The Battle of Cheriton

 15mm The Battle of Cheriton

For our final game of ECW for the time being I based a scenario on the battle of Cheriton. Interestingly you get quite a few differing opinions depending upon which books you read or historians that you listen to. It was going to be a difficult game for the Royalists as they were outnumbered by the Parliamentarian troops but their cavalry were much superior in fighting. For our game I set up gentle hills sloping towards the table centre with the Royalists deployed to the north with their guns on top of the most prominent hill by the side of Cherition Wood. The Roundheads were deployed opposite with their big guns more central. WE also used some 'chance' cards that I had created for the game. Ian and Charlie playing the Royalists delighted in making my cavalry commander a drunk thus reducing his command ability by 1. This did affect how effective he was but then Nigel and I were able to respond with recruiting an extra unit of foote. 

I had placed name cards on the table to aid deployment from the pre prepared army lists. The roundheads are to the right, Royalist to the left. The eastern edge of the town of Cheriton is visible in the bottom right. The far hills represent the rising ground to either side and the far end. 

Turn 1 and the Roundheads did a cautious move forward. 

The Royalists took up a defensive stance. 

Protected by the river the Roundhead dragoons went off on a flanker, moving 3x in their first move, 2 in the second, one in their third then never moved again!

The Royalists still not moving. 

The view from behind Nigel's Parliamentarian infantry. 

A view across the main Roundheads centre. Note the second piece of artillery with the token on it. A 'chance' card had blown that up. 

A good tactic is to fire at Royalist cavalry units in a sort of column and try and disorder the front one, really messing with their advance (once they had decided to come forward).  

From this point onwards I forgot to take more photo's as the action got so engrossing. Over in the woods the units deployed there seemed to hold each other at bay. On both flanks their was a mighty cavalry clash with the more numerous Roundhead cavalry eventually breaking their Royalist opposition. In the centre both sides advanced into musketry range but the Roundhead cannon tipped the balance in favour of the Roundheads as one of the Royalist battalions was alo broken resulting in quite a convincing victory for the Parliamentarians.