Wednesday 8 February 2012

The King takes the field at Hoggerton Moor (1643) [Hypothetical] Part I

Parliament finds itself facing the rampant forces of Charles I's across the bleak countryside around Hoggerton Moor for what is to become one of the most bloody days in the English Civil War (Hypothetical). Morale is low in the Parliamentarian camp as the C-in-C is at a complete loss as how to counter the Royalist superiority in the Cavalry Arm. The best he can think of it to find an awkward battlefield to fight over. Hence Hoggerton Moor is chosen. On the Parliamentarian left I find myself defending the hamlet of Hoggerton itself, a pig farm of no real significance bar its fine defensive walls (see below). I have mainly an infantry force with a few bases of Cavalry (I), which means we like to shoot and not mix it hand-to-hand. 


The bulk of the Parliamentarian force (the main command, mostly Infantry) deploys behind a rough terrain feature (Hoggerton Moor) hoping the Royalist forces would obligingly disorder themselves coming through it (see below). There was some idle talk of defending it but having chosen our battlefield there was a muddle with regard to the strategy to adopt. Hence Parliament took a "wait and see approach". I think we are role playing the gentleman generals of 1643 too well here!


The bulk of the Parliamentarian Horse stood on our right angled cunningly towards an invisible enemy somewhere in the center of the battlefield (Parliament as defender deploys first) its flank covered by rough terrain. If we could not match the Royalist Horse with 'Quality' then we would try and see if 'Quantity' workks instead (see below). 


The Parliamentarian army arrayed in full (see below). Rather than a continuous line the Parliamentarian forces are worryingly three separate group. On the upside the King is taking personal command of his forces and who knows with a well aimed musket ball the war could be over on the roll of a single dice.


The really bad news however is that we are still playing DBR (with its individual bases rather than units of combined troop types and rule-set that nobody still knows consistently after playing it for over two years or is it five?) for the ECW, a period that historically doesn't come off in the rules well at all (IMHO and I am biased - Note to self: Convert Redcar wargaming group to Impetus Baroque).

3 comments:

Al said...

very cool mate, hope you find a decent rule soon, would like to see a bit more of this stuff, quite interesting

Monty said...

Nice, Geordie!

Geordie an Exiled FoG said...

The battles certainly look the part, the 28mm figures are really top notch