Warre without an enemie!

Well it has taken a couple of years (I do get distracted now and then :) ) , but I have finally been able to put some men on the table for the English Civil War. My fellow NWA'er has taken on the role of the Royalists while I am for Parliament. We had about 5 units ready on each side so we decided to give them a run.

We have several rulesets we are considering including WHECW, 1644, Without Quarter and Very Civille Actions by the Perfect Captain. We had heard good things about civille actions so we gave them ago ably assisted by fellow club member Greg who had actually played the rules once before.

The Parliament forces were 3 regiments of foot, a dragoon unit, cannon and a troop of horse. The Royalist were 2 regiments of foot, 2 troops of horse and a unit of dragoons.

Here are the initial deployments. The terrain has all been scratchbuilt by me.

The Parliament forces formed up with the two larger regiments taking the center and right wing with a further regiment of foot in the rear in reserve. The lone Saker cannon was deployed on the small hill that looked over the village. The Dragoons were over the bridge deployed behind hedges to protect the extreme left flank. The troop of Harquebusiers were on the left wing where the village would not restrict their movement.

The Royalist forces deployed in typical ECW fashion with both regiments of foot in the center with horse on both wings. The Royalist Dragoons took up position opposite the Parliament dragoons.

The battle began with the Royalist dragoons moving to occupy the small copse of trees on their right flank and opened up musket fire on the royalist dragoons behind hedges next to the bridge.

The Parliament cannon spoke loudly but had no effect on the approaching royalist forces. The two opposing lines advanced and the royalist oxford regiment opened up a musketry duel with Colonel Samuel Jones regiment. The green coats got the better of the fight and the Oxford boys clearly did not have the stomach for the fight and turned and ran leaving a gaping hole in the royalist center.

The Parliament commander Sir William Waller sought to exploit the sudden disappearance of the Oxford regiment and swing the green coats onto the other royalist regiment, however the royalist cavalry prevented this action so in a optimistic move the Parliament cavalry charged up hill to attack the Royalist horse.
In the ensuing fight the Parliament horse pushed back the royalist horse but neither side had won the fight.

The Royalist horse on the left flank tried a manuever around the village but were frustrated by Sir Ralph Weldon's red coats who kept them bay with musket fire and the ploughed field prevented the horse from charging home. The other royalist foot moved into the village to force out the red coats.

At this time the Royalists received reinforcements with another Oxford regiment (looking just like the last one *wink*) arriving to plug the gap in the center. Again the green coats fired on the Oxford boys but this time it was the green coats that turned tail and ran!

Sir Arthur Hesselriggs regiment of foot in blue moved forward to plug the Parliament line. The Parliament horse repulse a charge from the Royalist horse with the pistol fire but decided they were too exposed and pulled back to protect the left flank of the Parliament blue coats.

The foot started a musketry duel in the village but neither side gained an advantage.

At this point with the night drawing to a close the two commanders seemed satisfied with their efforts and both forces were withdrawn with the battle honours being shared.

The figures used in the game were Warlord games plastic for all the parliament forces. The Royalist foot were also Warlord Games but the Cavalry were from Renegade Miniatures.

The game was quite enjoyable and moved at a good pace considering we didn't know the rules. Both players were excited by the prospect of future games and will be busily painting to finish off the last of our starter armies.

We received a lot of good comments on the game and several other club members seemed keen to take up the cause for King or Parliament.

Cheers

Neil