Boldon Hill Again

I set up my Boldon Hill game again, but this time I added some enclosures on the Royalist side of the stream. I reasoned that this would induce more of a stalemate on that side of the field.

In addition I adopted a more cautious approach for the Scots; instead of charging their horse straight forward, they brought up some of their foot in support first.

The position after a couple of moves. Both sides had occupied the enclosures as far as possible, and a firefight was happening between them. Inevitably the casualties were light.

The Royalists charged the Scots' guns, but were initially repulsed.

On the far flank a cavalry melee was being fought, but it was far less decisive than in the previous game.

The Royalists finally took the Scottish guns, and unhorsed the Earl of Leven.

Suffering from a lapse of command the Scots' horse fell back on the wing, but the pursuing Royalist horse found themselves facing the infantry reserve.

In the centre the Royalists tried to exploit their advantage. This was a weakness in the Scots' setup; by switching their foot to support the horse they had no reserves to plug any gaps in the enclosures. To be fair neither had the Royalists, but so far the Scots hadn't adopted an aggressive approach in this part of the battlefield.

The Earl of Leven had got himself back into the fight, but was seriously wounded almost immediately by a bold Royalist attack in the centre.

The Royalist cavalry dispersed in the face of solid resistance from the Scottish foot.

The position after nine turns. I'd set the basic limit to eight turns, and from the eighth turn onwards would roll a D6, with a 5+ indicating that night had fallen and both sides would cease fighting.

And night fell at the end of the ninth turn. The Royalists had reached their breakpoint, but hadn't had to test yet, whilst the Scots still had a fair amount of fight left in them. On that basis I called it a draw, but with honours to the Scots.

This felt much more like the accounts of the original battle, with an inconclusive firefight in the hedged areas leading to a draw and one side withdrawing. A little more luck, and a more coordinated push, could have seen the Royalists with the infantry fight, since the Scots left themselves vulnerable without a reserve, but it wasn't to be.