The Battle of Lansdown Hill : 5th July 1643 ECW

Monday saw a return to the table for my ECW collection for the Battle of Lansdown July 1643, spelt a couple of different ways. Sir Ralph Hopton leading his Cornish Royalist army is seeking to move towards Oxford, they are shadowed and harried by Sir William Waller who is holding ground in and around Bath. After several smaller skirmish and some manoeuvring the two army bumped into each other at Lansdown Hill. The Parliamentary army of around 5000 men had taken up a strong defensive position on the hill. Foolishly or not the Royalists were drawn into a frontal assault, different sources give them a numerical advantage in men but it’s not clear if these were all actually in the battle. Hard in any period but particularly rare in the ECW a frontal assault up hill against a defended position.  Anyway after much cavalry skirmishing the robust Cornish infantry eventually took the plateau forcing Waller to initially retreat behind a stone wall and then in the night to slip away. An unlikely win for the Royalist cause !

Plenty of maps of the battle on the internet but none of them are the same, I found this one perhaps the most useful and the main balance for the two armies came from my Asquith scenario book.

Lansdown Hill with Parliamentry army dug in. We gave the Royalist Cornish infantry some suitable bonuses to reflect their elite status. And so onto the battle…….

A local Shepard hurries away from the hill with his freshly painted flock !

The Royalists have little choice other than to go for it, the Parliamentary cavalry is more cagey choosing to exchange pistol shots rather than charge in knowing they have the advantage of the high ground

With the sheep out of the way cavalry on both flanks, supported by dismounted dragoons begin to skirmish for advantage, both sides are trying to breakthrough knowing this will threaten the rear of the enemy infantry

Just a shot of lots of ECW cavalry fighting it out 🙂

After trading a couple of volleys the Cornishmen drive up to the earthworks, it is going to be a slogging match but the Parliamentary forces have the advantage of defences and the hill on their side

After several turns the Parliamentry cavalry break through on the left

The cavalry fight on the right is more balanced, in the foreground dragoons can be seen skirmishing with each other.

On the left the Parliamentry cavalry are getting the better of the fight

And the left most unit of infantry starts to move to the centre to block the oncoming Cornish regiment

With Parliamentry cavalry now in their rear the Cornishmen are forced to take up a defensive hedgehog formation

But it is going better for the royalists on the hill. With a couple of failed morale checks and some shaky regiments the Royalists have managed to push into the defenses.

Both sides are getting tired and the numbers are still about balanced

The Parliamentry infantry needs to hold for a little longer to allow their advantage in cavalry to count.

But the Cornish infantry prove just too resilient their elite status giving them victory in two of the three key combats for the plateau, despite some late charges by the remaining Parliamentry cavalry they too have to flee and the battle is up for Waller who must concede the field to the Royalists.

History somehow managed to repeat itself against the odds. This was a really fun battle and tremendously close right to the end. Bravo to those Cornishmen taking the battle up the slope. The collection, setup and rules worked really well providing exactly the type of ECW game we were hoping for….definitely more to come in the future.

After what seems like a very long time it stopped raining today and with my health, the weather and other commitments coinciding a beautiful fews hours walking in the Northern Fells of the Lake District. Just a dusting of snow left from the bad weather a week or so ago.

Thanks as always for passing by the blog. I am finding the technical problems with the blog are giving me some headaches whereas before I had no problems now I am struggling to upload photos, we’ll see if it gets better soon ? I don’t have a lot of patience for technology 🤬

Matt❤️