Battle of Newburn Ford, 28th August 1640 Pt. 1: 1300

So finally got soldiers on the table. It’s going to be a long process, but going to be well worth doing. Goal: to play every single battle of the English Civil War. Madness-probably. Impossible: Probably. But I think, well worth it for giving purpose towards further writing/modelling projects.

The battle is set out as a mini-campaign around the only major battle of the Bishops War, at Newburn Ford. the battle will be played out over five games, with each game feeding into the other-so that if a unit of two dragoons appears in the first scenario, get killed off, but i due to appear in the 5^th scenario, they remain dead, thus sewing a seed of doubt at the back of the commanders mind needing to conserve troops for later use.

Background

Amid widespread opposition to Charles I’s imposed Episcopalianism and New Book of Common Prayer on a dominant Scots’ Presbyterian Population in 1637, the population of Southern Scotland signed the National League and Covenant and raised an army. Outstripping anything the King could raise, its officer corps blooded in Sweden and the Low Countries, the Scots’ emerged victorious from the short lived First Bishops War, with two ignominious standoffs at Kelso and Duns Law. However Charles was not one to sit idle for long and conflict would continue. To pre-empt Charles, the Covenanters must invade first.

Reaching the lowest crossing point on the River Tyne, the Covenanter forces under Sir Alexander Leslie could effectively bottle in the coal trade coming out of Newcastle, from the weak southern defences, hampering any Royalist opposition before it could even muster. Outnumbering their Royalist opposition by 7:1, the Covenanters held all the negotiating cards.

A Royalist detachment from the garrison of Newcastle under Lord Conway, had initially ensconced themselves at the ford. He had been ordered personally by the Earl of Strafford to give battle to the Scots by any means necessary. John Rushworth wrote;

... were drawn forth into a plain Meadow ground which was near a mile in length, close on the South side of [the] Tyne, called Newborne-Haugh or Stella-Haugh, to hinder the Scots from passing the River in the night time, where were two several Sconces or Breast-works raised by the English against the two Fords, which the Scots might pass over at Low water, for till then they could not pass the Tyne, and into each Sconce were put four hundred Musqueteers and four pieces of Ordinance.

The Horse were drawn into Squadrons in the said Haugh at some distance from the Foot, in this posture Horse and Foot guarded the River all that night and the next day, till the engagement.

The Scots all the forenoon watered their Horses at one side of the River, and the English on the other side, without affronting one another or giving any reproachful language.

Sir Alexander Leslie

Captain Thomas Dymock wrote;

Their army appeared marching on the hills above the ford when we were drawing into our miserable works in the valley, where we lay so exposed to their battery, that their great shot was bowled in amongst our men, to their great loss.

John Rushworth on the Scot’s dispositions;

The Scots, having the advantage of the rising ground above Newbourne, easily discerned the posture and motion of the English Army below in the Valley on the Southside the River, but the posture of the Scots Army the English could not discern, by reason of the Houses, Hedges, and Inclosures in and about Newbourne.  The Scots brought some Cannon into Newbourne Town, and planted some in the Church Steeple a small distance from the River Tyne, their Musqueteers were placed in the Church, Houses, Lanes and Hedges in and about Newbourne.

 At midday on the 28th, Leslie sent forward a herald to give terms, assuring Conway of no ill will on his part, wishing to petition the King. Conway agreed to a small party, but not the whole army. The herald was taunted away by the Royalist pickets.

Looking from the Scots positions at Ryton, down onto the battlefield

At 1pm, with the tide falling, a Scottish officer, wearing a black feather in his bonnet, rode into the river. He was shot down immediately. This prompted Leslie into an initial advance led by 300 Covenanter horse.

How it played out

Played out on a 120cm² table, victory depended on routing the other army from the field. Caught in an immediate crossfire, options were limited to the four units of Covenanter Dragoons. Note, you will notice many of them depicted in redcoats throughout the article, this was due to the 1640 issue for Monroes Scot’s Army for Ireland being issued with them-they are likely to have worn out very quickly.

However initial initiative failures on the part of Conway’s forces, commanded by yours truly, meant that ample time was provided for the dragoons to find cover within the ample tree line on the far side of the Tyne. But, still being too far away from the Royalist earthworks, no pot-shots could to be taken at their opposing gun teams. Any river crossing will slow down an army’s progress and this would be no different. Call it Cole’s crossing, 17^th century style.

However, succeeding on initiative the following turn and successfully rolling to fire, a round shot barrelled into Leven’s unit. Only one casualty was inflicted, but this was crucial when rolling to inflict a lucky blow, it became apparent that Leven had had his head taken off-curtailing any further military reputation at Marston Moor! All subsequent units passed their initiative, but with their commander out for six, stopped for that turn. A further shot barrelled into Leven’s dragoons, taking out another three, but they remained intact.

The following turn, provided a bit of welcome release to the Covenanters, with both guns now reloading, and the Royalist foot trying to invert, to provide covering fire once the dragoons got across the Tyne. However failed initiative from Monck’s company meant this was only partly achieved. However initially this would not matter, advance now being slowed by the dragoons wandering from the woods and venturing into the tide.

This would be most felt as again a raging crossfire, forced all but one unit back across the river, Leven’s own dragoons being wiped out. But rallying, Montrose’s successfully got across and in and amongst the earthworks, delivering a point blank volley at Monck’s company and wiping it out before the guns and infantry could pivot to meet this threat. Applied use of massed volleys and hailshot being used to wipe the Covenanter threat from the field.

Will they have a chance to build a successful bridgehead to finally take out the guns? Find out next month.

Sources:

Guest, K and D. British Battles: The Frontlines of History in Colour Photographs (HarperCollins/EH, 1994)

Leck, M. “Weapon’s for the Rebels: The Swedish Influence on the Battle of Newburn” Wargames, Soldiers and Strategy 87 (Karwansaray Publishing, Zutphen, 2016)

English Heritage Battlefield Report: Newburn Ford 1640 (London, 1995) DOI: https://content.historicengland.org.uk/content/docs/battlefields/newburn.pdf

Pikeman Rampant: A Review

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPZ3gXPC6n0 

So don’t say he’s behind the times. Only just got around to having a go with these. Anyway here are my thoughts. 

So to start off with, I expect big things from these. Lion Rampant is certainly my go to set of rules for the medieval period 1346-1530. They are quick, easy to pick up, hard to master, there is a minimum of stress and complicated mechanics, it is very much a set of pick up and play rules, that does get a modicum of period feel (although formations are not part of their gamut-need to look elsewhere for rules on using the herce). That said though, they are a set of pick up and play rules, that require no previous experience to play and can be over and done within a good 2 hours maximum. 

So onto Pikeman’s Lament (and not common campfire song on many an SK campsite). Pros wise, they do what they say on the tin, they are easy to learn, basically transplanting the Lion Rampant rules into the 17th century. Emphasis is on violent, destructive melees and shooting phases. Nothing wrong with that. 

The problem is that it feels like too much of a derivative of LR, without the period feel. In fact, if the player had no feel for the 17th century, it would just be another LR game with different models. While certainly they have tacked on an honour system for your officer/general, allowing him to issue special orders, accrue rank and honour, to match with the common perception of swashbuckling daring doe associated with The Three Musketeers, it might well have just been me, but I felt that while it was nice to have, it did not automatically change the game play at all, and merely felt tacked on to make it a different product. Maybe I just didn’t get a facet of the rules. Whatever the case didn’t really add anything. 

While 12” and 2” command and cohesion radius are applied, little is given over to regimental rank and file tactics of the period. The rules on just looking at the cover, do not make it 100% percent clear it is a skirmish set. From the size of the rules, I would put it as large skirmish, or company scale. As such, bodies of pike and shot are required to choreograph in cadence, according to a set order of battle, or dignity, so your most experienced soldiers, file leaders/markers, are on the right, all other companies dressing off their example. There is no concession made to this-it would certainly make a clear difference to command and control at this scale, placing it apart from its rules counterparts. 

As well, where cannon and musketry come into play, the rules make no concession for the difficulties of rain, user error, smoke, or other reasons why such weapons wouldn’t go off. Indeed it felt little different than dealing with archery in LR. Artillery is just put into the rules, without covering how they limber, unlimber, reload, crew error, or use of hail shot. These are the things that make Pike and Shot warfare tick. 

Now I am not saying the rules are bad. It’s a tried and tested system, it is easy to learn and for someone starting off in the 17th century, it’s a jumping off point. Personally though, for anyone tried and tested in the period though, I found myself tacking on rules from WECW, Pike and Shotte and The Kingdom is Ours, which shouldn’t be the case. All rule sets are meant to be guidelines, but certainly further concession was needed to make this a true 17th century rule set. Might have to go and have a look at Sharp Practice’s derivative. 

Now have still to try out rules for pike, that weight for my next Solo campaign game on 10th, (another post upcoming soon), but I would argue the rules are very good for small outpost work, and beating up quarters. Certainly not suited for large battle encounters. Will try one more game for Newburn campaign and then might switch to P&S 

Score-3/5