The Battle of Black Adder Moor

I’ve been hurriedly painting up some of the many English Civil War figures I’ve had for some time in hopes of playing a few games with the kids while we’re reading about the later renaissance, Thirty Years War and English Civil Wars. We actually read about the English Civil War a week or so ago (when we played Cruel Necessity) and have moved on to Louis XIV and XV of France and the Friedrichs and the Rise of Prussia… I’d like to get in couple more games before we move on to the Seven Years War…

Looking at the DBA Extension for 1500 – 1900AD lists I realized I only needed one element of artillery to finish up two armies – so earlier this week I finished up an element of artillery so we could play a game.

I’m still hoping to finish up another two units of Horse so we can try out One Hour Wargames

Black Adder Moor, 6 November 1645

FORCES

Royalists (played by The Boy)

1x Knight General

2x Knights

1x Artillery

4x Pike

4xShot

Scots Covenanters (played by The Girl)

1x Knight General

2x Cavalry

1x Artillery

4x Pike

4xShot

THE GAME

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)

Game set up and ready to go – I did advise both kids on the deployment of armies of this period (pike and shot and artillery in the middle – cavalry on the wings).

The kids got right into from the get-go. The Girl was constantly complaining about the common prayer book and the bishopric system and The Boy kept reminding here that treason was punishable by death and shouting "GOD SAVE THE KING!"

It soon became apparent that I should have dug the 4x4 DBA game boards out of the shed – it would have provided a bit of room to maneuver.

The Scots Covanenteers commanded by The Girl

The Royalists commanded by The Boy

Dispositions at the end of the first turn.

The Scots had to wheel a bit to maneuver their line around the bend in the river.

The Royalist artillery, positioned on the left of their line started firing – with no effect. This chose to be the smarter deployment, as The Girl deployed hers in the center of the line and it ended up never firing the whole game as it couldn’t fire as it advanced with the line and with in two turns the lines were in contact and the artillery – thankfully being recoiled due to shooting, ended up permanently behind the line doing nothing.

At the end of the second turn the lines were close enough to fire. A lot of the Royalists recoiled under the fire of the Scots leaving their line a bit broken up.

The Royalist cavalry had a bit more success – the Knight General element pushing back the Scots Cavalry.

The Royalist artillery started finding their range and drove back the Scots Knight General and Cavalry over on the other flank.

The main lines clash! Scots Cavalry on their right charging the Royalist cavalry and guns. On their left an element of Scottish Shot from their reserve brigade peels off to aid the beleaguered Scots cavalry.

As the Royalist Knights drove the Scots Cavalry further back they found themselves in the unfortunate position of being flanked by Scottish Shot. It turned out to be not so troublesome as the Knights just continued to drive the Scots cavalry back – and force the Scottish Shot to recoil as well.

Royalist Knights wreak havoc on one flank – Scots cavalry charging guns on the other. The Royalist reserve brigade maneuvering to protect the flank against the Scots cavalry 

Scots cavalry being driven even further back.

Pike from the reserve brigade were brought in to drive off the Royalist cavalry. I

The Scots cavalry was eventually driven right off the table…

I can’t remember if the Scots infantry drove the second element of Royalist Knights off the table edge or if they actually destroyed them with a lucky roll… But just as they did the Royalist Knight General turned around and would soon be menacing the Scottish flank!

Meanwhile over on the other flank The Scots general decided to ignore the royalist artillery and cavalry, that were now sitting well behind the main Royalist line, and turned to attack the exposed flank of the Royalist line.

I don’t know how many times this element of Royalist Shot drove off their attackers and survived the potential instant death from being flanked!?

Royalist Knight General attacks the pike.

The Royalist Knight General was recoiled by the Scots Pike a number of times – eventually a second element was brought in from the reserve brigade.

Finally, after the second element of Scots Cavalry turned on the Royalist flank, the royalist line started to crack under the pressure and take losses. First an element of Pike.

The a lucky roll took out an element of Royalist Shot with fire.

At this point the lines were pretty broken up and it became a wild mess (the entire area should really have been shrouded in blackpowder smoke at this point…

Once again the Royalist element of Shot on their extreme left found itself flanked by the Scottish Knight General…

…and finally they capitulated. This was the Royalists fourth element lost and thus brought about the end of the game when the turn concluded.

Of the four elements of the blue uniformed brigade on the Royalist left, only one element of Pike held on.

Over on the other flank, however, the Royalist Knight general was busy riding down Scottish infantry… but not nearly enough to turn the tide of the battle.

Dispositions at the end of the battle.

The Royalist lost one Knight, two Shot, and one Pike. The Scots lost one Cavalry and one Pike.

The kids had fun and the game played out, more or less, like a battle of the period might. The mainlines mostly pushed back and forth with little effect until the cavalry on the flanks could be brought to bear on the flank of the infantry.

This was the beginning of a very busy weekend of gaming. Friday Evening Amanda and I went out to our biweekly Savage Worlds/Realms of Cthulhu game, Saturday afternoon I hosted a five-player game of Warrior Knights and then in the evening kicked off a new A Song of Blades and Heroes campaign using a new campaign system that I’ve been working on based on Song of Deeds and Glory but with a stronger area control element to it (and possibly a map!) I’m hoping to try out the system over the next few weeks and if it works out, I’d like to use if for our annual game weekend in February.

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

A Game report of the new Song of Blades and Heroes campaign... maybe a painting update with some Englsih Civil War Horse and/or 40K Imperial Guard…