The Battle of Timerton - Pt 2

For the sake of the narrative this action takes place in the central Midlands of England early in 1643.  Prince Rupert is seeking to consolidate the Kings hold on the area north of Oxford.  To that end he has despatched part of the forces under his control towards Daventry with instructions to threaten local Parliamentary garrisons so that they cannot intervene while he deals with Birmingham and Coventry.  In response Parliament has pulled together what troops they can spare from the area around Northampton to block any advance against that town.  Speed is of the essence as the east of Northamptonshire and parts of Cambridgeshire are threatened by Royalist Militia from Spalding who are moving against Crowland and the routes out of the Eastern Association.  Neither side is particularly well trained but there are few experienced fighting men in either force.

What follows is a bit on the long side but it really will help in understanding how the battle plays out, and what all the pre-battle stuff was about.

Scouting

The results of pre battle scouting influence both the information on the make up and size of the enemy army but also the ability to make amendments to the declared deployment.  In this case neither side has out scouted the other as neither side has double the cavalry of the other.  Both sides must declare their strength with no more than a 10% variation upwards or downwards.  As this is a solo game and I already know the exact size of both forces I 'reported' accurate numbers to myself!  I did write general orders for Parliament before I diced up the Royalist force though on the basis that both sides would be roughly equal.

The Runners and Riders

The following show the units and their definitions in the rules.  The size is the number of combatants the doctrine are:

FP - Fire power a unit with little interest or skill in close combat.
MFP - Mixed fire power and shock, a unit which prefers to shoot but will engage in melee.
MSK - Mixed shock and fire power, as above except the preference is for melee over shooting
SK - Shock a unit with a preference for close combat and no ability to shoot.

Where there is a (A) after the doctrine the unit is more heavily armoured than the norm.  Here it represents 3/4 armoured cuirassiers.  The ratio shown for infantry after the doctrine is that of shot to pike bases in the unit.  This will be a factor in melee combat.

First up is Parliament

Unit	Size	Experience	Training	Doctrine	CE	Cost
Left Wing
A - Horse	300	Raw	Part Trained	MFP	5	30
B - Horse	250	Raw	Part Trained	MSK	5	25
C - Horse	250	Experienced	Trained	MSK	7	35
D - Horse	200	Veteran	Trained	MSK	8	32
Centre - Left hand Brigade
E – Foot	800	Experienced	Trained	MSK	7	56
F - Foot	900	Experienced	Trained	MFP	7	63
G - Foot	900	Raw	Part Trained	MFP	5	45
H - Artillery	1	Raw	Professionals	FP	7	7
I - Artillery	1	Raw	Professionals	FP	7	7
Centre – Right hand Brigade
J - Foot	900	Experienced	Trained	MFP	7	63
K - Foot	800	Raw	Part Trained	MFP	5	40
L - Horse	150	Veteran	Trained	MSK	8	24
M - Artillery	1	Raw	Professional	FP	7	7
N - Artillery	1	Raw	Professional	FP	7	7
Right Wing
O - Horse	250	Raw	Trained	MFP	6	30
P - Horse	250	Raw	Trained	MFP	6	30
Q - Horse	200	Experienced	Trained	MSK	7	28
R - Horse	200	Veteran	Trained	MSK	8	32

Followed by the Royalists

Unit	Size	Experience	Training	Doctrine (S:P)	CE	Cost
Left Wing
1 – Horse	250	Raw (Elite)	Trained	MSK	7	35
2 – Horse	150	Veteran	Trained	MFP (A)	9	27
3 – Horse	250	Veteran	Trained	MSK	8	40
4 – Horse	150	Veteran	Trained	MSK	8	24
5 – Horse	250	Raw (Elite)	Trained	MSK	7	35
Centre – Main Tercio
6 – Foot	300	Experienced	Trained	MSK (2:1)	7	21
7 – Foot	900	Veteran	Trained	MFP (1:1)	8	72
8 - Foot	900	Experienced	Trained	MFP (1:2)	7	63
9 – Foot	900	Raw	Trained	MFP (2:1)	6	54
10 – Foot	400	Raw	Trained	MFP (3:2)	6	24
11 - Artillery	1	Trained	Professional	FP	8	8
Centre – Reserve
12 – Horse	200	Raw	Part Trained	MSK	5	20
Right Wing
14 – Horse	350	Raw	Part Trained	MSK	5	35
15 – Horse	250	Raw (Elite)	Trained	MSK	7	35
16 – Horse	200	Raw	Part Trained	MSK	5	20
17 – Horse	150	Raw	Untrained	SK	4	12
18 – Horse	250	Raw	Part Trained	MSK	5	25

Both sides have commanders as follows.  You may recall from the last article that the budget for generals and their traits is 10% of the cost of the army.  There is a base cost for a general which varies depending on the standard of command and control of a specific army.  For this scenario the Parliamentarian's base cost is 5 while the Royalist's are slightly hampered by a higher base cost of 6.  The costs for traits don't vary but because of the base cost difference it costs the royalists one point more for a general and their traits than it does for the Parliamentarians in this encounter.

For Parliament these are

Role	Name	Esteem	Command	Awareness	Cost
Army CO	Gen. Chatburn	Accepted	Competent	Vigilant	12
Right Wing	Lt Gen. Hurst	Trusted	Able	Alert	11
Centre (RH)	SM Gen Green	Accepted	Able	Vigilant	11
Centre (LH)	Lt Gen Howgill	Tolerated	Able	Vigilant	10
Left Wing	Comm Gen. Harrop	Trusted	Competent	Alert	12

And their Royalist opponents consist of

Role	Name	Esteem	Command	Awareness	Cost
Army CO	George Lord Wooley	Trusted	Able	Alert	12
Right Wing	Sir James Aldridge	Accepted	Able	Alert	11
Centre	Sir Robert Snell	Trusted	Competent	Alert	13
Reserve	Col Tregorran	Tolerated	Incompetent	Alert	9
Left Wing	Henry Baron Forrest	Accepted	Competent	Alert	12

The general's traits have an impact on reaction tests and combat (Esteem), handling orders (Command span) and reaction tests to allow changing orders or disregarding standing orders (Situational awareness).  It should become clearer once the fighting starts.

Best Laid Plans?

After scouting Parliament knows that they hold a significant advantage in artillery but that the Infantry is probably about equal to the Royalist foot but that they have a disadvantage in cavalry.  To make the most of the advantage the initial general orders are changed slightly and the new plan is to hold and allow the guns time to play upon the Royalists.  With a significant disadvantage in artillery the Royalists need to either tempt the opposing foot forwards to mask their guns or come to grips quickly with their Horse.  Seeing the enemy dispositions will determine the details.

The next part will be the table top deployments and the actual battle.