The Battle of Lower Sitting

From time to time it's fun to play one of the 'classic' wargames scenarios that were in the books that people my age grew up with. The Battle of Sittangbad is, I confess, not one I have much memory of. I know I read 'Charge!' in my youth, but the era it covered wasn't really something I was interested in until relatively recently. However I've seen refights of it over the years I've been blogging, and today idecided to give it a go myself.

I adapted it to the ECW and using my Portable Wargame rules on an 8x8 grid. Parliament holds the village of Lower Sitting and its vital crossing over the River Sitting. Their small force is protected by the village, a redoubt, and an impassable marsh on their right flank. They have a train of supplies they need to get across the river. A group of engineers is attached to the force; they promise that they can blow up the bridge given enough time, thus denying the crossing to the Royalists.

And what of the Royalists? They are advancing in force from the west, and at the start of the day an advanced guard of horse and dragoons already occupies the small hamlet of Upper Sitting.

The Forces

Parliament (Defenders) - 2 x Foot, 2 x Horse, 1 x Artillery, 1 x Dragoons, 1 x Commander, 4 x Supplies.

Royalists (Attackers) - 4 x Foot, 3 x Horse, 2 x Artillery, 1 x Dragoons, 1 x Commander

I used my dice-based initiative system. Parliament can spent up to one activation to move one of their supplies over the bridge to safety. They can also spend up to one activation to place a barrel of gunpowder against the bridge, up to a total of five. Finally they can spend one activation to try and blow up the bridge, rolling a D6 and adding the number of barrels placed. On a score of 6+ the bridge is destroyed. If the attempt fails, remove one barrel from the pile, but an attempt can be made next turn if desired (or more gunpowder can be placed). Supplies cannot be moved if the square of the village closest to the bridge is unoccupied by a Parliamentarian unit, but is also in the front square of a Royalist unit. Any remaining supplies are lost (counting as a lost unit) if the Royalists enter that village square. Gunpowder cannot be placed or detonated if the bridge is in the front square of a Royalist unit.

Parliament can retreat units off the board over the bridge, and these units do not count as lost.

The Royalists win if the bridge is still intact and if they hold the village end of the bridge at the end of ten turns. Parliament wins if, at the end of ten turns the Royalists haven't won and their own army hasn't broken.

Basically Parliament need to get the supplies off the board, rig the bridge for demolition and perform a fighting retreat before blowing up the bridge.

Parliament's forces at the start of the day, in and around the village of Lower Sitting. Beyond them around Upper Sitting, you can see the Royalist advance-guard. The rest of their forces start off-table, but can come on starting on the first turn.

The village of Lower Sitting, and the river.

The Royalists drove in hard on their right flank, attempting to clear and control the South Woods, occupied by dragoons supported by horse.

Their commander fell in the attack, however, but the Royalists kept fighting, their numbers offsetting the loss of leadership.

Parliament's line held firm and Royalist foot advanced on their right. The supplies were slowly withdrawn across the river.

Parliament also held firm around the South Woods, routing a unit of Royalist horse.

Parliament began to pull back units to cover the outskirts of the village and prevent the Royalists outflanking the main defences.

The Royalists pressed forward. They overran Parliament's artillery (which, let's face it, was never really going to get withdrawn)

With the bridge ready to blow, and all of the supplies safe, Parliament's troops made haste through the village and across the bridge to safety. But the Royalists closed up on them quickly, leaving some horse trapped and fighting in the narrow streets, unable to flee for safety over the bridge. So long as they held there was always the option of blowing the bridge, but if the Royalists broke in and gained control of the village then it would all be over.

A desperate fight ensued.

But the horse routed just as Parliament's commander decided that blowing the bridge was his only option. Loss of the horse broke Parliament's forces, and they withdrew without lighting the fuses.

The Royalists won a fairly easy victory, having suffered little in the way of losses. Their artillery never appeared; their desire to press forward quickly meant that there was no room for it in the plan.

"I'll be back!" vows the Parliamentarian commander.

It was quite fun adapting the scenario, even if the village fighting got a little messy rules-wise. One to try again sometime.