With both our Royalist players bowing out it was left to the Swedes and Roundheads to put Pike and Shotte through its first game at the RGMB.
Sides were roughly even and quite sizable, and astonishingly almost entirely painted! Only 12 dismounted dragoons and a gun disgraced the table!
For Parliament! 4 brigades:
The Earl of Essex (general) commanding Lifeguard, Saker and Storming Party.
Cromwell commanding 2 squadrons of Ironsides, 1 of Dragoons, and 2 units of commanded Shotte.
Earl James commanding 3 regiments of foot, 1 saker, 1 squadron of Horse.
Thomas Black commanding ditto.
For Sweden! 3 Brigades:
Gustav Adolphus with 2 regiments of Horse.
Benny with 2 regiments of Elite foot , a falcon and 2 squadrons of Horse.
Bjorn with 2 regiments of Elite Foot, one regiment of elite Foot Guards, 2 sakers and a falcon.
Parliament had the advantage of numbers, though not by as much as you might think: the difference was mostly skirmishers. By contrast the smaller Swedish army was very much an elite fighting force.
An 8-6 table was laid out, and battle commenced using a random arrival system to simulate a meeting engagement, where commanders couldnt be quite sure what was available untill it arrived and where it would actually be. The battlefield was mostly open field with a cluster of houses and farmland at one end. The game began with Essex's Vanguard opposing Bennys much larger brigade.
The battle got off to a slow start, so slow it was commented on by passers by, but this was simply a symptom of the scenario and the table size, rather than being bundled into a fight haphazard each brigade was able to come on in good order and find itself a good position miles from the nearest enemy..., a smaller table (perhaps 8 by 4) would have got things going faster. As it was nothing happened for a while as both sides brought in their reserves and deployed them in a leisurely manner, and only a small amount of skirmishing and long range potshots took place before both armies were present. The slow pace wasnt helped by some very average order rolls: even using the unmodified order test as per the book our brigades were only creeping forward at one move a turn!
Eventually the dragoons opened the ball, advancing before the Parliamentarian left at the head of Cromwells brigade and giving fire to try and sting the Swedes into a rash charge. Unfortunatly, not being led by Rupert, they declined and returned it with interest eventually forcing the dragoons to retire. A quick check of the rules showed that Swedish musketeers are better than their English opponents and the English were getting the worst of the firefight! Cromwell and Essex decided to try and close to melee where the odds are a bit more even, but this was stalled by a flurry of failed order rolls, and the English had to weather another round of fire.
On Parliaments right the battle never really started, with several regiments of foot, skirmishers and guns from each side heading slowly into the urban area to contest it, however they never really came to blows.
Back on the left the English army finally got moving again launching their cavalry at the Swedish musketeers, one manged to Hedgehog, and the Ironsides drew up, but there was a moment of panic when one failed its test and was caught in the open by Cromwells finest. Panic turned to relief as the Ironsides fluffed their dice and fled the field!
Seeing an opportunity to send the whole English left into to disarray Gustav Adolphus shouted "follow me!" and made a beeline for Essex and his Cuirassiers. Much jest has been made of the inferiority of Parliaments caracoling cavalry but Gustav wasnt laughing when the Cuirassiers forced him back, and moments later answered with a charge of their own! This minor victory was a signal to the rest of the English forces to surge forward and try and overthrow the Swedish right, with the remaining Ironsides charging the disordered Hedgehog, and Foot regiments from both sides getting stuck into a proper push of pike. The Swedish line held, but only just. Most of their right hand units were thoroughly battered and might not have stood if the pressure was kept up. Alas we shall never know, for we were out of time.
As I said wasnt perhaps the right time or table for this scenario: it probably needs a smaller table (or bigger move rates!), and we should have gone for a simpler stand up fight for our first game with these rules.
We did manage to get quite a few things tried out like hedgehogs and dragoons, though we still havnt had chance to smash a cavalry unit into a freshly formed and untouched hedgehog to see what happens!
Caracoling doesnt seem to be hugely disadvantageous, I suspect that Parliamentarian Horse will need to be either concealed or used aggressively to make sure no cavaliers get the jump on them. Quite pleased with the dragoons too, and the limited number of firelocks in the army. Just good enough to make a difference that you wont want to waste them.
Artillery seems to have struck the nice balance between low reliability and massive destruction...we even had a saker blow itself up!
The debate over formations goes on: Parliament initially had its units drawn up in the dutch fashion but started to switch to a more swedish style as the game went on and more flexibility was needed. I also adopted the ECW tactic of mixing your brigades into combined arms formations: all the Horse with a little bit of Foot and the Foot with a little bit of Horse. Thats why each foot brigade has a single squadron of Horse, and Cromwells Horse had two units of firelocks. In theory the formation becomes more flexible and more robust: Basically its like playing Rock,Paper, Scissors with two hands, and effectivly turns each brigade into a small army in its own right. Whether it will work remains to be seen though!
Lighting at the RGMBs club rooms is pretty awful and of 40 pictures taken only a handful are of any use.
View from the English left where the Swedes have gotten themselves into a bit of a muddle, but being elite they sorted themselves out...
The swedish left and centre begins its advance.
The English Right and Centre.
The English centre: Essex and the vanguard.
Michael (right) and "General in training" Rob discussing strategy. Behind them, the rest of the RGMB.
Next tuesday we intend to try again, possibly with more royalists and with a simpler scenario!
