Lostwithiel 1644

It's been a long while since I had my own ECW Portable Wargame out on the table and, inspired by a few posts on Facebook, I decided to rectify that. I had a flick through Charles Wesencraft's 'With Pike and Musket' for an interesting scenario, and came up with the one for the battle at Lostwithiel in September 1644.

I this action, Parliamentarian forces under Essex found themselves outnumbered and outclassed by Royalist troops under the King himself, and almost backed up against the sea. If Essex could hold the town of Lostwithiel then there was a chance that his artillery and foot could be evacuated by sea. But Charles was closing in.

Here's a shot of the setup. Parliament had three units of foot, two of artillery and one of horse. To the north of the town of Lostwithiel was Restormel Castle, which was fortified against attacks from the north. Across the River Fowey were two hills, offering defence against attacks from the east.

The Royalists had considerably more troops. Two units of foot immediately attacked from the north. Coming from the east was the bulk of their army; four more units of foot, three of horse and one artillery

For the purposes of the game I required the Royalists to take Lostwithiel in eight turns, otherwise Essex was considered to have bought enough time for the evacuation. Aside from the attack on the castle in the north, the Royalists had to bring on all of their units via the road from the east, and for the purposes of activations would add two units per turn. The majority of their horse would arrive first, then the foot and finally the remaining horse and the guns. Obviously activation rolls would dictate how many units could actually enter each turn.

As it was the Royalists activations in the first couple of turns were truly bad. Most of their efforts were spent on attacking the castle, since a breakthrough there would put Lostwitheil in immediate danger of being capture. But eventually they got their horse into position as well.

Essex swung his foot around to threaten the road. The Royalist horse suffered from artillery fire, and some of it fell back to regroup.

The Parliamentarian horse went into the attack, just as the bulk of the Royalist foot eventually arrived.

The Royalist foot was attacked in the flank as it advanced down the road, disrupting their advance. The Royalists were obliged to adopt a bold advance because of the time constraints.

Eventually the Royalists broke into the castle, driving off the defending foot. The guns remained, secure in a bastion. But this was the breakthrough the Royalists needed. Their foot was exhausted from the attack though.

With Lostwitheil under threat, Essex withdrew his foot from the hills before the town and headed towards the bridge over the Fowey. His horse was sorely beset by that of the Royalists, but was holding them up if nothing else.

As Essex's troops fell back across the bridge, hotly pressed by Royalists from the east, the troops from the castle attempted to fall upon his rear. But Essex's men held fast, not only holding off the attackers, but breaking them, removing the immediate threat to Lostwithiel, and clearing their retreat as well.

The Royalists continued to press forward, but time was running out.

By now the Parliamentarian force was close to breaking. I classed Lostwithiel as an objective, though, so as long as they held it they would get a bonus on their army morale roll. Essex's men held another attack ...

... and then fell back across the bridge. But to their left the artillery bastion in the castle had finally fallen, and Royalist troops were attacking his flank.

This broke the Parliamentarian army, but it was too late; the Royalists had failed to capture Lostwithiel in time, so despite the Parliamentarian withdrawal being disorderly, they would be able to escape.

The Royalists were unlucky in this game, with very bad activation rolls early on that prevented them from getting enough troops into play to launch a quick attack against Essex. To be honest the scenario could very easily swing in favour of the Royalists; if they get an early success against the castle then they can pretty much take the town unopposed, but to be fair I think having played this through I'd probably deploy Parliament's troops a little better and hold a reserve against that happening.

Anyway, it was an amusing diversion for a Saturday morning, and it was fun to play the Portable Wargame again, even if I did have to look up a surprising number of rules I'd forgotten. 

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