Control The River

I set up a quick ECW portable wargame yesterday, based on the OHW Control The River scenario. Each force entered on opposite sides of a river looking to control the two crossing, Parliament from the west (left) and the Royalists from the east (right). Units needed a 5 or 6 to appear and would then appear along either the northern (1-3) or southern (4-6) road. This would mix things up and hopefully create a bit of chaos and imbalance.

Each side had three units of foot, three of horse, one of dragoons and a gun. All counted as trained.

Here's the terrain setup (the terrain items were chosen by me but placed randomly).

The early moves saw all of the action confined to the southern road. Parliament got some horse across the river, but it soon headed north away from the bridge and towards the ford in the face of a large force of Royalist foot and dragoons.

Musketry across the bridge. At this stage neither side felt bold enough to try and force a crossing.

The Royalists held a strong position on their side of the bridge, whilst their horse turned up on the northern road and contested the ford.

A view along the river.

Parliament got across the ford with some horse, and briefly drove the Royalists back.

They also got horse across the bridge. Their aggression was beginning to pay off as Royalist casualties mounted.

The Royalists stabilised things at the ford,.

Parliament got some foot over the bridge, but it was already shaky and firing from dragoons further along the river scattered them.

However more Parliamentarian horse crossed, and routed the dragoons. This forced the Royalists to take an army morale test which they failed. The Royalists fell back.

So a win for Parliament in 12 of thh allotted 15 turns.

I had hoped the randomised entry of troops might make this scenario a little more interesting than it usually is, but once again, despite everything, the battle became a rather static shooting-match, with neither side managing to seize an early advantage at either crossing.