Saturday 18 December 2021

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.


2 comments:

  1. Just noticed that this unit is considered raw yet elite. Am interested in your reasoning for the rating. Just curious as I have seen such ratings in other rules yet go unexplained. (Is there a specific historical example you modelled it after?) Thanks!

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  2. Hi Take Aim. Thanks for dropping by. My thinking is that being 'elite' is a mind set rather than a reflection of actual combat skill or abilities. A unit may be elite because it has a past history of victory or because it's members simply think they are better than everyone else.

    As examples I would cite Alexander's Companions; elite because of who they are and a history of winning, Cromwell's Ironsides; elite because they consider God is on their side making them righteous or a worst case the SS who consider themselves elite because held the warped view that they are ethnically better than their opponents.

    I don't see elite status as a real thing rather it is belief that drives men to fight harder or longer than others.

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