Description

Ironsides is an area movement and impulse game depicting four battles of the English Civil Wars; First Newbury, Second Newbury, Preston, and Worcester. In addition, there is a bonus scenario for Third Newbury, where the Parliamentarian armies declined to fight another battle.

One player controls the Royalist armies of King Charles I, King Charles II, and the Duke of Hamilton. The other player controls the Parliamentarian armies of the Earl of Essex, Earl of Manchester, Sir William Waller, and Oliver Cromwell.

Philip Jelley uses the same grand tactical area/movement design as Lilliburlero (ATO 40), with counters representing the generals and regiments of horse, foot, dragoons and artillery that fought in the battles. Each turn represents one or two hours of time, with weather and nightfall affecting command, control and activation. Scenarios are included with historical and free deployment, and optional units. Players may deploy on the edge of the maps and manoeuvre to a battlefield of their own choosing. Ironsides contains 470 ½ inch counters, one full size and two half sized maps, and a six-page rulebook.

FIRST NEWBURY, 20 September 1643: The Earl of Essex had marched his army deep into the midlands to relieve the Parliamentarian stronghold of Gloucester only to find the road back to London blocked by the Royalist Army at Newbury. In the bloodiest battle of the war so far 28,000 men fought each other to a standstill in the hedgerows as the London Trained Bands fought off charges by Prince Rupert’s Cavaliers. Horrified at the slaughter King Charles I withdrew to Oxford, and Essex returned to London in triumph.

SECOND NEWBURY, 27 October 1644: After their victory at Lostwithiel King Charles I and Prince Maurice entrenched their armies around Newbury, only to be surrounded by the Parliamentarian armies of Essex, Manchester, and Waller. Outnumbered three to one the war might have ended in an afternoon, but after desperate battle the Royalists survived long enough to escape during the night.

THIRD NEWBURY, 9 November 1644: Reinforced by the remnants of the Northern Royalists under Prince Rupert, King Charles I returned to Newbury to relieve Donnington Castle and recover the artillery left there after the last battle. Manchester refused to fight, Cromwell accused him of incompetence, Manchester accused Cromwell of insubordination, and the resulting furore led to the creation of the New Model Army. This is the battle that might have been.

PRESTON, 17 August 1648: The captive King Charles I made a deal with the Duke of Hamilton to restore him to the throne with a Scottish Army. Hamilton invaded England with the help of Sir Marmaduke Langdale’s Northern Royalists just as uprisings across England and Wales stretched the New Model Army to the limit. Cromwell force-marched his “Ironsides” 300 miles from Wales to join John Lambert’s Northern Army so they could attack the Royalists despite being outnumbered two to one. They defeated Langdale on Preston Moor, and caught Hamilton’s divided and disorganised army crossing the River Ribble. After his victory Cromwell marched on London, purged Parliament, and executed the King.

WORCESTER, 3 September 1651; Charles II succeeded his father as King of the Scots, but Cromwell invaded Scotland and destroyed the Scottish Army at Dunbar on 3 September 1650. Raising a new army, the young king slipped past Cromwell into England, and tried to rally English Royalists to his cause. Cromwell followed him with the New Model Army, gathering County Trained Bands as he marched south. Intent on a battle of annihilation that would end the civil wars for once and for all he surrounded the Royalists at Worcester on the River Severn. Seeing the Parliamentarian army divided by the river, Charles II attacked one half, but was defeated as Cromwell used a bridge of boats to reinforce his threatened flank. The Scottish army was destroyed and Charles escaped into exile.

—description from the designer