Cropredy Bridge : ECW 1644

Just back from a family wedding in Bristol this weekend and straight into a Monday game. Having visited Cropredy on my trip a month ago I thought it would make an interesting scenario. Historically the Royalists commanded by the King were on the back foot, Waller for the Parliamentarians had been chasing his army up and down around Oxford but unable to pin it down. Eventually the King moved north along the right bank of the River Cherwell the Parliamentary forces tracked them about a mile away on the left bank. When some additional horsemen were sighted ahead the Royalist Vanguard and main army hurried forward leaving the rearguard upto a mile behind. Waller sensed an opportunity and sought to force a crossing of the river at Cropredy Bridge itself and Slat Mill Ford. The king meanwhile was well ahead crossing a third bridge further north.

The map above gives a good overview of the battlefield which is nicely spreadout. Historically both forces were broadly equal in both cavalry and infantry, the Parliamentarians appeared to have slightly more artillery available although by the end of the day this had been captured. What is less clear is how many troops actually took place in the fighting it would appear almost none of the Royalist infantry was engaged at all. 

From my recent trip a shot north cross the fields from Cropredy Bridge itself, the Cherwell runs along in the trees to the left. The river is likely considerably narrower now due to the later construction of the canal nearby.

A shot lookingSW from the slightly higher ground down towards Slat Mill Ford. The battlefield was mainly open ground at the time.

Our set up, the Royalists to the right spreadout and to the left Waller’s army about to force the river. Given the difficult nature of river crossings in Wargames especially when numbers are equal I had a couple of extra rules to avoid a complete log jam. Firstly although the crossing would funnel troops they wouldn’t cause any delay, secondly to avoid the Royalists reacting too quickly each command, Vanguard, main and Rearguard for the Royalists and the king separately would have to dice before activation and moving off the road. On to the action using our amended Kings of War Rules.

Parliamentary cavalry surges across Slat Mill Ford, the Royalist rearguard luckily activated quickly and moves its cavalry to meet the threat. In the distance the Royalist dragoons holding Cropredy bridge can really only hold for one turn before they and run over 

After the initial clash the Parliamentry cavalry get the better of it but we have found these cavalry skirmishes can last quite a while giving time for the infantry to form up.

The casualties are mounting up on the cavalry with both sides starting to waiver. Independent musketeer units and dragoons can be seen fighting on the flanks.

With the dragoons pushed away the Parliamentry cavalry surge over the bridge, luckily some Royalist cavalry has activated and charges forward to stop the advance. But the main royalist infantry hasn’t yet activated and is still sitting on the road ! Breaking with history Waller sensibly sets up his artillery on the left bank of the Cherwell.

Finally the Royalist main force activated and starts to move off the road from the village of Waddington

The village of Williamscot which will later see some fighting !

To the south both cavalry forces are almost blown, (you can see by the wound dice mounting up on both sides)

Eventually the Parliamentry cavalry win the day here in the south, but undeterred the Royalist rearguard infantry decide to charge forward before they are completely outnumbered

Royalist cavalry is reforming, the cavalry in the foreground are the kings lifeguard (I know they probably didn’t have armour but they are the best representation I have). having taken Williamscot the Royalists have take it back in hand to hand fighting. The royalist main infantry is now formed up and advancing but they come under the attention of the Parliamentry artillery across the river.

The the south Waller is winning the day but the parliamentary troops have taken a real beating and their cavalry is effectively blown.

The Parliamentry infantry starts to swing north only to see the Royalist main infantry force crash into their comrades near Cropredy bridge, what cavalry remains is still fighting around Williamscot 

There is fighting everywhere now but neither side has a clear advantage ?

The finally clash of cavalry late in the day around Williamscot sees the Parliamentry cavalry thrown back

The kings lifeguard make a final attempt to charge and break the Parliamentry right wing, in the centre the Royalist infantry advance is slowly grinding forward.

As evening falls across an extremely blood soaked battlefield, the Royalists are holding Williamscot and are closing on Cropredy bridge, pretty much all the troops left are battered and bloody and not capable of further action. A splendid battle and I know some of you don’t like it but after several minutes of discussion we were unable to split the two armies, a draw. On the basis that the king can escape to fight another day he can claim something at least, but he doesn’t have much of an army and Waller now doesn’t have a force with whoch to chase him. Great fun it felt like the battle was on. Knife edge the whole time 🙂

Prior to my trip to Oxford I had played a game over at Martins and don’t think I blogged it so for completeness here are a couple of shots. He had purchased a lovely collection of 10mm Schleswig-Holstein forces (German /Danish) conflict from mid 19th Century. Rather than a historical battle we got everything out for a battle……..

Both sides attempting to captured the various villages

Linear tactics akin to Crimea/ACW

We used V&F which worked well for this period

Plenty of fun especially as by German/Bavarian forces won the day 

That’s it for now although another battle planned for later in the week.

Thanks as always for checking in

Matt ❤️

WW2 Convoy Battle

The worst/best of the heatwave now over we moved into the shed for a much anticipated Cruel Sea battle. Having played a couple of games of Cruel seas and expanding the collection last year I had planned a ‘big’ game which would use the Boats as well as some of my 6mm aircraft collection.

The German navy and aircraft would be attacking an incoming convey, the British navy supported by the RAF would attempt to fend off the assault. I was pretty ambitious with the scale of the game rather than using the aircraft rules attached to cruel seas we would be returning to our homegrown ‘aeronautics’ rules for WW2 combat. This meant we would effectively be playing two games at once but with the chance that the aircraft and ships could interact and I had worked out a way for the rules to cross over. It turned into some madness but a lot of fun.

German E boats with the Luftwaffe approach the convoy using the coast as cover

British MTB’s leave the harbour to cut them off ?

RAF Typhoons fitted with 20mm cannons arrive to take on the E boats form the sky

The convoy arrives at the top of the picture protected by (what turned out to be) a very powerful escort of 2 Fairmile patrol boats. In the foreground the E boats sweep in to launch their torpedoes

Ouch the convoy also has a US destroyer which arrives last. Their powerful 4” guns immediately cause a problem. The Fairmiles are armed with 6 pounder guns which were highly effective, but the E boats manage to lunch off a number of Torpedoes

Madness but a lot of fun , my 13 x6 foot table , ships and planes all over the place !

The MTB’s start to engage the second squad of E boats, the two es are BF 109’s after the typhoons

At this point I should say the dice gods were squarely in the British camp this day, the Germans could hardly hit a thing, the British on the other hand were dishing out the punishment, knock the one E boats rudder out causing it to crash into the friendly boat !

After several turns and a lot of German torpedoes quickly launched in the water the Destroyer and the Fairmiles gradually sink the E boats one by one ! You don’t last long in an e boat when hit by a 4” shell !

But the convoy has been distracted by the Eboats while the JU87’s gradually make their way across

In the final turns of the game their swoop down causing a lot of damage to the convoy

But probably not enough to give the Germans the win so the Royal Navy win the day ably supported by the RAF who did manage to cause some damage to at least one of the E boats

As I said a lot of fun what ever the outcome, my only real mistake was not realising how slowly the convoy would move even at full speed I should have started them in the middle of the table but forced the support to arrive from the edge….but thats for next time.

Earlier in the week I also had another game down with George this time giving his beautiful itlaian wars collection a run out.

Beautiful stuff and a pleasure to play

The Venetians has the numbers if not the quality of troops but they just about held out for a close run win

My commander before the majority of his cavalry was wiped out !

The stars also aligned for a change so I managed to get out in the hills

Striding Edge leading up onto Helvelyn a famous scramble in these parts and a lot of fun

A view from the tops looking north, a hot day and my legs are still feeling it three days later

That’s it for this week and catching up, finally a bit of painting but nothing yet finished to share.

Thanks as always for checking out my blog

Matt ❤️

The Battle for Bridge : Operation Sealion

This week we had planned to play out in the shed but the weather in a crazy twist became too hot ! So we stayed in the dungeon for a return to our Sealion campaign. The Germans are pushing inland on S-Day plus 1, having secured much of the south coast of Kent on S-Day they are driving North towards Canterbury. The direct route along the A2 has a potential pinch point at the Village of Bridge where the  Nail Bourne (river) cuts the road.

The Germans recognising the challenge have sent a small recon force who have successfully captured the bridge. The British have missed the importance of the objective, luckily the retired colonel of the Barham Yeomanry has taking things into his own hands and called all the home guard forces for the area to attempt to take back the bridge. The local population can only hope the regular British army will reach the village to support the battle before the Germans are able to get their support to the village.

Looking North up the A2 towards the Village of Bridge, a German Stuka has been called in to support the small German force.

The German recon force holding both bridges (which are the objective for the day) including motorcycle MG teams rushing up the road.

The first wave of British are the Home guard and local residents, including the mounted Barham Yeomanry. The British also have Bofor Anti-aircraft gun

A view from behind the windmill to the village of Bridge and the objective bridges on the Nail Bourne

The A2 is a very straight Roman road linking the coast to Canterbury. The advanced German infantry cross the bridge and dig in to the small white cottage by the bridge

German armoured cars push forward to hold the advancing Home guard back

The RAF enter the battle

As the battle progresses both sides begin to bring reserves on, the German rush forward in trucks

The RAD 8 takes a hit and bursts into flames blocking the road unless a heavy tank can be brought forward to push it out the way. Home guard can be seen edging along the rear of the houses but they come under fire from German machine guns dug in on the other side of the river.

British regular infantry finally starts to reach the battlefield

The spitfire swoops on the German infantry knocking out one of the trucks luckily the majority of the infantry are able to dismount unharmed

The British bring on a Matilda II whoch drives the German AC back towards the bridge

The Yeomanry gallop forward on their horses catching a German unit in the open behind the white cottage they are nearly wiped out

More German reserves are pushed forward, this Pioneer Hanomag armed with a powerful antitank weapon

The Matilda strikes and another armoured car is burning, but behind that you can see a large crater where sadly the Yeomanry were targeted by the Stuka a direct hit saw them literally wiped out !

British regulars advancing down the A2

Matilda pushes the AC off the road and prepares to rush the smaller of the two bridges, you can really see from the photos the intensity of the battle which focussed around the white cottage the British bringing more and more troops to assault it but them being driven back by the defenders.

The Matilda attempts to smash the German vehicle but fails to destroy it and they become locked on the bridge

The Germans attempt to advance on the right, but a Vickers tank has managed to take the bridge, and only the arrival of German armour will be able to drive this away

The Matilda is hit but rather than destroyed it is driven back off the bridge. The infantry behind assault the German Armoured vehicle but they too are driven back, lucky for them only move back onto the bridge.

In the meantime the spitfire has been chasing the German bomber but has been unable to knock it out. And that without anymore photos was about the end of the battle, both sides had taken massive casualties, the British did manage eventually to retake the white cottage, but with German tanks moving up the road they have limited resources to hold the village. Always fun to renew the Sealion campaign, a tough battle for both sides with a lot of infantry casualties.

Earlier in the week I also played  another  CoC game down with George

The Germans find themselves defending another wood

The British launch a cleverly planned mortar barrage which hits hard

Almost finished, the Germans fight back making it a tense and close battle but eventually the German morale breaks giving the British a fine win 👍

My Partizan loot, not too much just some bits and bobs. What I did buy secondhand was a couple of boxes containing lots of bits for a Star Fort. It was very cheap so I wasn’t too worried whether it was complete or not (I didn’t unpack it at the show) so when I got it all out back at home here is what I found.

A basic triangular shape, 10mm SYW figures shown above

This extended version with my ECW figures

A bigger version with extra bits added including the broken wall sections.

I played around a bit and it does seem to be missing some sections, and the shape seems slightly odd ? It would be easy to make a couple of extra sections, above is how it might look in the corner of the table which I guess is most likely as I wasn’t planning to play any siege battles in the near future. Food for thought anyway depending on when and how I might use it ?

That’s it for now likely more to come soon although very little progress on painting.

Thanks as always for visiting

Matt ❤️