Hopton Heath solo

I'm continuing to work through Mike Lambo's solo game book Battles of the English Civil War, following my glorious victory at Braddock Down [link].  The next scenario is Hopton Heath, and the book sets the Parliament player (me) the objective of killing the Earl of Northampton.  This is rather removed from the historical battle [see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Hopton_Heath] where the Earl died leading a cavalry charge.  However, the Earl's death was just about Parliament's only positive point from the outcome of the battle.

setup and order dice for turn 1

As  you can see, I deployed my force along the ridge (of cork mats) while the Earl of Northampton (hiding behind the trees, top right) set up his "roaring megs" centrally, with horse on both flanks and a scattered foot force strewn all about the field.  That's what happens when you let the dice decide.  My plan is to let my cavalry deal with one wing of his horse first, then shift across to the other wing.  Meanwhile I don't roll enough movement orders (1s to 3s) to advance my infantry.

The Earl manoeuvred his force, with his right wing charging into Brereton's cavalry, but to no effect.

On turn 2 Brereton's cavalry threw back the royalist horse (which left the field on the royalist turn), while Gell's foot troops advanced to the front of the ridge.

The Earl's canon opened fire, but without effect.  However the pikemen hiding in the woods charged into my horse, with supporting fire from a unit of shot, and drove them from the field.  So our losses are even, but my force is still outnumbered, with the uphill task to reach the royalist headquarters and defeat it.

Turn 3, I moved around a bit, not closing with the enemy.  In response, the Earl's remaining cavalry charged up the ridge into my pike - never a good plan, but the only target they could reach.

Turn 4 my troops all converged on the royalist horsemen and utterly routed them.

In the Earl's turn, the canon blew away one of my pike units, while massed musketry routed the other.

Not looking good

At this point my only hope is to send the remaining cavalry wide to the right and then charge the Earl unsupported.  If the royalists are slow to react, I should get two attacks before the light fails, with a slim chance of winning (albeit a pyrrhic victory).

I'm going to raise two comments about the rules now, rather than wait to the end.  Firstly the ability of canon to fire through friendly units, even when they are engaged in hand-to-hand combat with the canon's target.  Those must be very skilled artillerists to judge the elevation so precisely.  And secondly I've noticed that my bold cavalry end-run could get stuck into the Earl's HQ a turn sooner if I send it straight through those trees directly in front of the Earl's position.  I can't find any penalty to the cavalry for charging through a wood.

These are both observations to the effect that the simple rules provided by Mike Lambo are just a little too simple for my taste.  I'm going to send the cavalry around the trees anyway, partly from a sense of what feels right, but also to keep them further from the royalist foot troops, to make sure they are not halted by some roaming block of pikemen.

The cavalry gallop wide and my two units of shot face 3 pikes, 2 shot and 2 canon.  Thanks to the way the royalist forces have formed up in a long column to attack, even a modest push-back sent the leading pike block off the field (because there was no space for it to halt its retreat).

"Roaring megs" blew away one of my two units of shot and now I'm worried that I may not have enough units left, because fewer units mean fewer order dice get rolled each turn and I want to be sure of having a move order for the cavalry.

My remaining shot move around to avoid combat as much as possible, but it does no good and they are taken out by lucky royalist shooting at maximum range.  The royalist pikes start to move toward my cavalry.

On turn 8 my cavalry fail to roll a move order.  The odds against me have just lengthened significantly.

Two moves left to reach the Earl

On turn 9 the cavalry resume their charge; the royalist shot are ineffective, the royalist pike just stand and watch.  One move left to close with the Earl.

I rolled an attack order.  Cavalry can only attack an adjacent target.  The battle is over, the sun sets and the Earl of Northampton holds the field.

Epilogue

The following day I played the scenario again, since the table was still laid out and ready.  The royalist play seemed more aggressive, with both cavalry units together on the Earl's left wing.  The big guns remained a constant threat and for several turns the dice were not my friends.  But eventually the tide of casualties went my way, with three of my units lost to six of the royalist units.  I still had both cavalry left, so I started the same end-run charge tactic and this time the Earl's headquarters was routed on turn 9.

My triumphant cavalry close with the Earl.  One unit already in contact while the other is about to charge through the woods to reach him.

Until next time, health & happiness to you all.