AAR ECW 10mm 8th September 2024

Previous battle

The scenery and  armies were a repeat of the previous battle, new models on the Parliament side were Tony's freshly painted but not yet blooded.

So my turn to field the Royalists, whilst Tony fought for Cromwell & Parliament. 
Essentially Christoph and I wanted to see how differently Tony would play and I hoped I'd learnt from  yesterday experience.

Tony's Parliament Pike, using speed paints

Tony also wanted to force a Pike battle in the game so we imagined there'd been a heavy mist and that as it cleared they armies saw they were positioned just out of musket range.

Setup - the armies' positions.

Royalists (me) on the right Parliament (Tony) on the left.
What was interesting was that we had both split our pike into two commands. My cavalry was set up with 4 units at the top and one with the dragoons at the bottom, so the same as before, Excepting the command shotte was behind the pikes.

Parliament had two commands of pike at the centre with two cavalry the dragoons and 3 supporting shotte at the bottom and two cavalry with the Cuirassiers and one supporting shotte at the top. 

Set up Parliamentarians on the left, Royalists on the right

Turn one

Winning the roll I commanded the top cavalry to charge the opposing cavalry they rode well but not far enough. I advanced one Pike command to the centre of the table the commanded shotte moving to fill an obvious gap between the Pike and the town. Whilst the other Pike command was instructed to go around the town. Maybe their shotte could help in the cavalry fight, I also ensured they were beyond 6" of the Cannons. At the bottom the cavalry advance but the dragoons rode to and entered the woods with the intent of shooting anything. the supporting shotte joining them.

After Royalists' 1st move

Turn one cont.

Honest, I don't hex the table but my opponent's seem to have very bad command rolls. Tony's centre and right flank refused to move. In the shooting phase they disordered a number of the opposing infantry units. 

However his Cavalry at the top charged into mine. 
One unit charged my supported Cuirassiers who shot at them causing a wound and disordering them, whilst the other charged and were counter charged by my cavalry. He then commanded his Cuirassiers to flank the same cavalry unit but got caught out with traversing fire that didn't cause a wound but did disorder them. He also called his Shotte up to support the coming melee.

My Cuirassiers beat of his cavalry that retired shaken and disordered, in fact they were one wound away from shattered.

My flanked cavalry got beaten back, shaken and disordered, the winner's chose a sweeping advance into my supports beat them back again shaken and disordered, The Parliamentary cavalry hadn't even take a wound! However I was just as lucky that mine were still there.

End turn one

Turn two

After the melee.

Under initiative my Cuirassiers charged the shaken and disordered cavalry, whilst their supports wheeled into the flank of the victorious unscathed Parliamentary cavalry, who turned to face. The rest of my command was disordered so did nothing but I did pull the shotte up to help fire as the flank of his Cuirassiers.

The central Pike division  advanced one move leaving disordered elements behind, the commanded shotte blundered and moved one space back, light punishment duties later.

The other Pikes split  one was ordered to continue around the town with shotte in a position to fire into the rear of the Cuirassiers. the other half to the other side of the town filling the gap the commanded shotte should have been in and moving alongside 

The various units in the wood moved to the edges.

In the shooting phase a few of Parliamentary units were disordered but the only items of note was their Cuirassiers, that were disordered as were the right wing cavalry and a medium cannon. Firing small arms at cannon is effective.

The cavalry melee. My Cuirassiers destroyed their opponents but were left shaken so turned to face toward the enemy shotte. Whilst the cavalry destroyed the unit it had charged and swept into the Cuirassiers, who lost the combat and had to fall back; with enemy Pike behind them they were destroyed and my cavalry repositioned near the other cavalry units also shaken, one unit of the brigade remained unshaken. Tony's cavalry had all gone the single attached shotte started to withdraw.

After Royalist's 2nd move

Turn two continued

With the cavalry element disordered Tony chose not to move the division. The bottom of the table was now frozen. The Pike seeing that most of my cavalry was shaken decided to advance challenging mine his right unit charged my disordered unit the next advanced towards the nearest Pike, his third was disordered but the commanded Shotte moved towards my third pike. His last Pike moved behind the Commanded shotte to a position in front of the town to block my Pike and cavalry. 

A lot of shooting disordered one of my Pike blocks.

At last we had a Pike melee, except Tony enjoyed it more than I as i lost the combat and was pushed back, Tony followed up.

End of Turn Two

Turn Three

"Forsooth I am a fool or a poltroon."  - In initiative, I forgot to charge his Pike and then merely straightened the line in the command phase😖 

This partly is because I was being devious and was thinking to far ahead. I commanded my bottom cavalry unit to gallop around the trees and hit the rear of the Pike melee, that should win it! 

At the top I tried to rally a cavalry unit, I rolled a blunder, a 6, followed by a 4, I had to charge this shaken unit towards the nearest enemy, which turned out to be the Pike behind the town. They successfully hedgehog and I stopped 6" away, my relief was palpable. The adjacent Pike lined up with the cavalry unit to fire at the Pike Hedgehog, my commanded shotte managed to reach the town.

In the melee the extra cavalry counted for nothing Tony's dice were turning out 6s as if his life depended on it and I wasn't. I was pushed back again, my cavalry running away from the Pike towards his cannons, not their finest moment.

After Royalist turn three

Turn Three Continued

Emboldened by his successful melee and a plethora of 1s mine and of 6s his Tony decided to run his cavalry around the woods to charge my front they failed to reach me so he positioned his galloper guns to cause pain.

He charged my middle Pike and tried to reach the top Pike but stopped short whilst his commanded shotte went to support the Pike Hedgehog.

Tony's shooting was ineffective however I lost all combats and was pushed back.

End of turn three

Time was against us so it was the last turn.

For me to win I had to recover the cavalry and start harassing the rear but would need a couple of turns to do that. The Pike battles were interesting and I wasn't getting the best of them. So I feel this was a Parliamentary win, rather than a draw and conceded defeat.

Close up of Tony's other units.

Tony's Parliament Shotte, using speed paints

Tony's Parliament Cavalry, using speed paints