Cropredy Bridge Playthrough: Introduction & Turn One

THE 10th refight in Mike Lambo's English Civil War book is the Battle of Cropredy Bridge, an indecisive engagement in Oxfordshire in June 1644.

The human commands the Parliamentarians, attacking from the bottom of the map

The Parliamentarians consist of a unit of artillery and two units each of horse, muskets and pikes.

The river can only be crossed by the two bridges, but nevertheless victory only comes if every Royalist unit is removed or demoralised before the end of turn 10.

Nothing subtle about this setup - I am going all out on the right flank

The AI's Royalists consist of two units of horse and four each of muskets and pikes. Their setup is determined by dice throws.

The Royalist horse are on the same flank as their Parliamentarian counterparts

TURN ONE

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

My seven dice give me 6, 5, 3, 2 and three 1s.

I allocate the attack-dice (6-5) to the artillery and the left-flank pikes, and give move-dice (3-2-1) to the other units.

The artillery open fire on the muskets in their line-of-sight, needing 8+, rolling 9, which sends the Royalists fleeing from the battlefield.

I move the horse forward one hex each and shuffle the foot rightwards (apart from the left-flank pikes, who do not have a move-die).

I am waiting for the Royalists to approach so my horse can hopefully charge them while supported by musketeers

The Royalist horse advance, each moving two hexes obliquely to their right.

The foremost Royalist muskets cannot attack anyone, and their die roll is a 5, meaning they should move "towards nearest [enemy] unit, favouring 'horizontal' moves."

Three of my units - the two horse by the bridge and the pikes next to them - are equidistant, but should the fact the pikes are behind impassable terrain, ie the river, rule them out as not being equally near?

I am fairly confident the answer is that the nature of terrain should not make a difference, and that is how I will play it.

Accordingly I roll a die, which determines the Royalist muskets should head for the pikes, and so they move one hex directly down the map as a 'horizontal' move would not take them closer.

The left-flank muskets also advance, but the rearward muskets, although rolling a 4, stand still as they cannot get closer to their intended target, which is also my pikes by the horse.

All four units of Royalist pikes advance.

The righthand bridge is surely set to be the centre of desperate fighting