The Battle of Dunbar was fought between the English New Model Army, under Oliver Cromwell, and a Scottish army commanded by David Leslie on 3 September 1650 near Dunbar, Scotland. The battle resulted in a decisive victory for the English. It was the first major battle of the 1650 invasion of Scotland, which was triggered by Scotland’s acceptance of Charles II as king of Britain after the beheading of his father, Charles I on 30 January 1649.
After Charles I’s execution, the English Rump Parliament established a republican Commonwealth in England. When their erstwhile ally, Scotland, recognised Charles II as king of all of Britain on 1 May 1650 and began recruiting an army to support him, the English dispatched the New Model Army, under the command of Cromwell. The army crossed into Scotland on 22 July, with a force of over 16,000 men. The Scots withdrew to Edinburgh, stripping the land of provisions. Cromwell attempted to draw the Scots out into a set piece battle, but they resisted, and Cromwell was unable to break through their defensive line. At the end of August, with his army weakened through disease and lack of food, Cromwell withdrew to the port of Dunbar. The Scottish army followed and took up an unassailable position on Doon Hill, overlooking the town. On 2 September, the Scots advanced towards Dunbar and the English took up positions outside the town. The English army was greatly weakened by sickness and lack of food, while many of the Scots’ most experienced men had been dismissed in religious purges.
Before dawn on 3 September the English launched a surprise attack on the Scots, who were poorly prepared. The fighting was restricted to the north-eastern flank with the main contingents of English and Scottish cavalry fighting inconclusively, as did the English and Scottish infantry. Due to the terrain Leslie was unable to reinforce the fighting, while Cromwell used his last reserve to outflank the Scots. The Scottish cavalry broke and routed; the Scottish infantry made a fighting retreat but suffered heavy casualties. Between 300 and 500 Scots were killed, approximately 1,000 wounded and at least 6,000 were taken prisoner from an army of 12,500 or fewer.
After the battle, the Scottish government took refuge in Stirling, where Leslie rallied what remained of his army. The English captured Edinburgh and the strategically important port of Leith. In the summer of 1651 the English crossed the Firth of Forth to land a force in Fife; they defeated the Scots at Inverkeithing and so threatened the northern Scottish strongholds. In response, Leslie and Charles II marched the Scottish army south in an unsuccessful attempt to rally Royalist supporters in England. The Scottish government, left in an untenable situation, surrendered to Cromwell, who then followed the Scots south. At the Battle of Worcester, precisely one year after the Battle of Dunbar, Cromwell crushed the Scottish army, ending the war.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Dunbar_(1650)
The Game
Our group has been looking for a set of rules to use our various ECW/TYW miniatures for a while. We have tried different rules and just not landed on the right spot yet. Since we are big fans of Bloody Big Battles and have expanded into other periods with good effect. So, why not give the ECW variant for ECW on the yahoo boards a shot? So, I decided it was time to give them a try.
We did a quick survey of troops and determined we could put together the forces for the battle of Dunbar on the message boards. Everyone got their stuff together, did a quick review of the rules and we met up for the game.
As we had multiple players, we decided to enlarge the map to six by four. This would not affect the primary battle area, but would give a little more space. We also made a few tweaks to the actual OOBs, by rounding up a few bases on some of the infantry brigades. This was so we could represent the individual regiments within the brigade on the tabletop (we still used the units as brigades, just adjusted the aesthetic).
We added a few hedges and such to the game board from google maps. These were just aesthetic and had no effect on game play. We then deployed the troops on the table and divided the troops amongst the players.
The scenario allows for VPs to be awarded by causing units to go spent and five points on the table. There are also points for ransacking the baggage trains! The English win if they get six, on five there is a tie and anything less would be a Scottish victory.
The English plan was to sweep over the lower stream and encircle the Scotts. They put this in play, with a cavalry charge across the Broxburn, while the rest of the army held firm to pin the Scotts in their starting positions. The initial charges were pushed back, but the repeated charges kept the Scotts disordered and unable to counter (being passive ensured they could not remove their disorder or move). It took a number of turns to keep pushing back the Scottish cavalry, until eventually pushing it off the table. The main English force awaited for the success of the charges and then started to advance across the stream.
While this was going on, the Scots started to shift their center to the right, while attempting to push against the English dragoons holding the right flank. Between the terrain and the passive command roles, this went very slowly.
While the English had great success against the cavalry, the rest of the army was holding back. Realizing time was short, they then went into full attack. The initial push was pushed back with accurate Scottish defensive fire. At this point, the Scotts had some luck are were able to push over the Brockburn, destroy the dragoons and capture an objective, a two point swing!
It came down to the last turn. The British were up only two points now and had to throw everything into one great attack. The cavalry attempted to swing around the left, but fell just short of the Scottish camp. At the same time, the infantry moved forward and hit all the Scotts head on. Most of these were grown back by accurate (lucky) Scottish fire. The one attack that did go in, totally faltered, resulting in a spent English brigade (an untimely British one vs a Scottish 6 counter roll)!
We totaled up the points at the English had three objective points and two unit points. The Scotts held two objective points and had two unit points. The English were only up one point, so the Scotts had achieved an unhistorical victory.
Final thoughts
One of our challenges was that we did not like the look of square blocks of troops with eleven pike vs short bases. So, we rounded off to the regiment and separated them an inch for the aesthetic. We also opted to use casualty caps and not remove bases (unless until a whole sub unit of three bases was removed). After playing it, it worked, but added a complication that was probably best avoided. Thinking on it, we would have been better just fielding the units as battalions/regiments of two to four bases. It works better for most of the ECW battles anyway, so that is what we will do the next time.
The one thing that did not work was the ease of lateral units for the units. BBB has a minus three inch move for moving out of arc. Generally, we all felt this was just way to flexible for earlier periods with smaller units. A simple adjustment to six inches would fix this. We thought the fire and melee worked fine, as well as the terrain effects. All flowed and the game was fun (which is one of our big needs). The casualty caps worked fine also and was a keeper.
In the end, we finished the game in a couple hours, it all was decided in the last turn and we all had fun. What else could you ask for?
- Manteuffel