Battle of Montgomery, 1644

On Wednesday, three players volunteered to take command in a remote game seeing my 30mm ECW collection out for battle.  The Battle of Montgomery in 1644 was on the docket.

Situation
Royalists, under Byron, are besieging Montgomery.  Meldrum has crossed the River Camlads in order to lift the siege and resupply the town and garrison.  Meldrum sends out a foraging party of cavalry to bring in supplies for both his troops and the besieged troops within Montgomery.  Seeing that his command outnumbers Meldrum after Meldrum sent off about 30% of his cavalry, Byron orders an attack to drive the Roundheads into the river.  Camlads is only crossable at Salt Bridge.  Meldrum is outnumbered but expecting his foraging party to be recalled and return at some point in the battle.  Byron is overconfident and does not offer much in personal command for the battle. Lothian's Chelshire foote have sworn to stand and will fight to the death.

Initial deployments

Royalists win if the Parliamentarian Army can be broken before it falls back across the River Camlads to safety.  Parliamentarians win if the Royalists can be broken and the siege lifted.  Parliamentarians gain a minor victory if they can cross back over the River Camlads to safety before their army is broken (but what fun would this victory condition hold if Meldrum runs away at the first sound of battle?).

Armies drawn up for battle.

View looking down the Battle Lines. 

Historically, Meldrum won the battle even though outnumbered.  Several deployment variations are hypothesized.  I choose the deployment will the cavalry massed upon the Royalist left.

Royalists automatically have initiative on the first turn.  Mark and Chris command Byron's Royalists.  Steve takes the helm of the Parliamentarian Army under Meldrum.

Meldrum readies his army for battle.

Byron holds the high ground.

On to battle!

The two armies watch on expectantly, waiting for the first advances of battle.   The wait is not long.

Byron orders Tyldesley's cavalry forward negotiating the hedge to its front.  Almost immediately, one of Fairfax's regiments is upon them.  In a quick, sharp clash, the Roundhead cavalry is driven off.  Casualties are heavy to both.

The cavalry face off on Meldrum's right.

Fairfax strikes!

As both commanders move up their foote, Fairfax keeps the pressure on the Royalist cavalry by charging back into the enemy before they can regroup.  At the hedge, the Royalists are trapped and are cut down before they can escape.  Along the lane, Fairfax charges in, scatters the enemy cavalry to his front, and then launches into pursuit.  Pursuit is stopped cold by a second body of Royalist horse. Fairfax retreats.

Out on the Royalist right, the dragoons come off the hill to take up a position in the rough ground.  Immediately, these dragoons come under pressure from enemy foote.

Foote advance.

Fairfax attacks!
Two Royalist cavalry are destroyed.

With a swirling cavalry battle on the Royalist left seeing the Royalists coming up short, Byron turns his attention to the infantry.  With his dragoons engaged on his far right, Broughton's foote are ordered down from the heights.

Seeing the dragoons overrun and the Royalist right threatened, one regiment swings around to counter enemy advances.  Catching the Roundhead infantry unprepared for an attack from that quarter, the Roundhead infantry is dispatched.

In the center, having let loose a volley into the Parliamentarian infantry to its front moments before, Broughton pitches into the enemy.  Disordered by the volley, the enemy cannot withstand the Royalist attack. It breaks for the rear.  The Parliamentarian left is no more.

Having suffered in the unequal exchanges in the cavalry battle on the Royalist left, success against enemy foot elsewhere looks to be tipping the battle's outcome back toward the Royalists.

Royalists descend the hill

and prepare to attack.

Two of Meldrum's foote are scattered.

Those thoughts are short-lived. Fairfax keeps pressure upon the Royalist cavalry wing routing a third horse regiment.  Only one cavalry regiment remains on the Royalist left.

Destruction of another Royalist horse!

As the Royalists' cavalry wing is destroyed,
Royalist generals look on in horror and dismay.

Having seen off the Roundhead left, Royalist foote turn to face the threat of Myddleton’s late arriving enemy cavalry returning from their foraging exercises.   Byron needs to stabilize his left in case his final horse regiment is seen off.

With their right secure, 
Royalist foote march into the plain.

Byron need not wait long.

Fairfax presses on and over the hedge to engage the sole remaining Royalist horse. Outnumbered, the action is over quickly.  The Royalist cavalry wing is gone.

The last Royalist horse regiment is destroyed.

Fairfax's hard-charging horse!

Royalist foote turn to face a new threat.

Situation when the two armies disengage.

At this point in battle, the Royalists had seen all of their cavalry scattered and the Parliamentarians had lost all of their infantry.  Both armies were hovering close to their Army Breakpoints.  The ultimate outcome could have easily gone either way.

With the Parliamentarian Army outnumbered, Meldrum could gain a minor victory by escaping back over the River Camlads before his army was broken or trapped against the river.  True that the Royalists prevented the siege of Montgomery from being lifted but Meldrum kept a viable army in the field to, perhaps, make another attempt at relieving the siege.  Given those conditions, each army could logically argue that they won a minor victory.  Meldrum could claim victory by not being destroyed.  Byron could declare victory by keeping the siege intact.

I called the battle a draw.

Thanks again to the players for providing a very entertaining game.  Montgomery may return to the field next week in an encore presentation.