The new 3rd edition of Field of Battle by Brent Oman includes rules for the English Civil War. I have wanted to try these rules out, as well as to put pretty much my entire EXW collection on the table. This action provides a good excuse to do both, the game to be played solo due to the pandemic and rising prevalence of Covid-19 in our area.
The First Battle of Newbury was fought in the Fall of 1643, and followed a series of Royalist successes, culminating in the capture of Bristol. The one remaining Parliamentary army under the Earl of Essex was demoralized. The Royalist moved on Gloucester, having reason to believe that the Governor of the city would capitulate to the King. When that failed to materialize, they laid a half hearted siege to the city. The siege was relived by Essex's army, gaining much needed gunpowder from the magazines of the city. In the meantime, the King assembled forces from other regions of England, and a race began with Essex attempting to return to London, and the King attempting to cut him off and force a decisive battle on ground of his choosing. The two armies met outside the city of Newbury. Essex launched a surprise dawn attack, catching the Royalist forces off guard.
Although perhaps decisive, in that the battle offered the best chance for the King to defeat the last Parliamentary army and end the Civil War, this battle is among the worst documented of the conflict, with fairly sketchy information about most aspects of the action, including the exact composition of the forces involved . In the OOB I have done my best to assign commanders to the various forces. The exact units involved are governed solely by the composition of my own collection.
Terrain: Hedges, woods, and hills are all class II terrain, buildings provide Class III cover. The rivers may not be crossed. There was heavy rain the night before the battle. On the first MOVE card for each side, no command may win more than 2 segments, regardless of how high it rolls.
Surprise: All Royalist LD rolls for their first MOVE card are Down one die type as well to reflect the effects of surprise.
Victory: The Parliamentary forces were attempting to break through the Royalist position to reach London, while the Royalists hoped to destroy the last effective Parliamentary army in the field. For each Parliamentary uinit that can exit off the Royalist edge of the table, subtract the UI value of the unit (at full strength) from the Royalist Morale Point pool. Otherwise, normal FoB3 rules apply for Army Morale Checks and margin of victory.
ORDERS of BATTLE
1st Battle of Newcastle, September 20, 1643
Royalist Army, C-inC King Charles II
(Average) Leadership: D12+1 Command Radius: 13”
Sequence Deck: Superior
34 Units, Morale Points 34
Left Wing (Prince Rupert)
Commander: Prince Rupert of the Rhine Rating: Skilled
Leadership Die ? Command Radius:
Commander: Lord Wilmot Rating: Average
Leadership Die ? Command Radius:
Center (Byron and Charles)
Commander: Lord Byron Rating: Average
Leadership Die D8 Command Radius: 16”
Commander: Colonel John Belasyse Rating: Average
Leadership Die D12+1 Command Radius: 13”
Commander: Jacob Astley Rating: Average
Leadership Die D10 Command Radius: 10”
Commander: Lord Henry Percy Rating: Average
Leadership Die D10 Command Radius: 20”
Right Wing: Vavasour
Commander: William Vavasour Rating: Average
Leadership Die D10 Command Radius: 20”
Commander: Earl of Caernarvon Rating: Average
Leadership Die D10 Command Radius: 10”
Parliamentary Army, C-in-C Earl of Essex
(Poor) Leadership: D8 Command Radius: 8”
Sequence Deck: Average
33 Units, Morale Points 38
Left Wing (Middleton)
Commander: General John Middleton Rating: Average
Leadership Die D10 Command Radius: 10”
Commander: Oliver Cromwell Rating: Skilled
Leadership Die D10 Command Radius: 10”
Left Center: Skippon and Mainwaring; Right Center Essex and Robarte
Commander: General Randall Mainwaring Rating: Average
Leadership Die D8 Command Radius: 8”
Commander: Philip Skippon Rating: Average
Leadership Die D10 Command Radius: 10”
Commander: Lord Robarte Rating: Average
Leadership Die D10 Command Radius: 10”
Commander: Earl of Wessex Rating: Poor
Leadership Die D8 Command Radius: 8”
Right Wing: Stapleton
Commander: Philip Stapleton Rating: Average
Leadership Die D10 Command Radius: 10”
Commander: Sir Sammuel Luke Rating: Average
Leadership Die D10 Command Radius: 10”
Online references (I especially based this scenario on the first reference)
http://www.gajominis.com/blog/scenarios/ps%20First%20Newbury.pdf
http://yarkshiregamer.blogspot.com/2016/06/1st-battle-of-newbury-1643-scenario.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Battle_of_Newbury
https://jdglasco.wordpress.com/2013/03/09/february-2013-game-field-of-glory-renaissance-first-newbury-english-civil-war/
http://bcw-project.org/military/english-civil-war/southern-england/first-newbury
http://bcw-project.org/military/english-civil-war/southern-england/first-newbury-order-of-battle
https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/tothestrongest/first-newbury-sort-of-scenario-t980.html
67 units sounds like a bunch to operate. Show me the photos!
ReplyDeleteYeah, I just realized I forgot to upload the photos of the setup; coming in a few minutes! :-)
DeletePictures added!
DeleteWonderful. Almost like being there.
DeleteA splendid looking tabletop with all the troops deployed, and a very nice ECW collection.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Peter. The ECW collection has the nor of having among the the oldest and newest troops in my possession. The core of the collection are the Minifigs I painted in the mid 1970's while in college. Some of them resided atop my bureau there - a not so subtle advertisement for my hobby!
DeleteI love the way this post develops Peter, with beautiful, tranquil English countryside shattered by the noise and anguish of battle!
ReplyDeleteRegards, James
That is the way of war, a fine spectacle in our games, and a brutish thing in reality. Beethoven's 6th symphony (Pastorale) would make a suitable sonic backdrop for this stage of the action, with the "cloudburst" being the opening musket fire of the Roundheads!
DeleteA magnificient table Peter, splendid terrain and armies...Sounds great!
ReplyDeleteThank you Phil. You were obviously hearing the Pastorale in your head before I mentioned it to James! :-)
DeleteI hope to rate the troops and Leaders, set the sequence decks and Morale Points, and attach the unit markers (as in the Caldiero game) later today, and hopefully play some of it out on Sunday!
Looks great! Looking forward to your play through.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Brent! I haven't yet decided how detailed to do this one!
DeleteGreat looking set-up. First Newbury is a big beast of a battle by ECW standards. It’ll be interesting to see how long it takes you.
ReplyDeleteAs this will be solo and my first time with the ECW version of FoB3, plus time out for pictures and game notes, I have no idea. I would guess it will take 3-4 gaming sessions of 1-2 hours given those parameters and the size of the battle.
DeleteOh, this is truly an impressive setup, Peter! Your battlefield looks superb and evokes the hedged English landscape beautifully.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Jon. Hopefully I will start to play it out tonight and tomorrow.
Deletelooking forward to it!
DeleteMany years ago, my future wargames friend, Bob Jones, wrote in the original NEWA Courier that reading battle reports was like watching somebody else kiss a pretty girl; he'd rather do it himself! :-)
DeleteI'm not sure I'd fully agree, really well written battle reports can be quite enjoyable. With the global effects of Covid, remote gaming and vicarious gaming via blog posts have become far more common that in person games. That seems unlikely to change before the summer of 2021 at the earliest at this point!
The terrain and figures came together beautifully here Peter. This has to be one of your finest-looking tables yet.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Lawrence; glad you like it!
DeleteVery impressive looking tabletop Peter. Gives me the urge to return to my own ECW project sooner rather than later.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Jon. I always enjoy your own excellent reports!
DeleteLovely looking table, terrain and figures both! Looking forward to the game report!
ReplyDeleteBest Iain
Thank you, Iain! I've been on call today, and very busy on the phone, so no progress thus far! :-)
DeleteOh, this is just a fantastic post, Peter. With my current, new found interest in ECW, your information here will be used heavily by me in the future.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Dean. Your ECW troops have been coming fast and furious, and at an exceptional quality level as well!
DeleteTo me, the ECW really needs a campaign mechanism (such as Season of Battle, part of FoB3). That allows the troops to start out fairly poor and improve with time and experience... as well as track the "National Will" that will decide, if not the whole war, at least the outcome in that part of the Kingdom.
Superb looking. Epic battle to follow.
ReplyDeleteI really should have tried FoB3 myself with late C17th by now... you have reminded me to move it up the list.
Thanks! This will be my first ECW battle with FoB, so yiou're not really that far behind the curve! :-)
DeleteLooking great, look forward to the after action report.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Gary. Working on the last details to start the game now! :-)
Delete