Battle of Cropredy Bridge 1644 - AAR

Just finished fighting the Battle of Cropredy Bridge, where Waller tried to encircle the rearguard of Charles's army as it crossed a large meander of the Cherwell. Fawkes map gives a reasonable view of the forces and terrain.

I started the game with the Parliamentarians just crossing the bridges and fords on the W, and with Charles' main body already across Hay's bridge in the North.

View from behind the Parliamentarian lines looking E

The rules were my own, based on the SLS mechanics but with units more brittle, braking at 4 damage not 5, and due allowances for different troop and weapon types.

STARTEX - looking N

Parliament made their biggest blunder in the first move. The Royalist dragoons were lining the hedges by the central bridge, and rather dispatching them with the cavalry they left the job to their own Dragoons, who failed miserably. So the Royalists caught two successive Regiments of Foote in enfilade effective rendering both hors' combat until Heselrigg's Cuirassier finally put paid to them.

Some nice pics of the pesky Royalist dragoons

The battle went pretty much like the real one. Heselrigg saw of the lead cavalry of Cleveland, and then turned S to help to help Waller see of Northampton. Two of Waller's units went chasing off the table after routing Royalists, as did one Royalist returning the favour. With the cavalry effectively out of the way the Royalist infantry recrossed Hays Bridge and advanced on Cropredy Bridge, pushing the weakened Parliamentarian back over, and that, as in 1644, was pretty much it. About 9 turns.

The Royalists counter-attack

All the rules worked pretty well. I'm still a bit unsure about what to do about the units with 3 damage, they can't attack, but they haven't routed and so just sit there typically on the base line unless the commander can rally them - but command points were in short supply. I might significantly up the number of command points compared to SLS so rallying is more feasible, and also allow them to be used to speed the return of off-table units. Since ECW battles can be a bit flavourless giving the player/commander more to do by thinking about the CP allocation - and making that more the centre of the game - might be a good way forward.

ENDEX

The new rubber tile boards worked well, just one board from an earlier flock mix standing out, but that will be retired to "undertier" duties next time round. The "field" areas gave some nice variety too, especially when edged with hedges. The green marks were quite hard to spot though, so doing bold black on the next one. I also need to codify how units move between squares - and I'm even toying with the idea of vertex not square movement.

Some final pics of the game...

Guarding the ford

A Russet Regiment about to receive a charge

Royalists advancing through the hedgerows