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.

The Perils of Downsizing

As a slight break from the incessant wargames of the War of Stuart Succession, I have been pondering a little. Although you would never believe it if you saw us in the flesh, the Estimable Mrs P and I are approaching that certain age when we start to wonder what we are going to do with ourselves when retirement has done more than loom. We are not there yet, but there is a certain question on the horizon.

As we live in what is essentially a tied cottage (which looks like a suburban house), the question of where we go when the inevitable happens is present. And the inevitable seems to include that terrible word: downsizing.

Now, many of you are probably aware that the both of us collect books in profusion, and also that I have an extensive collection of 6 mm figures, terrain and buildings. We can both find books that we would trim from our collections, although we both have non-negotiables. But the figures are a bit more of a problem.

The biggest problem, which I cannot at present see a way of solving, is my collection of 20 mm card buildings to go with the 25+ mm figures. I need a better solution than the large plastic boxes they currently reside in. But that is a bit of a side order. Another problem, which I suppose I shall have to find a way of solving, is my ancient collection of 15 mm, mostly Peter Laing ECW, medieval, and a few ancients. I am aware of a few collectors of these who might possibly be interested. If that is you, drop me a comment with your email address (I won’t publish it) and we can talk about them.

The real issue is the quantity of 6 mm figures. I offered, as an opening gambit, to replace them with 2 mm figures, but the Estimable Mrs P rejected that. Then we went and looked at the size of the problem. I thought I had a fairly modest collection, but a more objective examination revealed that the size of the problem was larger than expected, but not massive. It also revealed that there are some actions that could be taken to ameliorate the situation.

Firstly, and most obviously, the bulk of the armies are stored in A4 box files. These are cheap, convenient (because they are recycled from other uses within the household), and fairly robust. However, they are about 3 inches in height, which for even the largest 6 mm figures means that there is around 2.5 inches of wasted space. So the initial plan is to get more of those A4 plastic boxes, which are half the height, and transfer the collections to them. I already have a fair quantity of them, but obviously need more.

A second, partial solution to the problem is to rebase the Aztecs. Again. I like the Aztecs and their campaigns – the Mexica campaign I wrote ages ago is one of the few I have actually re-run. But I have always had a bit of a problem with basing the soldiers. When I rebased onto plastic card, I based one strip to a 20 by 40 mm base. This, for the militia, makes them look a but underwhelming, particularly as I found I have vast quantities of them.

This will be, by my calculations the fourth rebasing of the Aztecs. They started off on flimsy card stands, one Irregular strip to a base. Then I rebased them to two strips per base for the militia, and one for the skirmishers and ‘knights’. Then, as I switched to plastic stands, as I said, I recall thinking briefly as to how many strips to put on a stand, and decided on one. This, as now seems apparent, was a mistake. Humbug.

Mind you, I am still not really sure how the Aztecs and their ilk fought. The ‘knights’ were, of course, the protagonists of the Flower Wars, the professional soldiers. The militia were, it seems to me, largely untrained, a mass levy. Thus, it is possible, at least in my mind, that the ‘knights’ were the officers and did not fight independently of the masses. After all, quite a lot of the Aztec fighting (before the Conquistadors came and spoiled the fun) was to do with capturing victims for sacrifice. During a battle, this would surely be done by the ‘knights’, presumably leader against leader, before the more massed brawl started.

I do wonder if this is a way forward for specific rules for Aztecs. A unit has a base of troops, plus an officer, if it expects to move. The officer, before the units come into combat, may elect to have one-to-one combat with an officer on the opposition side. If he wins, he gets both kudos and an attack at an officer-less, and hence demoralised, enemy unit. Otherwise, the Aztecs have simply ‘knights’, militia, and skirmishers, which can be a little dull, I suppose.

I suppose before going much further down this route, I should reread Hassig’s Aztec Warfare again. The thing is, I am not sure it is really known how the Aztecs fought other Mexica, so it is all a bit speculative. Mind you, I suspect that the same might be true of the Samurai – were, say, the archers of a specific lord brigaded into a mass of bowmen, or did they fight with the rest of the lord’s men? Opinions, so far as I have seen, vary. Plus the Samurai themselves were very interested in single combat, just like the Aztec ‘knights’. Room for some comparative history here, perhaps.

Still, this does not really matter for the rebasing project. The militia needs rebasing, the ‘footprint’ of my toys needs reducing, and this could just be the start of it. With a project like this, of course, you cannot really tell where you are going to end up. But sometime I might write my own rules for Aztec warfare. Just don’t hold your breath for them.

The Rolling English Countryside

 ‘I like the set-up for that battle,’ the Estimable Mrs P. remarked. ‘Rolling English countryside. Who is it between?’

‘Arbella Stuart and the Bedfordshire trained bands. Arbella is marching on London.’

‘I thought the Spanish got there in the last battle.’

‘Yes, but this is going on at the same time. Roughly.’

So there you have it, in summary. The army of Arbella Start is still advancing south on London, this time facing the Bedfordshire trained bands, having failed her GOOS roll this move. I confess to approaching this action with some caution, because the armies are mirror images of each other, more or less, and the margins of success and failure are, consequently, it seems, fairly narrow. Not only this, but the terrain rolls gave a fairly narrow frontage for the armies with only limited outflanking opportunities, at least on the face of it.

After some thought and messing about, the armies were deployed. On the near side of the field, the woods in the centre end at a stream which runs along the entire edge. What you cannot see is that the blue coated Bedfordshire infantry on the near left are actually deployed on the lower slopes of a hill. Aside from that the Bedfordshire have thrown their light cavalry forward in the hope of disrupting Arbella’s infantry, while filling the gap between the rough going on this side and that on the far side.

As the attacker, I was a bit dubious about this setup. I had a slight cavalry advantage – 2 demi-lancers against a demi-lancer and a light horse, but there was not really the room to deploy them. The alternative seemed to be an infantry slog with roughly equal numbers in the middle. I was not too impressed by that idea, but it seemed to be the only alternative.

A few moves in, and a bit of command ineptitude has opened a slight possibility for the Bedfordshires. Arbella’s central infantry block is in danger of out-marching its supports and being flanked on the far side, where a company of trained bands are angling in to catch them in flank. On such things, and the timing of them, battles can be settled. However, Arbella’s general has already dashed to the front lines to try to exert some control. The lady herself, note, is presently leading her own lifeguard (the blue coats to the right). She has no command powers herself, however, but she does inspire any troops she is attached to with a +1 in close combat.

The general’s energetic ordering of people around paid off. On the far side, the potential flankers have been forced back in line by approaching infantry under his direct command. Meanwhile, Arbella’s left flank infantry are in combat, reasonably successfully so far, and the Queen’s Lifeguards have started to move up as well, to provide some back-up in what otherwise looks like a fairly even infantry fight.

It got predictably messy, as the shot above suggests. Some of the fights have been even, some have swayed from one side to the other. On the far side, however, you can see that the troops led by Arbella’s general have managed to rout the opposition musketeers (fleeing top centre left, with the yellow ochre marker) and then, under the general’s direct orders, turned in and flanked the pikemen who have just spectacularly failed their combat dice roll and have vaporised.

Remarkably, the Bedfordshire men shrugged off the sudden loss of their left flank and carried on. As Arbella’s men tried to reorganise on their right, the Bedfordshire trained bands surged forwards again, possibly inspired by the sight of their general leading the demi-lancers towards the fray. On the other hand, you can also see the Bedfordshire light horse being hammered by some of Arbella’s musketeers, and that all of the infantry formations are beginning to break up a bit.

The end, when it came, was quite sudden. The Bedfordshire central blue-coated pikemen attacked some of Arbella’s musketeers and routed them, but were then taken in flank by Arbella’s general and his red-coated pikemen, who routed the blue coats. Meanwhile, on the near side, the Bedfordshire general has used some valuable tempo to rescue his light horse (who have moved back into the bottom left of the picture). However, Arbella’s white coat pikemen have just taken some Bedfordshire white coat musketeers in flank and routed them – they are fleeing centre left – while in the centre some more Bedfordshire pike are in deep trouble.

The arriving Bedfordshire general might have stabilised the situation, but he did not get the chance. The morale rolls kicked in. Arbella’s men rolled poorly, but survived. The trained bands rolled even more poorly and got a rout result. Looking at the situation, I can hardly blame them. The centre is about to collapse, the left has already gone, and only the unengaged right is looking secure. The arrival of the infantry reserves and demi-lancers might stave off the inevitable, but Arbella’s lifeguard is arriving, and it probably will not be long before her demi-lancers (who have not moved all game, incidentally) arrive to administer coups de grace all round. Going home seems like an excellent idea.

As I have said elsewhere, that was nasty, brutish and short. When an infantry battle is in front of us, we can expect a bit of a slog. That was more or less the case. The Bedfordshire trained bands did try to take advantage of some early confusion in Arbella’s ranks, but that was quickly overcome by the intervention of the general, whose continued presence in the infantry ranks meant that they could respond more quickly and the Bedfordshires.

I think the general’s mixing it at the front led to the victory here. It gave Arbella’s infantry just that edge that they needed to work flanks and pick up on weaknesses in the opposition. If the demi-lancers had arrived a bit sooner, things might have been different, but the trained band’s position collapsed within a couple of moves, so it is hardly surprising they were caught flat hoofed.

Still, in campaign terms, Arbella’s GOOS score has increased again, and she is still on track for London. However, a glance at the diplomatic table suggests she is in alliance with Isabella’s Spanish, who are already there. This is going to take a bit of thinking about….

The Battle of London 1603

The War of the Stuart Succession continues. Arbella Stuart has moved into Bedfordshire, but the trained bands have rallied against her. Meanwhile, the victorious Spanish have moved into Middlesex from Kent, where the trained bands have rallied in the defence of London. So, this game week, there are two wargames to be had. I decided to start with the Spanish.

The photograph shows the setup. The Spanish are to the left, with their mounted arm fully restored. You cannot see the hills in the picture. On the extreme left of the rearmost Spanish foot, there is a ridge running to behind the Spanish cavalry. Out of shot to the right, in the near corner, is another hill, which will become important.

The Spanish plan was to hold their centre and left with the infantry, and outflank the English on the right with their much larger heavy cavalry force, supported, as necessary, by the skirmishers (deployed in the march initially). The English plan was to use their infantry superiority to crush the Spanish before the flank attack materialised.

The wargame had no sooner started than it was interrupted by an intruder. She did not, admittedly, leap onto the table (she is getting a bit old and stiff for that) or proffer any tactical advice, but she came to sit in the sun she knew would be in the room and, I would like to think, for some company. She snoozed under the general’s chair for a few minutes before retiring to her igloo (also in the sun) next door. The cat does not much like being photographed, so I took the opportunity for a snapshot.

So, back to the wargame. The plans developed, as you would expect. The English have been forced to divert some infantry and their demi-lancers (under the general) to block the flanking activities of the Spanish heavy cavalry. Those gentlemen have arrived on the hill on the left front corner of the table and deployed. Meanwhile, on the other flank, the light horse are exchanging pleasantries, and the English have started to advance their infantry.

The Spanish general carefully husbanded his infantry resources, attempting to maximise the musketry period. Both sides played a careful game on the English left as well, with the Spanish cavalry attempting to find flanks to work, while the English were trying to block them and get the infantry close enough to give their opponents some hot lead. It turned into a game of cat and mouse, mostly to the English advantage, because they had the general there to control things.

Above, you can see the shooting breaking out to the left of the picture. The light horse have both been withdrawn damaged, but the Spanish skirmishers are now shooting at English foot from the rear flank, from the town. To the right of the shot, the Spanish gendarmes have set off again, trying to outflank the English demi-lancers. It is a matter of tempo points at the moment on this flank. The English general can always respond, while the Spanish have to rely on a supply of points from their general, who is with the foot.

There was furious fighting on the Spanish left and centre, and, as you can see, in what should have been a fairly even chances action, the English have come off far worse. Three of their bases are fleeing, and another one, of pike, has simply been surrounded and destroyed. The English rolls were not bad; they just got worn down. The final, humiliating coup de grace on some musketeers (the blue coats with the ochre counter to the left) was delivered by the Spanish skirmishers.

On the right of the shot the English foot are pressing the Spanish demi-lancers very hard. Unfortunately for them, the latest English morale throw was ‘fall back’, which means that their flank cover – the English demi-lancers – have uncovered their flank.

The English flank open to the Spanish gendarmes was predictably disastrous, as shown. The gendarmes hit the flank of the shot, who did not even stick around to fight but fled immediately, and swept the pike and general away with them. This did not do English morale any good at all, as you might suspect. In the centre, the Spanish foot is reorganising after defeating the initial English onrush and will, doubtless, shortly be assaulting the remaining English foot.

The English morale roll was actually quite a good one, so they did not rout, but they did get to a withdraw status, and so they did. However, with Spanish cavalry across their line of retreat, I suspect that the trained bands would probably simply decide that going home is probably a good idea. London, it would seem, is now under Spanish control.

That was an interesting battle, I felt. Both sides made extensive use of their generals to get troops where they were needed, as they operated on different parts of the battlefield, both interventions were significant. The English flank guard infantry played a major role in delaying the Spanish flank attack, but paid the price for going onto the offensive while their flank was being uncovered by their supports. In the centre, the Spanish general’s extra tempo enabled him to organise the surrounding of a successful English pike stand, and also to keep the Spanish foot moving back and forward to engage the advancing English.

The role of the Spanish skirmishers was interesting and quite amusing. Eventually, they hit a base of arquebusiers, which was already on -2 on the combat dice, and managed to rout them. I think this might be a first in my wargaming – foot skirmishers are quite weak in these rules. They have their uses, however and can flank the enemy or keep them under fire and unable to rally.

So, now Isabella of Austria has London and, if she manages to roll favourably, her forces will be augmented by the English navy in the Thames and the army in Dublin. On the other hand, Arbella Stuart is in Bedfordshire, and if she overcomes the trained bands, London will be open to her. On a third hand, Isabella and Arbella are on very friendly terms with each other, so perhaps they will come to a ladies' agreement over the throne….  

A View to a Hill

No sooner have the French been seen off from the Hampshire coast, but the Kent trained bands (Kentish train bands or trained bands of Kent?) get called out to repel the Spanish from their shores. As you may surmise, we are back in 1603 and the War of Stuart Succession. If you have not been following this (and if not, why not?) A quick summary will have to suffice. After the death of Elizabeth I, her council split over who was to succeed her. A number of candidates attempted to step into the void – James VI of Scotland, Arbella Stuart, Edward Seymour, and Isabella of Austria, governor of the Low Countries.

As recounted in the last few posts, James got a bloody nose in Northumberland, the French were repulsed from the coast of Hampshire, Arbella defeated the Leicestershire trained bands and has now moved, unopposed, into Northamptonshire, while the Spanish defeated the Dutch at sea. Now, as they say, read on.

Isabella got another initiative roll in the next week and decided on a military move. As the Spanish and Flanders fleets now control the Channel, with the exception of the orderless English fleet off the Thames, attempting a landing in Kent seemed to be an eminently sensible undertaking, albeit with the caveat that such undertakings are hazardous. However, if she want to make an impact on the English succession, Isabella needs, not exactly skin in the game, but an army to prosecute her claim.

As is normal, Isabella failed her GOOS roll. The only one that has succeeded all campaign so far is Arbella’s in Northamptonshire. The Kent trained bands were duly roused to oppose the landing. The terrain I rolled up was a bit complex, and I ignored the stream that was supposed to run across the English rear. I was fortunate; it made no difference to the outcome.

The picture shows the battlefield. The Spanish will, of course, arrive from the left-hand side in boats. The English are arrayed on the wooded ridge to the right, with some infantry and the light horse thrown forward. There are other woods, rough going, and marshes around, plus a fishing village on the far side from the camera. Most importantly, and invisible on the shot, there is a hill just off the beach beyond the patch of rough going towards the left foreground.

I had the usual defender’s dilemma in such scenarios: attack the landers before they get organised, or adopt a strong defensive position and wait. I was in two minds here. When the French landed, the English demi-lancers made a great mess of them. Here, I only have one base of demi-lancers, and the ridge is a strong position. History will show, however, that I could not resist attacking the landers on the beach.

As the attacker, I tried to learn from the French debacle and focus my efforts on a particular sector of the beach. Given my lack of cavalry (all dismounted), I decided to focus on seizing the invisible hill by the sea, in the hope that it would give some protection against the English cavalry as my troops formed up.

As advertised, as the English, I decided not to sit back, but the light horse have got stuck in, and the demi-lancers are arriving, followed by some of the infantry. In the foreground, the Spanish gendarmes, dismounted, and the general are forming up on the hill while the skirmishers are starting to move up. More Spanish troops, some arquebusiers, have just hit the beach, while more troops are arriving. In the middle of the sea section, some Spanish boats have been redirected from landing at the village to support the troops on the hill.

It got a bit fraught on the hill. The demi-lancers, after a hiccup, charged home up the hill, accompanied by the general, into the Spanish dismounted gendarmes, along with their general. This was a pretty close match-up, as it happened, and the fighting was prolonged and bitter, with the Spanish yielding ground slowly but surely.

More Spanish were arriving on the beach, but the gendarmes were being heavily battered on the hill. The shot above shows them only a recoil result away from breaking. However, the Spanish have support from the skirmishers and the disorganised arquebusiers, while the demi-lancers are on their own except for the light horse, who are trying to keep Spanish units pinned on the beach. Nevertheless, it looked really dubious for the Spanish. I was more or less resigned to another failed invasion.

The Spanish, however, got some lucky breaks. Firstly, they got a good combat roll against the demi-lancers, which caused a recoil. As the demi-lancers had bases in contact on the flank, that was that for them. Ouch. The general, however, survived and joined the nearest infantry unit. However, the English morale slumped at this as the army wavered, giving the Spanish vital breathing space. On the other hand, one of the bases of sword and buckler men was steadfastly refusing to get out of their boats!

The Spanish were not quite out of the woods, however. Led by their general, the infantry attacked up the hill. The Spanish had just managed to get a base of pike up there to support the gendarmes, and the disorganised arquebusiers were still in the offing, as were the skirmishers. On the far side, nearer the village, a base of Spanish pike attacked some English arquebusiers and caused them to flee, and were then attacked by some trained band pike.

The shot, dismounted gendarmes, and pike managed to see off the attacking English on the hill, and the pike on the far side were starting to push back the English there, while more Spanish formed up on the beach, with even more about to land. This was all too much for the English, who lost their heroic general on the hill along with the infantry. The Kentish trained bands melted away. The Spanish had arrived.

That was actually pretty close, although the result does not show it. As mentioned, the dismounted gendarmes were within a combat phase of breaking, but managed to get a single hit on the demi-lancers, which was enough. The English did well up to that point, and hardly rolled a successful dice thereafter. The English general was a hero, pretty well involved in every combat there was.

Maybe the English should have waited. The infantry, which did get involved, was supposed to flank a Spanish attack up the ridge on which the English had deployed, but I used them to follow the cavalry up. Perhaps the larger infantry formation on the ridge should have been the one to move up, but that would have disrupted the defensive position. I did not move the infantry off the ridge until it was clear that the decisive action was going to be on the hill by the beach.

Speculation aside, this is the second victory for Isabella, and the Spanish are in Kent. The road to London is open and, once in London and declared Queen, Isabella can order the English army and navy about. On the other hand, Arbella and James might have other opinions, while what Edward Seymour is up to is anyone’s guess (actually, he keeps failing his initiative roll, but that is the campaign master’s secret).