The Second Battle of Newbury 1644 Part 1

Now this is one heck of a wargame.   The figures and detail battlefield help make the game.  The game put on on by the Border Reivers  wargame society 

The Second Battle of Newbury 1644.
This is one of the scenarios illustrated in the Warlord Games 'Pike and Shotte' ECW supplement 'To Kill a King' written by Charles Singleton. He describes it as 'The Leipzig of the English Civil War' and this was just the sort of thing we were searching for as we had two large collections of ECW figures that were itching for a battle to fight last Saturday!

The map is a modified version of the one in the supplement (to suit our terrain boards) and has the River Kennet off table but the village of Shaw included.

The real engagement took place on the 27th October 1644 and involved a Parliamentarian wide flanking manouvre by Sir William Waller against King Charles I in the Newbury area. The Earl of Manchester was meant assist Sir William Waller by simultaneously attacking Charles's left wing but in the event was delayed. Even so, the village of Speen was taken and the Royalist forces were obliged to retreat towards Oxford the following day.

For our re-fight, it was decided that the battle-winning objectives should be Shaw House to the East and the village of Speen to the West. The taking of either of those would be a win for the Parliamentarians. Failing that, then various degrees of victory or defeat could be decided by comparing losses in the accumulated force morale points of the two sides.

In our battle the Earl of Manchester turned out to be much less tardy than his real-life counterpart (rolled a '6' - must have had his breakfast this time!) and the Eastern side of the battlefield was soon swarming with Roundhead cavalry! Royalist's Sir Astley (and his son) were rapidly taking on the brunt of Manchester's attacks, losing a cavalry brigade and an infantry battalia in rather short order!

Sir William Waller advanced on the Western side of the battlefield, engaging the Royalist infantry battalias defending the hedgerows and enduring the fire of two emplaced heavy guns firing from redoubts on the edge of Speen Village. Sir William had a good deal of cavalry in his command but the presence of so many hedgerows hindered their deployment and movement (a 'blunder' roll on the comand dice didn't help!).

Hopefully, the accompanying annotated photographs will give an indication of what when on and where. It was a good game, lasted all day and was 'edge of your seat' stuff throughout. In the end Shaw House was left untouched, Speen Village lost one of it's Redoubts but the Royalist forces were severely mauled as the force morale scores showed (19pts to 6pts). So King Charles would indeed have needed to withdraw to Oxford in our re-fight too. Quite close to the actual historical result then.

Figures are 25mm/28mm and largely Foundry, Perry, Warlord, Hinchliffe and Minifigs. Rules are Warlord Games 'Pike & Shotte' with amendments (and scenario) from the 'To Kill a King' English Civil War supplement written by Charles Singleton.
More photographs here:-
https://photos.app.goo.gl/J635oVufUuZUQ7gd8