Save the gun ...

The commander of Parliamentarian forces Sir Warwick Hunt had been moving his siege ordnance northwards to assist Waller in the siege of Devizes; when the news of the battle of Roundway reached him they turned about. After passing through Upavon their largest gun became stuck in a marshy area; with its limber damaged and unable to extract it they left a guard of dragoons, foot and horse - while they went to get more horses and repair the limber.

Meanwhile to take advantage of the royalist victory at Roundway Sir William de Walloughby led his wiltshire royalists to try and take Upavon (south-west of Devizes) and then if possible move on Amesbury; as they marched they came upon the gun and its guard ....

---oxo---

The gun stuck in the boggy ground, dragoons stand to as some royalist foot is spotted ...

The rest of the troops guarding the gun form up (a regiment of foot and one of horse), while the royalist foot start their advance. In the distance royalist horse and dragoons are moving up, also the head of the parliamentarian force with a team of horses to extract the gun and more troops can be seen arriving

The royalist infantry advance and parliamentarian horse wheel to move to cover the flank ......

The parliamentarian dragoons and royalist infantry exchange fire; the dragoons flinch and fall back; Sir Warwick Hunt has arrived and manages to rally them

The dragoons continue their exchange of fire with the royalist foot, Sir William de Walloughby has arrived and is encouraging the royalist foot forward ...

Firing erupts along the battle lines, the royalist foot and dragoons are pressing forward; the team of horses is being hitched up to the gun; Sir Warwick Hunt looks anxiously to his rear and watches parliamentarian horse engaged with a royalist horse regiment that had worked its way around the flank

The royalist horse have beaten their opposition and have wheeled round and charged into the back of the nearest parliamentarian foot regiment; Sir Warwick Hunt and his escort are caught in the melee ....

The parliamentarian dragoons have routed and the rest have fallen back under fire; their withdrawal turns into a general 'rout' - all a regiment of parliamentarian horse that has just arrived can do is to cover the flight of their comrades; the grey coated parliamentarian foot regiment beset by both horse and foot surrenders- Sir Warwick Hunt is captured

The royalist foot have captured the gun, Sir William de Walloughby moves forward to examine his prize ..

A victory for ye Kinge

what will happen to Sir Warwick Hunt ? the royalists will take him north to be imprisoned ...

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A great game, the use of the shuffled unit cards for order of movement and dicing for response to 'command' to move add unpredictability to the game. Parliament seemed to be doing well until they lost the horse melee on their flank and a run of  bad rolls on the selected 'lucky' red dice  for morale checks led to all unravelling

The not so lucky red dice !!

a quick update ...

Well I enjoyed the Roundway battle - I was so pleased to actaully manage to stage the refight. To have the forces to do this has long been a target - so that's that done. Now I can settle down to do bits and bobs - my main problem at the moment is storage space - I've filled my 'ECW cupboard', so some more appropriate boxes to store the cavalry are required. After that I will probably add another regiment of foot, some firelocks and some clubmen.

I managed to find some additional buildings from the Conflix range,

front to back: Priests house, Moneylenders house and 'Keep' (from Magic Toyshop). The one on the left is the Guild Masters house which I already had.  They've yet to be based, I may also repaint them a bit.

As to the ECW campaign for Wiltshire, this will restart shortly - have an idea for a new scenario.

The Battle of Roundway Down

With no sign of the Royalist infantry coming up from Devizes, Wilmot and Byron decide to take the intiative and attack. Wilmot sent Smith forward with a 'folorn hope' of  cavalry to engage the first parliamentarian regiment, while fighting begins Heselrig leads his lobsters forwards ...

Wilmot responds by leading the rest of his cavalry brigade foward and charges Heselrig's lobsters, while Smiths folorn hope hold their ground ...

With Wilmot fully engaged, Byron leads his brigade forward to move on the horse on the other parliamentarian flank commanded by Waller; Crawford's brigade hangs back to support Wilmot if needed.

Heselrig's lobsters are just holding their ground but Smiths folorn hope has been pushed back but are still fighting hard ...

Byron takes a wide path across the front of parliamentarian foot, deploying dragoons and a galloper gun as a folorn hope ...

Byron charges home into the parliamentarian horse ....

Crawford moves his brigade forward to support the dragoons and be in a position to support Byron or Wilmot if needed ...

The parliamentarian horse under the command of Waller hold their ground ....

Meanwhile Wilmot after some heavy fighting has broken Heselrig's lobsters who rout and has turned to take the other parliamentarian horse in the flank who break and run .... 

On the other flank Crawford leads his brigade forward to support Byron who his hard pressed ...

Crawford charges home and Byron's brigade has pushed Waller's horse back ...

Waller's horse hold their ground again and have pushed back Crawford's brigade....

The central regiment of Waller's horse has broken and routed, but his other regiments have pushed back the royalists, Byron manages to prevent all of his regiment from pursuing and reforms ready to assist the rest ....

Wilmot having cleared away the parlimentarian horse on his flank, reforms and threatens the parliamentarian infantry ....

On the other flank Byrons' rallied horse has attacked the parliamentarian horse in the rear and they rout, finally after a long struggle Crawford beats his opposition; the parliamentarian horse are routing off the field; Byron reforms a regiment of horse to move on the parliamentarian foot ...

The parliamentarian foot start to form shiltrons to defend against the royalist horse ....

The parliamentarian foot are isolated and royalist horse prepare to attack them ...

Royalist horse attack the parliamentarian foot but not too much effect; the foot have managed to edge northwards.  In the distance behind Wilmot's horse can be seen the royalist foot arriving from Devizes (after having received a messenger from Wilmot)

The arrival of the royalist foot the signals the end for the parliamentarians who are badly mauled and surrender.

A great Victory for ye Kinge

---oXo---

A result that pretty much followed history; brief summary of the forces:
Royalist:
Wilmots Brigade 500 + Smiths Folorn Hope - 300
Byrons Brigade 500
Crawfords Brigade 500
Foot (in Devizes) 3000

Parliament:
Heselrig's flank 1000
Waller's flank 1200
Foot: 2500


A great solo game; I wasn't sure what was going to happen, Wilmot's brigade looked like they were about to lose then the next melee round decided it - Heselrig's lobster were soundly beaten and routed, numbers told. Waller's horse on the other flank nearly won, their central horse regiment breaking was the turning point in the royalist's favour. Wallers horse escaped to the north - and were not pushed down the 'bloody hill' as happened in the real battle.

The parliamentarian foot were in a awkward situation  with cavalry melees on both flanks and  cavalry to their front - they clung to the base of Roundway hill - one regiment moved forward slightly to engage the royalist dragoons.

Roundway Down [Thu 13th July 1643] - forces deploy

The royalist relief force had joined with horse from Devizes at Marlborough, they then rode over the downs towards Devizes. They stopped on Roughridge Hill and fired a signal cannon

In Devizes the signal cannon was heard and a response made by firing cannon from the castle; however there was much discussion - they feared it a was a parliamentarian ruse to draw them out of the town - Hopton and his officers could not decide and they royalist foot remained in Devizes.

Meanwhile Waller now aware of the presence of the relief column, drew up the parliamentarian army on Roundway down..

Byron and Wilmot drew up the royalist horse ready for action ...

---oXo---

Roundway Down: 'the battle' to follow ....

Devizes [Wed 12th July 1643]

The weather closed in, and heavy rain showers during the day put pay to the parliamentarians plans to make another attempt on Devizes that day.

Meanwhile a body of horse commanded by Byron and Wilmot was marching from Oxford to Marlborough to join up with the horse from Devizes ...

Devizes - Parliamentarian Assualt .. [Tues 11th July 1643 - Afternoon]

The royalists await as the parliamentarian assault unfolds

The parliamentarian foot move up ...

Horse make a charge up two of the road ways into the town, but are unable to get past the barricades ..

The foot close in and exchange fire with the defenders ....

The foot close to contact ...

The foot break through the hedge line ...

They gain more ground and the royalists now retire into the buildings and continue their defense..

A small body of horse has found its way into the southern part of the town...

A company of foot blocks the road and opens fire ...

The horse are slowly pushed back down the road and retire ..

Up by the church the rest of the assault has stalled ...

The assault is flagging and the royalists have push their attackers out of the houses and back towards the hedge ...

The royalists regain the hedge ...

The parliamentarians fall back and start to retire back to Roundway, their force is spent for the day..

Devizes: setup for the Parliamentarian Assault 'game'

The parliamentarian assault on Devizes was from the direction of Coates hill (east) across the 'town green'.  To stage a game of this I've had to attempt to show part of the town on the table. A medieval street plan below is still approximately correct for Devizes at the time of the civil war, I'll just have the section of the town shown in the rectangle on the table.

The old town defence bank/ditch (outer thick line) I've assumed would still have been present, but disused with the ditch silted up and used as a property boundary which I'll represent by a hedge line for simplicity.

Next post will be the game report of the assault ...