Campaign 2013 – promoting the Naseby Family Day

Although I was mostly on duty with the Society of Ancients, I took the Naseby game along to Campaign to help promote the Naseby Family Day

This was an important exercise in gearing up for next month, and in checking out all the little bits and pieces.   In particular reconfiguring the information panels.   It also seemed popular with the shoppers …

Somehow, real historical battles seem to make more sense to visitors than made up battles and tournament play.

One young woman was struggling to ‘get it’, however and asked me if it was like Call of Duty, but played with little soldiers.   I think she missed the playful nuance when I replied that Call of Duty was just a wargame played on a computer …

(Rupert’s Regiment explain the battle of Naseby)

MKWS had stationed us next to Prince Rupert’s Regiment, and they very helpfully mucked in explaining the battlefield to browsers when I was supervising games of Bosworth on the Society stand.

Great show – I hope we did some good.

Upcoming projects and events

Posts have been infrequent since the Newbury game last year.   Things have been busy all round.  However, this summer will see both the Naseby and Newbury games getting outings plus I should be starting some work on the battle at Islip (whence my family originates …) …

Please bring a car full of people to Naseby on the weekend of 22-23 June.

The Pike & Shot Society will be there, and I will be demonstrating how the battle developed using my wargame version of the battle.

Naseby Project Family Day

I will be reviewing and updating the presentation in advance of the weekend, but it will still look a bit like …

 

NASEBY EVENT 22nd – 23rd June 2013

A few weeks later, I will be rerunning the 2nd Battle of Newbury at COW 2013 – WD’s Conference of Wargamers.

2nd Battle of NEWBURY at COW

This will be the game presented for the Pike & Shot Society at Colours 2012 (Newbury at Newbury), again in an updated version, but using the COW format to attempt to weld the disparate parts of the battle into a single narrative (rather than evaluate them separately as I did in Newbury)

 

This will give me plenty of ECW stuff to get my teeth into but I’m keen to get closer to the actions around Oxford in the early 1645 campaign.

I was talking to my late father’s cousin recently, and he recalls some civil engineering work going on in the village when they were children (before the war) in which relics of the Civil War were unearthed right by the site of the bridge in Islip.  Such direct contact spurs you on.

I need to rediscover some roots I think …

 

Commanders at Newbury

I had to come up with some additional commanders for the Newbury game, which I have tidied up and photographed.

For the purposes of the reconstruction, I had the King sitting in the middle with Goring commanding the cavalry reserve.   In the west Maurice defended against Waller and Skippon with Cromwell and Balfour exploring the flanks; in the East, Astley defended against Manchester.  Such was my Dramatis Personae ..

So I needed new personalities for Manchester, Waller, Goring and Balfour.

Personalising the characters is not easy of course: such are the fashions and conventions of the 17th Century that they all look pretty much the same (especially when you translate what we have into 15mm!) … old-fashioned armour or fancy clothing if it is a portrait, flowing locks and goatees de rigueur …  In the field, they would more likely have worn long coats and brimmed hats (which isn’t much better I think) …

Of course, the real men would have been of differing stature (say, Rupert and the King!), complexion, age and colouring (all of which are immediately obvious in real people).  So here’s my take …

Goring, Manchester, Balfour and Waller …

The portrait of Manchester is a little later but I couldn’t resist its obvious opulence (which perhaps suggests an absence of puritanical zeal?) so have afforded him a little more lace than I would otherwise have allowed.

Are there any references to horse colours for any of these Civil War commanders?   Are those in contemporary portraits (and derivative modern reconstructions …) based on documented knowledge (so and so’s bay mare, or what have you) – or are they just artistic licence?

Meanwhile, here’s that postcard of a ‘reconstructed’ Donnington Castle (used, I believe, for a first day cover) …

Newbury at Newbury – action report 1644

(Royalist reserves behind the Speenhamland hedge)

The after action report on the game we presented at Colours, on the 8th and 9th of September in support of the Pike & Shot Society and the Battlefields Trust.   Yes, inevitably I spent most of the weekend talking, but we played through all the main areas of action – some of them more than once.   

The battle was played with a simplified version of Armati Intro using double section units (no fatigue tallying and not bothering to adjudicate wheeling as the troops were formed up generally opposite their targets anyway).

We used the 1/3 sized measuring convention and the interpretations and modifications on the ECW page here ( ECW Armati (adaptations) ).   

(scenes from the second battle of Newbury at Colours 2012)

In addition, any troops taking a hit whilst assaulting troops beyond fortifications or obstacles were allowed to use the break off rule, and cavalry were obliged to.    I was always prepared to intervene to tweak oddities into ‘common sense’ shape, but never needed to.

Drawing the threads together, this is how Armati allowed us to tell the story.

(Manchester commits regiments to the assault on Shaw village)

We started by playing through Manchester’s attacks on Shaw and Shaw House.   For simplicity we used the generic unit stats from the Naseby orbats ( here) .. Skirmishers and Forlorn Hopes in gardens and enclosures are not dispersed and gain +1 for holding terrain.  Cavalry can go anywhere, but fight on their special FV when not in the open*.

Manchester’s foot made no headway whatsoever …  The shooting and combats went mostly with the odds, and most of the regiments opted to break off when down to their third hit.  Despite getting out of the fight, musketry then sent them on their way anyway.   The tawny regiment put up a stubborn fight,  and even a remarkably plucky charge down the road by cavalry failed to impress it.

(the defenders of Shaw house behind their ditch and rampart)

The attack on Shaw House bogged down and was eventually chased off by cavalry which an enterprising show visitor argued ought to be able to find a way over the Lambourne if unopposed.   I need to think more about that – but at the time it brought to a satisfying conclusion a series of assaults that were not dislodging the stubborn Royalists.

(a yellow regiment of ‘trained band’ piles into Speen)

At the western end of the battlefield, Skippon’s attacks in Speen were much more productive.   The dice did do their bit (but then with multiple attacks on both sides of the Royalist position, we might expect success to be amongst the range of outcomes): a few effective volleys helped prepare the assault while the Royalist guns blasted away to little effect – so under a ripple of charges the forward trenches gave way.

(Cromwell starts pulling out …)

By this time, Cromwell’s charge across the open fields north of Speen had flushed out a strong counter attack from Goring’s plentiful reserve of Horse.   We gave Cromwell’s men the advantage in these attacks but despite that, fortune favoured Goring from first to last.

Given the historical narrative, we thought it entirely appropriate for Cromwell to dice for break offs when down to the last hit, and with both waves he was successful …  This resulted in all of his Horse racing back towards their start points with Goring following up to see them off.   It looked remarkably like history …

(Balfour tries to find some openings along the Kennet watermeadow)

Meanwhile, Balfour was riding up the watermeadows on the southern flank, but bouncing off defenders whenever he attempted to break into the enclosures or back streets.    We had one or two Royalist regiments down there, so on the couple of occasions where the cavalry were successful, they were immediately counter-attacked and thrown back into the meadows.   On a couple of occasions we drew interested show-goers into the command debate … but their view was the same as ours (there really was no obvious means of progress down there).

(Maurice’s infantry and guns being driven out of Speen)

As the short (late October**) day was drawing to a close, we saw stalemate the only outcome: yes, Skippon was almost inevitably clearing Maurice out of Speen, but the Speenhamland hedge was going to stop him in his tracks and we seriously doubted if he would be able to sustain much of an assault on that with Goring’s cavalry milling around his flanks, Cromwell having withdrawn.

(most of Manchester’s infantry were forced to retreat)

At the other end of the battlefield and compensating, in a way, for Maurice’s lack lustre defence of Speen, Astley had conducted an almost bloodless defence of Shaw, and Manchester’s attack for the day was broken – all his foot having been committed to the fray (as tenaciously as Cromwell could have wanted) …

We conducted the various actions above amidst much debate and speculation (an enjoyable wargames show!) but realistically we would have had to tweak the mechanisms very heavily to get an outcome much different to the events in 1644.    The positions around Shaw and Speen are naturally very strong, and the rivers, combined with forces at Shaw House and Donnington Castle make it difficult to attack other than frontally at either end.   Effectively, you have two back-to-back boccage battles at Shaw and Speen just separated sufficiently that they don’t join up into one compressed fight.  Cromwell and Balfour try to find ways into the connecting ground between the two bookends but are unable to break in.

Stalemate.

My thanks to everyone who joined in and to everyone who took an interest in our presentation.

I am indebted to Chris Scott whose book on the battles of Newbury has been an invaluable guide.  The Battles of Newbury

* so cavalry vs shot in a garden results in 0 vs 2 (1 + the terrain bonus), making the sort of speculative forays cavalry make down lanes and across hedged fields in actions like this just about worthwhile.   We made the ‘break off’ for detached foot like this compulsory (so if they lose that fight, the break/hang in/bug out decision is diced for rather than made by the player … which seemed to work very nicely – though seldom would the horse win the fight)

** early November by today’s calendars, that is …

A battlefield for Newbury

Second Battle of Newbury 1644

This year the plan for Colours was to do a presentation of the second battle of Newbury for the Pike & Shot Society and the Battlefields Trust.

The idea, of course, was to repeat the ‘Naseby‘ formula, but doing the battlefield most local to the show.    Of the two battles at Newbury I chose to focus on the 1644 battle because it is the stalemate which arguably brings about the ‘new modelling’ of the army over the winter.    In that sense it is a direct precursor to Naseby.

Donnington Castle, then and now ..

But there is also a simpler reason – one of the iconic landmarks of the battlefield is Donnington Castle (dominating the northern perimeter of the engagement) … and the remains of the castle are visible from the windows of the upper floor at the racecourse.  So, although you cannot really see any of the intervening details, the situation of the game does overlook the actual field.

The vista across the battlefield to Donnington Castle

Newbury 1644

After the disaster of Marston Moor, Royalists fortunes underwent a late year revival with the defeat of Waller’s army at Cropredy and of Essex at Lostwithiel.   The King moved into the west with a view to relieving forces at Basing House, Donnington Castle and Banbury as well as to prevent defeated Parliamentarians from reorganising and re-equiping.

The villages just north of Newbury became the focus of a campaign in which the King failed to relieve Basing, and where, after detaching forces for missions to Banbury and Bristol, he is outnumbered by a concentration of Parliamentarian armies in the lee of Donnington.

The Royalists are not overawed by this … the forces in front of them are mostly defeated men, and the terrain is a network of easily defended villages, lanes and enclosures.

Chris Scott’s map of the battlefield

Buoyed up by their numerical advantages, however, Parliament’s commanders determine upon an attack, and conceive an elegant outflanking plan to ensure they can bring their numbers to bear, rather than attack on the narrow front from the east between the rivers Kennet and Lambourne.

Waller’s army supported by a cavalry force under Oliver Cromwell march north, cross the Lambourne beyond Donnington and approach the field from the west in a plan which envisages coordinated attacks to drive in the defenders from both directions.

The Battlefield

The southern fringe of the battlefield was the river Kennet and its watermeadows.  It is late October, so they are marshy.

my interpretation superimposed on a satellite projection

The northern edge is the river Lambourne and the two fortified outposts beyond it, Donnington Castle in the west and Shaw House in the east.   Between the two rivers, in the west, the village of Speen was entrenched,  in the east, the village of Shaw was defended by existing barriers and boundary hedges.

Shaw House today

In the centre, around the apex of the roads, Speenhamland boasted a formidable boundary hedge and there were allotments and enclosures abutting the watermeadows.   A veritable boccage, then.

The Wargames Table

Following the success of the fold up battlefields, I decided to go with a reconfigured pasting table and a notionally 15mm battle recycling more of the Steve Ayers ‘Marston Moor’ veterans.    The southern edge would be the Kennet, and the Lambourne would run in from the north-west corner, with Donnington Castle just off table, Shaw House and the eastern approaches to it being on-table, as the north-eastern sector.

The hinges were switched around and the middle battens lowered as previously.   I then filled the space with 25mm foam insulation board and marked out the rivers and roads – dummying up with terrain items and figures to get a reasonable match between the maps and the game constraints.

the raw layout being worked out

The parameters fixed, I then cut down for the river beds and built up either side of the roads to ‘sink’ them.   The river bed was skimmed with filler to seal the foam.   Gravel was scattered into the road and river beds, and the whole layout was allowed to dry before painting*.

So … blue and green craft paint enhanced the river bed before tinted varnish was applied.   Several more coats were planned and will benefit the project (but were not done before the Colours outing due to time constraints).

Green, ‘prairie gold’ and terracotta emulsion shades were smudged into the open areas and ‘chocolate’  provided the base coat for the roads.   All this from cheap household paints (which take very well to insulation board).    I did not have time to do much flocking, but some areas and all of the roads were picked out with dry-brushing on the morning of the presentation**.

So a pretty basic job following Chris Scott’s maps – and not at all ‘over-worked’.   It looks quite good (without being ‘award-winning’) in a ‘watercoloury‘ way as a bare battlefield … but comes to life when the scenery and toy soldiers are added.

Action! Manchester’s attack falters

It proved a very workable base on which to move the figures and explain the battle to visitors.   We played through all the major areas over the course of the weekend – and people were very complimentary about the project.

I will follow this post with some action reports.

Shaw House: or, better, a suitable model to represent it …

*although I did not allow long enough for it to dry thoroughly – I never do …
**Crown emulsion ‘parchment’ has been a great discovery for groundwork dry-brushing.

Naseby Battlefield revisited.

Weapons and Equipment demonstration at Rupert Viewpoint

I was fortunate enough to be able to join Ian Dexter of the Naseby battlefield Project for a tour of the battlefield (a study day with parties from the Battlefields Trust and the Friends of Kettering Art Gallery and Museum) …

I have done Naseby several times before, of course, but – especially with a batttlefield like Naseby, where so much work goes on – each tour has things to offer.  This was my first with Ian (though we have debated many of the nuances on previous occasions).

Ian explains the history and significance of the Obelisk at Naseby

As well as driving out to all of the vantage points and monuments (and a fulsome lunch in the pub),  this event started with a full illustrated explanation of the battle in Naseby Village Hall, and added a weapons demonstration by reenactors at the ‘Rupert Viewpoint’.

contemporary matchlock musketeer’s equipment

The explanation of the battle was, of course, the Naseby Project’s orthodox view – stressing the ‘ordered’ fighting retreat of the Royalist army all the way up the old road to a last stand at Moot Hill and Wadborough.

This is not how contemporaries and eye witnesses saw the battle, and results from the interpretation of significant amounts of musket shot found all long the aforementioned line of retreat (until it ends in concentration on the high ground of Wadborough in sight of where the Royalist baggage was laagered ...).

Fairfax Viewpoint: Ian explains what Fairfax and Cromwell could see from this vantage point as the rode forward on the morning of the battle

I don’t contest the evidence, but I’m not convinced it requires us to change our interpretation of the decisive battle on Broadmoor: we don’t know who fired the bullets on the retreat line (or, indeed, when – although it is fair to presume they date from June 14th 1645) … but it doesn’t require a disciplined withdrawal for a few dozen muskets to be fired in patches to the rear as an army of 10,000 capitulates and doubtless many isolated parties try to escape, cover the flight of their King and/or fight a desperate and futile defence of the baggage as it is overtaken.

I was very pleased to go up to the retreat vantage points and discuss all this (I generally miss it out when I’m showing people around, to concentrate on the main battle and the assault on the New Model Army where it was drawn up on the crest and reverse of Closter Hill).

I have updated the resource page on Naseby battlefield with photos taken over the last few visits.   The terrain is very important.   The key features of this battle are …

• The New Model Infantry is arrayed on the top of a ridge (initially about a thousand yards back) , so disappears from sight as the enemy close on the position.

• They move towards the lip in the Royalists’ final approach, so there is no prolonged firefight before the infantry close to melee (‘push of pike’).

• The Western flank of the position is very deep (Pride’s regiment seems to have been split into 2 rearguards, behind which was the protected laager of the artillery train): when Maurice’s cavalry overwhelm Ireton’s wing, they do not manage to find a way round the flank during the course of the battle.

• The opposite flank is stationed in a rabbit warren with much of Cromwell’s horse out of sight on the reverse of Lodge Hill.   Charges are not vigorous due to the broken ground.

• Most of the battlefield other than Lodge Hill was open field in ‘ridge and furrow’ cultivation: although cavalry are quite comfortable charging along the direction of the furrows, they only slowly will negotiate across the ridges.  This may have taken the edge out od Cromwell’s reserve lines as they wheeled across the fields to envelop the infantry in the centre (giving them time to lay down their arms) …

• More than one line of regiments was engaged on Closter Hill, and at least one New Model regiment seems to have been driven back: shot is spread sporadically over a thousand yards of depth and a mile’s width where the infantry battle was settled.

• The only attested ‘last stand’ is the Blewcoats’ wall of brasse stand on Broadmoor.  This may have bought time for the King to flee, but not his baggage which was subsequently captured (the camp followers being harshly treated).

Blewcoats memorial on Broadmoor

Please support every effort the Naseby Project makes to preserve and enhance this battlefield.   The A14 has already severed the southern part of the battlefield (Maurice’s attempt to find a way around the flank), and now Kelmarsh Windfarm will establish turbines towering over the north-eastern fringe of the battlefield.

The Project hope the next major development will be a positive one for the battlefield and the building of a dedicated Visitor Centre: but ‘big government’s’ record protecting heritage is not good (the heavy plant is already gearing up to plough HS2 through the historic landscape around Edgcote; permission has just been given to build on the most likely site of the Battle of Northampton).

The damage done to our heritage by development is permanent.

Never argue with the bill …

I just managed to sneak in on the Monday Night group‘s Neil Thomas game, take some pics and see the game through some critical phases.

Tudor period soldiers from Graham’s 25mm collection

It confirmed many of the players’ suspicions … it is a fun quick and exciting game … but it is unbalanced and has some odd gearing in the combat mechanism.  Nothing that can’t be fixed, but it does need fixing.

Graham’s Tudor War saw a couple of units of English Billmen hack their way through landsknechts with little difficulty.

Landsknechts

Essentially, where pike get 1 die per stand against infantry, sword and buckler, billmen and Halberdiers get 2.  1 extra die … but also ‘twice as many‘.    Landsknechts in particular also have poor armour … so poor saves, and will (and did) get rapidly chopped to pieces (they are good against cavalry, and later, good against the shot in mixed units).  They cannot stand up to polearms.

Tudor English foot soldiers

The fight being quick and one-sided means the English infantry get to take on a second enemy or march off the enemy’s base line.   There were also some questions as to whether the balance between horse and foot was really as good given that, unlike in the standard ‘ancients’ game, the units do not all have the same number of bases.
I will follow this sequence of game closely as I am as keen to improve the ancient and medieval game (which I used for Plataea at the Society of Ancients BattleDay) as I am to refine my Armati-based game for the English Civil War.

Endgame

Key in this period, I think, is the ability of cavalry to ‘freeze’ infantry, preventing them from moving without cavalry support.   The cavalry action on the flanks should potentially resolve itself faster than the infantry action in the centre.  The infantry action in the centre should show the increasing importance of missile action.

Everyone seems to be enjoying this series of games, but you can’t help feeling a little more fine tuning should have been done before the definitive version of the rules was settled and went to press.