Lansdown FaceTime Game

My son and I had our 4th FaceTime game on Sunday. After the lack of clarity over what was where (or 'fog of war' if you prefer) in our Continuation War game the other week, I decided to try a gridded game. Last Autumn I created a hex grid on the back of my battle cloth. I fancied trying the ECW D3 rules produced by Peter of Grid based wargaming... fame. These aren't written for a gridded game but it wasn't too much bother to adapt them. We did veer slightly from the standard ECW D3 rules in that we had subordinate commanders ( 2 Royalist and 1 Roundhead) as the table looked dauntingly wide for one commander to control more than a tiny proportion.

Once we got the hang of them, we managed to churn through the turns quite quickly. The game was over in something like 1 hour 45 minutes and lasted 6 turns. I dare say we would take less time if we played it again. The game ended in a tactical victory for the Royalists, but a bloody one in which they lost more units than the Parliamentarians. So a fairly similar outcome to history but one achieved in a slightly different way.

I set the game up using a grid 17 by 8. The hexes are 13cm across the flats. Another change from previous games was the use of a stable camera rather than using my phone. Unfortunately I hadn't figured out how do screenshots with it. My son took some from his end but these didn't come out for some reason, so I still don't know how it looked from his end. I only had the small version of the shot in the corner of my screen. However, what we do have, another change, is a set of maps showing the game turn-by-turn thanks to my son keeping a record. I gave him the Royalist side as there was a strong Cornish presence at the battle and he is half-Cornish himself.

Roundhead centre and right. The white beads that you can just about see on the Royalist side have letters on them  for the grid referencing system. I bought a string bead set from the toy section of Wilko's a while back not knowing what I would use them for, but knowing they would be useful at some point.

Approximate starting positions.

I chose to start the game at the point when Waller's attack on Freezing Hill had been beaten back and he organised his army to receive the Royalist attack on Lansdown Hill. The first map below shows the approximate positions which I gave my son as part of his briefing pack. We then placed our respective units on copies of the maps and then I set them up on the table when we did the big reveal. The dark thick T-shape shows the steep slopes of Lansdown Hill and the rest of the area inside it is considered the plateau.


My son hadn't actually read an account of the battle, but the briefing gave a nudge by saying most of his pike could be considered elite if they were banded into pike only units. However, here he strayed from historical precedent. His Cornish pikemen were banded together in units but on his right wing (top left of the picture) not in the centre. The commanded shot were then placed in the centre (flanked by the guns) and his left wing was made up of all his horse and dragoons. There were also two pike and shot units on his right. He didn't know what units I had, just that I had less of each arm apart from dragoons.

Position after Turn 1. Blue = Royalist. This shot is rather truncated and doesn't show the Royalist right wing fully. Foot = Pike & Shot. Unit labels inverted show units moving back. Numbers next to units are the numbers of hits suffered. I am moving the horse wings back hoping to use my guns as flanking support before facing the Royalists in melee.

After Turn 2.The Royalists horse attacked my right wing horse unit and came off the worst. The Roundheads had good luck in most of the melees in the game.

After Turn 3. The Roundhead foot unit between the woods held up the Royalist musketeers for most of the game, routing at least one unit who tried to club it out with them. The dragoons retreated out of the wood after some good shooting. On the right two units of Royalist horse have been routed, but the hits begin to mount up on the Roundhead horse. The Cornish pikes are off the pic to the left (Royalist right).

After Turn 4. The Roundhead horse units on the right have gone, and the Royalist horse have hit the foot unit at the same time. Despite getting re-rolls for hitting the enemy in the flank, the cavaliers' dice rolls were poor. We knocked off some of the hits on one cavalier unit because it seemed unfair that the foot unit got two lots of dice rolls. Meanwhile, the cuirassiers are on the way to the rescue.

After Turn 5. On the left the pike unit is ready to climb the wall and seize the rebels' guns. The guns were out of command all game and did nothing. The melee between horse and foot on the right has ended in the foot and one horse unit routing, leaving one battered cavalier unit left. The Roundheads have routed more Royalists, but they are now on 4 out of the original 7 units themselves. A miscalculation on my part was leaving the foot unit too long guarding the gap between the woods.

After Turn 6. It's all over. Despite the cuirassiers smashing the last Royalist horse unit,  the stalwart Foot regiment between the woods has finally gone. The Roundheads retreat off the field. The Royalists are in no position to pursue and spend the night on the stricken field.

So overall a swift game and a satisfactory outcome. I realised afterwards I had made a mistake on the Parliamentarian OOB. They should have had more horse than the Royalists, but no dragoons. I doubt it would have made a difference to the end result, but those dragoons did a good job in the wood. With an extra horse unit, I'd almost certainly have placed it on the left like the cuirassiers and had to drag it over to the right where it might have been used to hit say the Royalist dragoons. On balance the right result.

With the scores at 2-all and my son has challenged me to a deciding SYW game, a period we haven't played for a long while. The question is, whether to do a gridded game or not. Surprisingly, he wasn't overly enamoured with the gridded game despite the greater clarity it offered.