Inverlochy : our club Christmas game

Allan and I had agreed to bring along our Scots and Irish ECW troops tom put on our own version of the Battle of Inverlochy (2nd February 1645) between the Royalist forces of Montrose and the Government forces of Sir Duncan Campbell - but not quite as we both had Highlanders and Covenanters !

Here's a bird's eye view at the outset, Royalists on the left, Government troops on the right.

Graham and I had the Royalists (this is Graham's right wing)

and here is Montrose, the Commander

and he is off and running with a quick advance on our right

Here's a closer look at the enemy, commanded by Steve and Allan.

Government right wing Commander, Colonel Roch

They were generally getting better command rolls and managed to push forward aggressively, especially on their right (under Steve) against my slow moving troops 

Nevertheless, I managed to get two foot units up onto some high ground

Graham sent his clansmen forward in a wild charge against enemy foot in the centre

This was hard fought territory

The clansmen were faced with several lines of Government troops there

Steve has brought up four infantry units supported by a gun with a view to engaging my men on the high ground

We have a gun up there but repeated failed command throws means the darned thing won't unlimber and deploy !

The clansmen have caused some damage but have to fall back to try and reform, replacing them in the centre are some of my musketeers

Fire is exchanged in front of the hills

The clansmen charge again

Out on our right, enemy cavalry attempt to charge but fail to get enough movement in this turn, leaving them subject to musket fire

Both sides have now lost a unit of foot in the centre

My musketeers give fire and disorder an enemy unit

Here's Sir Duncan Campbell, the Government commander

and another shot of Colonel John Roch sturring his men to action

The clan are still holding the upper hand in the centre

and the enemy horse is being kept at bay

My musketeers have moved to close range

The enemy are trying to get to grips with our boys on the hills

Graham is moving the right wing cavalry to tackle the enemy horse

which has been forced to retire because of casualties

Allan is trying to get an infantry attack going on his wing but the combined fire of our foot and light guns breaks this up 

Stung by the musket fire, Steve's pike block charges my Irish musketeers

and the musketeers break leaving a hole in our lines !

The hill position holds firm

As the Government horse come forwards once more

Our light guns are turned to face them and fire

as Graham's cavalry charge home

as fast as we push them back on the right, they press on over on the left !

One of my pike blocks has fled due to excess casualties from firing - but we have at last got the gun deployed and firing which has disordered the government foot below 

Allan's cavalry broke and fled at this point and this seemed to cause a chain reaction all along the line. Unit after unit had to check morale seeing friends flee and they joined the rout in turn.

The government troops melted away leaving our Royalists in control of the battlefield. One moment they seemed OK - and then they broke, much to our relief.

This was a real slogging match and quite tense throughout - thank goodness we were all fortified by pork pies, mince pies and all sorts of Christmas fare laid out on the table at the front of the hall !!!