The Battle of Stow on the Wold, 1646
Today's wargame was a refight of the ECW battle of Stow on the Wold using our 15mm figures and Warlord Games Epic Pike and Shotte rules. Sadly Nigel is full of a cold so did not join us leaving Ian in control of the Royalists and Charlie and myself commanding the Roundheads.
At the battle of Stow on the Wold, the Royalists had taken up a defensive position on a ridge outside Stow on the Wold where they remained overnight. Even before first light the Parliamentarian troops attacked and the even nastier surprise was that a division of infantry had managed to get round behind the Royalists. To mimic this surprise, I had Ian deploy his troops along the ridge facing Stow then moved the ridge forward to allow room for the Roundhead foot under Morgan to be deployed behind them.
This photo shows deployment with the Royalists trapped in the centre of the table.
The Parliamentarians had slightly more troops and were mostly better quality. In fact Astley, the Royalist general described his troops as...'A drunken and dissolute band of robbers.'
However, I had created some random 'chance' cards which we used for the first time today and Ian got the card that granted him an extra unit of Pike and Shotte that almost equaled the number of units on each side. The Roundheads pulled a card that hindered the shooting power of one Royalist unit.
Charlie sent Bereton's cavalry division straight towards his opposing cavalry division. It took several turns but Charlie did destroy the Parliamentarian horse on that flank.
On the other flank there was another face off between two opposing cavalry divisions and again the Roundheads eventually won meaning the central infantry division of the Royalists was left isolated.
More cavalry action.
The Royalist gun in the centre firing at the Parliamentarian foot.
The infantry stand-off in the centre. The Parliamentarians suffered badly at first from the Royalist shooting but then started to get the upper hand. With one of the the Royalist horse divisions defeated and the other one close to breaking Ian forfeited the game once his foote units started to suffer badly but it had been a hard fought win for the Roundheads.
Birch.s Parliamentarian cavalry regroup upon hearing of the victory.
The gap in the centre of the Royalist infantry line is where a destroyed unit of Pike and Shotte once lined up.
Another fun and close game.
