ECW Battle of Southam, 1642

Having refought the ECW Battle of Southam three times in August, I returned to the drawing board to see what could be done to affect an historical outcome.  All August battles ended with a decisive Royalist victory which ran counter to the actual outcome.  In the historical encounter, the Royalist foot and artillery suffered from the imbalance in the number of their kind opposing them and fled the field.  Only the more numerous Royalist horse was able to cover this withdrawal.  

In all three earlier games, the Royalist cavalry superiority played havoc with any attempt by Parliament forces to come to grips with their opponent.  Superior in cavalry on both flanks, the Royalists quickly dispatched their less numerous counterparts and controlled the field of battle.  Given the historical outcome, I needed to investigate how this came about.  Since this is a solo game and I will be commanding Lord Brooke's Army, all photos will be taken from that perspective.  References to "left" and "right" will be assumed to be seen from the Parliamentarian side of battle unless specified.

For game specifics, first, I likely rated all cavalry on the field as having a better Combat Effectiveness (CE) than warranted.  Being early in the war, these ratings were likely too generous.  I will begin by downgrading all horse regiments across the board.  Some formations will be rated better than others but a general downgrading is in order.

Second, Parliament fielded six guns to two.  In the August battles, Parliament was allocated two gun stands to the Royalists' one.  To keep the gun ratios historical, Parliament will receive a third gun stand.  Being light pieces, all guns will be able to prolong a little farther than in the earlier battles.  More numerous and slightly more mobile, perhaps artillery may play a larger role?  

Initial dispositions

As a reminder, the Order of Battle for Southam is:

Parliamentarian Army OOB:
Army Commander: Lord Brooke: Average

Infantry:
Colonel John Hampden's Foot (CE=3)
Lord Brooke's Foot (CE=4)
Colonel Denzil Holles' Foot (CE=3)

Cavalry:
Left Wing Cavalry: Fiennes Horse (Trotters CE=3)
Right Wing Cavalry: Goodwin's Horse (Trotters CE=4)
Three artillery stands (CE=3)

Royalist Army OOB:
Army Commander:Earl of Northampton: Good

Infantry:
Earl of Northampton's Foot (CE=4)
Sir William Saville's Dragoons (Dismounted) Cavalry (CE=4):

Wilmot's and Carnarvon's Horse (Galloper CE=3)
Legge's and Clarke's Horse (Galloper CE=3)
Compton's and Northampton's Horse (Galloper CE=3)
Saville's and Middleton's Horse (Galloper CE=4)
One artillery stand (CE=3)

Lord Brooke advances off from heights

Turn 1:
Royalists take the initiative and begin a timid advance toward Lord Brooke's position on the heights.  Too far out to allow his cavalry dominance to come to bear, the Earl of Northampton closes the distance to Roundhead positions carefully.  Lord Brooke gives the signal for a general advance and his army descends from the heights.  Having the advantage in foot and guns, Northampton urges his center forward while his two cavalry regiments protect the wings.

Turn 2:
Lord Brooke seizes the initiative.  With his cavalry within striking distance of Royalist horse, his cavalry push forward to engage the enemy.  On Lord Brooke's left, Fiennes' horse charges forward.  Opposing Fiennes, Carnarvon's horse, counter charges.  Before the two bodies of horse collide, one of Brooke's light guns gets off a shot on the oncoming horse.  The light gun scores a lucky hit.  Carnarvon fails his response test and falls back.  His withdrawal is halted when he reaches Clarke's Regiment of Horse.  Fiennes follows up the retreat but pulls up short of contacting the enemy.  

Cavalry clash on left

Royalist horse repulsed

Goodwin's Horse on the right charges forward.  Middleton's Royalist Horse responds.  Both become shaken during the charge but both close.

Cavalry clash on right

In the clash, Middleton suffers a hit and retreats passing through Northampton's Horse to the rear.  Northampton's Horse calmly allows Middleton to pass through before charging Goodwin's Horse, himself.  Being shaken from his earlier effort, Goodwin cannot respond and takes the charge at the standstill. 

Royalists repulsed again

As Northampton closes, Goodwin's trotters, armed with pistols, get off a shot.  Shocked by this close range pistol discharge, Northampton's troopers turn tail and retreat.  Their panic carries them into the already shaken troops of Middleton.  This is too much for Middleton's wavering troops.  Middleton retreats back toward the bridge.  The Royalist left seems to be in peril.   

Goodwin vs Carnarvon

While the Royalist left is disintegrating, on the right, Carnarvon withdraws through Clarke's Horse in an attempt to remove himself from harms' way and seeks a place to recover.  Unfortunately, Carnarvon's move disorders Clarke and his troops become shaken.  In the center, the sole Royalist gun fires into Brooke's Foote at short range.  Brooke takes a hit but remains in place, shaken.

Royalist cavalry falling back

Seeing Brooke's regiment wavering, Northampton rides over to join his own regiment of foot.  Leading his regiment, he encourages his men to push into Brooke's regiment.  As Northampton bears down on Brooke, the defenders fire an ineffective volley before Northampton closes.   

Infantry fight in the center

Lord Brooke's Regiment of Foote repulsed

In the close combat, Brooke suffers heavy casualties and falls back between the gap separating his supporting regiments.  Northampton's regiment suffers casualties but stands firm.  For now, Northampton and his regiment are victorious.

Northampton's Regiment of Foote

Turn 3.

Lord Brooke retains initiative. Fiennes' Horse, now, precariously situated far from support and within the sights of Saville's Dragoons, falls back in search of a less hazardous place to reform.  As Fiennes disengages, the dragoons send off a parting volley.  Many troopers are left on the ground as the regiment withdraws.

Fiennes' horse falls back out of harms' way

In the center, Hampden's Foote fires into Northampton's Foote.  Northampton's Foote suffers casualties when the volley finds its target by a fortuitous reroll.  Not only does the infantry regiment take casualties but the Earl of Northampton is unseated and falls to the ground dead.  With the death of their commander, the fighting spirit of the Earl's army drops.

Push of pike

The Royalists fight on until the Earl's battered and weary army can disengage.  While many of Northampton's force are teetering on the brink of collapse, the fatigue in Lord Brooke's Army leaves it in no position to pursue.  The Royalist army retires from the field.  Minor Victory to Parliament.

For the Royalists, the battle is lost

Well! Parliament finally sees a victory on the ground at Southam.  Luck played a role in the outcome of this battle.  First, Parliament's outnumbered cavalry saw limited success on both wings.  With Royalist cavalry superiority negated, this early success set the tone for the battle.  Having many of the regiments on both sides either rated raw or poorly trained, there was little margin for error when combat effectiveness began to ebb.  Staying power was fleeting.  When the Earl of Northampton fell in the center, the effect of his loss rippled throughout his army.  The result was most of the army was shaken and nearing the brink.  A slight shove would have pushed the entire army over the edge.  

Was the result a fluke?  Perhaps.  Maybe the historical result was a low probability result too?  Had the light gun not found its target when Carnarvon counter charged Fiennes in the first charge of the day, Carnarvon may have defeated the Roundhead cavalry.  An early victory here would have opened up that flank for exploitation.  Did adding the third gun to Northampton's army make a difference?  I think it did.  While not many casualties were caused from artillery fire, its presence may have entered into Brooke's calculus on how to tackle the battle.  Allowing the light guns to prolong helped in supporting Brooke's general advance in the center.

An entertaining action.  The battle was swift and developed a plausible narrative.  A battle I plan to repeat before putting the soldiers back into their box.  Has Southam really been out on the table since August?  Yes, it has.  If nothing else, having Southam on the table and in sight every time I enter the game room for a painting session, has motivated me to push a few more ECW units into the painting queue.