WSuS in Retrospect

You have probably noticed that the War of Stuart Succession has occupied quite a bit of my recent wargaming time, and that, of course, was by design, rather than accident, although I admit that I was rather pleased with the campaign as a whole. I mentioned a while ago a problem with wargame campaigns, in that it can seem that a campaign is settled in a wargame or two, rendering the time taken to set it up and draw the maps (etc.) feeling like it was wasted. I suspect that that is one of the reasons wargame campaigns are not, it appears, that popular.

Still, this one, as with the Very Mogul Civil War, worked rather nicely. The diplomatic table certainly helps to deliver some awkward decisions for the ‘players’, in this case Arbella Stuart’s unshakable alliance with Isabella of Austria. It was not, incidentally, planned that way. The diplomacy dice just refused to adjust the score downward. This meant that once Isabella was in London, there was not much for Arbella to do except wander around the Home Counties waiting for something to turn up. That something was Edward Seymour, who caused her army to mutiny.

A new feature of this campaign compared with the Mogul campaign was the GOOS score, which, I am sure you will recall, stands for ‘God On Our Side’. This was a feature of the campaign which also worked nicely. Such were the religious sensibilities of the time that a victor in battle could claim the approbation of God, while the loser’s cause became more suspect. As the victor gained 5% GOSS while the loser lost 10% it could have given some cause for aggressive actors to consider their moves carefully. As it happens, it did not.

You can see in the photograph above the diplomatic table, with the GOOS score in the rightmost column. The first entry is James’ final score, of 05%. The highest GOOS score is Isabella’s, of 55%, while Arbella’s had been that high, but the mutiny put paid to it. It was a nice and simple way of keeping track of each participant’s popularity, and I shall probably use something similar again.

The aim of a wargame campaign is, of course, to produce wargames. This one did so very nicely, thirteen in all. A further function of the GOOS score was to determine whether the trained bands turned out against a ‘foreign’ (i.e., non-county) force. Usually they did, and, on the whole, gave a good account of themselves. After all, the trained bands defeated three Scottish and one French invasions during the campaign, and only lost (in the long run, anyway) to the Low Countries Spanish and Arbella.

I did consider permitting the trained bands to garrison towns and stand sieges rather than face invaders on the open field. I think I did right in not permitting it, for a number of reasons. Firstly, I would have got fewer wargames. Secondly, I would have had to introduce artillery and siege trains into the campaign. This is highly doable, with ‘train’ additional armies, but would have made things a bit more complex to administer, I think. Thirdly, the campaign might have bogged down in a series of sieges (which is what usually happened in the period, historically), and it might have become boring.

I think it is worth mentioning the tactical rules I use, which are my own ‘Wars of the Counter Reformation’. They are almost certainly not to everyone’s taste, and I would not expect anyone else to use them, but they do give a nice game which can be quite quick. I think the record was about half an hour, although most games are an hour or two, if I take things slowly. I suspect that another bugbear of the wargame campaign is longer table-top actions, which bog the campaign down in detail and do not necessarily aid the ‘flow’ of the action. It can be done, of course, although the popularity of the ‘Dominion of….’ rules and their ability to enable campaigns to be played quickly does seem to imply that I might have a point.

I suppose a few other comments are worthwhile. Once again, the campaign emphasised the importance of naval activity, even though only one wargame was at sea. Aside from that, the Spanish and English navies were active in transporting armies around the place once Spanish naval superiority in the Channel was obtained. This probably needs some more pondering, but I am not sure where to take that thought. It also indicated that I needed some decent naval rules, so I concocted my own. Other naval rules I have encountered tend to be of the complicated, record-keeping, and geometry sort. There must be simpler and accurate ways of taking to the seas.

Still, overall, in the game, the unluckiest player was Edward Seymour, with two fumbles and two mutinies to his credit. As one of them was on the first turn, his campaign for the throne never got going. He had a chance when he joined forces with Arbella, but fumbled again and ruined both of their chances. The luckiest was Isabella, of course. There were a number of critical points where her campaign could have disintegrated, most obviously when the Dutch invaded the Spanish Netherlands, but she managed to keep it all together.

James VI of Scotland was pretty unfortunate as well, so much so that I captured one of his dice rolls for posterity. On the other hand, I suspect that the campaign might have been weighted against him, as it is quite a long way from Midlothian to Middlesex, and he had no navy. On the other hand, he was the player with the highest initiative. He ended up wounded and captured. Interestingly, the highest initiative player in the VMCW was Mir Jumla, who ended up captured and executed. Having the highest initiative is not an unmitigated good, it seems.

So, there we are. An engrossing and entertaining campaign which, at times, really made me think about the player’s options. And I got a load of wargames out of it. The only problem is that I now have to think of what to do next. After a load of early modern campaigns, I feel something more ancient coming on.

The Cumberland Sausage

In the same week that James VI’s Scots were defeated in County Durham, as recounted last week, the Scottish army on the western route invading England crossed the border. Their aim, naturally enough, was London, or at least supporting their King in his quest to become King of England as well. They do not, however, know of James’ defeat and his uncertain whereabouts. Still, the Scottish GOOS score was pretty low by this time (25%), and so it was hardly a surprise that the trained bands decided to resist the invaders.

For the Scots, of course, this was a chance for some sort of redemption, at least of their military reputation, which is a little tattered. However, as at other points in the campaign, the dice were not particularly kind to them. I rolled up a fairly open terrain for the encounter, at least, considering that it is in Cumberland, with a number of streams flowing to and from a marshy area, as well as some hills and enclosures. The direction dice roll (that is, which edge are the Scots coming from?) was really unkind, allocating the English the streams and one of the hills. Already I could feel Scottish morale sinking.

In the picture, the Scots are to the left. The English foot are lining one of the streams, with reserves on the slopes of the hill, on the crest of which was an area of enclosures. The English plan was to fight a fully defensive battle from behind the streams, and make the Scots come to them.

The Scottish plan was to force the stream with a plethora of pike, supported by some shot. Meanwhile, the demi-lancers (nearest the camera) were to cross the streams and attempt to outflank the English position, while some more shot, on the far side (Scottish left), were to advance and at least entertain the rest of the English foot, while probing for a way to cross the stream safely.

The above shows the plans in action. The light horse are skirmishing across the marsh, while the Scottish demi-lancers have forded the first stream and rallied from that. To the Scots’ disappointment, their left flank shot have not got moving yet (a lack of tempo points) but the central pike and their supports, along with the general, are about to tackle the central English position. The English have summoned the foot from along the stream to reinforce the point the Scots are aiming for.

The attempt to storm the stream did not go particularly well. As in the last game, the Scots rolled badly at the critical point, and were repulsed, shaken from the stream, as seen above. The English managed to add another pike base and the general to the Scottish target, and also closed up some more shot, which led to the Scots pike being outshot and repulsed. The general, more happily, survived.

The Scots attempted to rally, but this was disrupted by the English musketeers. Meanwhile, the Scottish demi-lancers crossed the second stream, and one base was immediately routed by the English, commanded by their general, who had just dashed across the hilltop to take command. The other base, in desperation, charged the English pike who had turned to face them, uphill and disorganised. They did surprisingly well, all things considered, but were pushed back down the hill by the pointy sticks.

The end came with more of a whimper than a bang. The English pike and demi-lancers trapped the remaining Scottish demi-lancers and routed them, while the English light horse managed to disrupt both Scottish light bases. In the centre, an assault across the stream by the marsh by some Scots musketeers ended in disaster, but did permit the pike sufficient respite for them to rally. The other central Scottish musketeers also attempted to cross the stream, for the same purpose, and are in serious disarray, having been repulsed. On a more positive note, the Scottish left wing has arrived at the stream and is poised to cross.

The losses for the Scots were mounting, however, and the morale throw indicated a withdraw. As I could not really see how further success could be achieved without Scottish pressure on both English flanks as well as the centre, I decided that the Scots would withdraw, honour intact, if not victorious.

I really do not know if the Scots could have won this one. They were committed to attack a very strong defensive position. As I said, the terrain dice had not been kind to them. They had a chance with the first assault across the stream, but good English shooting, decent generalship, and reasonable dice rolling meant that the chance for a breakthrough never came.

There was some further unfinished business, of course. The dice were rolled for the whereabouts and health of King James after the Durham debacle. Initially, for his failed combat risk roll, he was wounded. The second roll, after the rout of the army, was captured. So, there we have it: James VI is both wounded and in the hands of the English, or, rather, Isabella.

This marks, I think, the end of the campaign, after 13 wargames. All of the rivals for the throne are in the hands of Isabella of Austria, which seems to indicate that she will be the next Queen of England. Quite how happy the English might be with this outcome remains to be seen, of course. I suspect, given that historically she was never much interested in England, she might actually make Arbella, who was her firm ally throughout the campaign, her regent, married to a nice, safe, Spanish nobleman.

The fate of Edward Seymour is more dubious, as he is actively hostile to the Spanish and Isabella. It may well be that he gets a one-way trip to Tower Hill, another martyr to the Protestant cause. In the campaign, he was really unlucky, with two fumbles on his initiative dice, and his attempt to take the throne never got going. He also managed to disrupt Arbella’s attempt, although once Isabella took London she did not really have an aim in mind as she would not attack her ally.

As for James, well, Scotland is in a difficult position now, with the Spanish established in the south and her King in their hands. Anne of Denmark will probably take over as regent, and possibly Prince Henry might come to the fore as a great Scottish patriot. On the other hand, a recovered James could make a bid to undermine the Presbyterians in his own land with a bit of help from the new Catholic regime.

The campaign itself worked smoothly and simply enough for me to pack quite a few wargames into the duration. Plus, it was a lot of fun. As I noted along the way, sometimes the dice were just not kind to any of the sides, except, perhaps, Isabella. The French and the Dutch were knocked out early as viable players, but the situation in England got complex.

What happens next? I am not sure, but I am busily rebasing Romans at the moment, so anything is possible. But, maybe, a bit more reflection on the events of the 1603 campaign might be in order.

Flodden Revisited

The twelfth move of the War of Stuart Succession saw, well, quite a lot happening. If you recall, James VI of Scotland had been forced to withdraw north after his defeat in the North Riding of Yorkshire. As his GOOS roll was now lower than it was before, he failed it, and the Durham trained bands, who had been quiet on the march south, decided to ambush him. At least, it was supposed to be an ambush, but read on.

In the north-west, James’ second army has crossed the border with England, and the Cumberland trained bands have rallied against them. Given everything else going on, I decided to fight this wargame after James in Durham. It could end up a bit Solway Moss...

In the south, the Dutch, in a sudden burst of activity, launched their new fleet into Thames region. Arbella Stuart decided to raise another army, hers now being under the command of her supposed paramour, Edward Seymour. Edward Seymour, on the other hand, fumbled his initiative roll again and landed up with a mutiny. The army hitherto raised and led by Arbella clearly did not find his generalship to its taste, and they went home, leaving both Edward’s and Arbella’s GOOS scores lowered. Isabella, on the other hand, made her initiative roll and got a military move. Two options were open, either to move against the Dutch in the Channel or to intervene in Buckinghamshire.

It really did not take long for Isabella to decide. Her London-based army moved into Buckinghamshire and took both Arbella and Edward into protective custody, before Arbella could rally a new army. It really has not been Edward Seymour’s campaign.

Anyway, with ambush in my mind, I rolled up a fairly dense terrain for the Durham men to entertain the Scottish king. I hesitated a bit over the Scottish strength, initially deducting the three bases they had lost in Yorkshire. After all, they are on the retreat and need to brush the trained bands aside rather than fight an all-out battle. In the end, I decided that this was a bit mean on the Scots, and the three bases were restored, but at the end on the army, assuming that they were straggling a bit.

The English are on the left in the shot above. The nearest foot are on a hill, and the ones at the far side are also on the end of a ridge, which you can just make out if you look carefully. The Scots musketeers in front of them are further along the same ridge. The bulk of the trained bands are on the road between the woods, having attempted to set an ambush for the Scots. Musketeers are in the woods, and the pike are two deep, with another in reserve.

James decided that only an assault of extreme violence would redeem his position and his reputation. He is therefore leading the three deep pike on the road, the plan being that the light horse next to him will deal with the English borderers. The pike will advance rapidly and attack the centre of the English position while the demi-lancers charge anyone who might get in the way. It was perhaps a high-risk plan, but as someone on our own timeline said of James, ‘Desperate diseases require desperate remedies.’

The photograph above shows the Scottish plan unfurling from behind English lines. On the left, the Scottish musketeers are giving their English counterparts a bit of a pummelling. In the centre, the Scottish light horse have forced their English counterparts to retreat, shaken (they are lurking behind the smaller wood). The pike, under the leadership of their king, are storming up the road, with the stragglers behind, and the lancers are coming into position. The Scottish light horse will, next move, head across the board to engage the English right wing. So far, so good.

The above shows, as it were, the big crunch. The Scottish light horse have moved across, as advertised. On the English left honours are about even, with the English pike dealing with one of the Scottish bases, but the other have the edge over the English shot. In the centre, James and his pike have hit the English, which the general has just managed to close up with the reserve. The only downside on the Scottish side is that, for reasons best known to themselves, the Scottish demi-lancers have refused to charge home. The English musketry from ambush, incidentally, had no impact whatsoever.

As is my standard practice, I was using a blue D6 for the Scots, and a red one for the English. The pike combat roll was made, and a neck was craned to see the result.

My head was held in some despair for the Scots before I even started to calculate the combat outcome. I mean, what a time to roll a 6-1. Ouch.

The outcome could have been worse, I suppose. The Scots recoiled shaken and the English, of course, followed up. However, it also meant that James had to roll for risk to his person, being the general in a losing close combat. Fine, on a 1-4 roll, he would be unscathed. The dice decided this was an excellent opportunity to roll a 6. General down.

The result felt kind of inevitable from then on. While the Scots kept the initiative, the pike did not survive the next round of combat, especially as the English had the tempo to advance their flanking musketeers as well. The rout of the foremost Scottish pike swept away their reserves as well, as seen above. On the ridge, the English pike have routed their foes, while the Scots have the English shot at a disadvantage.

The slight advantage of the Scots on their right was to no avail, however. Seven bases and a general down left them with a -4 army morale, which did not improve on the dice roll, and so the army routed.

So far this turn, then, Isabella now controls two of the three other claimants to the throne, and the fate of James VI is unknown at present. It is quite possible he has followed his great-grandfather James IV and gone down fighting at the head of his pike while invading England. We shall see...

The Reduced Aztec Show

Some of you may recall, a few weeks ago, my concerns over downsizing my collection of toy soldiers. I invited The Estimable Mrs P. to examine the problem, and she did have a few comments. The first one was to suggest, as gently as possible, that I perhaps had too many soldiers. Given that the labels had fallen off some of the boxes, it was not unreasonable to suppose that I had forgotten what was in them. In point of fact, of course, I had not, but the suggestion remained on the table, as it were.

Taking my concerns to the blogosphere resulted in some suggestions. Firstly, some smaller boxes, in terms of height, were suggested. This is well taken, but remains to be implemented, although the Estimable Mrs P. has authorised further investigations. In truth, I have only just measured the height of a lot of my troops and started to determine which armies will fit (basically, those without pike or lancers) and which will not. The results suggest that a considerable saving in height could be achieved, with the subsequent ability to pile the boxes up higher and reduce the footprint of the collection that way.

The main effort, however, has been aimed at rebasing some of the troops. A number of target armies have been identified that could straightforwardly have the quantity of infantry bases halved by doubling the number of figures on the base. A quick survey of the armies suggested that most of my ‘barbarian’ would benefit from such treatment – Celts, Germans, Spanish – as well as the two versions of Romans – late Republican and early Empire. The early Persians and the Greeks, too, could be moved down this road. A lot of space would be saved, I think, and, after years of denial, I have to admit that I am somewhat won over to the idea of having more figures on a base. There are pros and cons.

The cons, as it were, are my questions about how deep the formations really were. A six or eight-man deep line of musketeers or pike, or hoplites or legionaries, is not actually that deep compared to the depth of the base, or the ground scale of the game. On the other hand, a single line of troops does not really convey the feeling of a unit, perhaps more a skirmish line, and, despite what some people I’ve met over the years might claim, pike, at least, did not skirmish.

So, deep breath time, and the project is on. Despite what I just said above, the initial target was not Greeks, Romans, or barbarians, but my collection of Aztecs. It was going to be just the Aztecs, while I pondered the fate of the Inca armies (which are much smaller). Painting the Inca is what finished me with using condensed scale DBR, incidentally. I painted 28 strips and then worked out that I needed as many again to create the armies according to the lists. Morale collapsed, and it never happened, which, given the present conundrum, is probably just as well.

Still, the Aztecs and Inca were stored in 3 box files and had taken over the top of the cupboard in which some of the armies are stored. This was unsatisfactory, as that is also the surface on which I run the wargames, so some reduction would be welcome in both the shorter and longer terms. I also forgot to count the number of bases, but it was something like 28 Inca, as just noted, 14 Aztec ‘knights’, 62 Aztec militia types, 20-something archers, and 20-something skirmishers.

As a result of my despairing post, someone kindly suggested building a shelf within a box file to add more storage. As I proceeded with rebasing the Aztecs, The Estimable Mrs P. bought me some nice coffee (to sustain the process, you understand. I’m not addicted. My days of 6 cups in a morning are long gone). This coffee was ‘Machu Picchu Blend’. The fate of the Inca was thus sealed. They were staying as well.

The process of rebasing turned out to be not that painful, although it was rather lengthy. I found that as the basing material is poly-filler, sealed with PVA glue, and then painted, it would break off if I gave the plastic card bases a slight twist. The strips of soldiers could then be removed and rinsed to get rid of the filler dust, while half the bases were recycled for the purpose of rebasing. The result is a much smaller, although still substantial, horde of Aztecs.

The reduction in footprint is substantial. The Aztecs and Inca now fit into one box file, as shown above, with my own interpretation of the shelf suggestion, as shown. The Aztecs are on the lower portion; you can see the generals, skirmishers, porters, and the edge of the archers above. The Inca and the singly based officers are on the upper portion on the right. The shelf was created using half a sheet of plastic card and a sheet of steel paper, as all the bases have retained the magnetic strip they had to start with.

Undressed, as it were, you can see the details of the construction. The rest of the Aztecs fit around the legs of the shelf. I added the fifth support to prevent the shelf from sagging, but I am not sure whether it would have done so or not. In the best tradition of a former Blue Peter watcher, the supports are made from things I had lying around, in this case some corks from our wine-making operation. Fear not, they are unused, because the quality of corks has declined over recent years. They are unusable for their original purpose because they tend to stick in the neck of the bottle. My Aztecs will not start smelling of wine, although you might consider that a bad thing.

Now, this has a number of consequences. Firstly, I need to think of a campaign using the Aztecs, and then one using the Incas. And then I need to start to tackle the Romans and Celts. The footprint of the Aztecs and Incas has been reduced by two-thirds. I doubt if the rest will be that spectacular, but I am determined to diminish the storage problem, not the number of toy soldiers I have.

It’s Grim Up North

Although the flow of blog posts has been fairly uninterrupted, there has been a behind the scenes hiatus in wargaming here at Castle Polemarch. The reasons are mostly too dull to go into, except to mention that one of them has to do with rebasing the Aztecs. This project is nearly complete, but I am still wondering whether it is worth rebasing the Inca, as well. I am not sure; I think the Inca have only been on the table once in their career.

Still, existential angst aside, I did, on an insanely hot day in June, while the final batch of Aztec bases were drying, I undertook the next move in the War of Stuart Succession. Mostly, the sides took to diplomacy, without too much happening in the outcomes. James VI’s armies, however, advanced, which brought his western army to the border with England, and his eastern army, commanded by himself, to the North Riding of Yorkshire. There, James failed his GOOS roll, and the trained bands were called out against him.

The map showed that the Spanish, under Isabella, were actually in Hull, also known as the East Riding, next door. A little dice rolling saw them offer support to the trained bands, but a failed GOOS roll meant that the Yorkshire lads decided to tough it out for themselves. The Spanish therefore, stayed in Hull, awaiting the outcome.

The setup is above, the Scots to the left. The Scottish light horse is deployed at the end of a hill, as are the English in the right foreground and those in the enclosure on the far side. I suppose that, sometime, I should get around to making fields and hedges and stone walls which actually fit together, but my rationale is that the enclosures are a set of small fields, with lots of hedges or walls, rather than neat super fields as we have today. That’s my excuse, anyway.

The English plan was simply to stay on the defensive across the line, relying on their infantry superiority and positions on hills. The cavalry (they rolled 2 demi-lancers) was to plug any gaps. James pondered his plan deeply, and decided to direct two infantry formations (he gave up on doubled formations after last time) to assault the hill on his right (nearest the camera) while everyone else kept the English entertained in the centre and on the left.

The picture shows how the plan evolved. The Scottish light horse have had some nasty encounters with English musketry and are more or less out of the game at present. On the far side, the Scottish advance has somewhat stalled, again due to straight shooting from the English side. In the foreground, however, the Scots are arriving in numbers. While the English position on the hill is quite strong, it is not clear that it is strong enough to stave off a 2:1 assault.

It just goes to show how wrong I can be, I think. Above, you can see that the Scottish centre and left have stalled against the English. But James’ plan always included the flank attack. Well, that did not proceed as well as the King hoped, shall we say. The English got the drop on the Scots and attacked downhill. The English pike saw off the Scottish musketeers while the English musketeers gave a severe fright to the Scottish pike.

A bit of a swirling infantry combat ensued. The English musketeers were then flanked by their Scottish brethren and lost, being removed from the fight. However, the English pike flanked their already shaken Scottish cousins and caused them to flee, before turning to attack the Scottish musketeers still recovering from their fight, and routing them. See? I said it was swirling.

The combat in the centre and on the Scottish left has more or less settled down into a long-range musket duel, which the Scots were, in my estimation, most likely to come off second best. After all, some of the English are behind stone walls, which makes them fairly invulnerable.

The above slightly fuzzy image shows the end of the game. The Scots are still stalled in their centre and on the left, but have now lost three out of four bases on their right, due to the heroics of the two English bases, of which only the pike remains. Having now lost another base, James had to make an army morale roll. In keeping with quite a lot of his rolling on the day, this went badly, meaning that his army morale slumped to 1, and the whole lot withdrew.

Well, that is another blow to James’s hope of obtaining the English crown. I have to admit that I was not sure about the Yorkshire lads' ability to beat the Scots. Not due to any misplaced admiration for the Scots, but simply because of the disparity of cavalry. As it happened, the musketry nullified the Scottish light cavalry, and the demi-lancers (on both sides) never got into the action. The terrain rolling gave the English some nice hills to hide up, however, although the defeat of the Scottish flank attack was not in the script at all. It should have worked!

As James’ army did not rout but withdrew from the battlefield, it is still extant, and so Isabella’s army in the East Riding will need to keep an eye on it. There is also the question of what happens when the western army crosses into England. James’ GOOS score is now so low that it is likely they will have some tough fights going south.

In other news, the Dutch have raised a new navy, although to what end no one knows. And in the south, there is three way diplomacy going on between Isabella, Arbella, and Edward Seymour. None of them seems to be willing to make concessions, nor to come to some agreement about the throne. There could be more to come on that. If Arbella weds Edward, she will forego her very good GOOS score, and Edward’s is much lower. Isabella, on the other hand, already holds London and is starting to boss the English armed forces around.

I wonder what will happen next….

The Charge of the Love Brigade

 Aside from Isabella of Austria, whose army is now firmly ensconced in London and who is starting to order the English armed forces about, the other major contender for the English throne at the moment is Arbella Stuart. She has marched from Derbyshire, defeating local resistance as she went, and is now in Buckinghamshire. She arrived there without resistance, then moved to Berkshire to join up with Edward Seymour, and then moved back to Buckinghamshire. Unfortunately, Seymour seems to be a bit unpopular, and this time the trained bands rallied against her.

This being the start of the Seventeenth Century, Arbella had to let Seymour command her army, rather than her own specially selected general. After all, she reckoned, it was his fault the locals had turned hostile, so he should sort it out at the point of a pike, as it were. Seymour, who has been languishing at the foot of the ‘most likely to be monarch’ table since the start of the game when he fumbled a GOOS roll, was not going to reject the chance to revive his fortunes.

The battlefield was ‘interesting’. The river and bridge on the far side were not really relevant except for slightly cramping Arbella’s left. The large patch of rough ground on the near side, too, was only really there to cramp the right, and the woods, though pretty, were a bit out of the field of interest. The real issues were the hills, upon which the trained bands are deployed. On the right, towards the river, is a ridge with nearly half the infantry. In the centre, there is a hill (I rolled a double six for location) with a load more, and the general. From Arbella / Edward’s point of view, this looked like a very tough nut to crack.

From the trained band’s side, it was a bit tricky too. The ridge and the central hill looked a bit too far apart for comfort, and as the trained bands had rolled a light horse and demi-lancer, as opposed to Arbella’s two demi-lancers, I was a little concerned about the salient by the bridge. Mind you, so was Edward, who put himself at the head of Arbella’s cavalry, positioned to trot into the gap.

The opening moves were very chess-like. Edward advanced the cavalry into the gap, having to make a detour to the river bank when the trained band demi-lancer threatened to flank him from the hill, and then he withdrew in the face of the advancing trained band infantry from the ridge. Arbella’s right had advanced into line with the rest of the foot, while her left had advanced to succour the cavalry and also threaten the central hill in the flank. As just noted, the trained band infantry from the ridge had decided that they were too far away from the flank of the central hill to protect the infantry there, and the light horse and left flank infantry were probing Arbella’s right.

At this point, Arbella was seriously concerned, as she could not see much future in storming the central hill, and there seemed to be no way of flanking it. Given Edward’s unpopularity, she hatched a scheme to negotiate with the trained band leadership. In her first go, she offered to let them go home in return for not disturbing them (or pardoning them when she became queen). This was rejected. Her second offer was to arrest Seymour as well, and this was accepted.

Whether Seymour was aware of Arbella’s treachery is something future historians will have to debate. Nevertheless, he was aware that something heroic was necessary for a future king of England. The advancing trained band foot gave him a fleeting opportunity.

Sensing the danger, the trained band general had rushed to his right flank by the bridge to recall the infantry there. He did so, but not quite far enough, and Edward’s cavalry was still to the flank, just about. Edward charged home, crushing the arquebusiers and routing them, who carried away their own pike and the general in the rush. Ouch.

While shaken, the trained bands did not give up. Edward’s cavalry had charged, so it was now pursuing. One base ran into some more pike and routed them, but the attached musketeers survived, albeit just. Edward’s demi-lancer base charged on, up the hill and hit the trained band cavalry. Trying to go uphill against formed cavalry was never going to go particularly well, and Edward was lucky to get away with his troops being recoiled, shaken, from the hill. He was able to withdraw them from the fray to reorganise. He also survived himself. Arbella’s thoughts about that are unrecorded.

The trained bands were still not giving up (good morale rolling) and even had some tempo points to spare. These they used to advance the infantry in the centre on Arbella’s men. Here, the trained band's luck ran out. Arbella’s musketeers shot away the wings of the trained band formation, while the trained band pike pushed back hers.

This meant that next turn, when Arbella was a bit more flush with tempo, she could turn her own lifeguard pike and some of the left wing foot onto the flanks of the trained band pike with almost inevitable consequences. At this, the trained bands had had more than enough, and the army routed.

That was a fascinating combat. I really did not think that Arbella would come out ahead on that, and her dumping of Seymour was the best I could make of the job. Seymour had other ideas, however, and seized a fleeting opportunity. In the photograph above, you can see the results of his labours fleeing behind the trained band lines, while the man himself is just finishing rallying his base of demi-lancers.

In terms of the campaign, of course, we now have a fairly solid alliance between Arbella and Seymour, while Arbella is still allied with Isabella. My guess is that interest will now switch north, to both of the invading Scots armies. One is in Durham, moving south, with the king, the other is aiming for the west coast route. One of the issues is whether Isabella can move the English army in Dublin to north-west England to oppose them.

For the Want of a Charge

I have noted before that campaigns can throw up some unexpected wargames, and the War of Stuart Succession is no exception. I have already had the Spanish against the Dutch at sea off Dover, and now another Spanish and Dutch confrontation.

The story is this. After a week getting organised in London, the Spanish shipped another army from the Low Countries into Kent to reinforce the already extant and victorious army in London. This, however, left the Low Countries denuded of troops. Elsewhere, Arbella moved to Berkshire, collected Edward Seymour, and attempted to move back to Buckinghamshire. This time, the trained bands opposed her. Evidently, Lord Seymour is not that popular, even though, in real life, the unauthorised marriage of Edward and Arbella during the reign of James I led them both to the Tower.

Anyway, the Spanish were doing quite well, but James VI was advancing from Scotland again, and had arrived in Durham. Isabella therefore transferred the newly arrived army from Kent to the East Riding of Yorkshire, using the English fleet in Thames. This she can do, being in possession of the capital and thus able to persuade the Privy Council to issue orders to English forces. Meanwhile, James has raised a third army in Midlothian, which is not on its way towards the west coast invasion route.

Now, rather unusually, the Dutch managed an initiative roll, and decided on a military move. They had not reformed their fleet after the defeat, however, so the only option was an invasion of the depleted Low Countries. A few dice rolls later and a scratch Spanish army confronted them.

The left-hand side of the battlefield is fairly open, and that is where the Dutch are deployed. The Spanish side has some villages, enclosures, with woods along the near edge. Most notably, though, although scarcely visible in the photograph, is a hill in the middle of the table, occupied by Spanish foot. You will also note that the Dutch have four bases of cuirassiers, being at the forefront of military trends of the time, while the Spanish, outnumbered in cavalry, have stuck to the demi-lancer and gendarme formula.

Both sides have their problems. The Spanish have a strong central position but are outnumbered in cavalry, and their skirmishers are vulnerable, unless they get them into the village quickly. On the other hand the Dutch have to work out how to storm the hill without decimating their own infantry. The answer, it seemed to me, was to lead with the cavalry and then work the flank and rear of the hill while the infantry did their stuff.

The Dutch got off to a slow start, hampered by a lack of tempo. The frontmost cavalry got going, thanks to the general being attached, but the rest were a bit tardy. The idea was that the infantry would get moving as well, and that has only just started to take place. The Spanish have decided to move their right flank infantry forward a bit, and also have, under the general’s command, moved the gendarmes into a flanking position on the hill. The plan is, of course, to ambush the Dutch cavalry.

The Dutch cause was not helped by their cavalry refusing to charge the Spanish demi-lancers. This was a case of simple, bad dice rolling, but they were left marooned and exposed. The Spanish had the tempo to counterattack in duplicate – the demi-lancers charged, and the gendarmes went in on the flanks, downhill, with the general.

The result was predictably messy, but not quite as bad for the Dutch as it could have been. They bounced one of the demi-lancers while losing a base of cuirassiers. The successful Spanish charged on, striking one of the supporting cavalry bases with their victorious demi-lancers, while hitting the general’s base cuirassiers from the flank. Both of these fights were a struggle for the Spanish, but, after a couple of moves, they were victorious, although desperate measures were used to win the general’s fight, including moving the shaken demi-lancers into a flanking position. This eventually disposed of both the cavalry and the general.

There was then a pause in the battle, presumably as both sides tried to work out what had just happened. The Spanish general rallied his gendarmes and moved back to the central hill, while the victorious demi-lancers pursued their opponents almost off the Dutch base line. Remarkably, Dutch morale held up at this point, and they were not quite ready to give up the fight.

Eventually, rather painfully slowly (on half tempo, after all), the Dutch tried to get moving again. The infantry were sent forward to dispute the hill, and were not doing too badly, all things considered, when a thunderbolt struck. Well, not so much a thunderbolt, more the returning demi-lancers who crept up on the remaining base of Dutch cavalry and charged them from the rear. All things considered, those cuirassiers stood up to the shock rather well, but it was unrealistic for them to last more than a turn, and they routed.

At this point, I suppose inevitably, Dutch morale collapsed, and the army was routed. As you can see above, the infantry had not given a bad account of themselves. A more coordinated assault on the hill could have gone in their favour. Perhaps I was overconfident in their cavalry advantage, but really, if that initial charge move had gone home, the battle would have looked very different.

Not just the battle, I think. If the Dutch had won, Isabella would have had to pull an army out of England to face them, either leaving Arbella a free hand in London, or handing the north, potentially, to James. As it is, the Dutch have no viable military force at present, and Isabella still holds London. The campaign world is full of might-have-beens, I suppose, and this was quite a big one, and a lot seems, in retrospect, to have depended on that failed charge dice roll.