Return To Ambridge

I realised the other day that it's been a couple of years or more since I played a game using my Portable ECW Rules, and thought that I'd better give them another outing. Rules get lonely if you don't play them.

I was inspired a little by a post on the Portable Wargames Facebook Group in which someone had played a game and added in a small tweak whereby a unit had to spend a movement point to turn. This mad flanking moves slightly harder to achieve, something that I've been wanting to so for a while without a satisfactory solution. I wanted to give the change a try, and also look at not having retreats when flanked be impossible. On, and I also added in co-located artillery.

I set up a scenario I played for fictional The Battle of Ambridge, but fiddled with the army lists a little.

On the left is Parliament:

1 x Commander
1 x Experienced Dragoons
1 x Experienced Horse
3 x Raw Foot (one of which is Shot only)
3 x Experienced Foot
1 x Artillery
10 Command Dice, Breakpoint 15

On the right are the Royalists:

1 x Commander
1 x Elite Horse
1 x Experienced Horse
4 x Raw Foot
1 x Elite Foot
1 x Artillery
9 Command Dice, Breakpoint 14

The Royalists are trying to clear the road; there should be no Parliamentarian units on it or within one square of it by the end of the game.

I randomised the starting positions of each side by a clever mechanism called Making It Up As I Went Along. The Royalist horse was split between the two flanks. Parliament's horse and dragoons were on the Ambridge side of the river (which is impassable except at the bridge).

The Royalist horse on their left attacked, but was driven back by Parliament's foot.

Action all along the line, from behind the Royalist advance. On the right the Royalist horse was attacking its Parliamentarian opposite numbers with some success, whilst their foot was engaged with dragoons in the hedgerows.

The infantry got to grips in the centre.

The Royalist horse on their left was first to break.

The Royalists reorganised their line to bring up some reserve foot, as the infantry shoved back and forth. 

Destroying their opposite numbers, the elite Royalist horse turned on some Parliamentarian horse and drove them back to the river.

The Royalist commander was wounded, which would slow their attack, but it was offset by Parliament suffering a couple of random event induced turns where they had some command paralysis.

The Royalist attack was faltering now though as they lost another unit. Parliament's hold on the road was still strong.

At least I got to use the flanking move changes, as Parliament turned the Royalist line. 

Despite the Royalist losses in terms of units, Parliament reached their breakpoint first. The Royalists had spread casualties across the enemy force even if only one unit had broken. However the Parliamentarian morale held.

The Royalists reached their breakpoint and also passed their morale test. But their numbers were dwindling and time was running out (I set a limit of ten turns).

The battle ended with Parliament still in control of the road and the Royalists looking pretty shaken.

With hindsight the forces were too even (indeed Parliament's force may have been stronger). The Royalists certainly had a tough task ahead of them. If I did this again I'd downgrade a few of Parliament's units and give the Royalists some more units and boosts. I like the idea of them having a ford on their end of the river as well, so that they can consider swapping units from one side to the other.

It was fun to get these rules out again after such a long break.