You can send in pics of your own games using OLD GLORY, Sash and Saber, Reiver Castings , Command Decision or Magnificent Little Soldier Company products.

These Games can be of any scale or period, 10mm 15mmCD,25mm or 40mm and of course in any period that we produce miniatures for.

The first game in this section has been sent by Tim Whitworth of the "Like a Stonewall" Wargames group and Gives details of their recent re-fight of the ECW Battle of Lansdown Hill in 1643. Enjoy.

With the additional benefit of a visit to the site some days before by a group member the orbat and terrain layout was overcome quite easily. References had been gained from Adair [1] and Reid [2]. Topography issues were overcome by the use of an Ordnance Survey map of the locality and the observations made from the site visit.

The Royalists were represented by James Hutchinson as the Marquis of Hereford, with Barry Foster as Hopton and myself as Prince Maurice. Barry Mills, aided by John Hutchinson as Sir Arthur Hasselrig and Nick Gilmore as Colonel Burghill, enacted the role of Parliamentarian commander in chief, Sir William Waller.

The battle was to be re-fought over a couple of group evening sessions and it was predetermined that the action should start at 4.00 p.m. about the time that action took place between the two advance guards of the respective armies.

As usual we employed our own set of wargame rules for the re-fight of the battle, "This war without an enemy".

Photo: Prince Maurice's cavalry brigade advancing on the Royalist right wing

Hasselrig's cavalry brigade had been placed in the forefront of the Parliamentarian army. By the second game turn they were in close combat with elements of Prince Maurice's' horse. However like their ill disciplined forebears, Hamilton's Horse and their accompanying mounted dragooners made a hash of things and for all their cavalier bravado they were quickly beaten and chased from the field by the Hasselrig's "Lobster" Regiment and the small band of cuirassiers and their supporting horse of Capt. John Butler's troop. The cuirassiers being briefly distracted by the oncoming pike blocks attempted to counter the advancing Cornish but unsuccessfully tested morale and instead deflected the course around the rear of the cavalry brigade on the Royalist right flank commanded by Prince Maurice and left the field unceremoniously. Butler's unit making a quick exit back up the lane and to the rearward stations of the Parliament army, having suffered serious damage in the close combat. With the loss of Hamilton's two large cavalry units, Prince Maurice's brigade reached "Brigade Critical" status and would have little further potential worth in the remainder of the action.

The Royalist advance towards the entrenched occupants of Lansdown Hill continued with the lead units of Hopton's Cornish foot reaching the top of Freezing Hill within the hour. With their musketeers detached and acting in a close support role from the outset their easily acquired the heights. However they soon became the target of an opening long-range cannonade from the Parliamentarian guns on top of the defended ridgeline of Lansdown Hill. Initial morale tests halted their progress, whilst an advance body of Waller's dismounted dragoons emerged from the heavily forested slopes to the Royalist left and began to inflict casualties on the accompanying detached skirmishers.

Photo: Parliamentarian defences on Lansdown Hill with the remains of Captain Butler's cuirassier troop retreating in the foreground

The fifth turn i. e. at about 5.40 in the evening saw Hereford check the potential threat to the Royalist left by bringing his cavalry brigade to the right of the main attack under Hopton. More casualties were sustained as the Somerset and Oxford Regiments of recently raised foot mounted the summit of Freezing Hill and presented themselves to Waller's distant gunners. With all going well for the Royalists the militia survived their baptism of fire and the attack continued unabated.

Colonel Burghill now saw fit to chance his hand on the Roundhead right and attempting to chase off the Cornish commanded shot as they approached the foot of f Freezing Hill. The Royalists although suffering from a shortage of ammunition and having been previously engaged in a running exchange with Parliamentarian dragoons, managed to let rip a tremendous volley (big flooky chance dice roll) and delivered a hail of shot upon the lumbering horsemen. To their dismay the shock of the firestorm affected their morale and their reaction was to halt where they stood and attempt a reform. Returning fire they failed to deliver anything like the taste they had received from their tormentors and deciding to leave their dismounted colleagues to their peril, they headed of back up the slopes of Lansdown Hill and the relative tranquillity of their army's rear.

Photo: Royalist pike attack columns advance along the lane

Meanwhile, on the right Prince Maurice was slowly pushing back a similar number of Parliamentarian dragooners who had been harrying the flank of the ever advancing Cornish pike juggernaut as it proceeded laboriously to plod into the valley between the two hills and set sights to engage the defenders of the barricaded heights to their front. The right side of the battlefield was equally disrupted by forestry and hedged enclosures, and although the detached shot of Sir Nicholas Slanning's Cornish Regiment were gaining ground successfully, the horse in that division were painfully unoccupied. For lack of an alternative enemy to engage and receiving no counter orders the Cavaliers proceeded to advance in support of the shot into the trees before them. A waste of a good trump card perhaps?
By 6.20 p.m. the forward pike attack column led by Sir Bevil Grenville's Regiment had struggled up the slope of Lansdown Hill, suffering 20% casualties in the process and was now mentally equipping itself for the task in front of it. Driven on by past successes against Haselrig's Regiment and with the ever-rash Hopton close by, the unit tested to advance upon the regiment of Colonel Popham's foot atop the crest. Bingo! Succeeding in their morale test they advanced and forced Popham's to react. Despite being behind the cover offered by the barricades of ash and beech trees and boulders from the hillside the Parliamentarian defenders panicked at the thought of the contest, standing disordered and offering only a poor discharge at long range towards the Cornishmen. With a crash the attack column pushed them back in the impact round and routed them in the following turn. Grenville's Regiment had made the top of the Hill and proceeded to rip up the flimsy defences and target the next disrupted body of foot to their front. Thomas Essex's Foot Regiment had been disordered following the first round of combat as Popham's stumbled backwards under the impetus of the enthusiastic Cornishmen's advance. On they went and by 7.00 p.m. their was a huge gap in the Parliamentarian lines. Luckily for the distraught Waller no other Royalists had reached a point from which they could offer Grenville's Regiment aid.

Photo: Colonel Burghill's cavalry on the Parliament right encounter
Royalist Cornish muskets on Freezing Hill

The remaining two pike blocks had been subjected to musketry and cannonade as they crossed the lower slopes and valley. To avoid excessive casualties Hopton had widened his frontage of attack, with Lord Mohun's Regiment deflecting to the left to occupy the open ground once held by Colonel Burghill's now disgruntled horse.

Simultaneously, the third block of John Arundel's and Sir Nicholas Slanning's Regiments had proceeded to attempt assault on the defended hilltop to the right of Grenville's Regiment. They had received some success as they overran one of Waller's gun batteries, but had been transfixed in disorder upon the wrecked gun-line and were now being subjected to threatening advances by Waller's own Regiment of Horse. Devastating firestorms were focused upon their static ranks as Waller's Horse repeatedly caracoled them. At 35% casualties received, they were too spend a force to aid the pursuing lead Cornishmen and settled upon the site of the battery hoping for assistance from their own Cornish Horse and Slanning's advancing musketeers, who had cleared the forest to the Cornish right flank and were now preparing to storm the remaining Parliamentarian dragooners out of the tree line and away from offering Waller any further support.

With a last fling, Hereford attempted to force the Parliamentarian right flank by following the route that Colonel Burghill's Horse had earlier taken after their disastrous encounter with the Cornish shot. Leading his own Lifeguard of Cavaliers, Hopton's Horse and the two units of Somerset Levy Horse, Hereford attempted to scale the slopes in support of Lord Mohum's Foot. However the later regiment had encountered the Ex- Coonel Carey's Regt of Foot (he had recently defected to the Royalists), the final body of Waller's foot, at the ridgeline and had received such an initial and effect volley from the Roundheads that the Cornish pikemen reeled around and retreated back down the slope in disarray.

Unprepared to attack uphill against a resolute force of Parliamentarian foot with significant numbers of unengaged horse in support Hereford refrained and the Royalist attack finally lost momentum. At approximately 9.00 p.m. battle time (game turn 15) the re fight of the battle ended.

In conclusion it became apparent that the Royalist advance had seen the forward units overstretched and with little chance of immediate support their hard gained ground would be lost as the two armies would retire to their respective lines under cover of darkness. This is much the same as what happened in the real battle with Waller falling back with his outnumbered foot to a stone walled enclosure some 300 paces to the rear of the defended ridgeline. Thereafter slipping back further towards Bath and fooling the Royalists by leaving burning match and pike staves leaning against the wall.

The success of this initial re-fight has ensured that it is likely to be played again and will without doubt be added to our stock of available and enjoyable games for taking round the show circuit.

Sources:
[1] John Adair, Roundhead General, A military biography of Sir William Waller, (London 1969)
[2] Stuart Reid, All the King's men, (Staplehurst 1998)

Tim Whitworth
Like a stone wall Wargames Group
North Nottinghamshire
UK