Action at Puddleby / Little Pottering

The game was played earlier exposing some gaping hole in my home-brew rules. Nevermind, I had fun.

If ever there was a game of chance, this was it. First of all I diced for whether the the Parliamentarian force would march in one column or split up. The Dice Gods determined that it should stay together. Then I diced for choice of route. The middle route was selected.

Colonel Dove's force and the wagon train it was accompanying was preceded by the dragoons, then the wagons, gun, infantry and one squadron of horse followed up the rear. The other squadron of horse headed over the fields to guard the flank on the column. Dove had been warned of Royalist incursions into the area. No certainty of direction, but the most likely route was from the north.

The column makes its way south then east. The dragoons have trotted on ahead to secure the junction with the sunken lane.

On the fourth turn the Royalists appeared. I diced for which side of the each unit would appear on (1 west; 2 south; 3 east, 4-6 north). Then I diced for how far along the unit would arrive from the chosen side. The commanded shot arrived from the south, between Rust Hall and Puddleby. Another squadron arrived north of Puddleby with a galloper gun. The rest arrived  from the north, between the sunken lane and the Puddleby side of the stream, except for one unit that arrived from the east by Little Pottering.

Yellow = Parliament; Blue = Royalist

The Parliamentarian rearguard squadron deploys into line and the Green Regiment forms a hedgehog to block the road when a Royalist horse unit appears from the west. The foot to the front left are the 'locals' waiting for an opportune time to declare for the King.

Just as the dragoons dismounted at the junction of the road and sunken lane, a Royalist squadron comes thundering down the lane. The flanking Roundhead squadron is not able to intervene in time due to the high banks of the lane. Fortunately for the dragoons the enemy is restricted to a narrow frontage and they get a shot off before the cavalry crash into them. Nevertheless the cavalry get the better of the encounter and the dragoons give ground then rout.

In the west the Royalists reach the bridge from two directions. Potts' Red Regiment forms up on the edge of Puddleby whilst Potts' horse trot down the road to Rust Hall to try to catch the Royalist musketeers.

The Royalist cavalry who have seen off the dragoons surprisingly do not hare off in pursuit. The train guard firelocks to their left shoot some of the cavaliers.

At Little Pottering the Royalist squadron has failed to work its way through the village and is caught in the flank by the Parliamentarian rear guard. This is when they are first pushed back before routing. Whilst this is all going on the locals fail to throw their lot in with the Royalists.

Royalist commander Sir Clive and his lifeguard of horse climb up the bank of the sunken lane to challenge the Roundhead flank guard. After a brief action Sir Clive's men are defeated then finished off. Brave Sir Clive quits the field with his routed men. The loss of command was to hamper the Royalists thereafter.

On the west side of the stream a squadron of Royalists have charged Potts' squadron to save the musketeers. Potts' men countercharge and rout the Cavaliers pursuing them to the bridge, despite being outnumbered.

Meanwhile the Royalist dragoons hold off Potts' Red Regiment with honour

At Rust Hall, Sir John Smythe has finally sobered up enough to lead his men onto the field of battle. Whereupon first his foot regiment and then the levies are charged and routed. Before long Smythe's men are all sheltering in the Hall's grounds with the dragoons. All three routed by the same cavalier squadron. Unfortunately for the Royalists, the cumulative effect of these actions is to wear them down. Eventually the combined efforts of the firelocks and Smythe's musketeers finish off the cavaliers as an effective unit.

Having finished off the Royalist cavalry the Roundhead rear guard and the Green Regiment catch up with the train.

The remaining intact Royalist cavalry squadron retreat from the sunken lane to meet up with the commanded shot (right of the picture)

The Puddleby garrison hold the bridge at both ends whilst a depleted cavalier squadron looks on. There appeared to be little chance of the Royalists succeeding at this point so I called it a day. Colonel Dove's luck held out, especially in the cavalry combats. The Roundheads didn't lose a single round of horse v horse melee.

That was an enjoyable, if chaotic game. I need to tidy up a lot of stuff in the rules if I am to use them again.

PS I'll be heading up to Newark on Sunday for the Other Partizan. If there is any kind of blogger meet up (I note that Ray, and no doubt some other Rejects will be there) I'd love to hear about it.

And now for something....a little different

Feeling bit run down the other day I reached for some 'comfort reading' from the newly rationalised and re-stacked shelves. I plucked the Airfix Guide to the English Civil War by George Gush and Martin Windrow. It really is an excellent little book with a brief but good explanation of the causes and course of the war. Those of you who have read the book will know that it ends with an introduction to wargaming the ECW and a nice little report of a game umpired by one* of the authors (*George Gush?). An Old School Classic.

It's a nice little scenario that could be seen as reflecting the divided loyalties of many districts. The summaries of the war show nice neat maps of the country divided between Parliamentarian and Royalist regions, when in fact the picture was more complex particularly early on when people were jockeying for position and seeing if anyone gained the upper hand before declaring their hand.

The scenario for the game was a Parliamentary force that had to get a small train of wagons containing cash from the village of Little Pottering to the safety of the small town of Puddleby (at the opposite end of the board). You can see where this is going.

The table (1.8x1.0m) viewed from Puddleby. Little Pottering is top left.

I quickly ran out of masking tape for the roads so I reached for my collection of hedges to mark the roads on the northern and eastern sides (left and far end). The sunken lane runs about halfway up from the left to the middle of the table.

Now the forces. First the orders of battle.

Parliamentarians
Commander	Colonel Dove
	Cavalry	2 squadrons	3 troops each	C
Rust Hall	Sir John Smythe	Dice for
	Infantry	Sir John Smythe’s regiment		D
	Levies		400 with Improvised weapons	E
Puddleby Garrison	Infantry	Potts’ Red regiment		D
	Cavalry	Capt. Partridge’s squadron		D
Convoy Escort	Infantry	Green regiment		C
	Firelocks	Train Guard	200 - 1 base	C
	Dragoons	4 companies	200 - 1 base	D
	Light Gun			C
	5 wagons

Royalists
Commander	Sir Clive McLeod
	Cavalry	LifeGuard of Horse	2 troops	B
	Cavalry	3 squadrons	4 troops each	A
	Cavalry	1 squadron	4 troops	C
	Dragoons	3 companies	160 - 1 weak base	C
	Commanded Musketeers		600 - 3 bases	C
	Galloper gun			C
Little Pottering	Villagers	Dice for	200 with Improvised weapons + 100 with muskets	E

The convoy and escort with Colonel Dove. The key decision will be which route(s) and whether the convoy will be divided. I don't have enough carts so I'm using 2 limbers as proxies.

Sir John Smythe and his force at Rust Hall. Activation of this force will be diced for.

Puddleby with its garrison of Potts' Foot and Captain Partridge's squadron

Sir Clive McLeod's cavalry heavy Royalist force. 3 squadrons of cavalier types likely to go haring off if victorious, 1 squadron of less 'aristocratic' tendency and 2 troops or 1/2 squadron of McLeod's more professional bodyguards. I plan to dice for where each unit arrives.

Armed locals at Little Pottering. Will they turnout for the King or remain at their homes? Another force to be diced for.

The rules I'm going to be using are my home-brewed set, last used in Covid time. They are clunky but will do the job for this sort of game as there's lots of friction built in. Changes of orders must be diced for and odds can be improved by allocating 'messengers' to units. Messengers are really command pips but have to travel from the commander to subordinates or units at courier speed (300mm/turn). They can be sent in advance of expected decisions. E.G. a unit will arrive at a junction so the player can allocate 'messengers' to the unit helping them 'pick' the right direction. The number of 'messengers' is determined each turn by roll of a dice. Commanders adjacent to units can also increase the chance of the unit complying with the player's wishes.

Horse and foot move at 200 and 100mm a turn respectively with 50% added for march column in open country, or +100% on roads. Limbered guns and wagons move at 150mm on roads. Maximum range for muskets is 200mm, 300mm for light guns and 40mm for pistols.

All forces will start off in march column. As mentioned above, the Royalists will arrive at fairly random locations and maybe at variable times. But the orders for the Parliamentarian convoy and escort is something I'd like to throw out there. If anyone would like to allocate march orders for the Parliamentarians, I'd be willing to put them into practice.

Rocroi, 1643 - Part II

The battle was fought out to a conclusion Tuesday evening. It took another 2-3 hours for 5 more turns. A total of 9 turns in 5 hours. So much longer per turn than I'm used to with the Twilight of the Soldier Kings rules for the 18th century. The game took longer too by an hour or two. Maybe that's because of lack of familiarity with the rules. 

I left off last time with the French gaining the upper hand on the wings. On the French left they had inflicted more losses on the Spanish cavalry to even up the odds, but the French had retired back over the stream to lick their wounds. The Spanish were unable to follow them as their wing had become 'Fatigued', as had the Spanish on the other flank. In the centre the Spanish, led by the veteran tercios, had got slightly the better of things. Here is an account of Part II, with pictures and captions.

End of turn 4 in the centre. Spanish tercios had charged the French.

End of turn 4: Some of the Spanish allies (probably German) had also charged the French

Turn 5: Spanish tercio in the distance had pushed their French opponents back

Turn 5: Right in the middle, the French infantry had fired on the Spanish battery, clearing off the gunners. Unfortunately my gunners are glued to the bases so guns and men have to be removed. A tercio advances to the attack.

Hawk's eye view of Spanish veterans at the charge. These were mostly conversions from musketeers.

On the Spanish right wing, their cavalry was successful in rallying (hence the disappearance of loss/disorder markers). The French cavalry, mostly out of shot, were doing the same thing.

Turn 6: French right. Only 1 battered Spanish brigade remains (circled). One French cavalry unit has gone haring off on an uncontrolled pursuit. They would be off board for several turns.

Turn 6: In the centre a French brigade is about to be attacked from two directions (left of pic). Action became rather confused after this, but the Spanish had the upper hand.

Turn 6: French left. Having rallied the French begin to cross to the Spanish side of the stream again.

Turn 7: In the centre the Spanish have caused the French line to buckle and Condé sent the reserve to help (bottom right crossing the stream). The Spanish veteran tercios are hard to defeat in IDV: they get extra saving dice so unless you inflict several hits in a turn things just seem to bounce off them like 2punders hitting a Tiger.

Turn 7: One of the French brigades has been routed and it bursts through the reserve cavalry disordering them.

Turn 7: further to the left another French brigade has been chased off back across the stream. At least behind the stream they come to a halt - linear obstacles cause routers to stop on the other side.

Turn 7: But over on the French right some relief for the French as they rout the 5th and final enemy brigade. One French brigade is still off table in pursuit.

Turn 7: General situation. Spanish and allies to the right of the line. Off camera to the right the Spanish have begun to refuse their infantry flank ready for the expected onslaught of French cavalry.

Turn 8: Hawk's view again of the general situation with new French cavalry attacks left and right.

Turn 8: An oblique view of the same.

Turn 8: French right. One French cavalry unit has pursued a defeated Spanish brigade off table, whilst another has been bounced by the fresh enemy infantry. 

Meanwhile in the centre, the battered French unit circled manages to hold off and temporarily bounce the Spanish veterans! Behind them another battered unit marches back across the stream to avoid being totally wrecked and to allow French troops to come through. You really need to allow plenty of space between units!

Turn 9: This looked to be the highpoint for the Spanish in the centre. They have inflicted enough losses on the French in the centre to 'Fatigue' the French infantry, meaning they cannot attack any more. But their flanks are vulnerable to French cavalry (see arrows). In addition 2 French cavalry units were due to return in the Spanish rear.

At this point, the Spanish had to dice for 'General Will' (i.e. whether they had the morale to continue). The test was failed and they had to retire. The IDV rules have a provision for calculating if there is a pursuit and if so what the damage caused is. Given the French preponderance in steady cavalry and a fairly involved dicing methodology, the Spanish ended up with a total of 8 wrecked brigades out of an initial 21, plus one captured general. A resounding French victory, but this time, the veteran tercios survived. Not the heroic end for Alatriste envisioned by Perez-Reverte.