Weaver Winner

After my last two sojurns into the 18th century at Soor and Kunserdorf I felt the urge to take down my pike and don my morion. 'But what battle?' I asked myself. Then up pops everyone's favourite count with a reprise of Nantwich. That struck me as an interesting encounter - encounter being the right word, as M.Foy points out it was more of an encounter battle than stand up fight. It entails a Parliamentary army marching to relieve Nantwich which had placed undersiege over the winter of 1643-44. Lord Byron gathered his besieging army and sought to attack Sir Thomas Fairfax's army of relief before it reached Nantwich.

I knew nothing of this except what I'd read some time ago in Charlie Wesencraft's 'With Pike and Musket', so I set to reading up what was on the internet rather than ordering books and waiting until they came. I subsequently ordered Barratt's booklet from Caliver along with another booklet on the Siege of Lyme.

I collated the numbers in the table at the bottom from various on line sources, then  re-read both accounts of the wargame of the battle of Nantwich on Prometheus in Aspic. I went with 6 Roundhead battalia and five Royalist battalia of foot, assuming each was around 500 strong - this seems to fit the consensus on the numbers of men. For cavalry I decided on 6 and 4 respectively, in favour of the Roundheads. In addition each side had 2 bases of sakers, the Royalists had a musketeer unit, the Parlies a regiment of dragoons and 800 raw garrison troops in the Nantwich suburb of Welsh Row. To balance things a little I used M.Foy's troop ratings which made all but one of the Royalist foot, and one of the Royalist horse units veteran.

I measured out the distances between various landmarks on a modern map of the area of the battlefield, and added a rectangle to the dimensions of my table. After shifting the rectangle a few times I landed on what I thought was the optimal position. The tricky part of this is my table is not very deep so I have to be selective about what to include on the table top.

The action was played out this afternoon and evening over about 2 1/2 hours in total, and is told through the captions below.

Black Tom cheers his lads on whilst Sir William Brereton prematurely enumerates poultry, confident that they will soon link up with the Nantwich garrison.

The opposing armies in the distance. Roundheads marching towards Nantwich in the foreground. The Royalists aiming to catch the rebels en route. Abandoned Royalist siege lines can be seen left of Nantwich.

The Royalist host, foot in checkerboard formation, advance to attack the Parliamentarians, hoping to catch them still in march column.

Black Tom's army on the march to Nantwich. The Roundheads would have to test to change direction to face the Royalists, unit by unit. This made it extremely difficult to co-ordinate a response, with some units continuing their march whilst others turned off the road.

Royalist view of the marching Roundhead column.

First clash of horse on the Royalist right. This fight was to swing to and fro over several turns. Unfortunately for the Royalists they lose Lord Molyneux in the melee (and a victory point to the rebels).

Three Roundhead foot battalia and the artillery have deployed by Henhull farm, but one continues its march and obstructs the guns, just when tempting tagets appear. It's looking dicey for the Parliamentarians with some units deployed and others marching on towards Nantwich.

Royalist guns open fire on the Roundhead column. Their aim is accurate, and the powder burns well. They cause losses on the rebel column and force them to hold their advance. In the background the Royalist horse swing around the enclosure to take the Roundhead flank.

View from Henhull farm of the approaching Royalist tertio. One of the rebels' battalia hasn't got the memo and marches across the front of the deployed sakers.

Roundhead harquebusiers make a beeline for the flank of the Royalist foot (currently pre-occupied with the Rebel foot). Fortunately for the Royalists, the enemy horse fail to charge home and flow round them. The horse go on to charge the Royalist guns, successfully spiking one pair gaining a victory point in the process.

The bloody firefight in the centre.

Fairfax's foot (background) begins to gain the upper hand, once the Royalist horse on the Roundhead left is fully occupied. Two Royalist battalia are knocked hors de combat (two more victory points for the Roundheads).

Over on the Royalist left the horse and foot of both sides finally shape up against each other. On this flank the Royalists eventually gain the upper hand decimating the opposing foot and routing both horse units (this brings it back to 2 VPs to 4).

Roundhead horse chase off the gunners and spike a pair of guns.

From behind the Roundhead foot you can see the massive gaps appearing in the Royalist line.

After 6 turns the Nantwich garrison can dice to join the fray. It takes a couple more turns before they do, arriving too late to make a difference.

Overview of the collapsing Royalist position in the centre. Their right wing cavalry have been cleared from the field. On top the left the Cavaliers have seen off their opponents and the left wing foot has gained the upper hand, but is it going to be too late? Bottom left, the Funky Hulk's men have left the confines of Acton to save the remaining pair of guns (and a VP)

But it's all over. The second cavalry regiment on the royalist right is cleared from the field, giving the Roundheads their 6th VP.  The game is won 6 VP to 4 - two foot and horse units apiece plus the loss of the Royalist guns and Molyneux.

Royalist losses: 13 horse and 10 foot bases.

Parliamentarian losses, not much lower at a total of 22 bases.

So, with apologies to JBM, another battle chez Nundanket goes the way of the righteous (and with history). I have a few more tweaks to make to my rules, or rather the written version as I made changes in game. They keep evolving each time I play, but still recognisably the same.

			Parliamentarians				Royalists
	Link	Sources	Foot	Horse	Dragoons	Guns	Foot	Horse	Dragoons	Guns
Wikipedia	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Nantwich	Young & Holmes, Rogers, BCW Project	4500 (Might incl garrison)	1800	500		2000	1800
Battlefields of Britain	http://www.battlefieldsofbritain.co.uk/battle_nantwich_1644.html	*	3000 (+2000 in garrison)	1500	500		2500	1000
Battlefields Trust	http://www.battlefieldstrust.com/resource-centre/civil-war/battleview.asp?BattleFieldId=27	None cited	2500-3000	1800	500		2500	1000
BCW Project	http://bcw-project.org/military/english-civil-war/wales-marches/nantwich-campaign#nantwich	**	3000 (+2000 in garrison)	1800			3500
	Adamson, J (2007). The Noble Revolt. Orion, London. Barrett, C.R.B (1896). Battles and Battlefields in England. London. Bennett, M (1990). A Travellers Guide to Battlefields of the English Civil War. Webb and Bower Ltd, Exeter. Beresford, M.W and St Joseph, J.K.S (1979). Medieval England - An Aerial Study. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. Burne, A.H (2005). Battlefields of England. Pen and Sword Books Ltd, Barnsley. Cyprien, M and Fairbairn, N (1983). A Traveller's Guide to the Battlefields of Britain. Evans Brothers Ltd, London. Dodds, G.L (1996). Battles in Britain 1066-1746. Arms & Armour, London. Douglas, D.C, Coward, B and Gaunt, P (ed) (1975). English Historical Documents Vol 5B (1603-1660). Routledge, London. Gardiner, S.R (1889). History of the Great Civil War Vol. II. London. Green, H (1973). Guide to the Battlefields of Britain and Ireland. Constable, London. Guest, K (1996). British battles: the front lines of history in colour. Harper Collins, London. Hunt, T (2003). The English Civil War at First Hand. Orion Books, London. Kinross, J (1979). The Battlefields of Britain. London. Lancaster, J.H.D (2015). Nantwich: Battlefield visit notes and observations. CastlesFortsBattles.co.uk. Ordnance Survey (2015). Nantwich. 1:1250. Southampton. Roberts, K (2005). Cromwell's War Machine: The New Model Army 1645-60. Pen and Sword, Barnsley Royle, T (2004). Civil War: The Wars of Three Kingdoms 1638-1660. Abacus, London Smurthwaite, D (1993). The Complete Guide to the Battlefields of Britain. Michael Joseph, London. Woolrych, A (2002). Britain in Revolution. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
	** A.H. Burne & P. Young, The Great Civil War, a military history (London 1959) S.R. Gardiner, History of the Great Civil War vol. i (London 1888) Peter Gaunt, The Cromwellian Gazetteer (Stroud 1987) Ronald Hutton, The Royalist War Effort 1642-46, (London 1999) P.R. Newman Atlas of the English Civil War, (London 1985) Stuart Reid, All the King's Armies (Staplehurst 1998) Alf Thompson, Nantwich 1644 (Orders of the day, Volume 31, Issue 1, Jan/Feb 1999)