Edgehill playtest of fast play pike and shot

So after much faffing about I finally got the troops and rules onto the table top.  The battlefield was an abstracted version of Edgehill and the troops were as the army list I posted a few days ago, plus the additional rules for commanded shot with the cavalry and light guns supporting the infantry brigades.  I'm ashamed to say that I had to keep checking the rules, you know the ones I only wrote a couple of weeks ago, to ensure I didn't miss anything.  The troops are not based as they will eventually be I used my existing 2mm pike & shot stuff just to avoid pushing empty cardboard outlines of the bases around!  When I am happy with everything I will create some less generic brigade and squadron bases for use with the rules.  The attached ultra-light artillery and commanded shot were not modelled.  I assumed every unit had these in place.  As a game plan I initially followed the broad outline of the actual tactics applied in October 1642 as this gives the best test against reality. 

 

1. The battlefield before deploying the troops

So how did it go I hear you ask, you did ask didn't you?  Well allowing for breaks to walk the dog and eat, the entire battle played out in about 90 minutes or so, covering five full turns.  So that's 'fast play'; ticked off the objectives.   There a couple of minor things to tweak and one slightly bigger issue to consider but more about those as the after action report unfolds.

The table and the initial deployment

The battlefield on the tabletop is an approximation of the Edgehill battlefield but restricted by the need to have terrain fit on a square grid.  I didn't model the lower slopes of Edgehill instead treating the first three rows of the grid on the Royalist side as a slope and rough terrain.  I also didn't use the deployment system in the rules instead I tried to replicate the actual deployments as far as possible.  That meant that not every unit was in grid to grid contact with another once deployed.  This left gaps in the Parliamentarian infantry line which probably were not present in reality which flags up an issue with basing or perhaps unit sizes per base.  I'm going to have to think about that point and decide if I can live with the mismatch or if I need to change things.

2. Opening deployments Royalists on the right

Turn one - The Royalists advance

The Royalist army all adopted marching stance to close on the rebels as quickly as possible.  The exceptions being the Gentlemen Pensioners who I decided should not move except to protect the person of their king.  This provided some separation between the two lines of the army as the second line had to move through a grid line of rough terrain while the front line moved straight into clear ground.  I immediately decided that infantry march moves were too long and should be reduced to two movement points from three.  This allowed the cavalry to get slightly ahead of the centre infantry command.  Using the full march movement bonus for the horse turned out to be a mistake as it brought them into charge reach of the Parliament horse wings and reduced their combat effectiveness.

3. The Royalists push forward, Parliament occupy defensible ground

Unlike the actual battle, the Parliamentarian horse acted aggressively in response to this as it created a chance to strike at a significant advantage.  Firstly they threw Wardlow's and Browne's dragoons forward into the enclosures on the right flank and Holles' detached shot into the enclosures on the left flank.  Secondly where the chance arose their horse used the charge bonus to attack.  The combat mechanisms for close combat worked well including the plus one bonus to attack dice where a cavalry unit moves two squares into contact.  The ability to fight back for the defenders also worked well and the use of defence dice to negate hits would keep both players busy even though this is an 'I go - You go' style game.  Very quickly unit confidence levels started to be reduced.

Turn two - The Royalist Infantry continues forward.

The leading three Royalist infantry brigades switch to shooting stance while their second line stay in March stance to close up.  Their cavalry caught in march stance shift to close combat and take the fight to the enemy.  Their dragoons on the left dismount and shift to shooting stance and engage their opposite numbers who are ensconced in the enclosures and hedges ahead of them.  Over on their right their dragoons dismount ready to engage the enemy.  The fast moving Royalist horse and foot have lost their commanded shot and artillery support because of that rapid advance and this would tell over the next few turns.

Essex keeps his infantry in place and exchanges fire with the leading Royalist infantry brigades.  The fire fight is ineffective on both sides, although hits are scored the defensive dice are successful at negating them.  The parliamentarian cavalry reserve moves forward to fill one of the gaps between infantry brigades.  On the left the commanded shot get into position and start to shoot at the approaching cavalry, behind them the cavalry close up to be ready if the shot come off second best in the approaching combat.

Turn three - Fighting becomes general

Having found the use of musketry to be slow going in reducing the enemy's confidence the Royalist's opt to go to close combat and move up to contact.  Very quickly both sides start to show the impact of close combat, due to the double combat effect of both sides fighting in close combats.  some hits are defended against (think of it as men being pushed into gaps in the front ranks and officers leading by example) but not all.  The effect of Parliament holding the rough ground of the enclosures, boggy ground and slight hills does show though and the Royalists are taking more losses than Essex's men.  That said the first unit losses occur at this point with Holles' detached shot breaking and fleeing the field.  The pursuit test has some of Maurice's Horse pursuing but not all.  Parliament launches Their cavalry reserve against Fielding's Brigade and the armoured cuirassiers hit them hard causing two step losses in confidence.  Further to the right the Lord General's Horse attempt to move around the flank of the Royalist line.

Turn four - Losses start to mount

The Royalists are determined to take the enclosures on their right and push forwards into the enclosure vacated by Holles' shot.  They continue the close combats along the rest of the line but fail to make a breakthrough.  Digby's Horse seeing The Lord General's Horse flanking attempt, use march mode to block the route around their flank but stay far enough back to prevent Balfour being able to catch them on the march.  In the centre Fielding's Brigade breaks and runs in the face of a Stapleton's cuirassier attacking their front and a flanking attack from Balfour's cavalry.  The dragoon v dragoon action around the enclosures is a stalemate both sides causing damage and then also negating the impact on confidence (think of this as officer's leading by example and sergeant's dressing lines and filling gaps in the front ranks from the rear ranks).

Essex continues to hold his defensive line but Charles Essex's Brigade is suffering confidence hits and Meldrum's are being hit hard too.  At this point it is looking like the King will be victorious as Parliament has lost three units to the Royalist's one.

Turn five - exhaustion sets in

After a concerted effort to break Essex's line the Royalist centre collapses with the remaining two of the lead infantry brigades breaking and running.   Partly this is due to Stapleton's cuirassiers counter attack but most of the heavy fighting fell on the infantry who despite taking confidence hits managed to both negate hits and then rally off a confidence step loss at a crucial point while the Royalists never managed a successful rally all game.  On the Royalist left the dragoon fight continued as a stalemate but Digby's Horse break their opponent and manage to avoid a full scale pursuit thinning their ranks too badly.  Over on the other flank Parliament is doing badly as there are now no cavalry facing Byron's or the King's Life Guard who looked posed to roll up the Parliamentarian lines.  However, it is too little and too late as at the end of the turn both sides have reached their break point and the game ends as a draw.

4. The end positions

Conclusions

The biggest issue is whether I need to reconsider infantry unit sizes to match them to the ground scale size of the grid.  Currently the large Parliamentarian infantry brigades should extend beyond a single square. Cavalry brigades had the opposite problem and I have already changed the size of the formation represented by each base from a brigade to a smaller squadron sized unit. That said the under sized unit frontage for Essex's infantry didn't seem to hamper them so I need to calculate some unit frontages before I make a decision on this.

I found the pursuit rule wasn't as effective as I expected in taking cavalry out of the action.  As a result I'm going to remove the 'defence' roll for those troops with a reputation for bogging off in pursuit seeking glory and or loot (Prince Rupert's Horse I'm looking at you here)!  It will stay as is for more disciplined troops.  I'm also going to allow all units a single free 90 degree turn each move to allow more flexibility as they manoeuvre into contact.

I need some removable markers to show cavalry units with shot support and foot with ultra-light artillery support, the action stance they are currently using and whether units have defensive fire available.  This is mostly because when playing solo I loose track of those things!

Overall though I'm happy with the rules and with the exception of the points noted above I'm calling them done.