Battle of Roundway Down - AAR

Still trying to catch up with 2018 (when I was meant to be playing 1643 ECW battles) I finally got Roundway Down underway. I ordered For King and Parliament as I set it up, but they hadn't arrvied by the time I was ready so I decided to play first with my own ruleset (still nameless, but based on SLS and I'm fancying "I die by these things"!).

STARTEX: From behind Parliaments lines, with my custom ECW cards for each command

As in real life the two cavalry wings charged each other and melees ensued.

Units roll for quality only when they first need it - so you're never quite sure what they'll be like. As it was things were overall even, but Parliament had the upper hand on their left, but Haselriggs cuirassiers were (as in real life) up against it on the right. The right hand melee went 2 rounds with no result, so both units pulled back more or less to base line. On the left Parliament won, their opponents fleeing away off the board.

The Lobsters about to come off worse

The fleeing Royalist cavalry put a bit of a dent in the third Royalist unit, but as the Roundheads gave chase the Royalist horse steeled itself to intercept and give battle.

Fleeing Royalists, but their nemesis is being intercepted behind them

The melee went Parliaments way, and the already nervous Royalists horse fled the field. And that was enough to send the third unit home too.

Just then Hopton's forces arrived from Devises, but with Parliament in control of the field and still with plenty of Horse around, Hopton thought better of it and fled back to Devises before they were spotted!

All the Parliamentary infantry could do was it around looking pretty!

So the flip result to real-life, but perfectly believable. However as a wargame it was certainly lacking something as it was all about how those two cavalry melees went. As such it's probably not a good battle to test FKaP out on (which still hasn't arrived).

It just so happens that the next game off the cab-rank is Adwalton Moor. Looking ahead Newbury also looks a far better battle that I though it might be, so let's run with the ECW strand for a few weeks. I'm not busy setting Adwalton Moor up and should start that this weekend, I'll play with "I die by these things" (?) first (which are shaping up pretty well at the moment, 90% there I think), then FKaP (all at 20mm), and then do Newbury with both, probably both at 6mm.

Oh, almost forgot my planning map for the game. Rules assumed 1 hex = 50m, but terrain was more like 1 hex = 150m. 1 figure =~ 20 men.