FK&P AAR: Munces Wood
/Time for another game of For King & Parliament: a fictional encounter battle near Munces Wood.
I would play the Parliamentarians, with a force consisting of a strong contingent of mostly Dutch horse, three decent foot battalia, two pike-only foot battalia, and a couple of units of commanded shot escorting some guns.
Up against me were some Royalist rabble (the units out in front of the main Cavalier line), lots of Swedish horse, and six battalia, half of which were pike-heavy.
Neither side started the game happy with their deployment, and the arena-like nature of the terrain would make things interesting as well.
Horrible picture: apologies for the over exposure!
The battle quickly divided into three segments. On the left, the cavalry clashed, with my Dutch horse unable to get over the hedge and into contact with the opposition. Not so for his men, who succeeded in clearing the foliage and headed for my poorly-mounted Pistoliers.
In the centre, the Royalist Clubmen retreated back to the hedgerow behind them, with his more battalia then coming forward to face mine.
On the right, some of his horsemen charged forward ferociously, routed one of my units of commanded shot, then ended up under the guns of the other and were blown away in turn.
I had expected to win the cavalry action on the left and then bring my horsemen around into his flank and rear, but that hedge stymied all my plans. The main cavalry clash would grind on without a clear result for the whole battle.
Both sides reinforced their centres with some cavalry but a run of bad luck as the two lines first came into musket range dogged me for the rest of the game. Although honours were even in terms of units lost, my remaining troops were all disordered or double-disordered, and that pooping Royalist Rabble then made a reappearance!
The game, however, was ultimately decided on the right flank, where my commanded shot and guns faced another cavalry assault.
My commanded shot were not able to stop the enemy horse from running them down, the guns acted as effectively against charges as usual (!) and my right flank evaporated.
With his horsemen curling around my right flank, and my cavalry still engaged in the grinding melee on my left, my centre gradually and unspectacularly collapsed.
Victory to the Royalists!
A challenging scenario which my opponent coped with much better than I did. If I had committed just enough horse to bottle up his men on the left, then I could have properly reinforced my centre and won the battle there before my right was defeated. I was a bit unlucky on my right, as I never had the chance to get my commanded shot into the trees, but plaudits to the Royalists for coming forward so speedily.
A great game, and one that only took about 90 minutes to complete. So we set it up again and played it the other way round but that, as they say, is another story…
