Stratton (1643)

I got a new foam-cutting hot knife, so I carved a nice big hill out of old insulation foam I took from a recycling bin. The hill was specifically for a scenario I had in mind based on the battle of Stratton from the English Civil War. Stratton is a good wargaming scenario as it involves roughly equally sized forces (mainly infantry), with the Royalists under Sir Ralph Hopton trying to take Parliament's (under coming of Lord Stamford) positions, which provides a good victory condition. I've been focusing my recent painting efforts on increasing the size of my ECW collection a bit to give me more flexibility in scenario design, and this game featured the first table action for four new units of musketeers.

This game used the same modified set of unit profiles as my Braddock Down game – the Royalist foot was divided up into four brigades of a unit of Cornish pike, a "Seasoned Regiment" shotte unit, and a falconet or demi-culverin, and included a brigade of three Harquebusier units at the center rear. Facing the eight Royalist infantry units were ten Parliament units in two lines atop Stamford Hill (two pike and eight shotte, evenly split between Seasoned and Trained Band regiments), four demi-culverins, and two '42-'43 Harquebusier squadrons (Trotters from the Pikeman's Lament book) at the rear.

(Above: starting positions)

The game was to be played until the cumulative lost units for both sides was greater than half (12 units), not counting ordnance, at which point, if Parliament had even one non-artillery unit still on the hill top, it would receive 4 victory points. The Royalists would receive 1 victory point for each unit on the hilltop. Victory Points were awarded per the rulebook for winning duels or as an appropriate result to rolling double 1s or 6s. I played Hopton and Pete played Stamford.

(Above: initial movements)

The Royalists attempted an ineffective opening artillery barrage, and then advanced to just out of musketry range of the Parliament lines, with the exception of the Royalist left which lagged behind (referred to hereafter as "Godolphin's company," after the historical commander at the battle.. Parliament responded by fanning its second line of infantry out to each flank, lengthening its lines and allowing more units a clear shot. The Parliament also headed towards Godolphin's stalled advance, while the Royalist horse moved to support the Royalist right, so a cavalry engagement seemed unlikely.

(Above: Grenville and Hopton's assault)

(Above: Grenville and Hopton's assault)

(Above: Cornish pike gain the hilltop)

After all this maneuvering, the two rightmost Royalist brigades (under Grenville and Sir Ralph hisself) commenced their assault on the corner of Stamford Hill (defended by Parliament officer Chudleigh), succeeding on all movement activations and quickly bringing two pikes, two shotte, and two horse units into close range at the base of the hill. The Parliament shotte units which had fanned out to lengthen the line on that flank provided ineffective fire, and were pushed back, and a company of Cornish pike became the first to top the hill.

 (Above: Hopton hisself!)

On the other flank, the Parliament shotte advanced from their hilltop positions and poured fire into Godolphin's company, routing his muskets, and his gun was captured by the Parliament harquebusiers. The remainder of the Royalist center (referred to hereafter as "Slanning's company") moved to support Grenville and Hopton's assault, while Godoplin's pikes and a unit of Slanning's shot backpedaled and kept the Parliament right from encircling Grenville and Hopton. Around this point I rolled double-sixes on an activation and received the boon of +1 victory point, which meant that the Royalists only need 4 units instead of 5 on the hill to win the game.

(Above: Parliament counterattack clears out Hopton, Grenville and Slanning's troops mass for another try)

(Above: Godolphin's pesky pikes are in the blue jackets in the center)

(Above: Grenville and Slanning's horse and Cornwall pike gain the hilltop)

MEANWHILE! Grenville's harquebusiers had finally positioned themselves at the base of the hill and charged. I worked hard to preserve the "Compulsory Follow-up" marker for both of these squadrons (one-use only), and they were able to further push back Chudleigh's defenders. Although things were going well, the superior numbers of Parliament were beginning to tell as fresh units of shotte, having successfully decimated Godlophin, returned to the hill to fight alongside Chudleigh's men. So, I took a calculated risk, and Godolphin challenged the captain of the Parliament horse to a duel! My theory was that if I won, I would gain another victory point and only need a mere three units on the hill to win the game – if I lost I would merely be back to where I started. Pete rolled his three dice and… three hits. I rolled my mine: 1 hit. Oh well.

(Above: getting close to endgame - two Royalist units on the hill, several more lingering around at the base and capable of gaining the hill)

Things then became very dicey, with both sides pushing hard. In the end, the Royalist assault came up short, with two or three units on the hilltop, but all the necessary units for the three remaining (and game winning) points just at the base of the hill.

(Above: endgame or close to it.)

Takeaways from this game:

• The unit profiles I used in this and the Braddock Down game work very nicely. I did however tweak the artillery ranges a bit (more on that below). As previously note the profiles are pretty much straight from the Pikeman's Lament rulebook, but with teeny tiny changes to things like morale or attack activations and not to "to hit" target numbers, like Cornish Pike have a morale of 3+ instead of 4+.
• About the artillery. This game led me to do the best online research I could, and I think I am going to try adding an "artillery barrage" phase takes place before a game starts. Source materials seem to heavily point to guns just not moving at all during a battle – they were set up and stayed put in that initial place. Perhaps roll 1d6+3 for each gun for available ammunition, then during barrage phase, the player can decide how much ammunition to expend at the start and save the rest for the actual game. During the barrage no activation rolls are made, just resolve shooting attacks by the artillery. "To Hit" values remain the same, but even if the best I can do is one casualty, I'd rather have five consecutive attempts and see if I can maybe weaken a unit or two at the start. The way things are now, the line of sight for shots narrows very quickly once your own troops move forward, and I don't like the guns creeping around 3" or 6" at a time like they currently do.