Royalists Triumphant!

Another round of Pike & Shotte with both of us applying lessons learned (sort of).

 Both royalist and parliament forces deployed in fairly dense lines, which follows historical practice.  After two games of this is has become clear that you cannot rely on commanders to execute plans of any complexity or subtlety, much less any 'grand strategies.'  Your best bet is to line 'em up and do your best to corral the whole lot forward a bit.  Even with this mind,  however, I could not resist deploying the Royalist cavalry on my left to attempt a flanking maneuver through the woods.  I anchored the right flank against the river which I felt would protect it enough from the opposite numerous Parliament cavalry.

Things chugged along. My flanking maneuver, to the surprise of no one, was unbelievably slow. We finally remembered to use the first fire rule (add one dice to shooting total).  Gabe wasted no time having Parliament infantry blast away at the Royalists once in range.  I had the Royalists hold their fire, hoping to concentrate multiple first volleys at a single target for devastating effect, which did not pay dividends.  

As with the prior game, Parliament was able to send a sleeve of shot on the Royalist right running almost immediately.  Fortunately the looming presence of the Royalist cavalry, finally making their way around the Parliament flank, prevented Gabe from pushing his advantage.  Some of the Royalist cavalry even succeeded in overrunning the Parliament artillery, but then chanced a reckless charge into a Parliament pike block and was destroyed.

Back in the center and Royalist left, the Parliament cavalry began to advance as both sides exchanged musketry.  Both sides were near the breaking point, but a Parliament cavalry squadron was caught out alone in front its own lines, and the Royalists delivered a truly "withering volley" (the first time I have seen such a thing represented on a tabletop) which broke the Parliament cavalry battalion and subsequently sent the whole army into retreat. Victory at last for the Royalist cause!