This is a report on the first of three For King & Parliament refights of the battle of Cheriton, 29 March 1644, at the New Zealand National Wargames Convention on Kapiti during Easter 2019.

About 10 players were involved over the 3 days with 7-8 playing in each game.

The Parliamentary plan was to demonstrate on their right while pushing forward in the centre and left with their larger numbers of pike and horse

The Royalist plan appeared to align with the Earl of Forth's historic plan, defending the hedges on the forward slope of Cheriton ridge and awaiting developments

On Parliament's right Balfour's Brigade of Horse demonstrates against two Royalist Brigades of Horse as long range fire is opened by the Foot in the centre



In the centre Potley's Parliamentary Brigade of Foot exchanges long range fire with two brigades of Royalist Foot.
Colonel Ralph Weldon's raw Regiment of Foot has been badly disordered by the lead regiment of Stawell's Royalist Brigade of Horse but aided by the fire of the adjacent battalia has managed to disperse the Horse



On the Parliamentary left Hesilrigge's Brigade of Horse has advanced boldly with part of Hesilrigge's Regiment of Horse having charged and broken one of Lisle's units of Commanded Shot
Livesey's Brigade, led by Waller's Dragoons move forward to capture Yew Farm, the Dragoons stalled for several turns



In the centre part of Paulet's Royalist 'Tertias' of Foot press forward in support of the charge by the second regiment of Stawell's Brigade of Horse
Browne's raw Parliamentary London Brigade of Foot catches up with their more seasoned comrades



With Waller's Dragoons in Yew Farm and some of the Horse of Livesey's Brigade across the bridge Howard's Royalist Brigade of Horse is under pressure
The part of Hesilrigge's Regiment of Horse that had broken into the Royalist lines was fired at by Eure's Dragoons and charged in the flank by one of Howard's Regiments of Horse and destroyed



A view from a balcony overlooking our game, both sides are closely engaged from Yew Farm to the centre of Cheriton ridge
The Horse on the eastern flank appear content to face off
In Cheriton Wood Leighton's Parliamentary Brigade defends the rear section of the wood and Appleyard's Brigade has slowly advanced to face them across one of the areas of open grazing



Dramatic events in Cheriton Wood, Colonel George Thompson's London Regiment of Horse from Leighton's Parliamentary Brigade has charged the artillery attached to Appleyard's Brigade catching them limbered and putting the gunners to flight
Lieutenant Colonel Edward Hopton's Shot has turned and fired into the horse's flank disordering them, but too late to save the guns



With casualties mounting on the Parliamentary left, both sides Foot becoming disordered and one battalia broken in the centre Sir William Waller called upon Sir William Balfour's Brigade of Horse to advance and engage the enemy



The Queen's & Neville's Regiments of Horse destroyed the Parliamentary horse that had crossed the bridge and have set off in a doomed pursuit (yellow marker)
Eure's Dragoons advanced onto the flank of the Parliamentary horse that were threatening the flank of Owen & Lloyd's Shot. They delivered devastating fire destroying the horse



The advance of Balfour's Brigade of Horse was met with a furious charge by Smyth's Royalist Brigade of Horse. Two of Balfour's regiments were destroyed outright and the two victorious regiments set off in pursuit (yellow markers)
In the centre Paulet's 'Tertias' of Foot charges again, one of his battalia breaks isolating and further disordering their comrades



On the left the pursuit by the part of Hesilrigge's Regiment of Horse that destroyed the Royalist Queen's & Neville's Regiments of Horse has been blunted by Howard's Brigade of Horse
The Commanded Shot from the London Yellow Trained Band have managed to catch up with the Horse of Hesilrigge & Livesey's Brigades



In the centre left the Foot and Dragoons of Livesey's Parliamentary Brigade push forward in support of Hesilrigge's Brigade of Horse against the Earl of Forth's Commanded Shot and Dragoons



In the centre the push of pike is reaching its climax Lord Hopton's Regiment of Foot has broken through the Parliamentary line but Sir William Waller is bringing up his own Regiment of Foot to contain the breach.
Astley & Appleyard's Royalist Regiments of Foot have been left isolated by the destruction of Apsley & Paulet's Regiments of Foot



As the end of the game approaches tension mounts and the draw of every chit matters...



Howard's Royalist Brigade of Horse loses a regiment of Horse but in return destroys a regiment of Horse and a unit of Waller's Dragoons in Yew Farm
Paulet's Royalist 'Tertias' of Foot withdraws in the centre to minimise the risk to the disordered battalia
Hesilrigge and Livesey's Parliamentary Brigades maintains the pressure on Lisle's Tertia of Foot desperately seeking victory points to close the gap on the Royalists



Sir William Balfour's Brigade of Horse attempt to save the day for Parliament has turned to disaster
He and his regiment are in wild pursuit towards Alresford and his other surviving unit, the Independent Dragoon companies, is frantically trying to avoid the rampaging Royalist Horse



Smyth's Brigade of Horse turns the flank of the Parliamentary centre, Balfour's Independent Dragoon companies desperate charge disorders but fails to stop the Royalist Horse
Paulet's 'Tertias' of Foot has managed to collect their battalia into the beginnings of a coherent line



The loss of a unit of London Yellow Trained Band Commanded Shot and the last regiment of Horse from Livesey's Brigade combined with a regiment of Horse from Hesilrigge's Brigade of Horse removes the last Parliamentary Victory points ending the game



Parliament lost all 35 of their victory points
The Royalists had 8 of their 32 remaining giving them a close victory

A great time was had by all the players and the result could, with a few different chits, easily have been reversed

Wow!! Must have been very gratifying to see your labours make it to table and what a sight!! Superb looking game, absolutely brilliant.

Whew!

Spectacular!

All of the above.

Thanks for sharing, Paul. 

Cheers - Phil

Great 'photos of a simply wonderful looking game . Well done to all involved .

Fabulous report, well done

That's a fabulous game. 

Beautiful work, sir, beautiful work.

Superb looking game and a great AAR!

Well done to all involved.

Exceptional.   Something that I want to aspire to for the TYW - great inspiration.

Richard

Great report, great looking table. I particularly like the view from the "airship" so we could see the location of Cheriton Wood. Congrats on a very successful show.

That looks an absolutely cracking setup and game!

Loads of great photos there! Good report. Glad it all came together on the day. 

Very impressive looking game!!!!

Terry

Fantastic looking game Paul, the players do look very involved, which often isn't the case on shots of wargames.

Thanks for taking the time to caption all the photos, it really makes it a lot easier to understand what is going on (particularly for ECW were there are no handy uniforms to spot one side from the other).

Did you play 3 separate re-fights of the battle, over the weekend, or was it one epic battle?

3 separate refights one on each day

There was a changing mix of players on each day with most repeat players taking on different commands. On the third day most repeat players changed sides

The games played fairly quickly

• Friday     10 - 4:35
• Saturday 10 - 3:15
• Sunday   10 - 3

with about 30 minutes off for lunch, all the players were keen to get back into it

I hope to get the next two reports done in the next few days

Cool, a great effort to run it 3 times over.

And really good that the players wanted to play again.

If you are able to share the scenario that would be great, Cheriton was one of the battles we fort last year with FKaP - and the scenario I came up with from one of the ecw scenario books was a bit different, although I know I didn't have a lot of table depth to play with, so did drop some stuff. The main difference was the wood, which I had on the right and you seem to have on the back left. I know that maps of ECW battles are quite often matters of interpretation and different authors can come up with very different scenarios based on the limited info available. So it's not about judging one against the other, it's more about having another game to play!

Terrific set up and game report! Thanks for sharing.

Fred, it sounds like you fought your battle on the 'traditional site', mine was fought on the more southerly site as suggested by more recent research

Simon and Andrew provided assistance with the scenario and I'm talking to them about the best way to make it available

That sounds likely, I used one of the partisan press scenario books - which are a good few years old.