Nantwich (1644)

Royalist right, looking towards the center of the board.

Last Saturday morning I hosted a remote game of  the battle of Nantwich using The Pikeman's Lament, with Gabe as the Royalists and myself as Parliament.  The Pikeman's Lament rules were heavily modded to allow for movement and range measurement on a grid and to eliminate activation rolls for movement and shooting.  They also used a morale check in place of a attack activation roll, and all shotte units could skirmish with a half move and -1 to shoot. 

Starting positions, with Royalists on left and Parliament to right.

The scenario was based on the battle of Nantwich in 1644, which was a victory for the great Parliament general Sir Thomas Fairfax.  I used a scenario I found in Miniature Wargames #75.  I built the little Acton church specifically for this game the day before. The scenario called for a lot of hedgerows, more than I possessed.  But as it so happened there were lavender clippings left out to dry in the basement, so those were conscripted to table use! I rather like the look!

Turn 2? Parliament reiters advance and are fired upon by Royalist artillery.  

I had to have a hard think about how to treat the hedges for the game. Under Pikeman's Lament they might be obstacles and cover, which would require units to move up to them and stop, and the continue moving past them the subsequent turn.  As cover they might increase Stamina by 1. They might also obstruct line of sight which would make shooting attacks worthless.  Instead I decided a hedge simply cost a double move to cross, and if they obstructed LOS it was simply -1 to hit.  They had no influence on melee other than it cost extra movement for the attacker to contact its target. 

Looking down the road towards Acton church from the Royalist right.

The written scenario called for half of the Parliament cavalry to be "Dutch style."  For Pikeman's Lament this would mean to use the Trotter profile (which I call Reiters), who can use the Caracole rule of riding close, firing pistols, and closing for melee if they disorder their opponent.  I think 1644 is a little late for Parliament armies to still be using this tactic, especially for an army with Sir Thomas Fairfax in it.  Fairfax was an excellent cavalry commander, and it was his cavalry combined with Cromwell's which made up the core of the New Model cavalry a year later. I have an unit profile for "Fairfax" or "Northern" horse which is simply a high-morale Galloper profile (no wild charge), but opted to follow the scenario and use Reiters instead (superior Parliament horse plus numerical superiority for Parliament infantry seemed a little unfair, too).

Infantry in the Parliament center advances on Acton church.

The game was played in about 2 hours, 15 minutes. On the Royalist left, Parliament Reiters advanced and were engaged by Royalist harquebusiers (a "generic" cavalry), with support from Royalist trained band infantry, and took the worse of it.  On the Royalist right, Royalist harquebusiers engaged Parliament harquebusiers, and although the Parliament horse was dispatched, the Royalists were beat up enough to not take further action in the game.

View from Parliament right, looking towards the advance on Acton church.

In the center, the Parliament infantry trundled along up to the hedgerows lining the road to Nantwich, where they began to pepper the Royalists in the churchyard with musket fire.

View from Royalist left, earlier in the game, when Royalist harqueusiers had not attacked yet. Unit labels are actually from the previous Aylesbury ECW game. 

Parliament Trained Band pikes attacking by the Acton churchyard.

As the Parliament player, things were getting dire for me: my cavalry had been routed, and although the Royalist cavalry had taken casualties they were still on board, disadvantaging me on victory points. My best shot was to press forward in the center and get a bunch of units across the road, which could gain me victory points to force a tie.  The Parliament trained band pikes did well, besting the Royalist seasoned pike.

On Parliament left, Royalist cavalry finishes off last of Parliament reiters.

Parliament pressing forward in the center across the Nantwich road.

Parliament shot and pike crossed hedge at the road. They were not met with a fierce volley as some decent shooting by Parliament the turn before had disordered the demiculverin in the churchyard. The Parliament shotte were then able to loose some volleys without the -1 for shooting through obstructing hedges (5+ to hit!) and starting piling up casualties on Royalist shot units.

The Parliament assault on Acton!

Here you can see the Parliament infantry having crossed the road hedgerow, and the pikes pressing into the open field beyond.

As is often the case, however, the furious comeback late the in game came up short.  We were playing until nine units had been removed from the table (about 40% of the starting units, not including artillery), and then would count up victory points.  When the 9th unit was removed, only a Parliament pike unit stood on the Royalist side of the road, and a single Royalist cavalry unit was on the Parliament side.  This meant that no victory points were assigned for having more units on the opposing players side of table, and that the Royalists' receiving 2 victory points for loosing fewer units was enough to win the game 2-0.

End game, with Parliament forces that could have forced the tie, and possibly even the win if they had taken the gun in the churchyard, stalled on the road.

It's only now, looking at the pictures, that I realize how close Parliament was to actually winning the game - if one or two additional Parliament units had crossed the road, and if Parliament could have seized the Royalist gun in the churchyard for 1 VP, they could have won 3-2.  But I think I was too conservative with my reiters early on, and took too long trying to soften up the Royalist center with shooting (at 6 to hit), with little effect, when sending the infantry over the hedge a turn or three earlier would have made their superior numbers more effective. 

This remote game went faster than the previous Dornach 1499 game, almost certainly because there were no morale rerolls.  This was tempered by the hedges dampening the effectiveness of musketfire which extended pay a bit.  I think if the game had been relatively open terrain, it would have been closer to my two hour goal.  Again, it was great to push my 28mm armies around with another player.