Rearguard at Rowde [Sun 9th July 1643]

The Royalists are on the march to Devizes are and passing through the village of Rowde.

As the tail end of the column reaches Rowde they receive word of nearby Parliamentarian horse

Royalist horse take up position at Rowdeford (by the Summerbrook)...

Parliamentarian horse attack ...

They fall back, to regroup

In they come again ...

They are pushed back and while they regroup the Royalist horse withdraw

The Royalist horse pass through Rowde with the Parliamentarians following ...

A Royalist foot regiment blocks the road to Devizes. The Parliamentarian horse makes a bold charge

But the musket fire from the foot regiment is too much for them ...

---oXo---

The rearguard join the rest of the Royalist army drawn up on Roundway hill just to the north of Devizes, but with the Parliamentarian horse re-inforced and the rest of their army visible on the march the Royalists hurry into Devizes and start erecting barricades.

Roundway Campaign Map

A very rough map of the area round Devizes in Wiltshire, where most of the action takes place
(clikc to enlarge)

Outline of contours in grey, roads in red. The brook in blue is a bit wide for the scale but limited by my felt tip pen's thickness.

The Royalist army left Chippenham and headed for Devizes followed by the Parliamentarians ...

Roundway Down Project (9) - Plan of Action

The action preceding Roundway and the main battle itself is about to intrude into my imaginary campaign set in Wiltshire. I'm planning to game the following:
a) Rearguard at Rowde.
b) 'Siege' and attack on Devizes.
c) The Battle of Roundway

Mounted Horse - 'skirmishing'

Had great fun painting these, my last four conversions - cornet and three chaps firing pistols ...

and joined by the rest of their regiment ...

Horse Firing pistols (conversions)

I had a dig around in my ECW boxes and found that I had three figures holding pistols/muskets on horse (from previous conversions), plus a spare officer and trumpeter - all painted up. With the cornet I made up recently I needed 3 more figs to complete the regiment (9 figs).
Firstly two Irregular Miniatures riders with S&S arms firing pistols on converted 18C horses cast from moulds.

and one firing pistol made up from 18c limber horse rider on a converted 18C Irregular Miniatures horse, with lots of spare bits and green stuff to complete.

Horse - Cornet Conversion

For my Roundway down refight I want to represent the weakened royalist cavalry brigade, to do this I'll split up 1 reg horse (9 figs) but need three extra figures inlcuding a cornet to make 2 x 6 fig regiments.  I also want to have a horse regiment skrimishing, firing pistols etc. - so a I need a cornet for those as well.

I decided to make  a cornet  up using spare bits left over from S&S, Romanoff figs - but using some of my home cast 18c moulds to make a limber horser rider and horse to be converted. Horse was modified to accept two pistol holsters and the rider was converted with new head, sword and arm.  Buff coat, sash and additional detail was added with green stuff. Some piccies below ....

Supplies to Pewsey...

Since the defeat of the royalists at Hungerford the parliamentarians have been putting Pewsey under some pressure. An initial raid was beaten off by royalist horse some time back, but now the parliamentarian forces of Sir Warwick Hunt are slowly gaining control of the area. A royalist supply train makes an attempt to reach Pewsey ....

---oXo---

The hastily thrown up defences at Pewsey, across the road into the town ...

The relief column approaches ...

parliamentarian dragoons are spotted in the edge of the wood and nearby hedges

As the royalists organise themselves to deal with the dragoons, parliamentarian horse arrives ...

The fight with dragoons intensifies while the parliamentarian horse move towards the supply wagons ...

The dragoons are being pushed out of the woods by royalist horse and commanded shot ...

The lead parliamentarian horse regiment captures a wagon of supplies ...

The commander of the royalist relief force escapes capture and seeks refuge in Pewsey ..

While the lead parliamentarian horse regiment enjoys rooting thorugh the supplies, their other two regiments pause due to the presence of the royalist foot and the commander tries to cajol them into action ...

Royalist foot give fire as the parliamentarian horse advance ...

Infantry exchage fire while the horse fight it out ...

After much affray the royalists horse lose, their infantry retire to safety with some of the supplies. The parliamentarian horse enjoy plundering a second supply wagon,

  ---oXo---

A victory for Parliament !