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Thursday, December 1, 2022

Cropredy Bridge BatRep

The background for Cropredy Bridge was presented in the previous post (see: On The Table Today Is).  Now, time to present the action, itself.

Four players took up the challenge in a remote game with Chris and Richard taking command of the Parliamentarian Army while Steve and Tony took command of the Royalist Army.  While Richard had played the rules, A Reign Cut Short, one time, perhaps a year ago, the others received their baptism of fire.  The rules are my own work with original inspiration coming from Howard Whitehouse's Ironsides.

Without further ado, on to battle!
(Arrows: White=move; Yellow=retreat; Red=melee).

Armies drawn up for battle.

Middleton rushes over Cropredy Bridge
 with infantry following.
With Royalist horse arrayed upon the heights, 
Astley's infantry march toward Hays Bridge.
Astley on the march.
Coming down from the heights,
 Wilmot's horse deploys.
Middleton counters. 
Middleton and Wilmot eye each other nervously.
Who will flinch first?
View from behind the Royalist position.
Northampton on the left (foreground).
Waller on the left (background).
Astley's foote regiments swing into line facing the enemy.
Wilmot and Cleveland charge toward Middleton's horse.
A swirling melee erupts in charges and countercharges.
When the dust settles, each command loses
two horse regiments with one more wavering.
Vandruske brings up his foote.
With cavalry in tatters to his left, Vandruske advances
 his infantry toward the Royalist positions.
As Waller's dragoons mount up,
Waller prepares to attack Northampton.
Taking fire from Vandruske, Wilmot is forced to retire.
Waller advances on the right
 while Northampton moves up.
Stuck between a rock and a hard place,
Northampton forms his brigade into a wedge.
Waller closes in on Northampton from all sides.
Dragoons guarding Hays Bridge.
Waller attacks and Northampton is destroyed!
The dragoons guarding Hays Bridge,
 safely behind the barricades, come forward.
With the right secure,
Vandruske presses on against the Royalist center.
Middleton attacks the bold dragoons near Hays Bridge.
The dragoons are put to flight
as they scurry back across the bridge.
The dragoons rout!
While Vandruske's left regiment of foote
suffers a setback in melee,
the other scatters Astley's yellow coats
 as they dissolve under fire.
 
As Vandruske's bluecoats crest the hill,
Wilmot realizes it is time to disengage.
with his path to Hays Bridge cut off, the battle is over.
Yes, the battle is over.  The Parliamentarians win a major victory as Wilmot's rear column is effectively destroyed.

What began with great promise for the Royalists in their early cavalry attacks upon Middleton quickly unraveled when Northampton was caught in a pincer by Waller and Vandruske.  With no artillery on the field, the Royalists found themselves at a disadvantage although Parliamentarian artillery was generally ineffective but sometimes a nuisance.

Congratulations to Richard and Chris for their superb handling of the Parliamentarian Army.  Rather than strike with Middleton directly toward Hays Bridge (as historically), Chris chose to engage the enemy cavalry first.  Richard's dismantling of Northampton will be one for the record books.  

Thanks to Steve and Tony for offering up a solid defense while providing an entertaining game.  With one game under their belts, no guarantee that this result could be repeated.  For me, great fun in bringing together distant gamers for an enjoyable session.  I look forward to the next time.

37 comments:

  1. A nice looking and nicely paced game. Good idea on the colour coded arrows. Northampton’s advance seems to have ‘done for him’, that even an optimistically brave stand could not undo. “We art done f'r, assail'd to all sides, parliament, hast out fox'd us”.

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    1. Thank you, Norm!

      “We art done f'r, assail'd to all sides, parliament, hast out fox'd us”.

      That is the spirit! I love it!

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  2. That's two wins for Waller then, after our game. Did you make any changes at all to the scenario?

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    1. I downgraded artillery from 4 to 3.

      Two wins for Waller but the scenario ends before the King reinforces the battle. Still, Waller, in our games, is doing much better than his historical counterpart. Cleveland and Northampton may need to play their leadership advantage more aggressively.

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    2. I think they need a bigger, steeper hill.

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    3. Perhaps. Northampton, Wilmot, and Cleveland all attacked down that hill.

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  3. In this case doing the unsuspected certainly worked, a great spectacle as always.

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    1. Glad you like the look of the battle, Phil. Middleton chose to take care of the biggest threat first. Seems prudent to me.

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  4. A great looking game. As soon as I saw Northampton's wedge formation, born out of necessity as it was, I thought it was not going to end well.

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    1. Thanks, Lawrence! Yeah, when I saw that maneuver, I thought, cavalry forming up fore to aft may not end well.

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  5. A crushing outcome, but (seemingly) the course of the game was not an equally one-sided affair, as is often the case with such results. In other words, a well done scenario. Played out in high style (love the look of your games).

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    1. The battle did not need to have the outcome it did. I thought Royalist initial success on their right might break Middleton and create a catastrophe on that flank. It was not to be.

      Glad you like approve of the look of the game. Much appreciated.

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  6. Much kudos and many thanks to you Jon for the way you hosted the game. Had a blast and not just because we Roundheads won (numbers told I think). Actually looking at the respective pictures, it does seem that Richard and I are indeed Roundheads compared to Steve's cavalier locks.
    Nice to see close ups of your figures. They look very characterful.
    Thanks once again.
    Chris

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    1. Chris, you are welcome! I am happy to see you enjoyed the game. It was a pleasure hosting you fellas for a game. Parliament may have held a slight advantage in numbers but the Royalists held better ground. The only advantage in numbers for the roundheads was due to artillery. All else was square.

      Glad you like the close-ups of my armies!

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  7. Yet another lovely report to read and as has been said, the coloured arrows helped lots too. Quite the victory!

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    1. Thank you, Dai! I have been putting the arrows in much more regularly of late.

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  8. Good looking game and a good read, well done.

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  9. Looks great Jon and, with no disrespect to Steve and Tony, the right side won!

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    1. Thanks, Keith! Yeah, Steve and Tony would likely disagree with you.

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  10. Handsome looking game and was obviously fun to play, an overzealous Northampton I think brought doom to the army

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    1. Thanks, Graham! Fun to play for the umpire, for sure. I expect Northampton may try a different approach if the battle was replayed. For one, the rules would make more sense allowing tactics to evolve.

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  11. Lovely looking battle Jon and nicely reported 👍

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  12. Great looking game and report. I suspect different decisions may be made if this is replayed by the same players.

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    1. Thank you! I suspect you are right. Northampton suggests he would fight the battle differently. Does fighting the battle interest you?

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  13. A fine AAR there Jon and the coloured arrows certainly made it easier to follow the action. Good to see a win for the righteous (Parliament of course!) and I wonder if the bad guys (Royalists naturally!) might have been better off holding onto the ground they occupied, that might have given them an advantage?

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    1. Well hard to avoid being a Parliamentarian where I grew up, as the local market town (St Ives, Huntingdonshire) had a statue of Cromwell in the market square as he was the local MP way back then.

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    2. Thank you, Steve! I have been slipping the action arrows into battle reports more frequently especially in the webcam screenshots. They help me track the action too.

      Good win for the Righteous? I received an email saying what a tragedy to see the Royalists fall. Allegiances still run deep in your country.

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    3. The ECW was a war about fundamental principles, so there is still some point to choosing a side, unlike the Wars of the Roses, which was two entitled groups of thugs fighting over who gets to divvy up the spoils.

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  14. Splendid game Jon! A big well done to all!

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  15. I missed to read the report because I was not at home. But it's very nice to see you playing again. Very clean table and excellent photos.

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    1. Thank you, André! I may play this one again before packing it all away.

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