The Situation: After his recent victories, King Charles decided that bold, aggressive action was called for and he simply decided to march directly south to London. The small garrison shut the gates and called upon the Earl of Essex to succour them. Knowing his army was marginally stronger than that of the King's, he marched as quickly as he could, to drive off the King and his army and save the capital...the Royalist Army awaited him around a farm near Wembley...
This is a must win battle for Essex, failure risks the fall of London...
The Forces:
The Royalists:
King Charles (Average)
Generals: Astley (Good); Byron (Average), Gerard (Average)
Horse: 30 bases Veteran Horse (S), 4 bases Raw Horse, 1 base Raw Dragoons
Foot: 14 bases Veteran Foot (SH), 2 bases Raw Foot (SH)
Guns: 4 bases of Guns
The Parliamentarians:
Earl of Essex (Average)
Generals: Waller (Good); Skippon (Good); Brooke (Average)
Horse: 46 bases Veteran Horse (D), 1 base Veteran Dragoons
Foot: 16 bases Veteran Foot (SH), 2 bases Raw Foot (SH)
Guns: 5 bases of Guns
The Set-Up:
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| The view from behind the Royalist centre, which hangs on a farm enclosure. |
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| The Royalist Left (right) and the Parliamentary Right (left)...mainly brigade after brigade of Horse, but Essex has decided to overlap a little with his Foot (centre-left) |
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| Another view, but looking further down the lines |
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| The massed Parliamentary Horse: 3000 Veteran troopers |
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| The Parliamentary Centre |
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| The Parliamentary Left: Unusually this has Foot leading, with Horse in reserve to exploit any breakthrough |
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| The Royalist Right defends the high ground, with Foot supported by Horse |
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| The Royalist Centre deployed around the farm |
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| The ranks of Cavaliers on the Royalist Left |
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| Another view of the farm and enclosures |
The Battle:
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| Essex begins the battle by moving forward with his Foot in the Centre |
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| The Royalists take the initiative on their Left and attack; their leading brigade gets the better of the first exchanges |
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| The leading troops of Parliamentary Horse have been routed! |
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| The remaining troops of the leading brigade charge the Cavaliers to restore the situation |
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| The Parliamentary Centre, under Skippon, moves to musketry range and a ferocious fire-fight breaks out in and around the enclosure |
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| The Royalist Left flank is a blur of fighting! |
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| The firing gets even hotter in the Centre |
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| Finally Waller brings his Foot up to the base of the hill and the musketry echoes on this portion of the battlefield too |
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| Essex' gambit has not worked; results are mixed but in general the Royalist troopers have gotten the better of the Parliamentary Foot |
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| The Royalist Horse is gaining the upper hand on the left... |
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| ...as can be seen, the fighting ebbs and flows, but in general the melee is swirling towards the Parliamentary side... |
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| The Royalist Horse is about to overrun a couple of Parliamentary guns |
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| Fighting is fierce just to the left of the enclosure |
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| A very smart assualt up the hill by some of Waller's infantry breaks through! The successful battalia is just shy of the summit...King Charles looks on (centre-right), very unamused... |
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| A wider view of the Royalist Right, with the split clearly visible on the hill |
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| Both sides throw in more brigades into the mass cavalry fight on the Royalist Left |
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| The fighting in the centre remains in violent stalemate... |
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| The Royalist progress on the extreme left can be clearly seen - note the routing group of Roundhead Horse... |
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| The King rushes up a reserve brigade of Foot to plug the gap (bottom-right) |
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| A fierce fight breaks out on the hill top |
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| In the centre, the Royalist Foot make some progress, driving their opponents back (left) |
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| The reserves of Parliamentary Horse are looking distinctly threadbare on the Royalist Left... |
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| A few more troops of Parliamentary Horse (centre) temporarily reverse the tide - see the routing remnants of a Royalist Horse brigade (bottom-right) |
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| Essex' centre is looking distinctly vulnerable on its right (left) |
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| A successful attack led by the King himself has restored the situation on the hill (centre-right); but Waller's troops are now pushing forward at the base of the hill (left) - see the routing Royalist foot (bottom-right) |
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| The Parliamentarians are running out of troopers to throw into the maelstrom quicker than the Royalists are... |
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| More cavalry fighting: the Royalist Horse on the left are about to collapse (top-left) but another Parliamentary brigade is routing (centre-right) |
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| Skippon's Foot are under pressure to left and right... |
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| Gerard leads a brigade of Horse in counter-attack; Waller's Foot are fighting hard, but Waller himself is unhorsed and captured! |
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| The King and Astley have restored the situation around the centre of the hill |
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| Royalist Horse have pushed the Roundheads right back... |
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| The Royalist Foot advancing in the centre |
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| Skippon's troops are now outflanked on the other side too! |
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| The Parliamentary Foot try desperately to cling onto the base of the hill |
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| The King and Astley watch with grim satisfaction as it becomes apparent that their army has beaten off the onslaught... |
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| The Parliamentary Horse facing the Royalsit Left is in full rout now... |
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| The Parliamentary centre is looking very shaky too... |
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| The Parliamentary Left is collapsing rapidly as the King's men push on... |
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| ...it is clear that this wing is not going to stand... |
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| The centre and right have held, and the King's left is triumphant |
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| Long Live His Majesty! |
Game Results:
A titanic struggle but in the end, a crushing Royalist victory. The Parliamentarians have lost c.1700 Horse and c.3200 Foot and Waller and Brooke have bee captured, whilst the Royalists have lost c.950 Horse and 1100 Foot; although Byron has been captured in his turn. This loss, following a long sequence of Parliamentary losses, have left its cause in tatters and it is not clear if London can be saved in the short-term, or even if the struggle can be maintained...
Game Notes:
Very little to say really: I have got these
Polemos: ECW rules working as well as I think it can for me. I think without quite meaning to I have slightly changed the rallying rules to be less complicated. The rules as written are clear and logical but a bit of a faff to administer. What I have ended up doing is using 1TP to rally a Veteran or Trained unit, 2TPs to rally a Raw unit. The unit can only be rallied if it hasn't shot, attempted to charge or participated in close combat or supported it in a given turn. I think the reason for this is that the rules as written depend on remembering what base did what through the entirety of a turn. Polemos Napoleonic is much better in this regard, since rallying is carried out at the same time as moving.
Figures by
Baccus 6mm, building by
Leven
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