Certain godly men within Shrewsbury wrote to Parliament to assure it that its forces had only to approach the city and the cowardly Cavaliers would run: but until then, the righteous and the virtuous would continue to suffer under the yoke of the licentiousness and immoral...Meanwhile, the town leaders of Plymouth wrote to celebrate the recent advance of that noble hero, the Earl of Bedford and assured Parliament it would not stint on its efforts until the whole kingdom lived once again in peace and freedom.
Cromwell moved to The Fens to continue his recruiting. Manchester, King Charles and Prince Rupert remained stationary after their previous exertions, conducting training instead.
The Marquis of Newcastle moved to the city of Newcastle to recruit further forces. Fairfax remained in Hull, training his troops. Brereton moved north and took Appleby in Westmoreland.
In the West, Waller took Bridgenorth. He then made a lightning raid northwards to try and take Shrewsbury with the aid of the Parliamentary plotters - but the King's intelligencers were well aware of the plan and it was foiled, precipitating a hasty move south on Waller's part, to take Clungunford. Cavendish pursued Waller immediately, hoping to bring him to battle, but Waller evaded him and retreated to Ross-on-Wye. Cavendish consoled himself by taking Clungunford and Hereford back for the King. Meanwhile, Prince Maurice rode to Shrewsbury to begin the process of recruiting a new army for the King...
Bedford marched on Goring's position at St. Austell. Goring tried to escape but failed. In a short but sharp action, Bedford lost nearly 1000 men, but Goring lost double that and was capture too. The remnants of the Royalist Army ran pell-mell down the road towards Penzance...the King's cause looks doomed in the South West, for the present.
The Earl of Stamford, the Lord of Parham (Willoughby) and the Lord of Groby were all retired from the Parliamentary forces for their opposition to signing a covenant with the Scottish Presbyterians...
The North:
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Royalists:
Newcastle is at Newcastle with 4000 Foot & 1500 Horse
Ethyin is at York with 1000 Foot
Preston has a garrison of 1000 Foot
Parliament:
Brereton is at Appleby with 3000 Foot & 3000 Horse
Fairfax is at Hull with 2000 Foot & 1500 Horse
The Midlands:
Royalists:
Chester has a garrison of 1000 Foot
King Charles is at Newark with 6000 Foot & 3000 Horse
Prince Maurice is at Shrewsbury with 1000 Foot & 750 Horse
Cavendish is at Hereford with 3000 Foot & 2250 Horse
Gloucester has a garrison of 1000 Foot
Parliament:
Manchester is in the Fens with 9000 Foot & 2250 Horse (2000 of the Foot are operating independently)
Waller is at Ross-on-Wye with 3000 Foot & 1500 Horse
Massey is in Bristol with 1000 Foot
The South:
Royalists:
Prince Rupert is in St.Albans with 8000 Foot and 3750 Horse
Hopton is in Oxford with 2000 Foot & 750 Horse
2000 Foot & 750 Horse are in Penzance
Parliamentarians:
Bedford is in Truro with 5000 Foot & 2250 Horse
Essex is in London with 9000 Foot & 2250 Horse
Reading is garrisoned with 1000 Foot
Hampden is at Basing with 2000 Foot
Game Notes:
The opportunity to secure his hold on the East Midlands was too much to resist for King Charles, who spent his time securing the Nottingham area before launching his next offensive. Although perhaps not the most decisive move, it also pinned the Parliamentary armies - feeling too weak, they could not commit whilst the King remained in his central position. Waller's actions, although hardly glorious, have succeeded in pulling Cavendish to the South whilst Brereton attacks North. The competing stresses in the North West and West country, added to the imminent Parliamentary triumph in the Southwest, will soon force the King and Prince Rupert to start to disperse their strength away from the Home Counties. So the King's dilemma remains: London, Bristol or the North?
I didn't play out the action at St. Austell, because I wasn't quite sure how to do it justice. The effectiveness of Cornishmen Foot is considered by the game to double when they are fighting in Cornwall(!). So rather than work out a mechanism to enable this, I just used the game engine. Of course, the answer is obvious and I did work it out in the following month: simply double the number of bases of Foot...(so a single base represents 250 Foot rather than 500)
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