Roundway Down Project (1) - quick list of forces

Just working out some basics for my Roundway Down project. Approx size of armies

Parliament: Horse 2000; Foot 1800; Guns 8; + some dragoons
Royalist: Horse 1800; Foot 2000; Guns 2 light pieces; + some dragoons

Need to get the ratios approx correct; so decided on the following forces:

Royalists:
1. Left - 2 Regiments of horse (18 figs)
2. Centre - 1 Regiment of horse (9 figs),  Galloper Gun, Dragoons
3. Right - 2 Regiments of horse (18 figs)
4. At Devizes - 5 Regiments of Foot.

Parliamentarians:

1. Left - 3 Regiments of horse (27 figs)
2. Centre - 4 Regiments of Foot, 3 guns
3. Right - 3 Regiments of horse (27 figs)
4. To the rear - Dragoons - guarding baggage and watching out for Royalist foot.

After totting up the horse required I am 3 regiments short, figs order to be done shortly - may go for some Sash & Sabre this time.

Planning for Roundway Down 're-fight'

I'm currently planning my re-fight of Roundway Down. Prior to the main battle there was a rearguard action at Rowde plus the siege of Devizes, so may also have a go at staging these too.

Have to paint up one infantry regiment and obtain probably 5 more cavalry regiments. I may look at the army sizes and reduce the cavalry slightly, maintaining the right ratios.

Plenty of reading to do - will check up on accounts in other books to build up a clearer picture of the main battle.

New Regiment of Foot Musters

Finished assembling a new regiment of foot; facncied something slightly different and bought some figs in marching poses -mostly Romanoff, with some Jacdaw and a few Sash and Sabre heads for variety. 

The Battle of Pewsey

The Parliamentarians having raided the villages around Marlborough are headied towards Pewsey. A body of Royalist horse rode to intercept them.

The Royalist horse form up to the north of Pewsey...

The Parliamentarians start to deploy on seeing the body of Royalist horse ...

The Royalists start moving forward to take the initiative ....

The Parliamentarians continue their deployment  ...

The view to their front is disconcerting, the Royalist horse are charging at full tilt ...

The Royalist horse charge into contact ....

The melee continues as both sides feed in more troops of horse, the Parlianentarians are holding their ground....

Boths sides fall back in part to regroup while fresh regiments move forward ....

The melee restarts with the fresh regiments setting to ....

The Royalist get the upper hand and a Parliamentarian regiment routs ...

The Royalists press home their advantage now they outnumber the opposition ....

The Royalist give chase and surround the remaining Parliamentarians ....

---oXo---

A victory for ye Kinge !

A Lull in the fighting ...

Both sides have been 'licking their wounds' after the battle of Hungerford. The royalists have withdrawn their small garrision from Marlborough and have for now decided to consolidate the rest of their positions in the north of Wiltshire. They have setup a number of lookout posts to keep an eye on movements towards the Pewsey vale from the east and south.

The Parliamentarians have been re-inforcing their horse regiments which took heavy casualties at Hungerford, they are considering their next move - perhaps another raid or an attempt move to take Pewsey.

Royalists at Devizes ....

After their defeat at the battle Hungerford in Berkshire, the Royalists re-grouped at Chideford near Hungerford. Hearing of the defeat of the Kings Army at Newbury they decided to march back to Devizes to be in the best position to counter any move by Parliament. (note: have added outline map to above the blog archive)

Sir William de Walloughby watches as his troops enter Devizes

--oXo--

Note: I have updated this post to add link in the above text to Battle of Newbury (as reported on the Blog Lead Gardens)

The Battle of Hungerford

At Hungerford the Parliamentarian army faces the Royalists; they have formed up just to the west of the road to Wantage.

Both sides eyed up the opposition, there was some hesitancy in deciding to move forward; neither side was willing to make the first move.  The battle started in the mid-morning with a desultory exchange of artillery fire.  The commander of horse on the royalist left urges his men forward ...

As the royalist horse move, the parliamentarian cuirassiers start to trot forewards

Meanwhile on the other flank the royalist horse and foot are advancing ....

While the foot exchange vollies the horse get stuck in ...

While the rest of the royalist foot move forewards, the action on their right flank intensifies...

The parliamentarian cuirassiers charge forward, the royalist horse hesitated and failed to counter charge and are pushed back, they are gettting the worst of the melee

The royalist horse break and rout, the cuirassier follow and head off to plunder the baggage train ...

The battle in the centre heats up, the lead royalist regiment is at 'push of pike' with the opposition ..

On the royalist right flank their horse won the melee and pursue the parliamentarian horse ...

The royalist horse are unable to resist the tempting target of the parliamentarian baggage train ...

In the centre the parliamentarian foot have won the melee and the lead royalist foot has routed, as it streams past the supporting regiment the artillery crew loose their nerve and run ...

The cuirassiers have returned and pose a threat to the royalist left, one of the foot regiments forms a shiltron. The rest of the royalist foot refuse to advance and start to edge backwards ...

The royalist horse return only to find themselves having to cover the retreat of royalist foot ...

The royalists retreat leaving the field of battle to the parliamentarians 

-  A Victory for Parliament