Lindal in Furness reprise

Due to various commitments there was not time to design a new scenario for our latest game so I re-ran the Lindal in Furness game.  This has featured in an earlier post .  On re-reading this I found that I had neglected to mention that I played it through solo, this time of course it would be two-handed. Once again the Pike and Shotte rules were used and the composition of the forces was the same as for the original game (details in the earlier post).

The parliamentarians await the onslaught

Steve, commanding the Parliamentary forces,  won the initiative, but decided that his infantry would be safest staying in the enclosures.  He intended that his cavalry would advance and take on the Royalist horse, but the order roll failed and his cavalry remained in close proximity to his base line.  I had little expectation of achieving a co-ordinated advance with my clubmen units, each one would have to dice for orders individually.  However my first four rolls (8 dice in all) only revealed 16 'spots' between them, so all the front line advanced in unison!  It was at this point that fortune turned, the trained unit, Preston's failed to move as did the rear line of clubmen units.  Then, the cavalry again 'rolled low' and charged forward.  Although they did not contact the Parliamentary cavalry, they did deny them room to manoeuvre and this meant that any of Steve's units which lost the forthcoming melees would be right on the baseline.

Royalist forces in Lindal in Furness

In the end I won two of the three melees, though in one case my victorious unit was too damaged to follow up.  Within three moves over half Steve's cavalry had been driven from the table, though it would take a considerable time to dispose of the remainder.  

In the centre my co-ordinated advance faltered with first one unit and then another failing their order rolls.  This meant that when the attacks by the clubmen were made, they were unsupported and generally failed.  Quite a few faltered when hit by the fire from the Parliamentary artillery.  Preston's regiment seemed quite content to watch the clubmen attacking, but eventually they moved forward attempting to move around the left flank of the parliamentary position.  Steve countered this by moving his sole reserve, the combined pike unit to the threatened area.  A small unit of commanded shot tried to slow the advance of Preston's, but had to fall back to avoid being overwhelmed.  Preston's struggled through a hedge, becoming disordered in the process.  Sensing an opportunity, Steve charged forward with his pikes.  They caught the Royalists at a disadvantage and broke them, Preston's regiment streamed back down the road towards Lindal, but the pikes did not follow them. Rallying, they marched back towards the centre, where their presence was sorely needed.

The Clubmen advance

I had eventually managed to get two units of clubmen up to the hedges around the central enclosure and their combined weight had driven back one of Steve's units of musketeers.  As the clubmen attempted to cross the hedge line Steve's pikes charged into them and shattered them, the remnants running back across the heath.

Preston's dispersed by the pikes

By now, my cavalry had cleared Steve's from the field, but could do little against his infantry ensconced  behind the hedges.  All my infantry had  been driven back and would take time to re-organise before they could attempt another attack.  Therefore a draw was decided upon.

One interesting feature was that, using the original rules on break tests all my units would have routed from the field, (mirroring the historical result).  However, the amended break test and the distance to my base line meant that each one managed to rally.