This being the second game in my latest run-through of Marlowe to Maidenhythe, my just-published scenario pack for For King & Parliament.

I had lost the first game quite badly (down ten victory medals) so was keen that this one went my way. The scenario is an encounter battle, with the Parliamentarians (played by Peter, boo, hiss!) facing the Royalists (played by me, huzzah!) across Widbrooke and Battlemead Commons: the open land between Cookham and Maidenhythe down near the river.

Roundheads to the left, skulking in the hedgerows!

The Royalists face a couple of problems. Number one, the enemy has hedges to hide behind meaning that if they didn’t attack I would have to assault troops in cover with an even number of points; and number two, my main infantry brigade is all untried, meaning the danger of disorder in any first clash is high.

On the other hand, my opponent, Peter, was absolutely paranoid about the large numbers of “Swedish” horse that I was fielding. He was convinced that they would make mincemeat of his “Dutch” horse (a fair assumption, but one that had been firmly shown not to be a surety in our first game last week*) to the point that I am fairly certain that he had lain awake at night moaning “the Swedes, the Swedes: what do I do about the Swedes”!

This worry would actually be the major factor that decided the outcome of the game.

*Dutch horse fight deep and slow, Swedish horse fight fast and thin. They tend to lap around the flanks of Dutch horse and thus get a substantial advantage in an initial melee.

The Battle Begins

I opened the proceedings by sweeping forward on either wing with, you guessed it, my Swedish horse. My infantry I advanced cautiously in the centre.

Peter replied by opening fire with his artillery, which actually did me a favour, as the units targeted had to check for disorder due to their untried status: which both failed, but so early on in the game that I had the chance to re-order them before any enemy was encountered. My men had now had their first taste of battle and survived unscathed: they would act normally from now on.

As my Swedish horse on my left approached his Dutch horse, they retreated behind the hedgerows to their rear. This suited me just fine as Dutch horse, despite their deficiencies, are worth more points that Swedish horse (they are strong against almost everything else) so I was happy to have his cavalry bottled up in a corner ‘guarded’ by units worth half the cost.

The Roundhead Dutch horse bottled up in one corner by their own fear of my Swedish horse

Meanwhile on my Right

Meanwhile on my right, my other brigade of Swedish horse was attempting to turn the Parliamentarian flank.

This looked difficult to do at first, as there were a couple of infantry battalia there who turned to face me, but my infantry were coming forward as well, meaning that the Roundhead foot would potentially have to fight in two directions at once.

Scene from behind the Parliamentarian lines. Units 9, 11 and 12 are about to retreat to their right, leaving my horse free to curl in from the flank

The Roundheads attempted to consolidate their position by pulling back and to the right as much as possible, but this manoeuvre, whilst sensible in some ways, let me bring my cavalry around in a proper outflanking movement.

Once my cavalry were around his flank, with my infantry coming forward, the Parliamentarians were in some difficulties. I used a battalia of infantry to clear his guns (by this time out of ammunition) and then sent them in through the gap opened up to attack the right hand side (from my point of view) of his line.

A bit of bad luck saw me lose the battalia, so I was forced to commit my reserve (my commanding general’s Cuirassier bodyguard) into the attack, but by this time my cavalry were in position for their flank attack.

The Royalist cavalry are round the flank!

With commanded shot to their front and Swedish horse to their flank, the grey-suited Roundhead battalia quickly crumbled, exposing the flank of the untried infantry battalia next to them.

This followed suit, and the rest of his line quickly followed them off the table: pinned from the front and rolled up from the right.

The Roundhead cavalry were, eventually, thrown forward but, by this time, it was too late to have any real effect: the day was mine.