English Civil War battle 16.6.13.

We had our eagerly awaited Civil War battle last night,and wonders of wonders-a full complement of all six members of our little club!!
We drew lots and Graham,Richard and Paul were the Royalist commanders,and Dave,Brian and I were the Parliamentarians. Both sides picked where their best troops would be stationed,and a battle plan was drawn up.Dave and Paul were set up against each other whilst I faced Graham in the centre,and Brian faced Richard on the left flank,all was set for a "cracking" game.

The royalists had come up with a plan that involved Paul leading his forces against Dave's flank,sweeping it aside and then turning against the roundhead's centre,however the big flaw in their plan was that they had ordered that their centre and flanks couldn't move forward until Paul was successful!!

Our plan was to swamp the central position with all of our cavalry,beat the royalist horse and then swing onto their flanks-which,it has got to be said,worked a treat!!

The Royalist's gun Royale opens the battle,against Dave's infantry,it must be said at this point that 99% of the figures in my Civil War collection are from Warrior Miniatures.

And a good shot it proved to be,causing a bit of damage!!Paul and Dave were manoeuvering their troops to block the flanks,and Paul's decision to attack straight away almost caught Dave off-guard,however a good volley sent one f the royalist infantry regiments back,and the situation was saved,for a while!!

This shows the situation on Dave's flank,with his cavalry (2 out of 3 units) moving to assist me in the centre, Paul's attack is developing nicely.

The fight for the walled enclosure! Dragoons fire-fighting each other for control,both sides had decided that control of this bit of terrain was vital,in that any troops passing it would be subject to frontal and flank fire from whoever controlled it.

Dave and Paul in full battle!! Dave has managed to get himself into a bit of bother on the far right,however is holding his own in the centre,note the regiment in "square" denoted by the brown piece of card,cut into a square shape!! bloody clever,eh? Meanwhile Dave has got the cavalry across the stream and is facing the advancing infantry,hoping to stop them,Paul had different ideas and fired his gun at them!!

Here comes the cavalry,massing on my flank,and hoping to "swamp" Graham's opposition cavalry.Both Brian and I were moving our infantry up slowly,however,because of their orders,the Royalist infantry were static,the fight for the enclosure is continuing,but Richard decided that he had had enough and retired,leaving Brian to occupy it with his Dragoons and an infantry regiment

Here it is!! The inevitable cavalry clash,both Graham and I had good quality troops here and the God of dice decided that he would favour us both! consequently there was swings and roundabouts,with the melee going both ways.The "killer throw" was when I had a chance of killing Graham's leading cavalry commander- and I did!! This proved too much for the cavalry and they took flight,leaving an ugly hole for me to exploit-and I did!!

Meanwhile-on a hill in a far distant land,Dave is fighting for his life,Paul's cavalry are everywhere! However Dave has superiority in infantry,and is giving Paul's a damned good thrashing!

This shows Richard and Graham enjoying a brief moment of "GLOAT" after having beaten one of my cavalry regiments (note the word ONE) they'll be sorry!!

I am piling more cavalry into the fray against Graham,and most of his infantry are forming into Square,however,an audacious move by Paul has driven Dave's cavalry back over the stream,and is threatening our central position,luckily a "passing" regiment of cuirassiers (lobsters) joined in the general melee and stabilised the position.

In this shot,Brian has managed to lose a regiment and his commanding officer !! and provided another opportunity for Graham and Richard to gloat!! as has been said before-they'll be sorry!!

A very cunning move by Brian,he reckoned that by covering his face,we wouldn't know if he was "gloating" or not !! Actually,just by covering his face he did us a good turn!!!

By this point in the game it was just about all over,all of the central Royalist infantry were in square,and their cavalry was being slaughtered,on Paul's flank,he had admitted defeat....

The final photo,the Royalist army is in disarray,and the Parliamentarians were declared the worthy winners.
Roll on Thursday,probably only one game at night,and probably Ancients!!