Heretical Gaming is my blog about my gaming life, featuring small skirmishes and big battles from many historical periods (and some in the mythic past or the far future too). The focus is on battle reports using a wide variety of rules, with the occasional rules review, book review and odd musing about the gaming and history. Most of the battles use 6mm-sized figures and vehicles, but occasionally 15mm and 28mm figures appear too.

Friday 25 March 2016

English Civil War / Wars of the Three Kingdoms Battles for Polemos

A while back I made some notes on the sizes of battles in the ECW (I'm using this acronym because it is well-known but believe that Wars of the Three Kingdoms is a much better title).  The basic idea was to work out which battles could be fought with the Baccus 6mm basic armies and Polemos ECW rules and which would need reinforcements.

The contents of a starter army are:

8 bases of foot (4000 foot)
12 bases of horse (1500 horse)
2 artillery bases (4 guns)

Numbers are given below for troops or number of guns, figures in brackets indicate the number of bases according to standard Polemos ratios viz.
1 base foot = 500
1 base horse = 125
1 base dragoons = 250
1 base artillery = 2 guns

I have quite a laissez-faire attitude about using troops in different areas, so I'm perfectly happy to reset Auldearn for English armies (or reset Stow-on-the-Wold for Montrose and Covenanters, if I were to paint up those armies).  Essentially this means that if I have two armies with eight bases of foot each and a scenario calls for one side to have six and the other ten, I will simply transer two regiments to the other side.  It feels quite appropriate for this period!  And it also limits how many extras I need.

The numbers are taken from wikipedia or from published wargames scenarios and are not the last word in accuracy.  The only purpose of this guide was to indicate to me the sort of numbers required for refighting each battle.  Any additional information would be very welcome. So, for the first civil war

PLAY FROM THE BOX 

Powick Bridge: Royalists 1000H (8); Parliament 1000H (8)
Braddock Down: Royalists c.4500F (9), 500H/D (4), 2G (1); Parliament c.3500F (7), 500H (4), 2G(1)
Leeds: Royalists 1500F (3), 500H (4); Parliament 3000F (6), 900H(7)
Chalgrove Field: Royalists 1000H(8); Parliament 1000H(8), 150D(1) (proxy dragoons with horse whilst mounted, foot while dismounted; or just treat them as poor horse)
Gainsborough: Royalists c.1000H?(8) Parliament 1200H(10)
Stow-on-the-Wold: Royalists 3000F(6), 500H(4); Parliament 2500F(5), 600H(5)

PLAY FROM THE BOX WITH A COUPLE OF ADDITIONAL PACKS PER SIDE

Hopton Heath: Royalists 100F, 1000H(8), 4G(2); Parliament 1500, 4G (including at least 1 base of dragoons)
Stratton: Royalists 2400F(5), 500H(4), 8G(4); Parliament 5400F(11), 200H(2), 13G(6)
Nantwich: Royalists 2000F(4), 1800H(14); Parliament 4500F(9), 1800H(14), 500D(2)
Shieldfield: Royalists 3000F(6), 500H(4), 250D(1), 2G(1); Covenanters 4000F(8), 375H(3), 250D(1), 8G(4)
Cotes: Royalists 1000F(2), 1000H(8); Parliament 500F(1), 2100H(17)
Montgomery: Royalists 2800F(6), 1400H (11), 300D (1); Parliament 2500F (5), 1500H (12)
Tippermuir: Royalists 2000F(4), 150H(1); Covenanters  7000F(14), 800H(6)
Auldearn: Royalists 1300F(3), 250H(2); Covenanters 3600F(7), 300H(2)
Alford: Royalists 2000F(4), 300H(2); Covenanters 2000F(4), 600H(5)


MEDIUM BATTLES, REQUIRING ONE OR TWO BOOSTER PACKS PER SIDE

Lansdowne: Royalists 4000F(8), 2000H(16), 300D(1), 16G(8); Parliament 1500F(3), 2500H(20)
Roundway Down: Royalists 2000F(4), 1800H(14), 2G(1); Parliament 1800F(4), 2500H(20), 8G(4)
Winceby: Royalists 3000H(24); Parliament 2000F(4), 3000H(24)
Storming of Bolton: Royalists 6000F(12), 2000H(16); Parliament 4000 (mainly F)
Rowton Heath: Royalists 3500H(28); Parliament 1500F(3), 3350H (27)
Kilsyth: 3000F(6), 500H(4); Covenanters 7000F(14), 800H (6)


BIG BATTLES REQUIRING THREE OR MORE BOOSTER PACKS PER SIDE

Edgehill:
Royalists 9100F(18), 2500H(20), 800D(3), 16G(8) (therefore need 10 extra foot bases, 8 extra horse bases, 3 dragoon bases, 6 artillery bases)
Parliament 12000F(24), 2300H(19), 700D(3), 7G(3) (need 16 extra foot bases, 6 extra horse bases, 3 dragoon bases, 1-2 artillery bases)

Turnham Green:
Royalists c.13000, proportions roughly similar to Edgehill
Parliament: c. 24000, proportions roughly similar to Edgehill, but increase by 40%

Adwalton Moor:
Royalists: c.10000
Parliament: c.3500

Aldebourne Close:
Royalists: 5000H(40)
Parliament: 10000F(20), 4000H(32), 20G(10)

1st Newbury:
Royalists: 7500F(15), 7000H(56)
Parliament: 8000F(16), 6000H(48)

Relief of Newark:
Royalists: 3000F(6), 3500H(28), 3G(2)
Parliament: 5000F(10), 2000H(16), 13G(7)

Cheriton:
Royalists: 3500F(7), 2500H(20)
Parliament: 6500F(13), 3500H(28)

Cropredy Bridge:
Royalists: 4000F(8), 5000H(40)
Parliament: 4000F(8), 5000H(40), 11G(6)

Marston Moor:
Royalists: 11000F(22), 6000H(48), 14G(7)
Parliament: 6000F(12), 5000H(40)
Scots: 11000F(22), 2000H(16), 500D(2), 40G(20) (I might consider reducing the number of these very light guns)

Second Newbury:
Royalists: 5000F(10), 3500H(28)
Parliament: 1200F(2), 7000H(56)

Naseby:
Royalists: 3300F(7), 4100H(33)
Parliament: 7000F(14), 6000H(48), 500D(2)

Torrington:
Royalists: 2000F(4), 3000H(24)
Parliament: 10000











4 comments:

  1. No problem, I hope it helps.

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  2. Just discovered the Polemos ECW rules and your blog - some really helpful stuff in the review and other posts you've made so far, this one in particular. Must get some toys on the table (15mm in my case, so looking at small-medium scenarios, in the main). With so much Horse involved, I'm wondering how game balance might change if every cavalry base represented c.250 men - IIRC, a double-troop would occupy much the same ground as an infantry battalia of c.500 men but need to study the rules design notes etc more closely.

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  3. Thanks for your kind comments. I can't see it making "that" much difference but it will take a bit of experimenting to check, I think.

    ReplyDelete