ECW Scenario - The battle of Bridgeton

A fictional early English Civil war scenario for you to get your teeth into.  Set in the early part of 1643 somewhere  in the West Midlands close to the Welsh borders.


Situation
The Royalists are preparing for the 1643 campaign season by bringing new recruits from Wales and the Welsh borders into Central England to join the King's main field army.  After reaching the West Midlands they find the route blocked by a well fortified garrison at a significant river crossing.  Marching downstream to secure crossings away from that garrison they hope to cross at the small village of Bridgeton where an old Roman road crossed the river at fords and a medieval bridge.  As they cross a ridge line to the West of the village their Cavalry scouts report a force of the local Parliamentarians approaching from the East.  The Parliamentarian force is tasked with denying the crossing to the Royalists and preventing them from moving further East.

The Battlefield

The table is set for 2mm figures at a ground scale of 1mm to 1yard/metre.  The table measures 1.5 x .75 metres.  This can be flexed to suit your playing area.  North is the top of the map as you are looking at it.


The Forces
Definitions are from my home brew rules but they should serve to give an indication of the abilities of the units.  Units using Dutch tactics form up deeper than those using Swedish.  Horse under Dutch tactics will default to standing to receive a cavalry charge with pistol/carbine fire unless they pass a reaction test to change orders.  Swedish tactic horse will default to charging home and using pistols/carbines in the first round of melee.  Infantry using Dutch tactics will default to firing by ranks while those using Swedish will default to volley/salvee fire unless they pass a reaction test to change standing orders.

Parliament's forces (Dutch Tactics) are:
4 x small artillery guns - Experienced & Trained
2 x 200 Horse - Experienced & Trained
2 x 200 Horse - Raw & Trained
1 x 600 Dragoons - Experienced & Trained
2 x 600 Foot - 400 shot 200 pike - Raw & Trained
3 x 600 Foot - 400 shot 200 pike - Experienced & Trained
1 x Commander in chief
3 x Sub generals

Royalist forces (Swedish Tactics) are:
4 x small artillery guns - Experienced & Trained
1 x 200 Horse - Elite, Experienced & Trained
1 x 150 Horse - Elite, Raw & Trained
2 x 150 Horse - Elite, Experienced & Trained
2 x 150 Horse - Raw & Trained
2 x 500 Foot - 400 shot 100 pike - Raw & Trained
2 x 600 Foot - 400 Shot 200 pike - Raw & Trained
2 x 400 Foot - 300 shot 100 pike - Experienced & Trained
1 x Commander in Chief
4 x Sub generals


Deployment and objectives
Parliament deploys north of the road and the Royalists to the south.  Neither side can be more than half way to the centre line of the table. Parliament's objective is to have troops blocking the road to prevent Royalist supplies being able to move through the area and cross the river at Bridgeton.  The Royalists need to hold at least one of the bridges and to be able to control a clear route between the centre of the east side of the table(where the road enters all the way to the bridge they hold.  Controlling a clear route means that no Parliamentarian unit is within two moves distance of the road or the controlled bridge at the end of the game.  The game ends at nightfall or when one side or the other is no longer able to continue to take aggressive action (you will have to decide what that means from your chosen rules).

I have played this a couple of times solo and it's usually a close run thing under my rules.  The use of Dutch tactics hampers the Parliamentarians.  The Royalists despite a numerical disadvantage have more and slightly better Horse.  They have less and rather worse foot but Swedish tactics allow for more firepower to be laid down.  (in my rules salvee is more effective than the same number of shot firing by ranks).  I will let you know how my games went in a later post so I don't influence your thinking if you decide to give it a go.  Oh and bonus points if you spot the original location of the battle.