Chris played Montrose, leading an army of Scots Royalists against my Covenanters in 1645. The terrain was pre-set but as Chris was the defender he got to choose which side of the table he would deploy on. He wisely chose the table edge with two closed flanks, a wood and a steep hill, leaving me to deploy with an open flank.
This meant he could do what Montrose and McColla do best - a head on frontal attack (in DBR the fact you're the 'defender' doesn't stop you taking the offensive tactically). I anticipated this and opted to greet his massed warband and fast shot with a line of frame guns and then massed ranks of shot deployed in depth.
In the picture above the Covenant are in the foreground with the frame guns on the left enfilading the McColla's Irish foot as they charge in. A couple of hundred Irish have swung away from the main body to get to close quarters with their tormentors- the attackers they are about to die gloriously in the face of grape shot. To the right the massed Highlanders are advancing on the Covenanter position.
Whilst the Covenant eventually fought Montrose's Highlanders to a standstill,l the Irish Brigade hit the defenders at the boundary between their two commands - McColla himself, accompanied by 200 of his best men led the charge through the Covenanter ranks and fell upon the baggage train. The screams of Covenanter merchants and their wives rent the air and led to a thundering collective nervous breakdown in the ranks of Hodden Grey.
It was a close run thing - Montrose was only an element from breaking - but victory went to the Scots Royalists....
Great to read of another engagement John. In Montrose's words...
ReplyDelete"He either fears his fates too much, Or his deserts are small, Who dares not put it to the touch, To win or lose it all."