Cheriton Play-Through: Introduction & Turn One

THE ninth refight in Mike Lambo's English Civil War book is of the Battle of Cheriton in March 1644.

Royalists under Sir Ralph Hopton were on a ridge near the Hampshire village of Cheriton.

Facing them was a larger Parliamentarian army under Sir William Waller, which had occupied Cheriton Wood.

Hopton determined to capture the wood, but his attacks were well beaten, and the King's party never recovered their standing in south England for the rest of the war.

The human commands the Royalists, who will attack from the bottom of the map

The human's Royalist force consists of three units of muskets, two of pikes and one each of horse and artillery.

I have concentrated my troops in the centre

The AI's Parliamentarian force consists of four units of horse and three each of muskets and pikes, and their distribution is decided by dice throws.

The Parliamentarian army does not look well-coordinated, but their numbers are impressive

The human has to remove or demoralise all enemy units before the end of turn 10.

As usual I will write up the battle as I go along.

TURN ONE

My seven dice give me two 6s, three 5s, 3 and 1. I reroll the 5s and get a 3 and two more 5s.

I allocate the move-dice to the horse and to the musket units to the left of the artillery.

I move these forward and then fire the artillery at the pikes in their line-of-sight, needing 6+ with two dice thanks to support from one of the musket units and from being on higher ground than the target, but I roll 4.

Two of the Parliamentarian horse units on their right-flank advance, as do the right-flank muskets and the foremost pikes - the latter leaving the line-of-sight of my artillery.

The Royalists should have some juicy targets next turn