Cheriton: Freitag vs Davies

Nearly ten days ago, Peter and I sat down for the second of our two, paired refights of Cheriton.  In that first game, Peter hosted the game from his table in Melbourne.  Peter's battle report can be read here.  Using Peter's rules, I took command of the Royalist Army and came away with victory.  In today's battle, we turn the tables on both rules and host.  I host the game from Spokane with Peter Zooming in from Australia.  We will be using my rules and Peter will be commanding Waller's Army.  In an interesting twist, Peter, of grid-based gaming fame, plays his version of the Cheriton battle on an open table.  My version of Cheriton is played out on a hex-based grid system.  The battlefield and army dispositions are illustrated in the map below:

Cheriton Battlefield and Army Positions

Peter wrote up a superb accounting of this battle.  His version of battle along with his thoughts and battle plans can be found at Battle of Cheriton 1644-Remote Game Rematch on his blog.

Peter looking on from afar
 at his pair of webcam views of the battlefield.

Since Peter recounted the tale so well, I provide a captioned pictorial of the action to augment Peter's report.

Waller's Army deploys along the South Spur anchored
on Cheriton Woods on the right and Cheriton on the left. 

Hopton's Army deploys opposite to South Spur
with Lord Forth on the right.

Both armies step off toward the enemy's line.
Waller marches down from the heights to engage the enemy.

The two armies seem intent on reaching
 the hedge-lined lane to their fronts, first!
Hopton's yellowcoats outmarch the enemy to the hedge.

Waller's dragoons work their way into Cheriton Woods.
If the yellowcoats advance, the dragoons will be on their flank!

Hopton reaches the hedge row first.
Now, let Waller come to him!
Waller sends Haselrigge's horse forward on the left.

View from Hopton's left...

as Potley's infantry cautiously close the range.

Haselrigge's cavalry charges forward.
Countercharged, the Cavaliers are driven off.
Roundhead cavalry fall back to reform
 behind the safety of more of Haselrigge's cavalry.

Seeing his right weakened by Roundhead cavalry charges,
Hopton orders Stuart's cavalry to move to cover the right flank.
Waller's artillery drives the yellowcoats back from the hedge. 

As Bard's greycoated foot crosses the hedge to attack the dragoons,
Potley drives a redcoated regiment back from the hedge in the center.
The dragoons cannot stand under such pressure and recoil.

Now outnumbering Lisle's cavalry on the enemy right,
Haselrigge sends two cavalry brigades forward.
Leading the charge, Haselrigge scatters the enemy horse.
Cavalier cavalry not destroyed in this clash
 fall back toward the center to reform.

As infantry are locked into a firefight in the center,
Balfour brings his Roundhead cavalry over to the left
to reinforce Haselrigge's success.

With the supporting cavalry to his right vanquished,
Bard puts the hedge between his infantry and the enemy. 

Assuming the hedge offers a protective barrier,
 Royalist bluecoats are surprised when attacked.

Led by Potley, Waller's bluecoats crash into Paulet's bluecoats.
Unable to stop Potley with a crippling volley,
the Roundheads crash into the Royalists. 
In a lengthy push of pike, the Royalist foot is scattered.

Roundhhead bluecoats drive the redcoats back in disorder.
Potley's infantry has effectively cut the Royalist army in two.
Has he over-extended himself?

Hopton thinks that the isolated infantry may have.
Two Royalist foot turn to deal with this intruder
while one of Stuart's horse shores up the right.

Balfour sees an opportunity and attacks!
Bypassing Stuart, Balfour crosses the hedge
and rams into one of the redcoats in flank.
The redcoats scatter.

In a series of cavalry charges and countercharges,
first Potley's bluecoats are destroyed, then Balfour's horse scatters.
The Royalist center is devoid of enemy troops.   

Despite Roundhead losses to the north of the hedgerow,
 Waller continues the fight.
Balfour's horse takes on an enemy gun and destroys it
before recalling back to the safety of the spur. 

On the opposites end of the battlefield,
another of Balfour's horse drives off a wavering Royalist.

With those two losses, Hopton's will to fight evaporates.  Even though Waller's Army has been worn down to near exhaustion from its efforts, Hopton's Army can take no more.  This battle is over.  Waller sees victory!

Congratulations to Peter for a well-played game and a well-deserved victory on the battlefield.  Cheriton was a challenging battle for Hopton and I hope it provided sufficient challenge to Waller.

Having played two, two-player games at the head of the Royalist Army, both games ended in a similar fashion.  That is, Waller concentrated enough cavalry against the Royalist right to first overwhelm and then destroy that wing before turning inward.

Early on, I figured that advancing to and deploying along the east-west hedgerow would offer a solid defensive position.  Hopton did manage to reach this obstacle first, forcing Waller to batter his army trying to assault the position.  While this tactic initially showed promise, Parliamentarian cavalry turned the position and made defending this line untenable.  Once the Royalist right was vanquished, I suspect that the writing of this tale was already on the wall.

Great job, Peter, and thank you for countering every short-lived success I saw.  One of these days, I may actually win a battle on my table.  After many games, one conclusion we both reached is that we tend to see victory on enemy ground but rarely see victory on our home turf.  I need to work on that!

There!  I think I am all caught up on battle reports.