Attack on Brill - setup and game..

Time for another update..  and a game for once, a vaguely historical refight of an actual engagement in the English Civil War - the Attack on Brill - which was promoted by a post on Farcebook by the excellent Battlefields Trust

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Historical background.. 

December 1642, and after their defeat at Turnham Green and their subsequent withdrawal to Oxford, the Royalists had established winter quarters for their army in the towns and strategic points around their new capital. 

Banbury, Reading and Abingdon were major garrisons but others, like Wallingford, Burford and Islip guarded important crossings of the Thames and its tributaries. Then to the east of Oxford there were a number of small garrisons in Buckinghamshire, there purely to retain their control of the county - one such garrison was established in the small hilltop village of Brill. 

Worth noting that the village was equidistant between Oxford and Aylesbury - roughly 15 miles from each but slightly closer to Oxford..

The village had been an important royal manor during the Middle Ages, but in the December of 1642 was home to two Royalist Lancashire foot regiments, under Lord Molyneux and Sir Gilbert Gerard, who proceeded to fortify it with banks and ditches around the church. 

The nearest Parliamentary garrison was at Aylesbury. There, Colonel Arthur Goodwin the Parliamentary Commander-in-Chief for Buckinghamshire, had three foot regiments (Bulstrode's, Holmstead's and Tyrell's) along with his own regiment of horse and Browne’s Regiment of Dragoons. 

Portrait of Arthur Goodwin in about 1639 by Anthony van Dyck

Goodwin had decided to eliminate the Royalist presence in Brill, and marched out of Aylesbury in late January with his horse, Homestead’s Regiment of Foot, and Colonel Browne’s Dragoons but he also had with him two pieces of ordnance (described as sakers [clicky] ie. slightly smaller than a 6pdr) in order to breach the defences. 

The refight..

Parliamentary entry point is bottom of table..

...with a church and village, surrounded by makeshift earthworks

Royalists deploy within the earthworks

OOB:

Royalist:

All regular foot, and at full strength (6 Strength Points or SP)

• Charles Gerard's Regiment of Foot
• John Belasyse's Regiment of Foot (standing in for Molyneaux's)

Parliament:

All units are regular and at full strength (6 SP)

• Brooke's Regiment of Foot (for Homestead's)
• Gramson's Horse (for Goodwin's)
• Wardlowe's Dragoons (for Browne's)

Scenario specific rules:

• Rules will be my SYW variant [clicky]
• It seems likely that the sound of gunfire would clearly have been heard in Oxford which was only 12 miles away, so I am also assuming that there was a clear need to get this done quickly - my moves are quite short in terms of time so the scenario is limited to 15 turns (roughly two or three hours)
• Artillery ammunition was not plentiful at the time [clicky], and as this was also a bit of a flying column, I'm assuming Goodwin didn't bring a lot with him - the guns are therefore limited to 10 shots between them (ie. 5 each)
• I am going to assume* the earthworks were not substantial as the Royalists had only arrived in December, and Goodwin attacked in January - so they would be almost trenches with a raised parapet. Accordingly, each earthwork section is worth 3 SP's, once this is reduce to 0 by any artillery fire (only) that section is removed... 

* This is probably an unsafe assumption, but I have done it for playability reasons, as normally an assault on a fixed and defended position needs a clear 3 or 4 to 1 advantage (if I had been Goodwin, I would have brought both the other foot regiments with me, and probably any other units I could scrounge or lay my hands on as well. Shock and awe always works...😏) 

The refight:

Initial deployment was as follows..  Goodwin's sole foot regiment on the right flank - then cavalry in the middle, and the dragoons ready for a quick advance on his left. 

In the village - following - the Royalists are limited in what they can do, so both regiments sit waiting while 'enjoying' the hectoring of the local monk.. 😁

I figured the real Goodwin wouldn't do anything before his sakers had done their work, so other than a general advance to just outside of musket range by his foot and horse, the only other major tactical move for my fictional Goodwin was to send his dragoons off to one flank - when the time came for an assault then an attack on two fronts could only help..  the following shows about move two., with the general advance by the horse and foot, and the flanking move by the dragoons..

..note the purple dice in front of the earthwork section in the following - the sakers are doing their stuff..

...and the plan worked surprisingly well - one of the trench sections has been blasted into nothingness (black pom poms - see following) and the sakers then switched what was left of their fire to the now unprotected Royalist foot regiments..

To forestall the inevitable, and because if they just sit there they're going to continue being shot at by the artillery, Belasyse's charge down the hill into Brooke's, but are repulsed bloodily and rout (see following - red dice). Meanwhile the Parliamentary dragoons are ready to climb the hill - the intention is to occupy the church, the cavalry also stand ready...

In the next turn Belasyse's recover their moral though, and halt shaken, only for Brooke's to then charge up the hill, banners flying (the mental image puts me in mind of Sir Bevil Grenville leading his Cornish regiments up that hill at Roundway 😊). Unlike the Cornishmen though, and against all the odds, Belasyse's stand and send the 'Butchers and Dyers' reeling down the hill in rout!

Regrettably though, it was all too late for the Royalists, the Parliamentary dragoons had now occupied the church and were peppering Gerard's with musket fire from their flank, and Goodwin's horse now charged up the hill causing Belasyse's to rout from the village and the hill. 

Then Gerard's also failed their morale and followed them, Gerard and Molyneaux cursing and trying to rally them as they went, and Goodwin advanced and took control of the village..

Just a small action in the greater picture of the war, but a much need propaganda fillip for Parliament I think..

Post Match Analysis:

• what a fantastic little game - in the end we got nine full moves in, and I had no idea that the Parliamentarians would be so successful, but they did get good dice throws, the sakers were very effective, hitting 60-70% of the time 
• still felt that it all rested on a knife edge though, so the scenario specific rules worked..
• butchers bill was as you would expect - Parliament losing 6SP's, 50% casualties. The Royalists last 3SP's, just less than 20% casualties (not counting the sakers)

...and what actually happened??

Arriving before Brill on the 27th January, Goodwin had ordered Homestead’s foot regiment to assault the defences as the artillery opened a breach. Browne’s Dragoons were to stand-to until the breach was affected at which point they were to also launch their attack. Unfortunately, due to some confusion, the Parliamentary artillery did not concentrate its fire long enough to affect a breach and although Homestead’s men launched several charges, their firing was ineffective against the earthen defences. 

The fighting continued for two hours, but the Parliamentarians could make no impression on the defences. They were eventually forced to retreat due to the Royalist’s use of a smokescreen to drive away the attackers as detailed in a letter to Parliament: 

‘The Fight continued two houres, the Parliaments forces not giving way on one side in all that time; but at last the winde, and so the smoke being so in the face of them, which was made greater by wet straw which the enemy set on fire, they retreated, which the enemy perceiving made out after them in great triumph, pursuing them 4 miles with their horse...’  

(I wonder where that horse came from, reinforcements from Oxford I wonder?? Google tells me horses can trot at between 8 & 12 mph, and Brill was only 15 from Oxford - so given the battle/skirmish lasted a couple of hours that would have given the Royalists time to put a relief force together and also get there in time.. Theoretically.. 😏)

The Parliamentarians claimed that they lost between 10 and 17 dead including a captain, but the Royalists claimed (a probably highly exaggerated) 70 killed. 

Following the battle, the Royalist’s reinforced the garrison with cannon and sent tools to further improve the fortifications. 

Although Parliamentary forces moved up to Brill on a number of further occasions, the garrison was never attacked again and in April, needing troops to help relieve the besieged garrison at Reading, the King withdrew the garrison in order to reinforce the Oxford Army

Brill was not occupied again, except in passing, for the remainder of the war. 

More Reading:

• Wiki article on Goodwin
• The Farcebook post that started this off..

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 Laters, as the young people are want to say...