This as a "What if" version of the battle where Poyntz's New Model Army force is replaced by the Covenanters, purely an excuse to get the Scots on the table really.
On the 13th September 1645, after a long march from the north of England a large mounted Covenant force under Major General David Leslie surprised the small but hitherto undefeated force of the King's Lieutenant in Scotland at Philiphaugh in the Scottish borders. The Marquis of Montrose's forces fought with great valour, but even their elan could not overcome Leslie's superior numbers. Montrose managed to escape with a fraction of his force but was unable to put another army in the field, effectively ending Royalist hopes of holding Scotland. Those that were unable to flee, including many camp followers, mainly from amongst the Irish brigade, surrendered on being granted quarter but were then put to the sword.
A few days later and the Covenant ruling body, the Committee of the Estates, received messengers from London asking for urgent military assistance in besieging Chester, where the King himself was thought to be trapped. Only local forces from the Cheshire Association were available to march to assist the besieging force as the main body of the New Model Army was itself besieging another Royalist force under Prince Rupert in Bristol in the south west of England.
Prominent members of the Committee soon agreed that help should be dispatched at once, the prize of the King himself would be of inestimable value to the Scots faction's demands in dealing with the English Parliamentary faction. The nearest assistance that could be sent was Leslie's cavalry force. Representatives of the Committee, including the dour Marquis of Argyle and the Earl of Leven hurried south and marched with Leslie at a great pace towards Whitchurch, a dozen miles south of Chester. There, early on the 24th September, they would rendezvous with Lieutenant General Michael Jones's force of Cheshire Association troops and march on Chester......
By July 1645 the Civil War in England was definitely not going in the King's favour. The last substantial Royalist field army had met Parliament's New Model Army at Naseby and had been comprehensively defeated. At the beginning of August 1645, Charles left Raglan with some 2,500 men, marching northwards along the Welsh border in the hope of rallying more Royalists to his cause in the north of England and perhaps joining up with then dominant forces of his Lieutenant in Scotland, the Marquis of Montrose. In the meantime however, Prince Rupert had been forced to surrender Bristol, leaving Chester as the only port still held by the Royalists where it would be possible to land the reinforcements that Charles was awaiting from Ireland, which he hoped could save him from ultimate defeat.
Early on 20 September 1645, a New Model Army force led by Colonel Grey, began a fresh assault on Chester. The King sent a messenger to the Governor of Chester, Lord John Byron, promising help within 24 hours, and set out to his assistance. The Royalist plan was two-fold, and in the event too complicated. The King aimed both to stiffen the resistance of the garrison and, if possible, trap the besiegers (about 500 Horse and 1,500 Foot) in the suburbs before they could retreat to their fortified forward base at Tarvin.
Charles had in all about 3,000 Horse at his disposal. They consisted of his own Lifeguard (about 200 men), the Northern Horse under Sir Marmaduke Langdale (1,500) Lord Gerrard's Brigade, mainly troops from South Wales and the Border (700), and Sir William Vaughan's Brigade, including some units which had fought at Naseby (700). The King's brigade commanders were all experienced and capable officers, and many of their men had considerable combat experience, but all regiments
were understrength. Morale tended to be brittle, and there was a good deal of ill-feeling between the Royalist generals. The lack of Foot was also to prove a serious disadvantage.
In order to carry out his objective the King divided his forces. He, and his Lieutenant General of Horse, Lord Gerard, with their Lifeguards and Herbert Price's Regiment (about 500 men in all) rode up the east bank of the River Dee and into Chester, in order to organise a sortie with the aid of the garrison, and take the besiegers, whom they expected to retreat, in the rear. Meanwhile the bulk of the Horse, about 2,500 under Major General Langdale were to cross the Dee at Holt Bridge, march across country and then swing north-west along the main Whitchurch-Chester road and take the besiegers in flank as they attempted to withdraw.
By dawn on the 24th, the first stage of their march completed, Langdale's men were snatching some much-needed rest on Milner's Heath, about 5 miles south east of Chester while they awaited the Parliamentary relief force that was rumoured to be marching north....
The initial set up, Covenanters closest to the camera - Note the infamous NZ pom poms marking dash (green) and ammo (grey) for each unit. We played on Paul's kitchen table so the grid was a bit tighter than the supposed 6 x 4 table. My plan was to use the commanded musketeers to shoot in my Horse against the superior Royalist Horse, but this had mixed results....
(https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4850/46494727622_fc9b02baf8_c.jpg)
As the attackers the Covenanters, with the Cheshire Association troops on the left wing, advanced and soon met the Royalists. Captain Daniels' commanded musketeers open fire......and miss >:(
(https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4871/44729181700_0124f799fa_c.jpg)
The Royalist reserve deploys to its left and charges the Musketeers and MG Middleton's Horse...the foot holds, taking a single hit, but Middleton's men not able to match the veteran Royalist horse and take two hits, destroying them. MG Middleton rides off unharmed to join Balcarres' Horse while the Royalist cavalry goes into pursuit mode (yellow pom pom).
(https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4906/44729180880_2c4e568fa3_c.jpg)
On the Royalist right things are not going well for my Cheshire lads, with the commanded musketeers and Col Jones's Horse both swept aside by the Royalist Horse (two more units with yelow pompoms). My reserve of two small lifeguard units moves up to plug the gap.
(https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7899/44729179720_950fc9b85f_c.jpg)
Later on the Royalist left MG Middleton leads the Earl of Balcarres' Horse against the pursuing Royalists and in turn manages to destroy them :o, while the musketeers continue their own fight besside them, (probably wishing they hadn't left their pike armed mates behind...)
(https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7803/46546755811_8f55dda50e_c.jpg)
However in the middle things are not going well for the Covenanters, As I try to flank the pursuing units the royalist reserve hovers in the background. I manage to kill one of the pursuing units but in turn my units are flanked, giving the pursuers 2 x chits which destroys both my units.
(https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4842/45633257785_1f7866d05b_c.jpg)
Finally on the Royalist right my Dutch style cuirassiers fire in the Royalists before them, lots of smoke but not much else happens. In the background you can see the large cavalry melee going on.
(https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4849/45633255015_b4537cd6dd_c.jpg)
So at the end of the game an 11 - 4 victory to the Royalists, and the King escapes capture...for now.
Hope you enjoyed that.....I probably should have been a bit more conservative with my musketeer's deployment but it did get the Scots on the table which was one of my aims for putting this together.
Looks like a cracking game! :-bd Enjoyed the background to it as well.
Out of interest, how do you do your hedges? Will be needing to start making a load myself soon and yours look the part.
Cool game.
Nicely written up and presented game. It really is nice to see those figures in action.
Great stuff.
Cheers - Phil
Great to see these units in action, plus some great background info on the lead up to the battle :).
Pierre has been very generous, the Royalists only managed to destroy one of his flanked units and victory was snatched by an already blown unit of Royalist horse that managed to draw high cards #:-S
The Royalists were about to run out of troops as over half were either lost of charging off in pursuit :-SS
If I had not managed to destroy two units that turn the battle would have slipped away from me X_X
I'll post some more pictures and a few more comments once I get a chance to post-process them :!!
Thanks again Pierre for an interesting, challenging and fun game :) :) :)
Quote from: mmcv on 01 January 2019, 12:53:28 AM
Looks like a cracking game! :-bd Enjoyed the background to it as well.
Out of interest, how do you do your hedges? Will be needing to start making a load myself soon and yours look the part.
I use 'ice block sticks' for the base. As I normally use a 15cm grid I cut two down to 10cm and another into two 4.5cm lengths. Gluing these together gives a double thickness stick 14.5cm long. I roughly bevel the top edge and paint.
I then glue on clump foliage (Woodland Scenics Light Green), soak in dilute PVA and then highlight (Vallejo 806 German Yellow). Then they get flocked and varnished.
I've added paths or gates to a few to add variety.
This one is reasonably local to me. I have had a few beers in a pub which was used as a mortuary after the battle.
Cheerful atmosphere then?
Yes, no it aint 'aunted
Quote from: paulr on 01 January 2019, 09:00:58 AM
I use 'ice block sticks' for the base. As I normally use a 15cm grid I cut two down to 10cm and another into two 4.5cm lengths. Gluing these together gives a double thickness stick 14.5cm long. I roughly bevel the top edge and paint.
I then glue on clump foliage (Woodland Scenics Light Green), soak in dilute PVA and then highlight (Vallejo 806 German Yellow). Then they get flocked and varnished.
I've added paths or gates to a few to add variety.
Thanks for the tips!
:-bd :-bd :-bd
Really enjoyed your narrative Pierre and the creative historical twist!
Nice battle set-up as well.
Incidently have you looked at Fyvie (1644)? A good deal of scope for playing with history AND a chance to use Argyll’s Lifeguard Again)!
Quote from: paulr on 01 January 2019, 09:00:58 AM
Pierre has been very generous, the Royalists only managed to destroy one of his flanked units and victory was snatched by an already blown unit of Royalist horse that managed to draw high cards #:-S
Well as one discovers through researching these battles the sources do not always agree exactly on what happened.... it was was 300+ years ago after all ;)
I have not looked at Fyvie closely DGuy but it seems pretty indeterminate as to who turned up and where exactly the battle was? I'd need to wait a while for that one as I won't have any more Scots finished till mid 2019, but I will look at the scenario that you have on your blog.
Overall I was pleased about how the scenario ran, (except purhaps for the outcome :-[ ) Next time the Covenanters appear hopefully they will be confronting the forces of the King's Lieutenant in Scotland......but first we have "a bit of a dust up" between Waller, Forth and Hopton south of the border to play out.
Great table and figures! What rules have you used?
Quote from: Edmund2011 on 02 January 2019, 12:53:12 PM
Great table and figures! What rules have you used?
Thanks. We use For King and Parliament rules and find they work really well for the period.
A good looking game, its good to see how some fairly simple terrain can look very effective, and as the others have said, great to see these figures on the table.
Quote from: pierre the shy on 02 January 2019, 05:36:15 PM
We use For King and Parliament rules and find they work really well for the period.
We really like the FKaP rules too!
Are the lifeguard units, the ones with 2 bases of figures, with 4 blanks on the big sabots? Can I ask why you have chosen to base them this way?
Yes Fred the Lifeguard are on the large sabots
I've based my cuirassiers similarly but with four stands of figures with smaller blanks at the side
They are double depth as they fight as Dutch Horse and we use double depth to differentiate between Swedish and Dutch
We reserve narrower sabots (2 bases wide) for Dragoons, Forlorn Hope and Artillery that get a save for being small targets when shot at
I've post processed the first of my photos, some overview shots of the game
(https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4848/46574763491_2e694ef2a6_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2dXDQxD)
Initial deployment, note that due to the grid being smaller than the sabots (due to us playing on my kitchen table) some troops had to be placed in the back of the grid rather than the front
Pierre the Shy added a couple of extra Victory Coins as objectives for the Covenanters at the end of the table nearest Chester, if the captured both of these they won :-SS
(https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7926/44756760160_9828ed9193_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2bc16uC)
The Covenanters advance is slowed by some early 1s
(https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7833/46574763031_a516437c83_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2dXDQpH)
The Royalists respond by advancing Lord Gerrard's Brigade of Horse on their left, but are otherwise restrained
(https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7848/44756759900_20f42e1efe_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2bc16q9)
The Covenanters continue their general advance and the battle is opened by a volley from Major General David Leslie's Cheshire Commanded Shot
(https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4867/46574762511_bfa1ced1cf_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2dXDQfK)
The Royalist loose their three forward brigades with mixed results:
- On the left Lord Charles Gerrard's Combined Regiment sweeps away one of Major General John Middleton's regiments of Scottish Horse, Major General David Leslie's Cheshire Commanded Shot prove to be sterner stuff
- In the centre Sir William Blakiston's Northumberland Horse are destroyed by the fire from the Lord Kirkudbright's Scottish Horse and their attached Shot, his Durham Horse engage in a swirling melee with MG David Leslie's Scottish Horse
- On the right Major General Sir Marmaduke Langdale's Yorkshire Horse ride down a unit of Cheshire Commanded Shot and a regiment of Cheshire Horse
(https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4906/45660475175_65ba98f614_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2cyRStZ)
The Covenanters counter attack:
- One of Major General John Middleton's regiments of Scottish Horse destroyed Lord Charles Gerrard's Combined Regiment or their extreme right
- In the centre both Major General David Leslie and Lieutenant General Michael Jones get a regiment of Horse onto the flank of Major General Sir Marmaduke Langdale's two victorious regiments, both Royalist regiments survive :o
- On their left the fire from the Earl of Leven and Duke of Argyll's Dutch Cuirassiers is ineffective
(https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4907/46574761981_b69d60a8e2_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2dXDQ6B)
The stage is set for the Royalist reserve, the two regiments of Sir William Vaughan's Brigade of Horse crash into the flanks of the Covenanter and Cheshire Horse
The Cheshire Horse are battered but hold :o
The fate of the day now rests with Sir William Blakiston's blown Durham Horse, they charge a fresh unit of Scottish Horse from Major General John Middleton's Brigade of Horse who break and flee before them #:-S
The Royalist had won in the nick of time, several units were about to gallop off towards Whitchurch and the remaining units were all nearly blown
I'll post some action shots when I get a chance to post process them
Thanks for all these photos Paul, they look fabulous! Really delighted you enjoy
the rules, Simon and I had a blast writing and playtesting them, and it is a real boost to see others sharing our enthusiaam! Cheers.
Welcome back from Rome :)
Thank you and Simon for all the effort that has gone into the rules, they give a great game with so much period feel
This was the first time we used Scottish Horse and they fight very differently from other Horse
Quote from: paulr on 02 January 2019, 07:32:26 PM
Yes Fred the Lifeguard are on the large sabots
I've based my cuirassiers similarly but with four stands of figures with smaller blanks at the side
They are double depth as they fight as Dutch Horse and we use double depth to differentiate between Swedish and Dutch
We reserve narrower sabots (2 bases wide) for Dragoons, Forlorn Hope and Artillery that get a save for being small targets when shot at
Interesting. We've gone for 1 40x40mm base per wound of a unit. So our Dutch horse are 3 bases wide, and the Swedish 2 bases wide. But I can see the that going for deeper units would work too.
Our foot battalia are 3 bases wide (120mm), and as with you we have gone for narrower (80mm width) for dragoons, FH and artillery.
The beauty of FKaP is that the basing isn't that important to the game play, its far more about the aesthetic of how you want the units to look, rather than being critical to the functioning of the rules.
Quote from: paulr on 02 January 2019, 08:31:05 PM
Welcome back from Rome :)
Thank you and Simon for all the effort that has gone into the rules, they give a great game with so much period feel
This was the first time we used Scottish Horse and they fight very differently from other Horse
p
Thanks Paul, Rome was brilliant, thoroughly recommended for the Christmas break. Just discovered this podcast from November of some American guys experience with FK&P. It is, of course, positive, or I would not have posted it! :D :D :D ;D ;D. For those interested, It is at Episode 9 at https://hobbyknockout.podbean.com I can assure readers, that no money has changed hands!
Fred, the flexibility is one of the many strengths :)
The above scenario was designed for a 6'x4' table but fitted fairly easily onto my 5'x3' kitchen table by squeezing the grid to 13x12cm
Mollinary, I would love to make it to Rome, at anytime of year ;)
I'll have a listen to the podcast at some point, I'm yet to hear of anyone who has actually played and not enjoyed it
I've heard of a few who haven't played it that point at things like grids...
Quote from: fred. on 02 January 2019, 09:45:33 PM
Interesting. We've gone for 1 40x40mm base per wound of a unit. So our Dutch horse are 3 bases wide, and the Swedish 2 bases wide. But I can see the that going for deeper units would work too.
Our foot battalia are 3 bases wide (120mm), and as with you we have gone for narrower (80mm width) for dragoons, FH and artillery.
The beauty of FKaP is that the basing isn't that important to the game play, its far more about the aesthetic of how you want the units to look, rather than being critical to the functioning of the rules.
Yes I would agree 100% with that last sentence. Our logic was, as Paul has said, that the Curiassier fight in deep Dutch style so we went with 2 ranks. Even small bodyguard units take up one grid square width so we went for a full sized base for them, even if the actual strength of the Scots bodyguard units were only one or two troops....okay they are largely conjectural but who am I to argue with Stuart Reid and the BCW Regimental Wiki?
Really glad that I pursued my quest to find a really playable set of ECW rules that our regular gaming group would enjoy and found FK&P....Paul R has certainly embraced them with his Cheriton project too :)
Now I just need to ween them onto TTS as well.....yes Paul I did buy a copy at the same time as FK&P ;)
I'd a proper read through of FK&P last night there. Actually helped clear up some things I'd not been sure on in my TtS! playthrough as well. Really like the persuit mechanic, it's something I felt lacking from other rules in the period I'd encountered and had been trying to come up with ways to model the behaviour in them, as it's so core to the outcome of the battles. Extra motivation to get enough of the project done to get something on the table!
Looks good
Take care
Andy
Quote from: pierre the shy on 02 January 2019, 05:36:15 PM
Thanks. We use For King and Parliament rules and find they work really well for the period.
I didn't know about them and after reading your report and some reviews of the game in internet I must admit I am interested!! :'(
I am in a point where my free time for miantures and wargaming is really minimum so I decided to get stick to the current minis and rulesets I have, and I said the "magical words": 'I am not buying any more rulesets' ... but you know what happens next!... ;D)
FKaP reminds me Philip Sabin's "Strategos" (game that I played briefly) and (according to the internet reviews) Warmaster (the only wargame I play more or less often and that I really like).
What attracts me is the grid zone for playing instead of moving X inches each unit, as that it seems really fast and easy to play.
Also it seems it is a ruleset I can use to play games with my 10mm figures and besides games with my 1/72 figures as basing is irrelevant. Is that correct??
Another good indication for me is that it has good feedback/response by the people of Pendraken forum (not joking here). ;)
Quote from: Edmund2011 on 04 January 2019, 01:17:19 AM
Also it seems it is a ruleset I can use to play games with my 10mm figures and besides games with my 1/72 figures as basing is irrelevant. Is that correct??
Yes, almost any basing (and scale) should work with FK&P. The only limiting factor is the size of the grid box. It needs to be able to hold two units (one behind the other). I use 10mm figures with 4" grid boxes, each unit is on a 3" X 2" stand. Obviously you can adjust the grid to meet your needs.
Excellent !! :)
(Though my sleepy eyes 'misread' the Marmadukes as Marmalade to start with.... :-[ :-[ :-[)
Cheers - Phil.
Edmund, definitely a fast play set of rules, but also gives a very good period feel and a lot of tactical subtlety :)
They work with any scale and basing as d_Guy says
Quote from: mollinary on 02 January 2019, 10:03:51 PM
...Just discovered this podcast from November of some American guys experience with FK&P. It is, of course, positive, or I would not have posted it! :D :D :D ;D ;D. For those interested, It is at Episode 9 at https://hobbyknockout.podbean.com I can assure readers, that no money has changed hands!
I had a chance to listen to the podcast and it is good to hear someone as enthusiastic about the rules as I am ;) :)
The quote that sums it up for me is, "after the first couple of turns you are thinking like a general" :) :) :)
Quote from: Edmund2011 on 04 January 2019, 01:17:19 AM
Also it seems it is a ruleset I can use to play games with my 10mm figures and besides games with my 1/72 figures as basing is irrelevant. Is that correct??;)
Yes, the advantage of the grid is it is easy to translate into any scale of figures without having to change move distances, ranges, or anything in the rules themselves! All you do is change the grid size. During playtesting I played the same battle with 6mm, 10mm and 28mm figures, and I know many others used/use 15mm. Indeed, at a couple of shows we put on a 6mm and 28mm version of the same game side by side, and a 10mm and 28mm side by side.
Thanks for your answers.!
It's the kind of game I could be internested, being able to use the same game for different scales and basings just changing the grid.
Now I'm also tempeted by TTS ;)
Quote from: Edmund2011 on 07 January 2019, 12:45:52 AM
Now I'm also tempted by TTS ;)
After our latest game of DBMM so am I.
My wargaming time is too short to waste playing rules that I find are annoyingly frustrating.....don't need to have to look in several different sections to find the answer to a reasonably straightforward question....the different outcomes depending on weither in your turn or your opponents, if you are (S) (F) or (O) etc drives me to despair ~X(
Going to base the Burgundians I have for TTS grid rather than to DBMM sizes :d :ar! ;)
Quote from: pierre the shy on 07 January 2019, 07:48:47 AM
......don't need to have to look in several different sections to find the answer to a reasonably straightforward question....
And still get it wrong #-o :-[ :-[ :-[ :-[ :-[
Quote from: mad lemmey on 01 January 2019, 10:50:29 AM
Cheerful atmosphere then?
The sign above the door says "Wines......and Spirits" :o
Quote from: pierre the shy on 07 January 2019, 07:48:47 AM
After our latest game of DBMM so am I.
My wargaming time is too short to waste playing rules that I find are annoyingly frustrating.....don't need to have to look in several different sections to find the answer to a reasonably straightforward question....the different outcomes depending on weither in your turn or your opponents, if you are (S) (F) or (O) etc drives me to despair ~X(
Going to base the Burgundians I have for TTS grid rather than to DBMM sizes :d :ar! ;)
The main reason I now play most of the games I do. The rule systems coming from the likes of Chris Pringle, Neil Thomas, Sam Mustafa, Greg Wagman, Keith Flint, Simon Miller and so on give challenging yet playable games, with rulebooks that are easy to navigate. Even Bruce Weigle revised and smoothed out his rules, as presented in 1871, making them much more playable. Finally, although Black Powder can be a tricky rulebook to navigate, the actual rule mechanics are pretty straightforward and give an enjoyable game. I hope that the days of wargames rules devised for those with a degree in law and a very narrow perspective are long gone.