ECW Campaign Battle 05: The Battle of the River Ribble

Smarting from his defeat at the hands of the Marquis of Newcastle in February, Fairfax cast aside for a new strategy.  Feeling that his army was not yet ready to resume the struggle with Newcastle's army, and deciding that York appeared unlikely to fall quickly to an assault, which would also render him vulnerable to Newcastle, whether he succeeded or not, decided to march southwest in order to succour Brereton and with luck, defeat or destroy Derby's small Royalist force in Lancashire.  Quickly marching upon the latter, Derby attempted to escape but failed and was forced to give battle, defending the line of the Ribble against Farifax's advancing army...

The Forces:

Parliamentarians:

F.Fairfax (Poor)

T. Fairfax (Good):

6 bases of Veteran Horse, 10 bases of Raw Horse

1 base of Raw Dragoons

2 bases of Veteran Foot, 2 bases of Raw Foot

1 Gun

Royalists:

Derby (Poor): 

6 bases of Raw Horse

4 bases of Raw Foot

1 Gun

 The Set-Up:

A view of the centre and right of the Royalist position.  The centre is fixed on the dominating central hill.

The centre-left of the Royalist position.

A closer view of the Royalist centre.  Note the battalia of Foot in reserve (top) able to quickly march in any direction

A battalia of Foot in a hamlet on the other side of the stream.

Thomas Fairfax commands the Parliamentary left, consisting of the veteran Horse and the Dragoons

The centre, of mixed Horse and Foot

And the Parliamentary Right, facing the hamlet and the stream.

The view from behind the Royalist Foot on the central hill

And again!

 The Battle:

The battle begins with an infantry attack on the defended hamlet

Derby makes a bold stroke, sending his Horse into the charge down the slope!

Although the Parliamentarians have recoiled, the Royalist Foot in the hamlet have been routed*

The charge of the Royalist Horse in the centre has met with some success!  Fairfax's guns have been captured and the Foot battalia have been pushed back...

Fairfax's Foot rout!  One of the Royalist Horse troops has also been routed*

However, the reserve Parliamentary Horse brigade catches the pursuing Royalist Horse in a state of disorder...

Fairfax assaults the hill directly but suffers heavy casualties!

And is seen off!!

A second Royalist Horse troop is routed

Fairfax's Horse are still stuck on the slopes of the hill, and the left-hand troop has been routed by the advancing Royalist Foot

And a third attack fails! Although some of the Royalist Foot and Guns have been pushed back

A fourth attack succeeds...finally!

Thomas Fairfax's attack on the left develops and routs the remainder of Derby's troops who begin to run headlong to the rear...

 Game Results:

The Royalists didn't fight amiss, but in the end were defeated and suffered heavily.  

Royalist Losses: c.1350 Foot, c.980 Horse, 2 Guns

Parliamentary Losses: c.450 Foot, c. 250 Horse (2 guns were lost but were re-captured).

Game Notes:

I thought that Derby fought this battle more skillfully than Ferdinando Fairfax but in the end the superiority in numbers and skill of the Parliamentary armies told.  The sacrifice of a battalia of Foot around the Hamlet to draw off Fairfax's best infantry seemed justified.  Charging the Parliamentary Horse early on was risky, but the situation justified the risk since waiting for the attack to develop would spell almost certain defeat.  The deployment was such as to force Fairfax to commence the action with his Raw centre troops rather than wait for Thomas Fairfax's veteran Horse to develop its flank attack.

*The mechanics of the phenomenon is this: two recoil results in sequential phases is an automatic rout.  In the infantry assault on the hamlet, the result in the first phase was defender recoil, in the second phase it was both sides recoil (this happens on an equal score); so attacker recoils, defender routs.  In the Horse attack on the Foot, it was even more interesting.  The first result was a 0 - both sides recoil.  In the next phase - IIRC, this was on the following turn, one side resumed the attack and achieved the same result.  Unless I am missing something (very possible!) this results in a mutual rout.

There were no noticeable mechanical issues in this game with the Polemos: ECW rules.  I am much happier with the game now I have sat down and mathematically worked out "what works".

For anyone who may be interested, this is the pile of extra stuff I use for playing Polemos ECW: the rulebook, pen and paper, some casualty markers, spare Dragoon bases (as they switch between mounted and dismounted), dice, tape-measure and little measuring bases.

 And this is what I write in the book: the tempo points for each side, and the initial morale level.  I also record the tempo bids for each side on this sheet.  Naturally I change the tempo points and morale level as the game progresses.  I also keep a tally chart of bases lost, since that effects both numbers

 

Figures by Baccus 6mm, buildings by Baccus and Timecast, the game was played on a 6'x4' table and took about 90 minutes.

 

ECW Campaign: February 1643

The English Civil War: February 1643

Lord Eythin joined the Marquis of Newcastle at Hexham.  The Earl of Stamford relieved Col. Ruthin at Reading.

Newark & Berwick both re-pledged their loyalty to the cause of King Charles.

Hopton took Devizes, then marched on Winchester.  Bedford remained at Dorchester, continuing the training of his troops.  Byron moved back to Basing, having united all the troops he could muster in the South.

The Marquis of Newcastle marched on Richmond and brought the Fairfaxes to battle at Barningham.  The Royalists won and the Parliamentarians retreated on Bolton Castle.

The Earl of Essex made a final effort to march to Oxford and relieve the siege of that city.  King Charles left a covering force and then blocked the road.  At the subsequent bloody battle, King Charles drove off the Parliamentary army, which retreated with loss upon Wycombe.   Charles then ordered an assault on Oxford, to capture the city before Essex could intervene again - this was achieved, although with loss.

Groby moved to Melton Mowbray to begin recruiting, whilst Cavendish moved to Lincoln for the same reason.  Worcester fell to Foppingham.

William Waller and his small army sailed from Plymouth and landed at Pembroke. 

 

The North:

Royalists:
Newcastle at Richmond with c.6000
Derby at Blackburn with c.3000
Forth at York with c.1000


Parliamentarians:
Brereton with c.2000 at Preston
The Fairfaxes with c.5000 at Bolton Castle
c.1000 at Carlisle
c.1000 at Hull

The Midlands:

Royalists:
Cavendish at Lincoln with c.2000
Vasey at Shrewsbury with c.2000
c.1000 at Newark
c.1000 at Chester

Parliamentarians:
Foppington with c.3000 at Worcester
Wark with c.4000 in The Fens
c.1000 at Nottingham
Waller with c.4000 at Pembroke

The South:

Royalists:
King Charles at Oxford with c.9000
Hopton at Winchester with c.7000
Byron at Basing with c.4000
Goring on Dartmoor with c.2000

Parliamentarians:
Essex at Wycombe with c.11000
Willoughby at Colchester with c.1000
Hampden in London with c.3000
Stamford in Reading with c.4000
Bedford in Dorchester with c.7000
Massey in Bristol with c.2000

Game Notes: A much better month for King Charles, as he re-takes his de facto capital, Oxford, and also has a substantial victory in the North.  He has also managed to gather substantial forces in the heart of Southern England and is now poised to strike.  But where to strike?  For London or for Bristol?  The only real advance for the Parliamentary cause was the taking of Worcester, which compensates partially for losing Oxford back into the King's hands.
One thing to note is that recruitment and desertion are just as important as battles in this game, which explains why the Royalist armies seem less strong than they might have done and the Parliamentary armies a little stronger - this is because the Parliamentary armies did better in recruitment and retention (i.e. avoiding desertion) than the Royalist armies.  This is three-quarters down to luck, but also partly down to skill - allowing some armies to whither so that stronger armies can be built up elsewhere is a key part of the game.  For example, does the King take desertion losses in his Welsh regiments which can then be rebuilt in Shreswbury or in Wales, or keep the Welsh units and allow more desertion in his English units, which can hopefully be recruited in situ.  Keeping field armies up to strength is much more difficult than keeping garrisons up to strength .