2mm ACW - Refighting 1st Manassas

Or Bull Run depending if you go by Confederate or Federal naming conventions. On Tuesday Paul Dawson came over from York for an ACW game using Altar of Freedom. The scenario for 1st Manassas runs to eight turns and we played to a conclusion in around four hours. If we had been used to the rules it would probably have taken a little less time as it was we had a few occasions of double checking the rules to be sure we were doing things correctly, but not many. I played the Federals as McDowell, Paul had to split his attention between Beauregard and Joe Johnson as the Confederates.

1. The map from the scenario book

Altar of Freedom has two scenario books one for the eastern theatre and one for the west.  These are well worth having as they provide the maps order of battle and most importantly the commander's traits for each of the major battles.  First Manassas is fought on a six foot by four foot table but with far fewer units than any of the other engagements in the books.  In fact Greg Wagman the author actually states that "Altar of Freedom was not designed to handle engagements with so few divisions".  However the lack of manoeuvre elements does pose the same questions faced by the two commanders of how to cover all the crossings while maintaining an adequate strike force. 

2. Overview of the game table looking South East

 

In the picture above Bull Run is running diagonally across the table from Sudley Springs (nearest to the camera) to Union Mills. The nearest long edge of the table is the north edge.  Centreville is on the ridge at the North East of the table.  South of Bull Run running right to left are an unnamed two level hill (lets call it Sudley Springs ridge), Matthew's Hill, Henry Hill south of which is Mt Pone none of the other hills appear to have names.  Oh, and the troop positions in picture 2 are not the initial deployments, just where I plonked them down pregame.

Historically the Confederates knew what McDowell's strategic plan was through their spy ring in Washington.  This gave them the chance to have Johnson move his army from the Shenandoah valley to join with Beauregard north of Richmond using the rail junction at Manassas  Junction.  Two days before the battle there was a clash between one of McDowell’s divisions and Beauregard’s covering force at the fords crossing Bull Run south of Centreville. The Federals were pushed back from the crossings.  On the day of the battle McDowell decided against repeating that attack.  Instead he covered the approaches to his supply lines back to Washington which ran via Centreville with Mile’s division and sent Hunter and Heinztelman’s divisions west to cross Bull Run at Sudley Springs to turn the Confederate left flank.  Tyler was to demonstrate before the Stone Bridge to distract the Rebels.  

Overall it wasn't a bad plan but it didn't take into account the poor levels of training and lack of experience in the Federal army (to be fair the Confederates were no better).  Despite that the flanking move was successful but Beauregard was warned that his flank was turned by an observation post to the south who was able to send a message by semaphore.  The main fighting took place on Beauregard’s left flank on Matthew’s and Henry Hill.  Although the Federal’s had the early advantage in the fight there, Confederate troops were quickly able to move to block their advance due to the semaphore warning.  Throughout the afternoon the fighting continued on Henry Hill until the Federals exhausted themselves and were forced to retreat.

In our refight the Federals started deployed around Centreville with Confederate forces able to deploy anywhere south of Bull Run.  My plan was to push Hunter’s Division south from Centreville to threaten the crossings north of Manassas Junction.  Heintzelman’s and Miles’ Divisions would advance towards the crossings around the Stone Bridge with Tyler’s moving towards the fords at Sudley Springs.  Paul covered the crossings from the Stone Bridge South-Eastwards towards Union Mills but only placed one brigade on Matthew’s Hill to cover the approaches from Sudley Springs.

3. The starting deployments.  Federals nearest the camera

Command and control in AoF is interesting.  Each general has a number of priority points to spend; these are split between gaining control of the turn clock, bidding to determine the order that divisions are activated and end of turn actions.  Although McDowell has more priority points than Beauregard and Johnson combined he has restraints on how he can use them.  He is not allowed to bid the same amount for any of his divisions which means that he cannot coordinate his divisions actions.  That also means that he needs the turn clock to allow at least four activations a turn if all of his divisions are to be activated.  On average the turn clock for this scenario would run out after three activations which gives the Federals problems.  If you want a fuller description of the mechanics of Altar of Freedom take a look at my earlier post which is here: Small but Perfectly Formed: Altar of freedom - I done seen the Elephant (elenderilsblog.blogspot.com) 

From the get go Tyler had problems firstly I didn’t deploy his troops as far to the West as I could have done (entirely my fault I misread the deployment locations). Secondly the approaches to his objectives are heavily wooded which slows his troops dramatically.  Lastly (and due to Paul's good generalship) McDowell struggled to allocate enough priority points to Tyler to keep his troops moving.  After the game ended I also realised the the scenario set up rules (even when read correctly) make it impossible to get troops around Beauregard’s left and ready to attack as quickly as happened historically!  

4. The end of the first hour

While Tyler was slogging through the woods, Hunter was moving his division south from Centreville. However, Johnson wasn’t sitting idly by.  Instead Paul had him cross Bull Run with his troops to threaten Centreville (which is a Confederate game objective).  He pushed Stuart’s cavalry brigade forward on the far left of Hunter’s division while the rest of of Johnson’s wing advanced frontally on them.  I had to respond to this and for the rest of the game I had to prioritise the action on my left more than I had intended and that of course meant that I had less points to bid for my flanking movement.  

I pushed Heintzelman’s brigades towards the Stone Bridge as fast as I could and the first fighting erupted there.  This was skirmishing across the Stone Bridge that fight see-sawed back and forth for two or three hours.  One reason for this was Paul’s siting of his artillery, he placed batteries on the hills overlooking the crossings around the Stone Bridge.  Two were sited on the North Edge of Henry Hill and a third on the rise to the west of there which placed any Federals advancing on the bridge in the centre of interlocking fields of fire.  Artillery has an ability to use interrupting fire against activated enemy divisions which can drive a brigade backwards stopping them completing their movement.  Paul made maximum use of this to prevent Federal troops from crossing Bull Run in this area.

5. Fighting around the Bridge

In photo five you can see how Paul's artillery dominates the approach to the Stone Bridge and Farm Ford.  The tokens denote fatigue blue for one, green for two etc.  Any unit accruing a fifth fatigue marker is broken!  We didn't get any units past two fatigue all day, clearly we were not pushing things hard enough.

Meanwhile to the east Johnson’s attempt to advance towards Centreville forced me to give high priority bids to Hunter’s Division to guarantee they could deploy into a defensive line before Johnson could launch an assault.  I also turned Miles’ Division back to support him.   I managed to block Stuart’s route with Palmer’s cavalry brigade and put a defence together and despite Confederate close attacks this stabilised the position on that flank.  The worst moment was when Burnside’s brigade broke leaving a hole in the line.  I was lucky though as McDowell had moved across to that flank and was able to rally them and get them back into the line.  I had to bid high for Hunter’s and Mile’s activations to stabilise that end of the battle field though, which left Tyler stalled in the woods northeast of Sudley Springs.

6.  Fighting south of Centreville as Johnson pushes through the woods

7. After the end of turn five

By turn five Paul had crossed Bull Run at two points and although Heintzelman had his division in a defensive line facing the Stone Bridge his left flank was under threat from Confederate brigades who has crossed down stream of the bridge.   Tyler by this point was as close as he was going to get to crossing Bull Run having been allocated zero priority points to allow Hunter to keep the initiative over Johnson.

8.  Paul surveys the field at the end of turn 6 *

9.  McDowell holds the line at Centreville (Turn 7)

The battle was drawing to a close by this point and Paul was looking for the win.  He silenced my artillery facing the Stone Bridge and pushed troops over the Bridge and also the fords either side.  In reply I formed a defensive line with Heintzelman’s Division.  Paul launched close assaults against the line and despite my best efforts was able to break an infantry brigade and push another back.

9. Confederates attacking around the Stone Bridge in turn 7

Those attacks opened a route through to McDowell’s second HQ unit which Paul pounced upon giving him a second destroyed unit.  This was at the end of the last turn.  Paul gained the win with two of his required five Destroyed Federal units achieved v none of his own destroyed.  He was also able to remove fatigue markers from his troops so only had three fatigue markers against his units compared to the Federals who had seven markers.  

10. Can McDowell hold the line until night?

17. At the day's end -red line shows the Confederate front line

The overall result clearly favoured the Confederacy and I would call it a tactical win for Beauregard and Johnson.  The Federals have not lost  as many brigades as they did historically which is probably because both Paul and I were a little tentative in pushing troops forward to close combat.

What did we learn?

Artillery interrupt fire is useful for breaking up attacks but can’t create fatigue on enemy units and they can’t use canister in interrupt fire.  Also interrupt fire is a special case of defensive fire, so if you use it you cannot also shoot after the enemy movement phase.  If artillery holds it’s fire until the defensive fire phase it can use canister at short range which gives a huge firing bonus and almost certainly creates fatigue in the target if not outright breaking them.  

It’s hard to get troops into close combat but when you do the results are devastating.  Attacks need to form up in depth so that if the leading brigade is pushed back by artillery fire the supporting brigade can continue the attack.  Oh and we learned that we didn’t know the rules as well as we should.

It was a great day's gaming and both of us enjoyed the rules.  We will be revisiting the ACW and Alter of Freedom again in the near future.

* You may notice that Paul commanding the grey clad Confederates is dressed in Blue, bizarrely I was commanding the blue coated Federals and was dressed in grey! 

The Battle of Timerton part 5 - The end game

It has come to my attention (AKA Mrs E asked a question) that in the photos from previous posts,  I had not placed all those units which were disorganised in the approved zig-zag formation to mark their disorganised state. This was entirely due to the fact that I forgot and my opponent (that's me folks) didn't remind me of the omission. I knew which units were disorganised but as they were not anywhere close to being in contact with the enemy I neglected to take the time to show disorder. It's because I'm lazy! The offending units are those who are moving while straddling a linear obstacle (stream or hedge etc). I have now corrected this heinous oversight! With that out of the way it's back to the action.

We pick up the situation as turn 4 is commencing which means that 24 minutes have elapsed since things kicked off.  The time is now 6.00am and the sun has risen.  It is finally daylight but a light rain continues to fall.

From The letters of Sir Robert Snell (Royalist general)

'As the the light grew I was able to discern that portion of the Rebel's deployment which was facing my centre and left wing but my view of our right was blocked by the hedges around the Timerton enclosures.  It were not until a messenger was received from that same portion of the field that I was alerted to the death of the gallant Colonel Pargetter and the effect of the same upon our fortunes.  I at once attempted to gain a view of what transpired upon that wing but without avail.  I could only trust that my dispositions would be proven to be sound and that the righteous would prevail.'

The 'True Relation' seems to confirm this part of the field was involved in significant fighting. 

'T'was the death of Colonel P which much disheartened the Cavaliers on that part of the field.  Ere a replacement for him could step forward two squadrons of their horse were seen fleeing the field with cries of 'Woe unto us we are undone' and 'Fly, fly save yourselves all is lost' and suchlike sentiments.  Yet not all were settled to Parliament's advantage, some of the Cavalier party fought on and still pushed forward.  Indeed much of that army was not yet engaged in fighting.  This was particularly so on the other side of the river and matters yet hung in the balance all across the field.'

Royalist Horse are in flight on their right

The fight to control the enclosures starts with a bang

From the True Relation once more

"Certain Battalia of Foote being untried and unlearned in the ways of Martial Prowess formed a defensive pike stand against horse long ere it were needful to do so.  It took the presence of their General to disavow them of the need to take such overly prudent action.  More seasoned men might have attempted a volley afore forming so."

Raw infantry forms a pike stand at first sight of cavalry

Sir Robert Snell wrote

"Upon our right wing matters were not as well as I should have desired. Though our men attacked with vigour they were repulsed with great loss of men and horses.  In extricating themselves from the fight [name] passed through their supports disordering their ranks which did them much disservice as they were close followed by the Roundhead horse galloping onwards in pursuit which crashed into them as they sought to recover their order forcing them to retire.  They did at least give a charge from their pistols which did give some pause to the Rebels."

From The True relation

"Things were proceeding very well upon Parliament's left wing with the King's cavalry there forced to give ground.   Matters stood at a lesser state upon their left where events were reversed with the Royalists' advancing with great success and Parliament retiring where they were not rather in full panic flight.  Only in the centre of the field were matters still unresolved, for the first exchange of musket shot had so discomforted both parties concerned that both battalia engaged gave up their positions and fled, a thing much commented upon as showing the lack of true discipline and fighting mettle of both parties."

Captain Deanswood commented on the same incident

"Though the first Roundhead attempt to dislodge our Foote from the enclosures was driven off with great resolve yet a second Battalia came upon us to take their place.  They gave a great volley in the Swedish style and came on at point of pike until at last it came to the press.  For a moment or two both sides strained manfully to gain some advantage.  Then as if by consent of all engaged,  the lines gave some little ground such that some thirty of so paces separated us.  Now without any attempt to return to the fray both sides did'st ignominiously turn their faces from the other and fly from that ground.  I of course remonstrated with my men but nought could I say to change their intent to be rid of that place of death."

Both sides having taken casualties failed the post melee reaction tests.  This was due to low starting CE scores and the further reduction in CE from the melee combat.

Again the 'True Relation' shows the fierceness of the engagement 

The Royalist right wing fell more and more into despair and disarray and it were only by the quick wits of two battalia of their foote, who drew close to provide succour to the discomforted horse, that a small measure of respite was granted to them.  Parliament's horse durst not close to engage this foote in melee as the were tight ensconced in solid stands of pikes sheltering their shotte.  Despite this Dunne's Horse didst give fire from their pistols to some effect whilst only a small portion of the Wooley's Foote could return their fire.  Thus they continued for a pretty space of time until Parliament brought foote of their own to contest the ground whereupon the malignants moved away.

Sir Robert Snell describes matters at around 6.30am

It was now that I saw that the fight upon our right was lost yet our men still fought on giving ground only as necessitated by the pressure of the onrushing Rebel horse.  Yet still I had hope that matters might yet be settled in our favour upon my left where our horse swept all before it.

The 'True Relation' broadly agrees with this opinion 

"All was going awry for the King's party upon their right yet the parliament men could not break in upon the two embatteled Battalia of Foot who stood their ground.  Yet that mattered little for the rest of the field was yet to be settled.  Parliament had forced the first line of hedges separating Timerton enclosures from the moor beyond and was seen to be going forward at point of pike there.  A Royalist body of foot were holding within the village fighting as I am told from garden to garden.  The right of the Parliament line was in worse state with two or mayhap three squadrons of horse in full flight.  Yet in the midst of this Perk's Horse were put to flight in unexpected fashion despite considering themselves the best mounted, armed and armoured horse of the King's array."

Sir Robert calls it a day

"Matters continued in much the same way until the rain which had been falling in a steady drizzle turned heavy, this being betwixt six and seven of the clock.  My men could no longer maintain their fire upon the enemy who being made up of larger bodies of foote than our own had the advantage where matters came to push of pike.  With my right in tatters and my left victorious but not yet able to support my centre and as I conceived it being not like to do so for a space of time exceeding that which my foot could hold their ground I gave signal to withdraw.

I believe my duty to have been well fulfilled with the Rebels prevented from advancing further that day and so unable to interfere Prince Rupert's intentions in the Midlands." 

Light rain causes a reduction in shooting factors of minus one but heavy rain increases this to minus two.  There is no such reduction for melee combat and larger units can more easily soak up hits before their CE is reduced. 

The Royalist left made progress but too late

Things are not great in the centre either

The Royalist right wing collapses

The True Relation describes the end of the fighting

"As the day wore on it the early rain turned heavier and the wind moved more Westerly lashing the faces of the Parliament men.  It was beset by these conditions that Elliot's Foote forced passage of Timerton Bridge causing the Royalist blue coated foot facing them to retire.  At about this time upon some signal, I know not what this may have been, the Royalists commenced to withdraw from the place of battle.  Cold, wet and exhausted as they were no amount of encouragement could persuade the Parliament men to give chase and the King's forces slipped away to the West."

The letters show What General Snell thought about the causes of his defeat

"I had determined to combine certain understrength battalia to bring them closer in size to the enemy.  Yet upon seeing the ground upon which they were to fight I did doubt myself and allowed them to revert to their component parts, the better to advance through the enclosures.  This I perceive to have been a grievous error for it reduced their ability to engage an enemy battalia in musketry on terms of parity.  The heavy rain late in the fight did also conspire against these smaller battalia as it did render muskets near useless and allowed the Rebel Foote to close to hand combat without undue loss.  By such means they cleared the first of the enclosures.  If bodies of commanded shotte had'st been placed amongst our horse in the Swedish fashion I believe that our left had some better chance of holding that ground yet I do not berate myself for such lack as there were no such shotte to be had without stripping them from other parts of the field."

The True Relation places these words in the mouth of the victorious Parliamentarian commander

"We had fought two battles, at it seemed to me, upon the two separate banks of the river and by the grace of God concluded both to our satisfaction.  and yet there were still time to repair to my coach and break my fast, which I did with some great relish over a dish of coddled eggs.  I am not aware of any other such battel in these times with two victories gained afore breakfast."

Lessons learned

There is a reason most large battles were fought in open fields! Manoeuvring over the ground was difficult and some rules to allow players to shift the random terrain drops are needed.  A few final minor tweaks are needed where cases that arose are not covered in the rules.  Plus a couple of extra rules concepts arose.  Nervous units should not be allowed rapid advance and fleeing units allowed double distance moves but loose a CE level each turn they do so.  Although I didn't use them in this game the optional ammunition supply rules need to be simplified.  There are a final handful of procedural points to clarify but so far as I am concerned the rules are working and in their final form.

Perhaps it is right that the final word on Timerton fight should be from a fragment describing the thoughts of an unknown infantry soldier.

"......never fought in a battle afore this and hope never to do so again after.  I have no words fit for your ears to describe the sights, sounds or smells of dead and dying men and horses and pray the Lord God that you need never know the same."

Let Battle commence - The Battle of Timerton part 3

So the table is set up and troops deployed so I shall hand over to the generals to describe events and only break the narrative to explain how the rules have operated.  There will be some stretching of the narrative to make it seem more like an actual battle account but no fiddling with the operation of the rules.  So instead of saying the rules limit visibility to x yards the narrative might say 'a slight mist hung over the field at this early hour limiting my view to no more than x yards'.   For me if the game allows a believable narrative to develop then the rules are working as intended.

From A True Relation of Timerton Fight containing all which it is needful to know of the designs of Prinz Ruprecht towards the Godly folk of Birmingham

"The army being drawn together close upon Northampton it was resolved that it should March to the East to find the forces of the German Prince Ruprecht.   Certain intelligences were provided that he intended to move against Birmingham and we were instructed to interfere with these designs.  Accordingly we went via Daventry intending to March through Rugby towards Coventry.  No sooner had the army left the vicinity of Daventry but we received word that a large force was some distance to the East.  We bent our course accordingly and two days after, the army's forage parties clashed with bodies of horse close upon the village of Timerton.  Scouts being sent forth it was ascertained that the enemy was less than days march from us and marching hither with alacrity.

A council being called it was resolved to meet the enemy on the morrow.  Accordingly an order of march and scheme of deployment was drawn up such that every officer should know his place.  Some time after sunset scouts came into with some intelligence of the numbers of the enemy,  they having espied them upon the road.  Their count was that the enemy seemed close to our numbers but had no artillery.  Five great bodies of foot and numerous bodies of horse were seen to be present."

Neither side's horse have the required numbers to 'out scout' the other so numbers of troops are reported with only a 10% variation.  It is always possible to reduce or increase the reported number of bodies by one hence the no artillery present report.  After scouting results are disclosed both sides draft a general deployment plan before terrain is generated.  Tactical orders are written once terrain is laid out and the initial deployments made.  There is scope to adjust the deployment as sketched but this is limited. In a two player game the Commanders are deployed first then the front lines of each army and then any troops visible to the enemy commanders.  Then tactical orders are drawn up.  If being used, standing orders covering things such as the range at which a unit will start shooting, or foot will form pike stands against cavalry can be drawn up in advance or the generic ones from the rules used (based on experience and training).

From the letters of Sir Robert Snell (Commander of the Royalists)

"The Prince had granted some discretion as to our actions subject only to the proviso that we should seek out any opportunity to bring the Rebels to the field of battle such that by so doing they should have no liberty to interfere with his plans.  In accordance with these commands I ordered the army to advance towards Daventry so as to appear to threaten Northampton and cut the great North Road.  Shortly after we commenced this motion I had word that a very large force of the rebels was ahead of me, which very much suited my purpose.  My officers being well appraised of my intentions there was naught to do except bring the enemy to battle, which we set out to do with great good will.  By some mischance we knew not how close they were until some skirmishes were reported close to our front and all we could ascertain was that the enemy was present in numbers akin to our own.  I therefore gave my orders for the next day as it seemed that we should fight in the morning, whether we willed it or not.

The ground was not such as I should have wished for, indeed it was greatly to our disadvantage.  Should the enemy not have been upon us I should have withdrawn a piece to seek better ground.  I considered what might be done and determined that we should close upon them as quickly as possible to reduce the advantage they held in artillery and also to occupy the enclosures around Timerton village."

The table is divided into 1 foot squares of and terrain is laid out using cards drawn from a standard pack of playing cards, one per square.  Any picture card, ace or joker creates a terrain item in the square, all others cards create clear squares.  Terrain items include the start of a river or stream which, if drawn, will run to a random table edge.  I have decided that the rules need a mechanism to allow players to move terrain to avoid battlefields like this one!  Once scouting reports are exchanged and terrain set out the players write orders.  These consist of an action, a target (location or enemy unit) and a speed of action.  There can also be a delay built in before acting upon the order.  Changes of orders during the game require a reaction test to be passed and the new order to be transmitted down the chain of command.

The Battlefield is split by a river which divides the Royalist deployment area into two roughly equal halves.  Because of the deployment decided on before the terrain was laid out the Royalists will not be able to easily co-ordinate their actions.  The Parliamentarians are not having things all their own way either as a stream is restricting the movement of their right wing.  Also if they advance too far then their left will be separated from the rest of the army by the river.  Lastly there is a low ridge directly to their front which masks one of their guns but would make a decent defensible feature.  Time to amend the deployment and write orders.  Back to the True relation.

"On seeing the lay of the land over which the battle were to be fought it was clear that the intended deployment would ill serve the Parliament men.  My Lord x determined to make a shift in the placing of the guns on the right to allow them to better play upon the enemy's ranks.  Other than this and the small adjustment to the right most Infantry battalia to allow this all else seemed to serve as well as may be...."

Using the change to deployment rules one field piece and an infantry battalia are exchanged no other changes are made by either side.  I'm wondering if there should be a turn one AP penalty for to any units whose location is amended under these rules.

 "...These changes being taken in hand orders were confirmed.  The left hand cavalry wing being over matched should make best speed to deny the enemy use of the bridge over the River Timer and to hold the ground betwixt the eminence on the right and the river.  It was desired that they should not do ought else but hold that place.  The centre was to advance with the greatest of haste and bring the enemy foot to hand strokes with only the minimum of musketry first.  The Horse on the Right were to advance apace to be forward of the foot and to drive the opposing horse from the field.  It was allowed that to achieve this they should extend their lines further unto that flank."

Parliament's adjusted deployment

The Royalist deployment. The wing furthest from the camera is stacked up deep!

In the photo's above the coloured markers behind each unit show the the current CE status which is based on the outcome (before situational adjustments) and assuming an average dice roll of 7 on 2D6 when taking the test.  They are colour coded for a general description but don't show the exact value.

From an account written by an unknown author (possibly Captain Leonard Deanswood)

"We were stood to our arms before sunrise and as the day dawned I saw the enemy before me standing in ranks and files just as were we.  Before we could be disheartened by the sight we were ordered to "Stand right in our ranks and files" and then to 'march on' We set off at a good steady pace towards Timerton Fields.  I discerned that our horse on the left wing commenced their advance by wheeling several bodies to their left hand to over bear upon the Roundheads they faced.  I saw not what transpired on the right.  As our Battalia advanced I saw that we faced difficulties in deploying the brigade as desired due the a river splitting our lines.  Two Battalia were on the far side of this and we unable to effect a juncture with them should need arise.  Though only a few yards away they may had as well been upon the moon.  I saw that we should be forced to fight two battles one upon either side of the river."

The game starts at 05.24 a few minutes before sunrise and with restricted visibility.  This is a random time based on dice rolls for a pick up game.  The two armies are a little over 600 yards apart and visible to each other as visibility is 1,000 yards during "civil twilight".  The Royalists won the initiative by virtue of a higher roll on 3D6 despite a lower command span and will move first.  Parliament were hampered by my adjusting their role for making changes to the planned deployment.  Well I did say I might create a disadvantage for doing that!  This is an IGOUGO game so moving first has advantages for taking advantageous positions but disadvantages as the second player may be able to fire with a closer range advantage, especially with artillery.

The Royalist advance is hampered by the need to extend their line to the flanks.  They have opted to give fast advance and assault orders to the front line which requires at least 50% of their action points to be spent on closing the distance between them and the enemy on contact they can spend a turn shooting before charging home.  The second and third lines have fast support orders which allow them to keep pace with the front line but to run over them.  Support means that they can shoot in support and replace units in the front line that fall back or for horse join in melee instigated by the unit they are supporting after the first turn.

At the end of the Royalist first turn, their troops are struggling to deploy for combat

By the end of the second turn they have some semblance of order! 

Turn 2 ends with Parliament in control of the high ground

And the cavalry on Parliament's left about to clash

The first two turns consisted of both sides frantically rearranging their cavalry wings which takes time as the manoeuvre rules are designed to make this difficult.  Parliament have their left wing in orderly formations as are the opposing horse.  Both sides infantry is struggling to deploy and the bridge is not closed to the Royalists but is going to be heavily contested.  The first clashes are about to occur and that will tell a tale (or perhaps not)! 

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.