ECW Black Powder Game 1645, very late war era Denbigh Green

Rob set up the scenario and designed the forces for a Black Powder encounter in the late 1645 era of the English Civil War

Read Rob's account here

Once again we had the artists cottage for the game.

Rob setting up the Royalists after the terrain was set

the starting situation

Overall situation

Royalist horse

Parliament horse

Royalists hold the critical mill next to the crossroads that will keep the relief force on the move to relieve the siege

the new ruins model by Rob

Rob's terrain skills again are showing off to great effect, see them in the background of the many photos of this battle.

first couple of turns were simple maneuvers and getting some foot for the Parliament on the field

the new road by Rob looks great

closeup even better

then the Parliament found the first of some hidden Royalist shotte

turn three was more Parliament arrivals and continuing shooting at the hedges along the road

the horse closed in

the musket duel was not going well for the Royalists

The scenario was a breakthrough of a road junction so that the Royalists could relieve a siege, if Parliament could control the mill and ruins, then the road would not be able to be used to relieve the siege and the Royalists would loose another city.

while Parliament had scored the first hits from shotte

it was the Royalists who eliminated a horse unit in close combat, the best Parliamentary one of course ...

this left a huge gap in the Parliament line on the green, thankfully the Royalist horse was disordered also in the combat and could not follow up charge

while along the road, it was more shooting and further marching

they Royalist foote could only wait and see if their hidden force could change the onrushing Parliament foote condition

the new building looking great in the distance

Royalist horse arrive, yet still slowly due to failed command rolls

now all the foot were in action

driving hard towards the stone wall

the first Royalist foote force was dispatched and the Parliament were rushing down the road towards the ruins

while on the green the horse situation was stabilized with a good series of shooting from pistol armed horsemen and a counter-charge that stopped the Royalists cold.

overview of field, the horse were holding ground, with some losses to each side, no clear advantage any more

while in the enclosed fields, a fierce musket duel had erupted with the Royalists coming out on the wrong end

The Shire foote of Parliament were rushing down the road to outflank the Royalists

Then came the flank attack

an entire regiment, the best Royalist Foote, was chased from the field, seen here fleeing

while more Parliament Foote was finally getting moving (many failed command rolls)

losses became critical for both Royalist Battalia (one foot one horse)

a desperate charge drove the forlorn hope of Parliament from the field, yet in the process the regiment of Royalist horse became disordered and in bad morale condition caused the Royalist horse battalia to fail morale

in a bad morale situation the remaining Royalist foote fell back, to have the reserve Royalist horse cover their retreat

at this point the scenario was done, we did a few more turns to see if any other units might be destroyed, so as to determine what a campaign scenario might be like.

a final Royalist horse unit was completely destroyed and half of the reserve Royalist horse was badly mauled by musket fire

The Shire Foote were gallant in taking a horse charge, firing at it and very nearly breaking it in melee

while the misfits Royalist militia horse did not manage to do more than 'arrive'

for a few turns the Royalist commander was unable to get his troops to do anything at all with failed command rolls

The steady Parliament Foote won the day with massed volleys that drove back Royalists again and again

A victory for Parliament, though this battle was post-Naseby so the outcome was only going to help a siege and not change the war.

Rob then cleaned up his 'road'

with a recovery tool to be able to lay down the road again!

Another fun game in the ECW period.