ECW Campaign. Battle 1 - Dunnington Castle (Part 1 of 2)

Welcome to this blogs 100th post. (I know right…who would’ve thought I could keep this volume of drivel going for so long).

We’ll get to the battle in a mo but first off here’s some campaign related background fluff.

King Charles was still setting up shop in a very restive Birmingham when news began to arrive of the bungled assault on Plymouth. A mob of ill disciplined Cornishmen, ostensibly under royalist control had driven off the outnumbered and unsuspecting Plymouth militia and then indulged themselves in a three day spree of looting and arson. The kings response was to appoint a man called Ralph Hopton to organise, arm, and discipline this riotous force.

Within a month of Hopton’s arrival he had achieved several minor miracles, the least of which was to motivate enough of the men to leave the county for a negotiated two month period. Crossing the Tamar and marching East towards Bristol they were forced to pass the ancient family seat of the Marquis of Hampton at Dunnington castle. The Marquis was a strong supporter of Parliament and the castles location astride Hopton’s supply lines meant it would have to be reduced or captured. A summons to surrender was met with scorn by Lady Hampton and her small group of defending servants and estate workers. 

In London the rapidly growing Parliamentary army had, it was judged, reached sufficient size to confront and diffuse two threats at once. One portion under General Waller was sent north west to block any moves by the king towards the capital, the other under a disenchanted Essex was sent south west to contain the Royalist presence organising there.

Through diligent scouting Essex’s force caught up with Hopton’s little army on the 24th September, deployed as it was before the castle and unaware of the Earls approach until almost the last minute.

Summoning an urgent council of Warre Hopton abandoned his earlier idea to occupy the fortress and given the poor state of its walls decided to both reduce it with his cannon and hold the Parliamentary forces on the other side of the river while he did so. Orders were issued to seize the ford and the bridge over the river while at the same time battering the old stone walls from outside the range of its defending weaponry.

Royalist Order of Battle:

General - Ralph Lord Hopton with the artillery trayne.

Centre. Colonel Paulet and 8 regiments of Foote organised into 6 battalia.

Left wing. Colonel Henry Wilmot & 2 regiments of horse

Right wing. Prince Maurice & 2 regiments of horse.

Essex also ordered an urgent council of warre and resolved to immediately secure the castle and drive the Royalists from the far bank of the river.

Parliamentarian Order of Battle

General the Earl of Essex

Centre. Colonel Ballard’s Brigade, comprised of 6 regiments of Foote organised into four battalia with two large battery's of gunnes. 

Left wing. Colonel Meldrum & 3 regiments of horse (2 under strength due to detachments sent a scouting).

Right wing. Colonel Sir William Balfour & 3 regiments of horse, (1 under strength due to detachments sent a scouting).

Game notes.

I assigned an arbitrary 12 turns for the battle but since each game turn can be of varying duration I wasn’t sure how much playing time this would involve. As it turned out the battle was split over two evenings.

Forces and scenery are all 2mm scale.

Rules are my own home brew Noe Quarter, allowing limited control of forces by the players once initial orders have been issued to the commanders of the brigades.

Names of all personages are period and factionally correct but regiment / battalia names are made up in case someone complains that their cuffs are the wrong colour.

All battle locations also have made up names and are geographically none specific. 

Though both players were asked to construct an army from a set number of points they have no idea what type of battle they will be asked to fight. It is possible for a force to be badly disadvantaged because of its make up. 

The winner is the first player to reach 8 victory points, with 1 point awarded for each leader or unit destroyed, 1 point for each hit on the castle walls and two temporary points for occupation of the castle itself.

After they had chosen their deployment both players were randomly dealt two burn cards which they could play at any time during the game.

Hopton got these two:

And Essex these two:

A chit for each brigade commander, general, and the castle itself were put into a bag along with an end of turn marker. 

The first one out was for the Royalists who chose to activate their central command with its attendant gunne battery.

The gunnes would score a damaging hit on a 1d6 throw of 5 or 6, and would need three hits to create a breach big enough for any assault. The chances seemed pretty slim, but then on their first ranging shot…

Oh bugger.

In fact the first four turns were very short ones the balance of the activity going to the Royalists. In those four turns Hopton’s lads hit the wall three times causing it to partially collapse. An unexpected breach had been made and an assault was suddenly possible. New orders were hurriedly issued.

While the guns rumbled and masonry fell, Essex’s men had not been entirely idle. Two of Ballard’s foot marched forward to flank the castle on either side while over on the right Balfour and three regiments of horse made for the ford across the river. Forced to redeploy into column to cross the shallows they ran straight into Henry Wilmot and a regiment of horse.

Wilmot was able to charge straight into the oncoming horse and only Balfour’s steadying presence prevented disaster through a sudden retreat.

Given virtually the same order it became Wilmot’s turn to attempt to seize the crossing point. But for his sins he was facing a far stronger force and he too had to flee back from whence he came…but in his case with 50% casualties.

The whole thing went back and forth a few times until it became clear that forcing the crossing was going to be a meat grinder that neither side could be sure would eventually profit them much.

Sadly this realisation had not transferred to the other wing of Parliament’s army for now it was Meldrum’s turn to attempt the same thing across the bridge. The opposition here were Foote and playing his Pell Mell burn card Meldrum managed to cross the bridge and charge the infantry before they were really where Hopton would have liked them. 

In Noe Quarter infantry are always triggered to try forming a pike hedgehog when charged by horse but to be successful they need to roll 1 flag icon on two C&C Tricorne dice. As you can see they just about managed it and the horse piled into a thicket of pikes. The Royalist Foote took 25% damage but didn’t break while the Parliamentary horse took 50% casualties and were forced to retreat.

The problem was they couldn’t retreat because a follow up horse regiment from the same brigade was blocking their path.  The two hexes they were meant to retreat but couldn’t was translated into hits -making 4 in total and thus ensuring their destruction.

To make matters even worse the unit that had blocked them followed on over the bridge into the same hedge of pikes and additionally two extra Foote battalia that had moved up on either flank. In their turn the Foote managed to score 3 hits on the already under strength horse causing their destruction. 

The only bright spot for Essex was that colonel Ballard had gained entry to the castle with a battalia of Foote - through the breach made by Hopton’s gunners. 

Hopton now had 5 victory points (3 for the hits on the castle wall and 2 for the destruction of two regiments of horse) against Essex’s 2 for occupying the castle. 

A change of tactics was needed by Parliament…but would one be forthcoming?

You’ll find out in part two, sorry, I meant parte ye seconde.

Toodleooh for now.