Last night after work Chris, Nick, John and I went to our good friend Julian's to try out a new set of ECW rules he has purchased -" For King and Country". These are from the same team as the Medieval "To the Strongest" that have featured on this blog on a number of occasions, and use the same basic features such as packs of playing cards for activation etc rather than dice, and moving in squares that are marked on the playing table, rather than measured distance.

I suppose because 17th century warfare had become a bit more complicated than it was 300 years earlier, the rules were slightly more involved, but fundamentally most of the protocols were pretty similar to the medieval ones.

All the figures used were mine, so we substituted some Covenanters for the Parliamentarians who actually fought at the battle of Montgomery in Wales in 1644. John and I took the Parliamentarian side and Nick and Chris the Royalists - Julian acted as umpire/rule interpreter. John commanded the three units of infantry on our right, opposing Chris with five units, whilst my four units of cavalry faced off against Nicks five.

This is how the forces were initially deployed:

Here is an account of the actual battle:

The combined army of around 2,800 foot, 1,400 horse and 300 dragoons brought together the full strength of the Royalists in north Wales and the Marches. On the approach of the Parliamentarians, Byron withdrew from his position before the town. Leaving enough troops to guard the trenches and siege-works, Byron deployed the bulk of his forces on a steep-sided hill crowned by ancient earthworks north-west of the castle. The Parliamentarians drew up on flat ground two miles north of the town, with the remains of Offa's Dyke and the River Camladd to protect their flank and rear.

The two armies remained in position overnight. On the following day, with no sign of an engagement, the Parliamentarian commanders sent out nearly a third of their cavalry to gather provisions for the garrison in the castle. Seeing the enemy weakened, Byron took the opportunity to order a general attack, with the object of seizing Salt Bridge over the River Camladd to cut off Meldrum's escape.

Although the ensuing battle is poorly documented, the initial assault seems to have favoured the Royalists. Colonel Trevor's horse drove back the outnumbered Parliamentarian cavalry and the Royalist foot gained ground. The Royalists threatened to outflank the Parliamentarians and capture the bridge. However, Major-General Lothian succeeded in rallying the Cheshire foot to check the Royalist advance with concentrated musket fire, and the tide of the battle turned dramatically against the Royalists. They may have been discouraged by the unexpected Parliamentarian rally; it is also possible that the Parliamentarian foraging party returned to tip the balance against them. The Parliamentarians regrouped and counter-attacked. Myddelton's horse charged and put the Royalist cavalry to flight; Brereton's infantry broke through the Royalist foot. Colonel Mytton's forces sallied out of Montgomery Castle to overwhelm the Royalists guarding the trenches. After an hour's fighting, the battle ended with the rout of the Royalists. Around 500 were killed, with 1,500 taken prisoner. The Parliamentarians lost forty men, including Sir William Fairfax, commander of the Yorkshire contingent.

Montgomery was the biggest battle fought in Wales during the civil wars and a major victory for Parliament. The Royalists were never again able to muster a field army in north Wales and were forced onto the defensive, awaiting attack in castles and garrisons weakened by the loss of men, arms and ammunition at Montgomery. The loss of morale was also significant. Local gentry previously loyal to the King began to shift their allegiance towards Parliament.  

Unfortunately, OUR battle ran almost in reverse to what actually happened! Nick and Chris advanced and my cavalry quickly engaged Nick. We spent quite a long period of the game in melee, in which I seemed to gain the upper hand, destroying one unit and driving off another two. However, at that point it all started to go wrong. Nicks remaining two cavalry units defeated my units opposing them, whilst his gun took out one of the two pursuing units - I now had a single shaken cavalry unit in the middle of nowhere. Nick turned his two units in to support Chris, who had in the meantime advanced against John's three units of infantry with his five. John did hold out on the hill for a lot longer than we would have expected, but the end was never really in doubt. The missing Parliamentarian cavalry also eventually returned to the field, but far too late to make any difference to the outcome of the battle. 

 Below are the initial moves as the cavalry advanced to confront each other

This was the situation at the mid point of the game when it appeared my cavalry was gaining the ascendancy

Unfortunately, the situation changed rapidly and this is how the game ended

Following are some pictures I took at various points throughout the game:

 One of the Covenant infantry units commanded by John - the two out front are one of several "forlorn hope" units on each side. Main unit are Renegade 28mm the Forlorn Hope are Warlord plastics

 One of the Royalist units commanded by Chris - these are a combination of Front Rank (no longer in production) and Dixon figures

 Front Rank dragoons pretending to be cavalry as I did not have enough figures for all the units we needed!

 Front Rank Parliamentarian cavalry - these are in fact the very first unit I painted over 20 years ago!

 A unit of Covenant Scots horse - Warlord plastic figures

 Another one of Johns Covenant infantry units - musketeers are Renegade and the pike/command are Warlord

 Warlord "Forlorn Hope" unit

 The Scots Horse contemplate Nicks advancing line of Royalist cavalry

 Our commanding general supervises the ordnance

 Royalist and Parliamentarian cavalry clash

 These guys are actually Haselrigg's lobsters but had changed allegiance for the evening and been downgraded to standard cavalry!

 Nicks extra unit of cavalry comes to the fore as he crashes into my flank.

 Meanwhile on the right side of our line, Johns men look down from their hill as the Royalist infantry advance

 A unit of Royalist Greycoats - Front Rank figures painted 20+ years ago

 Initial success - after a couple of rounds of melee, one of Nicks units breaks and flees, pursued by my chaps

 When it was looking quite good - top left - two of my units pursue two of Nicks off the field - in the bottom right, my well ordered cavalry faces disordered Royalists

 The cavalry pursuit. In these rules, Nicks guys were really already "dead" but the winners had to pursue. At the start of each turn, I had to activate then then try to pass the morale check to stop the pursuit. If I could not succeed before reaching the table edge, I would lose my troops as well as destroy Nicks.

 The Royalist cavalry flank my one remaining unit, which is now disordered..

 The Royalist infantry advance continues inexorably

 Still pursuing hell for leather. I did manage to stop both these units but in the next turn, Nick destroyed one of them with his gun!

 View from the rear of one of Chris's advancing infantry blocks

 Battle is joined on the hill

 The dragoons-as-cavalry reinforce infantry flanking Johns line

Final view from the other end - Johns three units surrounded by five Royalists and engaged from front and flank simultaneously!