Hopton Heath 1643

I set up another scenario from Charles Wesencraft's 'With Pike And Musket' yesterday. I'm aware that his setups are pretty simplistic (and possibly inaccurate) compared to the original battles, but to be honest if I'm just looking for a quick game to throw together they're as good as anything. They have the right vibe, and that's what matters.

I went with Hopton Heath, as this seemed to offer a nice open field to try out the new frontal zone rules with, albeit with an interesting scenario that sees a Royalist force trying to defeat a larger Parliamentarian one arriving on the battlefield piecemeal. Parliament is trying to assemble two forces to crush the Royalists.

I also drew on an adaption of the scenario at Grid-based Wargaming. For my comments on that see later.

Here's the setup. The two rows in the centre of my 8 x 8 grid were a rise from right to left. The Royalists are formed up on the left - one foot, three horse and a gun. Parliament has just brought on two horse, one on each road. The rest of their troops would follow, one unit per turn per road - in addition to the two horse they had a total of four foot and two guns.

The Royalists have to hit the Parliamentarians hard before they can assemble their forces.

The Royalists charged up the ridge.

Early on the Royalist commander was incapacitated, which slowed them down considerably until he was replaced. But he did lead his horse particularly well, seriously damaging one of the opposing foot regiments.

On their right the Royalists did press Parliament right up against their entry-point

On the other flank the horse of both sides battled back and forth.

The Royalist foot took to cover where one of the Parliamentarian units attacked it.

Slowly Parliament forced the Royalists back as their numbers began to tell. Two units of horse wiped each other out.

Parliamentarian foot advanced, driving the enemy horse before it.

Another unit of Royalist horse routed.

And gradually the Royalist foot was ground down by superior numbers. 

The Royalists reached their break-point and their army withdrew. To be honest they didn't stand much of a chance, as Parliament were able to quickly bring their numbers to bear.

I set it up again (unphotographed) using something closer to the setup on Grid-Based Wargaming (see above). With this Parliament has fewer troops - only two horse, two foot and two guns - and only gets one unit per turn, wit their point of entry being dice for. This brings them on more slowly and the Royalists don't have such a large force to take on. This second battle was a lot closer; the Royalists still lost, but took Parliament close to their limit as well, and were able to hit them hard before they could get properly organised. All in all a much more satisfying game.