It, not he, is in Lancashire, half-way between Blackburn and Clitheroe, and was the site of a small English Civil War battle on 21st April 1643.
John and I refought this on 17th December 2025, only some 382, and a bit, years later. Our refight was based on the account of this battle in 'English Civil War Gaming Scenarios'[1] and the 10' x 5'3" table laid out like this (taken from the only place I could get far enough away to get most of it in shot) ...
... as close as I could get to the map (opposite view to the photo above).
The opposing forces were:
ROYALIST Strength Figures Fig. Ratio
Molyneux's Foot 300 40 7.5
Tyldesley's Foot (Vet) 350 52 6.7
Dragoons (Raw) 180 14 12.9
Derby's Horse 300 36 8.3
Hoghton's Horse 300 36 8.3
Clubmen (Raw) 600 22 27.3
PARLIAMENTARIAN Strength Figures Fig. Ratio
Shuttleworth's Foot (Vet) 300 40 7.5
Brereton's Foot 260 34 7.6
Dragoons 260 16 16.3
Horse (Raw) 360 42 8.6
All units are ‘Trained unless otherwise indicated above. Because of the availability of figures the figure ratio for some units is badly out[2], dice re-rolls and discarding of hits on some units were adopted to make up for it.
John arrived, and on being offered the choice of sides decided to roll for it, and took the Parliamentarians, which is his usual choice but perhaps being so outnumbered this time they're up against it.
To match the historical action the Royalists are not allowed to act, except Tyldesley's who must attack Brereton's in the walled enclosure of Read Hall, and the dragoons who are allowed to support his attack. The Parliament forces can sit tight and await the attack but if any of their troops are seen to move then the Royalists are free act as they see fit in response.
The Game
Almost the first card turned, that could be actioned under the starting constraints, was a Random Event ...
... which saw my dragoons set off or home, doing two retreat moves instead of just one as they are raw troops.
When retreating, dragoons have to mount up if able to do so, which with the double retreat saw them fall back across the Sabden Brook leaving Tyldesley's left flank hanging in the air.Other than Tyldesley's advancing to attack Brereton, not much else happened in the first turn as the Roundheads sat tight and the Royalists were prevented by the scenario.
The next turn saw a surprising move by Shuttleworth who, to take advantage of Tyldesley's isolation, advanced, abandoning his protected position in a walled enclosure.
This movement by Shuttleworth freed the Royalists who had observed it to move freely. Tyldesley immediately stopped advancing, while the shame-faced Royalist dragoons started back to his support.Then we had another Random Event, this time an itinerant preacher turned up and whipped up a religious fervour in Brereton's men (allowing them to ignore one Retreat result for the rest of the game).Next, a veritable torrent of Parliament Horse advanced over the ridge towards Read Hall to back up their isolated dragoons.This move was observed by Hoghton on the high ground before Whalley ...
... who commanded his brigade forward across the brook to take up the challenge and cover the wing of Tyldesley's who had fallen back to allow more support to come up and join them
The above photo shows how Tyldesley's, courtesy of Shuttleworth's aggressive move were looking far less out on limb.The following turn, with news of Parliament's advance having been passed to those who had not observed it, Derby's brigade advanced ...
... to support Hoghton's ...Next, Molyneux formed his men into column to advance along the road.Then the turn ended rather abruptly[3] before Parliament had much of a look in. The following turn, Parliament's horse held their ground, no doubt hoping the dragoons would take the edge off the Royalist horse before their raw troopers had to face them.
Then the Royalist dragoons, who had finally got back into the fight, unleashed a lethal volley against Shuttleworth's - another like that would destroy them!But then, unlike in target practise, the target fired back and the raw dragoons took some hits and promptly fled back to the brook, again!By now Hoghton had all brigade across the brook, with one peeling off to the right in case Brereton left the safety of his walled enclosure and the rest advancing towards the enemy dragoons.
With the cavalry covering their flank, Tyldesley's were now free to turn against Shuttleworth if they got the opportunity.Meanwhile, Molyneaux was making poor progress along the road, courtesy of poor dice throws and missing out on activating in some turns.Also, the advancing clubmen were now being held-up by the fleeing dragoons.To better understand how this fits together, the next photo shows an overview of the right-side of the battlefield (from the Royalist perspective).
And now the left-hand side, again from the Royalist's perspective.Now came the hour for the Royalist cavalry to show their mettle.They charged the Roundhead dragoons, and were promptly thrashed! Losing four hits (red markers) which was enough to eliminate the led unit.This, was despite an earlier Random Event that had seen the dragoons' firepower reduced by one die roll owing to their powder being damp (indicated by the figure behind their left flank with the powder barrels placed in a puddle).This was followed by a series of cards that saw the dragoons rally off the hits taken from cavalry, such that at the end of the turn they were nearly back to fully fit for the next fight.
The Royalist cavalry looked on somewhat dismayed by this turn of events.And still Molyneux strolled along as if he had all day.Unwilling to wait forever for Molyneux to arrive, Tyldesley wheeled his troops to attack Shuttleworth (the advancing clubmen and recovering dragoons can be seen in the background, this photo being from Parliament's perspective).Brereton was now presented with a tempting opportunity for a flank attack, but only by exposing his own flank to the waiting Royalist horse.Then another Random Event saw one of the Parliament colonels of horse rated as pig-headed, i.e. would refuse to accept orders from any superior commander. This was a moot point as, in this scenario, the horse had not been placed under a superior commander, but we marked the colonel as pig-headed nonetheless.With Molyneux managing to make better progress the turn ended.So, time for another overview of the battle.
Parliament's dragoons kicked off the next turn by opening fire on the nearest Royalist horse, but to little effect this time.Then Brereton decided to leave the protection of the walled enclosure, but not far enough to expose his flank. The Royalist horse decided not wait for them to come any further and charged in.They should've waited as charging pike frontally was always a risky undertaking and they were driven off. Elsewhere, Tyldesley supported by his dragoons closed in on Shuttleworth's, another Royalist horse unit moved up to threaten the stalwart Parliament dragoons - all of which can be seen in the following photo.And, viewed from Parliament's lines.
In the next turn, the cards again decided that Parliament's dragoons would get the drop on the Royalist horse and fire on them before they could charge.This forced the Royalist horse to retreat, but both units remained within charge range.On the other side of the field Shuttleworth's exchanged volleys with the opposition but, throwing poor dice, came off second.Then, although it had been a long time coming, one of Derby's horse regiments charged and broke Parliament's dragoons, who retreated but were caught and eliminated by the pursuing horse.The pursuing horse were then counter-charged, defeated and eliminated in turn by a unit of Parliament horse.Parliament's raw horse also got carried away in pursuit, and hit another Royalist horse unit who failed to counter-charge. The resulting combat was a draw and the Parliament horse withdrew. Back at the infantry fight, Brereton's fire punished Tyldesley for marching his men across their front.But this was not enough to deter them from charging Shuttleworth's before they could recover from the effects of last turn's firing.
Shuttleworth's fought well, and if Tyldsley's hadn't been an overstrength unit would've destroyed them. But they were, and Tyldesley's fought on through the pain to destroy Shuttleworth's.
Next up Hoghton threw another unit of horse at Brereton's while they were still unloaded from firing at Tyldesley's (the smoke is from that earlier firing).This time without being able to shoot the horse on the way and failing to repel them in their round of combat, the horse got to grips this time and broke the unit. And, as is usually the case, the fleeing foot could not escape their pursuers and were ridden down.So, as the turn ended with Parliament's generals fleeing from the victorious Royalist horse ...... a quick totting up of points showed that Parliament had lost just over half its army and realising the day was lost they withdrew from the field of battle.
Post Mortem
The odds were always against Parliament, and when their infantry gave up their protected positions Royalist numbers prevailed. On the perceived weaker flank, the Royalist horse were almost thwarted by the determined stand of Parliament's dragoons. In fact both dragoon units performed well, albeit the Royalist ones lost their nerve a couple of times they were able to come back and were instrumental in setting the conditions for Tyldesley's victory.
So, I'll leave the parting shot to my dragoons.
Notes:
[1.] By Steven Maggs, and published by Partizan Press, an excellent publication and highly recommended if you want to fight some of the less well known combats of the Civil War.
[2.] Even though I'd just trebled the number of clubmen in my armies, I still needed 3-4 times more for this battle.
[3.] There are two End-of-Turn cards in the deck and the turn only ends after both are drawn, so usually the majority of the forces get to activate each turn.
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