This weeks game saw us use my dads recently rebased 15mm ECW armies using Pike and Shotte rules. I decided to be a royalist and picked a army consisting of 4 brigades, two of these were cavalry brigades and two infantry, one of the infantry brigades was led by Hopton which made the pikemen stubborn and tough fighters. My dads parliament army was a mirror image of mine with Cromwell leading a cavalry brigade which included two regiments of Ironsides. Our troops were deployed using maps although we both opted for a classic deployment of infantry in the centre and cavalry on both flanks. My aim was to sweep both cavalry brigades away with my cavalry while Hoptons brigade was to engage the parliament centre, my second infantry brigade was to hold the flank after advancing in support of Hoptons pike, well command rolls permitting as you never know in pike and Shotte.
The two armies on deployment
Roundhead infantry brigade, I love the purple coats,(Brooke's regiment I think?)one of my favourite units in the army.
My cavalry brigade on the right flank, this was made up of five galloper units. However their attack was to be short lived as they proved to be no match for Cromwell and his Ironsides as they became the first brigade to be broken
I managed to grab the inititive at the start of the game and was able to get Hoptons Cornish brigade (my dad doesn't have the correct regiments for the Cornish brigade so we used what was available) onto the hill in the centre of The table denying the defensive ground to my dad.
My second royalist infantry brigade advanced in support of Hopton and in the cover of the hedge rows and walled field set a strong defensive line. My cavalry on my left flank faired better than my gallopers as they broke the Roundhead cavalry after a couple rounds of combat. Twice my dad failed charge orders with his cavalry when he was in a position to exploit my cavalry and ultimately this led to their downfall.
The first of Hoptons pike get stuck into melle, eventually shaking the Roundhead pike.
After a couple of rounds of rather ineffective muskets fire my dad charged with all of his pike against my second infantry brigade. The overall charge failed and two of the three pike units ended up been repelled and shaken, the difference in morale saves was startling as my dad pretty much failed everyone.
Despite having the hill I decided to charge with another regiment of pike and musket from Hoptons brigade. Eventually I managed to cause enough units to become shaken and broken to break the centre infantry brigade of the Roundheads. The stubborn and tough fighter reroll were to play a big part in this outcome.
After pursuing the broken royalist cavalry, Cromwell leads his cavalry onto the flank of my infantry brigade in one last throw of the dice to break Hoptons brigade as my dads army was very close to losing his final infantry brigade,which would mean the army was broken.
The end is nigh as my dads infantry brigade is one unit from been broken, he desperately tried to rally some morale points off his musket regiments but I was able to keep inflicting the casualties back on to them from my own musket and cannon fire.
Despite my musket regiment heroically withstanding the Ironsides charge for a couple of turns my pike weren't so lucky as a follow me order saw Cromwell lead his Currasiers over three moves smack into the flank of a regiment of Hoptons pike, when these broke I had lost Hoptons brigade as they became broken. I was two brigades down now.
However the game came to a close when a unit of pike became shaken and a musket regiment broke under heavy fire from my musket and cannon fire, breaking my dads final infantry brigade meaning he had lost three of his four brigades and breaking his army.
Victory for the Royalists but it had come at a cost in a hard fought win. It was a excellent game with the Pike and Shotte rules playing out some rather entertaining moments with a few blunder rolls here and there stoping our battle plans in their tracks, and a few rather amazing morale saves from me,no more so than when one of my musket regiment saved all 6 hits when beating my dads charging pike unit! Heroic stuff indeed 😄
up next should see us playing a Blackpowder ACW game using the new supplement warlord games have recently released.
The final positions
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