Stratton Play-Through: Introduction & Turn One

THE Battle of Stratton in Cornwall in May 1643 saw an outnumbered Royalist force under Sir Ralph Hopton successfully assault a hill held by a larger Parliamentarian army under the Earl of Stamford.

The battlefield in Mike Lambo's English Civil War book

The human player commands the Royalists, who consist of three units of muskets, two of cannons and one each of pikes and horse.

I have placed my cannons centrally, with the rest of the army deployed to their left

The AI has an all-foot army, consisting of five units of muskets and four of pikes. Dice decide their set-up.

The Parliamentarian muskets seem well-screened by pikes

To win I have to remove or demoralise all enemy units by the end of turn 10.

TURN ONE

My seven dice give me 6, 5, three 4s, 3 and 2. I reroll the 4s, but get another 4 and two 6s.

The two move-order dice (1-2-3 are move orders) I give to the pikes and the lefthand muskets,

My lefthand artillery fire at the pikes in their line-of-fire. They would normally need 8+ (from two dice) to score a hit, but I have sited them on a row of hexes that includes trees, so there is a +1 modifier. It would be insulting to rookies to call this a rookie mistake, but I have made my bed and must lie in it. To a certain extent the point is academic as I roll 6.

The righthand artillery fire at the muskets nearest them, needing 8+. I roll 10, demoralising the muskets and forcing them from the battlefield.

First blood has gone to the Royalists

Only one Parliamentarian musket unit and two pike units advance, the rest holding their hill-top positions.

Despite their loss, the Parliamentarian army looks imposing