ULSTER 1651

This is a battle report of a hypothetical English Civil War clash set in Ulster, so thereby not involving many English. This multiplayer game involving three distinct forces was resolved in under three hours using a house variant of the Lion of the North rules.

The small third faction was some desperate Irish who consisted primarily of two small foot regiments deemed to be fanatics plus a few cavalry and ultra-light guns. These Irish had found themselves trapped between much larger oncoming forces of Scots Covenanter's coming from the North and Parliamentarians from the South and as a result had sworn to support both sides in the forthcoming encounter. On the day of the battle the Irish hugged some high ground on the Parliamentarian right flank, or viewed the other way the Scots left flank.

Having the smaller force the Parliamentarians (under Fairfax) deployed with a defensive centre with massed guns flanked by each of their large foot regiments, their left which was marshy was covered by two cavalry regiments, while the right had a squadron of cavalry and a detachment of dismounted dragoons watching the Irish. Lastly a final regiment of horse was held in reserve.

The Scots had their four foot regiments in two lines with the left flank regiment in the second line angled to watch the Irish. Their few guns were spread along the line, while they deployed two horse regiments on the right and a final one on the left/middle.

The Scots began a tentative advance then the Parliamentarian horse on the left surged out of the marshy ground and once on  firm footing crashed into their opposing Scots horse.  It was not a pretty sight at least for the Scots as the veteran Ironsides smashed the inferior Scots horse to pieces.

Then in an attempt to buy time for the foot to come up, the remaining Scots horse impetuously charge the right hand Parliamentarian foot regiment, sadly for the Scots these veteran redcoats were largely unperturbed and soon bested the horse. Things were not looking good for the Scots especially as the enemy guns had quite remarkable luck and were cutting swathes in the first line of foot. Getting desperate the second line of foot were ordered forward, but in so doing  the left flank regiment exposed their flank to the one of the Irish foot regiments.

So you've guessed it, the Irish took this moment to throw in their lot with Fairfax and attacked the Scots. As simultaneously the victorious Parliamentarian horse were riding down the Scots artillery from the flank, it was all over. Desperately the Scots tried to withdraw into the gloom of the oncoming dusk, but it was not to be, saving barely a foot regiment, the Scots Covenanter's army dissolved.

Napoleonic Encounter 1813