Battle of Edgehill -- a First Look

The first major battle of the English Civil Wars was Edgehill . . . so that is what Murdock and I chose as our first battle.

View from behind the Royalist center with Rebels in distance.

Murdock has already posted a pair of blog posts on our battle . . . with much better photos than the few I took:

http://murdocksmarauders.blogspot.ca/2015/05/edgehill-for-god-king-and-country.html

http://murdocksmarauders.blogspot.ca/2015/05/edgehill-for-god-king-and-country_17.html

Also to correct something I had posted earlier . . . we ended up playing on a 5' wide by 10 1/2 foot long table since the 8' table was not long enough.

Also I should publicly thank Murdock's son Alex for his help in playing my right wing (i.e., Prince Rupert's command) since I am somewhat challenged healthwise and was not physically up to dealing with the long table.

Pre-battle view of Royalist right . . . Alex's command

I won't try to recreate the battle (I wasn't up to taking notes) . . . but following are a pair of photos that I took later.

looking from Royalist left down the line.

Casualties mount up on Royalist right wing.

 We had to suspend that battle after seven full turns because Murdock and Alex had a prior commitment (and I was running out of energy) . . . but we are planning on resuming it on this coming Wednesday evening.

-- Jeff

Edgehill -- Telling which Side is which

Historically units for both sides looked very much the same . . . so how will you tell Murdock's Roundheads apart from my Royalists?

Easy . . . look at the basing.  Murdock uses thin bases while I use thick ones.  Furthermore he uses thinner dark-coloured pikes while I use thicker light-coloured ones (see below):

Parliamentarians -- thin bases & dark thin pikes

Royalists -- thick bases & light-coloured thicker pikes

A similar basing system is used for the cavalry so hopefully this will help keep the sides clear as you try to follow our upcoming Edgehill battle.

-- Jeff

Edgehill -- Horse & Foot

Hopefully Murdock and I will get to play the "Battle of Edgehill" later this month as we start our ECW gaming.  I still have the command stands to paint but all of my rank-and-file troops are ready.  (note because my game table is in use as a painting table, I've had to take photos on a couch so the colors are weird).

The Gentlemen Pensioners

While we built all of our basic units with six 2" square stands each for smaller battles, we will be using the "For God, King and Country" rules for Edgehill (and other large battles). 

Translating their 15mm basing for our 28mm collections, we have two stand Cavalry units and three-stand Foot units (one pike & two shot).

Due to the nature of our collections AND the dearth of knowledge about many units, we have had to substitute units we have in quite a few instances.  I have tried to be as correct as I could but there are instances where nothing is known.

Following are photos of my Royalist pike & shot units for Edgehill.  The rules that we are using include a scenario built on the "five brigade" model (as opposed to the nine brigade model).  As always, click on photos for a larger image (and open in separate window by double-clicking for largest image):

As for the Cavalry, other than the Gentlemen Pensioners (pictured at top of page) who were in reserve and didn't do anything, they were formed up on the left and right:

Left Wing Cavalry

Right Wing Cavalry

I have a bunch of figures I will temporarily use for dismounted Dragoons if I don't have time to get the real ones painted but I've not taken photos of them; nor of my Artillery . . . and of course, my Generals and Brigadiers are still on painting sticks.

By the way, so far the leading contender for our smaller action ECW games is "Warr Without an Enemie" . . . but we are still open to other suggestions.

-- Jeff