any combat. This double move is not allowed to bring them nearer than 2 hexes (musket range) of any enemy, and must not compromise any terrain rules, so they may not make a 2-hex move if they are within 2 hexes of the enemy, and must stop when they get to 2 hexes from the enemy. I am doing some consistency checking to see how this sits with the terrain rules and the Command Cards.

This change may, of course, distort the entire game, but in principle it seems reasonable, so I propose to give it a trial.

Subject 2 – on my September trip to Bavaria and Austria, I saw the remarkable Glockenturmautomat in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, in Vienna. This astonishing clockwork device was made in Augsburg in 1580. We did not get to see it working when we were there (it’s much too precious for that), but I have subsequently found a little film about it on YouTube (of course). It is an odd piece of whimsy – a tower with bell-ringers working away while some merrymakers are boozing on the balcony. The film shows that, in close up, the weathering of the drinkers makes them look a bit sinister, but it is a terrific piece of workmanship.

If you like a touch of Rabelais in your humour, watch to the end…

[Because Blogger's video linking tool isn't working properly, please click here]

ECW - Throwaway One-Liners...

One of the many sets of ECW rules I own is the Athena booklet, The English Civil Wars [&] The Thirty Years War, by Terry Wise, published 1982.

The rules are well set out and explained, but too tactically detailed for my taste, and written orders plus simultaneous movement is a no-no for me, especially since I need a solo capability. They are interesting and informative, though - as you might expect. The introduction makes reference to "subsequent rule books from Athena", but the tantalising bit is where it states:

A second set of rules exists for campaigning in the same period, and this set includes siege warfare.

And? - and…?

In context, I infer that this second set of rules would also, potentially, be an Athena product, authored by Terry, probably with Stuart Asquith. I've had a dig about, done much creative Googling and even asked a few people, but have come up with nothing.

Anyone know anything about this other set of ECW rules? - all clues would be most welcome.

More New Troops

A couple of units of town guards or militia - no muskets...

Yesterday the postie brought me a package of newly painted soldiers back from Lee - the customary lovely job. I've been busy getting them based and equipped with flags. With apologies for the poorly set-up pictures, here's a quick view of what's new before they disappear into the storage boxes.

A lot of Real World stuff going on at the moment, so the war-games have been a bit quiet.

More Royalist gallopers - this is Marcus Trevor's Regt

And a small unit of Firelocks for the Royalists - ready to capture Beeston

Different period - meanwhile, in the Peninsula, here is General Pablo Morillo.
The figure is a bit of a rarity from eBay - this is NapoleoN Miniatures'
Spanish general, which, as far as I knew, never made it into production.

Chester Trip – Preamble

It isn’t Regensburg, but my ECW trip to Chester is on. I’ll be going there with a friend from 1^st to 3^rd December – the hotel is booked, so we’re going. We have both read John Barratt’s excellent book on the Great Siege, so the idea is to have a look at what remains of the Civil War sites, and the odd pub would be all right too.

Chester is not unfamiliar to me; as a child, I used to visit the place – and especially its zoo – but in those days the journey from Liverpool was a bit of an epic – long and tiring. We didn’t have a car (I had a rich Auntie in the Wirral who had a pre-war Vauxhall, but she didn’t really speak to us), so sometimes the journey involved a train from Birkenhead Woodside station (which I think you would struggle to find now), sometimes not, but it always involved a few of those green Crosville buses. It is an attractive city, and it looks the part for an ECW trip, but I am aware that very little of it dates back to the Civil War. For a start, much of the city was destroyed in the siege, and there have been frequent improvements over the years since then. The walls are marvellous, but a substantial part were widened and turned into a promenade for the townspeople in the 18^th Century.

I originally had a picture of a wartime Crosville Guy Arab bus here
- it was pointed out that not only was it too early, but it was probably red.
Here's a proper Bristol Lodekka from the 1950s, with the correct livery of Tilling Green

We’ve made bookings with Ed Abram’s fine Chester Civil War Tours operation – we will definitely be going on the standard tour, and, though the Rowton Moor tour is not officially open so late in the year, we have the offer of going there too if the weather is passable and if the farmer is happy to let us on his fields. Serious walking boots will be taken. There is also an interesting tour of ECW public houses, but we may do that ourselves in the evenings. I was recently walked around the field of Eggmühl by a uniformed fusilier of the 5^th Bavarian infantry regiment from 1809, so being taken around Chester by a Royalist gentleman in full period costume for 1645 will be quite normal.

It would be nice to wander a little further afield – Brereton’s trip up to Mostyn is a possibility, as is a quick look at Nantwich, or Beeston Castle – but the main thing we have to decide is what to do about our 4^th day. Originally, my colleague found he had to be back in Scotland on the 4^th day, but he has subsequently got out of his prior engagement, so an extra day is again available. We could stay on in Chester, of course, but I fancied a trip to Ormskirk – they had a nippy battle there – quick but influential, it effectively finished off the Royalists in Lancashire in the First Civil War apart from the garrisons at Lathom, Greenhalgh and Liverpool. Also, we could have a look for the site of the original Lathom House, pay our respects to poor old Lord Derby, who is interred in the local parish church (in however many separate bits), and – failed trump card! – I have family in Ormskirk who kindly offered hospitality, but, alas, the dates don’t line up and they have other plans! Like many local people must have done in the 1640s when they learned that Rupert or Brereton were coming, they have obviously made quick evacuation arrangements when they heard about our trip. Not a huge problem – we can still go to Ormskirk, or we could go over to Yorkshire and have a look at Marston Moor, or Adwalton (less easy to find), and someone has suggested Pontefract Castle.

Homework

Now that we are definitely going, we can approach the details with a bit more focus.

What fun!

Montrose – History of a Different Feather

Hurrah!
James Graham, first Marquess of Montrose

Someone mentioned to me recently that he occasionally finds himself half-way up the stairs, unable to remember where he was going or why. At the time, we laughingly agreed that it was probably a gradual reduction in his ability to multitask rather than full-blown dementia.

Whatever, it rings a not-entirely-comfortable bell with me. Two contexts in which this happens a lot to me these days are

(1) online – trying to remember what it was I set out to do when I’m suddenly surprised to find myself reading a Wikipedia entry for Oswald Mosley (for example)

(2) my reading habits – trying to remember just why this particular book I have in my hand has managed to leapfrog the current reading pile

Over the last couple of days, I have read – and greatly enjoyed – CV Wedgwood’s Montrose, which certainly is a surprise to me, and I am trying to reconstruct just how this happened.

It’s at least partly Old John’s fault. He very kindly sent me some 20mm highlanders a while ago – nice little figures, but not entirely relevant to what I’m working on at  the moment. He said something to the effect that, one day, maybe I might like to extend my interest in the ECW as far as the campaigns of the Marquess of Montrose. I filed that away, alongside similar comments I’d heard from someone else.

In the last few weeks, I’ve been doing a bit of a stock-take on the ECW lead mountain. I’ve pretty much completed what I originally sketched out as my “Phase One” ECW armies – I’ve even gone so far as to add some units of town militia and some firelocks, and there’s some siege artillery starting to collect, so a bit of an extension to the original plan is probably overdue. The ECW spares boxes now contain more Tumbling Dice figures than I thought I had (has anyone else noticed how accumulation of TD figures generates a parallel collection of human heads?), and I have enough to make up some more pike-&-shot units of foot, at least two of which are Covenanters.

Interesting. I hadn’t really thought about Covenanters just yet, though I have always known I would get there. My forthcoming early efforts in the ECW are to be based around Lancashire, Cheshire and North Wales in the 1642-45 period, and I have developed (or dreamed up) OOBs for this region at these dates. Covenanters – hmmm – what relevance have Covenanters in Lancashire? I am aware that these chaps were at the Siege of York, and provided a good whack of the troops opposed to Newcastle and at Marston Moor. It is maybe less well known that the Parliamentarian garrison of Liverpool in June 1644 included some 400 to 500 men of Sir John Meldrum’s regiment, who were Scottish, or that Sir William Brereton tried (unsuccessfully) in February 1645 to get some of the Scottish foot seconded from Yorkshire to help with his attempt to capture Chester. Also, of course, given even as tenuous a link as that, my own fake history of the war in Lancashire can easily be fudged to include any number of the fellows.

So, belatedly, I dug Start Reid’s Osprey title on Scottish ECW soldiers out of the bookcase, and I had a squint at the very useful army generation lists in the back of the Forlorn Hope rules, and Old John’s words echoed from somewhere, and Montrose was mentioned, and suddenly I decided I had better find out more about this, so I also dug out CV Wedgwood’s book on the ill-fated hero (that’s Montrose, not Old John) and got started.

A great read. Classic, story-telling, popular history, free of densely interwoven references. It isn’t a very big book, it has some nice pictures, it may even (whisper it) have quite large print, but I romped through it, and I learned a lot about Montrose – though I have to say I knew hardly anything about him before.

Booo!
Archibald Campbell, first Marquess of Argyll
He even has a black hat, for goodness sake...

This is kind of ironic, since I frequently sound off here about my enthusiasm for old-fashioned historical writing, but I did get a bit worried about the fact that the reading was so pain-free. I checked – a couple of times – to see if it was a book for children. Having spent a fair amount of time lately reading (and enjoying) Esdaile, and Rothenburg and suchlike, I was reminded that Ms Wedgwood is a breath of fresh air, but somehow this book was strangely unconvincing. I didn’t expect to find anything as dull (or useful) as OOBs, but I was surprised how partial this biography is. Montrose is a hero – he’s handsome, gifted, brave, noble and tragic all at once. His soldiers are always outnumbered, yet (for a while at least) claim crushing victories against all the odds. His opponents are mean-minded, ugly, cowardly and cruel, and generally perform like a nasty version of the Keystone Cops. I am not used to history being quite so clear cut, to be honest…

OK – what I have to do next is capitalize on my new enthusiasm and find some rather more detailed (I came close to writing “factual”) work on Montrose. It would be remarkably silly – even by my standards – if I finished up building up little armies for Montrose’s campaigns just so that I can utilize Old John’s highlanders, but stranger things have happened. It would also be silly if I did it just because Veronica Wedgwood had a bit of a thing about James Graham. I need to have a look at some rather more dense writing on the period, and think what to do next.

One big attraction is that the forces involved are small (if I only knew what they were…), so it would not be a very big digression, as these things go.

Hmmm. But why Oswald Mosley?

ECW – The Arquebus Rules

So what are the Arquebus Rules, then, Foy?

Well, since you asked, I’ll tell you.

They are a hybrid, and an incomplete hybrid at the moment. Arquebus was my working title for the framework of a computer program I wrote last year to manage solo ECW games played under a set-of-rules-yet-to-be-defined. Initially, as you may have read here before, the idea was that the underlying rules were to be Clarence Harrison’s Victory without Quarter, which I liked the look of for a number of reasons, and which I had tried out during a visit to the Kingdom of Old John last year.

Whatever your thoughts on computers in wargames, one spin-off of automating the game management is that you soon become aware of gaps in the game logic if you try to put a set of wargames rules into a computer program. So let’s see – if the melee winners fail this morale test to control the pursuit – what happens? – oh – look at that – it doesn’t say. So what exactly do artillery do if someone charges them? – well – gosh – it doesn’t say. Etc.

One big advantage of using someone else’s rules is that they have been playtested before, and you have a good idea in advance whether they work or not. VwQ is a bit different – there are people who have played them and use them and like them, but there is also a fund of recommendations for adding the missing bits – including some from The Bold Clarence himself, who has never pretended that the rules were complete or anything other than a work in progress.

So I set about redrafting VwQ for my own purposes, to plug some gaps and fix some things I wasn’t comfortable with and then – since I’d started doing it this way – I took the opportunity to simplify a couple of fiddly bits, and amend a couple of the tables to suit my own ideas. The final straw was that I eventually replaced VwQ’s trademark, card based Activation system with something else – I discussed this in an earlier post.

At this point, though the game still employs some of the mechanisms from VwQ which I have liked from the outset, much of it is changed. The overall package is definitely not VwQ, and I decided it made more sense to make a clean break, and call my evolving rule set Arquebus, if only to keep my head straight – same as the program. I acknowledge my debt to some other games, but it is a hybrid.

Briefly, I adopted an alternative Command and Activation system which I found in some of Mr Featherstone’s recently-published rules – which may or may not have close relatives in Warhammer, Blitzkrieg Commander and Bloody Barons. It ticked a lot of boxes – intuitively, it seemed reasonable, it hung together well from a completeness point of view, and it was cute enough to borrow without shame.

Well, I’ve now tried it out, and it was tedious. Clever or not, it required extra work, and I found it to be mostly irritating – slowed the game down far more than it improved it. So I’ve replaced it with a much simpler, dice-based system which has close relatives in the Portable Wargame family, and in at least one iteration of Ross’s Hearts of Tin, and even in some earlier ideas of my own (surely not?). Since this is now Arquebus we are talking about, and thus mine own, I may well replace it yet again next week – I’ll see how I feel. I am giddy with the possibilities…

The rewritten rules for Arquebus are beginning to stabilize – I have now reached a stage where I am polishing the wording, checking that I have covered everything. Once the game works, I will continue with the computer program, but make no mistake – Arquebus first has to perform tidily as a dice-&-rulers game without a computer in sight, or I shall keep working on it until it does [famous last words]. Thus there is a latest-version rule booklet (I believe I’m on Version 0.21 – which is the first amendments to the substantially changed 2^nd edition) and I was thinking that I might make it available if anyone is interested – I’m still not sure about this – it is a tweaked version of VwQ, though the tweaks now outweigh the VwQ bits, and it is not really designed to cope with anything more than the way I like to play my wargames. I’m thinking about it. The world is full of half-baked rulesets that don’t quite work – why add to the heap?

He's what? - he's redrafted Table 3? - bloody hell...

Once I’m comfortable that it works – at least a bit – I’m happy to provide copies to anyone who wants one. Hang on a bit. If someone feels moved to ask me why I don’t just be a sensible fellow and use Forlorn Hope or similar, please don’t – we’ve done that bit already.

Righto, Foy – so what happened to your Commands & Colors based ECW game?

Nothing – I have been using it and it works pretty well. As I mentioned before, I also need a more tactical game for small actions – where the Commanders can amuse themselves forming column of march and carrying out flank attacks and all that – this is where Arquebus should come in.

And it’s guaranteed hex-free, in case you care.

ECW - New Group Photo

Current state of the armies - the King's men on the left

An early task after arriving home from foreign parts was to base (and issue flags to) my new ECW units of horse, recently received back from Lee. These new units have already appeared in much higher quality photos on Lee's own blog, so I opted to work them into some general photos of the current state of my armies.

Bearing in mind that I only bought the first figures in March of last year, and the first painted units didn't start to appear until late in the Summer of 2012, I am delighted with progress. Anything less typical of my usual level of effectiveness is hard to imagine. Much credit, and thanks, must go to Lee, David Young, Martin Amon, Clive, Old John and a few more for guidance and painting and everything else. Thank you, gentlemen.

Royalist horse - Tyldesley's regiment at the front

Parlies - Bethell's and the Derbyshire Horse

More Parliamentarians - Wm Fairfax's boys in the foreground

More Royalists - Northern Horse and Prince Rupert's

I must be back home in Blighty - things are crazy again this morning. My email no longer works, because of improvements to the service, but I am assured by the nice man in India that they are working on it and it should be better by the weekend. Right. That's good then.

Before the email packed in, I got a message from my pal Bernard, the idiot robot, from his night-time job at Amazon, to tell me that the Kindle Fire I bought for my wife's birthday last week is now £30 cheaper than it was last week. Thanks, Bernard.

Final thought - while I was passing through Amsterdam duty-free I saw a demonstration of a new Cube 3D Printer. Holy Smoke. If you haven't read up on 3D printing I recommend you have a look. This one copies a solid object in a plastic material - maximum size a 5.5inch cube. Goodness knows what the cartridges cost, but the machine retails at 1449 euros. I think that, like hybrid cars, they will get much cheaper and much better - this is not the time to buy one - but the potential is mind blowing. I'm keeping an eye open for developments. Miniature soldiers? - absolutely.

More ECW Odd-Bods

I've been doing a little more painting - specifically last night, while not watching the Tottenham game. Just a few odd figures which have been waiting around and were beginning to irritate me.

Here's some young chaps proposing to take out Lady Derby's chimney pots once and for all...

...and here's a Royalist general of Foot, with his horse and a minder. The general himself is one of the original Warrior ECW range - definitely not the current ones. Some of these earlier figures are small enough to fit with my 20mm armies.

Bethell's Horse

Another new Parliamentarian regiment of Horse - this one is Colonel Hugh Bethell's Regiment. I painted these myself, so they are probably not up to the usual standard. Thanks to Lee for consultancy and spare pots of buff paint(!).

They don't have a flag yet - there are another 3 units of horse coming shortly, so they can all get their flags together. This is not just for time management purposes - it is so hard to get single-coated (i.e. coated on one side) lightweight, photo quality inkjet paper these days that I am now reduced to printing around the edges of old sheets bearing extra copies of Napoleonic flags I've done previously. Thus all at the same time will save paper as well. [Another useful environment-saving and penny-scrounging tip from MSF]

All I know about Bethell is that he came from Rise, in Yorkshire. The family home, Rise Hall, is still standing, though not in its 17th Century form, and is owned by Sarah Beeny - property developer and TV celeb. I read (with interest, naturally, since I am a great follower of celebs) that she and her husband found it a bit large for a weekend retreat (97 rooms), so they have had it smartened up and it is now available for wedding hire.

Rise Hall

How lovely. Please form an orderly queue.

I think I may have digressed a bit there.

My C&CN-based ECW Game - revised Quick Reference Sheet

Quick - grab his QRS...!

Following changes made for my recent Battle of Nantwich, I have put a revised version of the QRS onto Google Docs - the link in the upper right corner of the blog screen should get you there. Any problems, please let me know.

A couple of minor typos corrected, and Enclosures and Swamp added to the Terrain section. Everything should now be back in sync.

More Horse, More Horse

Another two newly painted units of ECW cavalry back from Lee's House of Magic. The guys with the nice purple flag are another bit of the Royalist Northern Horse - this lot being Sir Charles Lucas' regiment. The more sedate people below are Sir Thomas Myddelton's Parliamentarian "Myddleton's Brigade". Lucas, I think, was captured at Marston Moor. All I can remember about Myddelton is that he was the governor (owner? warden? janitor? gardener?) at Chirk Castle.

If you care, the Royalists are Tumbling Dice men on Kennington/SHQ horses, and the other lot are all Kennington/SHQ. I believe that the flags are pretty much correct, which is an unusually fine result for me.

Speaking of results, and without wishing to tread on any toes here, I note that the BBC's website is heralding the glad news that the Briton has won the Wimbledon men's singles final today. I don't have any kind of a problem with this, I'm as proud as can be, for all of us, but I wonder if he would still have been a Briton if he came from, for example, Oxfordshire. I don't recall Tim Henman ever being a Briton. Funny, that.

It would be paranoid to suggest that if Murray had lost he would definitely have been a Scot, so I'm not going anywhere near there.

Another random fact - a couple of days ago, I did a search on Google for Aaron Copland, the American composer, to get some biographical material. The day after, I visited the Amazon site, using the same machine, and - lo! - I was presented by Amazon with adverts for various Aaron Copland CDs.

Now how could that possibly happen? Cookie swaps?

The Battle of Nantwich – History Is Still Bunk

Major Tom Morgan's dragoons at Henhull Farm

Yesterday Chester and Alan came around to fight the Battle of Nantwich with me (background and setup are in the previous post). We had deliberately agreed not to be constrained by history, but our game ended up quite a bit different from the original.

In the real battle, Fairfax, with the Parliament forces, decided against a frontal assault on the Royalist position at Acton Church, and since the Royalists were short of cavalry at the beginning of the action, he did a smart left swerve, and headed for the besieged town of Nantwich, in the hope that the garrison could be added to his army.

We didn’t do that. Our Fairfax went straight at the church, and ran out of steam very quickly. The hedged farm enclosures did handicap the cavalry, realistically, but slowed everything down too. Fairfax’s units of foot kept retreating back into the enclosures whenever they were sent on the attack, but there was no sign of any offensive movement from the Royalist forces.

Again, in the real battle, once Fairfax set off on his diagonal march to Nantwich, acting Maj.Gen Richard Gibson fell upon him with the Royalist foot, and the battle was a close call until suddenly – for unexplained reasons – the veteran Royalist regiments of Warren and Earnley broke and ran, and the battle ended quickly and very expensively for the King’s army in Cheshire, with some 1700 prisoners being taken.

Our version, as I have explained, was nothing like this. There were some very bloody exchanges, but it became fairly static, and the number of Victory Banner counters rose steadily until it reached 6-each – 7 needed for the win.

At this point, we took a break for dinner, aware that it was not easy to see how a finishing stroke might be produced. We needn’t have worried, on resumption Fairfax’s last remaining unit of cavalry, Brereton’s Cheshire Horse, closed in to finish off Earnley’s battered veterans, and were promptly hit by an astounding volley of musketry which routed them – game over. Royalist win. History is overturned yet again.

Parliament starting position

Richard Gibson at Acton Church with the only Royalists to be in place at midday

Lord Byron's Horse in a hurry for some reason - oh yes, they are late - that's the reason

Lord Molyneux's horses have a close look at a Merit hedge, which may well pre-date the ECW

General view from the Parliamentary left at around the time that Fairfax's attack got badly bogged down 

Victuals - Royalist ale...

...and Puritan pork pies?

The garrison at Nantwich - they did nothing all day

At top left you can catch a very rare glimpse of Lord Byron, the Royalist commander,
within sight of the action

With total disregard for history, the Royalists set up a very strong position  based
on Darfold Hall - not that anyone was attacking, mind you

Amazing shooting - the final throw, as Earnley's muskets see off the Cheshire Horse
to win the day. Three cheers for His Majesty... 

  

The Battle of Nantwich - preparation

On Friday of this coming week, I have arranged an ECW battle with some friends. This morning I've been setting out a briefing note for the other players, which I thought might be of interest here.

Please note that this is not an attempt to teach everyone about the Battle of Nantwich - I've done a bit of tweaking with the history and the OOBs, to make best use of the troops available and try to give a balanced game. What follows is simply a copy of what I've sent to the players. Apart from the scenario and the starting position, there is to be no attempt to replicate or re-enact the historical battle, this will just be a free-for-all.

My sources are John Barratt's super little The Battle of Nantwich 1644 (Stuart Press), John Dixon's equally super (though larger) The Business at Acton (Partizan Press) and the scenarios for Nantwich in De Bellis Civile 1644-45 and Charlie Wesencraft's Pike and Musket book. It goes without saying that my version will not be like any one of those, though they were all useful.

The game will be played using my ECW variant of CCN, with a couple of scenario tweaks. OK - the rest of this post is just what I have sent out to next Friday's players.

The Business at Acton  - the Battle of Nantwich, 25^th January 1644

The Armies:

Royalist

Commander:                   John, Lord Byron

2^nd-in-Command:      Maj.Gen* Richard Gibson

Horse:

Col. John Marrow’s Regt

Lord Molyneux’s Regt

Lord Byron’s Regt (v)

Sir Thos Tyldesley’s Regt

Foot:

Sir Michael Earnley’s Regt (v)

Sir Robert Byron’s Regt (v)

Col. Henry Warren’s Regt (v)

Col. Richard Gibson’s Regt (v)

Sir Thomas Tyldesley’s Regt

Sir Fulk Huncke with approx 400 musketeers (v)

Artillery:

A battery of medium sakers

Some light pieces

* = acting

  

Parliamentarian

Commander:                   Sir Thomas Fairfax

2^nd-in-Command:      Maj.Gen* Sir William Brereton

Horse:

Sir Wm Brereton’s Cheshire Horse

Sir Wm Fairfax’s Regt (Yorkshire)

Col. John Lambert’s Regt (Yorkshire)

Maj. Thomas Morgan’s Dragoons (Wales)

Foot:

Col. John Booth’s Regt (Cheshire)

Col. Richard Holland’s Regt (Manchester)

Col. Sir Wm. Brereton’s Regt (Cheshire)

Col. Henry Mainwaring’s Regt (Cheshire)

Col. Alexander Rigby’s Regt (Lancashire)

Col. Ralph Assheton’s Regt (Lancashire)

800 musketeers from Nantwich Garrison (r)

Artillery:

Some medium sakers

Some light pieces

[Units marked (v) are of Veteran status, those marked (r) are Raw – everyone else is Trained by default. Unless otherwise stated, Foot regiments are about 650 strong, and in each of them approximately one third are armed with pikes and the rest with muskets. Horse and Dragoon units are about 400 strong. All Royalist Horse are of “Galloper” type (i.e. they employ the Swedish-style tactics adopted by Prince Rupert), though none of those present are classified as Rash. The Parliament Horse are all “Trotters” (i.e. they use the more conservative Dutch-style tactics).]

Background – Cheshire 1643-44:

Lord Byron

In late 1643, John, 1^st Lord Byron marched from Chester with a Royalist army which contained a high proportion of excellent, veteran troops who had previously served in Ireland. His objective was to gain control of the troublesome eastern portion of Cheshire for the King. Initially things went well; Beeston Castle was taken, and a close but significant victory was gained over the army of the chief Parliamentarian leader in the county, Sir William Brereton., near Middlewich. The main result of Middlewich was that Brereton became convinced that he could not stand up to the Royalist army in open battle. Byron now set about attacking the town of Nantwich, which was the last remaining Parliament-held place of any size in the county, having an important bridge over the River Weaver. On the way there he was involved in the infamous massacre at Barthomley Church, on Christmas Day 1643, where a number of surrendering Parliamentary troops were shot out of hand after they had (reportedly) been offered quarter. Byron was unrepentant, but the incident backfired on him, in that it increased Parliament’s resolve to counterattack.

Sir Thomas Fairfax

Sir Thomas Fairfax was sent from Lincolnshire with a sizeable force of good Yorkshire cavalry, joining with Brereton around Manchester, and their combined army set off to deal with Byron.

Byron’s attack on Nantwich was beaten off with heavy loss, but the town was besieged.  Instead of approaching Nantwich from the East, from Middlewich, Fairfax surprised Byron by approaching from the North, through Delamere Forest, and thus on the west side of the Weaver. Byron had only a few troops on this bank of the river, and therefore had to move his men over the river to face the threat. This is the point at which our action today commences.

Scenario – the Battle of Nantwich:

The Parliamentarian baseline is the top (North) edge of the picture. Each hex on the table is about 150 paces across.

It is a cold, grey day. A recent thaw has melted most of what snow there has been, but the ground is generally very muddy. This is a flat, agricultural area with few hills and little woodland.

The stone bridge at Beam Bridge was destroyed a while ago by the Nantwich garrison, and the Royalists’ temporary pontoon bridge there has been wrecked by the swollen River Weaver, so Lord Byron has had a lot of trouble getting the second part of his available forces (including all of his horse) on to the West side of the river to meet Fairfax’s approaching army.

By midday, he has the foot units of Gibson, Warren and Earnley and all his artillery (a large battery of medium guns plus a small light unit) in position at Acton church, but the regiments of Robert Byron and Tyldesley and all his cavalry are coming up in the rear as best they can, having spent the morning marching some miles upstream to Shrewbridge to cross the river and then marching back towards Acton.

Fairfax has arrived by the Chester Road, approaching over the low wooded ridge on the north side of the field. He hasn’t come very far (his men camped last night at Tilstone Heath, about 8 miles away) , but the roads are in poor shape, so they are puffing a bit. The roads marked on the battlefield have no functional role in the game beyond helping to make sense of the geography – the rules give no movement bonus on roads.

The river is unfordable throughout. The areas of Welsh Row, Acton Church, Darfold Hall and Henhull (farm) are all classed as built up areas/villages for the purposes of the rules – i.e. troops occupying them are assumed to be able to make use of the walls and buildings to provide defensive cover and firing positions. A feature of the battlefield which is mentioned in all accounts of the fighting is the hedged enclosures (farm fields), which made things difficult for the cavalry. In this game, such enclosures are treated similarly to woods – all mounted troops entering a field must stop on arrival, and may defend it as though it were a wood (though a field will not obstruct line-of-sight, so that artillery may fire over a field). Units of horse leaving a field/enclosure must stop immediately afterwards to reform, unless they are carrying out a Retire & Reform manoeuvre. Thus cavalry are handicapped in the enclosures in a manner which should correspond to the historical situation.

Parliament have first move throughout. Parliament receive 6 command cards, Royalists 5 – to reflect the disorganisation in Byron’s army and (to a lesser extent) Fairfax’s greater leadership ability. “Victory Banner” counters will be awarded on elimination of units and leaders as normal, but there is a special additional VB counter available to the Royalists while/if they hold the Welsh Row position.

7 VBs wins the day for either side.

Initial set-up:

Parliament – Nantwich garrison are in Welsh Row at the outset. They have to remain there until the fighting starts. Once firing has commenced in the central area, a throw of 6 on a normal die (throw at the start of each turn) will allow them to decide (subject to subsequent suitable Command cards!) to sally out to join the main action. Note that these troops are classed as Raw.

The remainder of Fairfax’s army must be placed in the Centre section of the table, within 2 hexes of their own baseline. Artillery must initially be placed behind another friendly unit – they were held up by the soft ground. Leaders may be attached to combat units as they arrive.

Royalists – Huncke’s musketeers may be placed 2 hexes distant from Welsh Row. The artillery (one unit of 2 medium guns, one of a single light gun) and the foot units of Earnley, Warren and Gibson may be placed on, or within 1 hex of, the 3-hex hill at Acton Church – Richard Gibson himself may be attached to any of these units.

The remainder, with Byron, must be deployed south of the roads near the Royalist baseline, and no nearer than 3 hexes to Nantwich.

Notes:

Artillery: Bear in mind that a single-gun battery is unable to cause loss to troops in buildings or cover – the larger battery has a chance of doing this. Artillery is also very vulnerable in melees.