Third Bishops' War: Battle Three

The next battle in this 3rd Bishop's War, following on from a successful French intervention on the south coast in the previous battle, mirrors that next battle in the Polemarch's 'War of the Stuart Succession' campaign.

Focus switches back to the North. Unlike in the Polemarch's campaign, the invading Scottish forces lost the first battle - however, we can assume that the Scots are reinforced and, given the calamity on the south coast, no reinforcements can be spared to the North - indeed, some regiments may have been marched towards London. The upshot therefore is that the Scots have resumed their offensive, and the remaining Northern militia forces have moved to a position near some coal pits north of Newcastle to block the advance.

 Again, this game was played out a while ago, so notes will be somewhat minimal. The game was once again played with Polemos: ECW.

 

The Set-Up: The Scots advance from the North (top) through the coal pits and hills breaking up the advance. 

The battle joined in earnest - the Scots' Foot and Horse engage the leading English brigade of Foot in the centre - the constrained terrain somewhat limiting the Scots' ability to fully deploy and utilize their force. 

The engagement becomes ferocious, with losses on both sides - the English are slightly pushed back to reform.

 The English attempt to reform:

The engagement resumes with renewed ferocity - the Scots push forward, whilst the English resist, still holding the wood on the centre-left as the hinge of the position.

The English have held onto the wood and thrown the Scots back, then launching a counter-attack

A furious battle rages on the other flank - the English holding on grimly...

The counter-attack rages in the centre too:

The main Scottish attack is succeeding, but the flanks are collapsing simultaneously...

A confused end to the battle: the English hold the wood, but the remainder of the left-hand brigade has finally routed after suffering heavy casualties; but the rest of the Scottish attack has stalled and the Scots' Army's moral ehas given out.

Game Notes:

More good fun, a very close and enjoyable game which really did go down to the wire.  The Polemos rules make a decent stab at getting the balance right between manoeuvre (a little, but not none) and hard fighting as a feature of the period. Committing reserves and overlapping on a flank are doable, more complex than that is very tricky. The processes within the rules are relatively easy to follow once you get the hang of them, get into the rhythm. Apart from a couple of calibration issues (one to do with the effectiveness of musketry, the other to do with artillery - and some interesting properties about the difference between Swedish and Dutch horse tactics), the rules have really stood up for me.

 

Figures by Baccus 6mm, buildings by Leven.