"Rating the Regiments at 2nd Newbury..." Topic

Hey folks, I working on putting together a scenario for 2nd Newbury. I was looking to get some input on how to rate the troops on both sides.

I'm sort of looking for generalizations say for "Parliamentary Foot" are xyz….

If you have information as to specific Regiments then that's great too.

The ratings needed therefore are:
Royalist Foot,
Royalist Cavalry,
Parliamentary Foot,
Parliamentary Cavalry.

For ratings I'm using:
"Raw/ untrained"
"Regular"
"Seasoned/ Veteran"
"Elite/ Guard"

Thank you kindly for any input.

Hi UK,

It's subjective of course but I'd go with the majority of both sides regular or veteran. They had been at it for a couple of years already.

You really have 5 armies at 2nd Newbury

Royalist Oxford army, veterans surely by now. Just won the Lostwithiel campaign. I might rate a few units elite eg Kings Lifeguard of horse.

Royalist Western army under Maurice, also victors of Lostwithiel but had lost much strength due to desertion. A lot of the regiments very understrength and likely brigaded together in battle. A few veteran units, maybe mostly regular and some raw units I'd guess.

Essex's Parliamentarian army, although defeated at Lostwithiel you might imagine anyone likely to run had gone by now. Regular and/or Veteran I'd say.

Waller's Southern Association army, some veteran horse, some raw units. Foot is fairly uncertain so maybe rate regular and raw.

Manchester's Eastern Association, fresh from victory at Marston Moor, horse under Cromwell you'd have to say mainly veteran, maybe one raw as iirc one rgt was not at MM. Foot regular or veteran I'd say but might be worth downgrading a little to reflect Manchester's low enthusiasm by this stage.

Awesome info Timbo. That definitely gives me a good starting point.

I got a hold of Day's book as. Well. Hopefully that will shed some further light.

Cheets.

Hi UK, if by ‘Day's book' you mean John Day's excellent Gloucester & Newbury I am afraid it will not help, as it only covers 1st Newbury 1643. I am not aware of a book dealing solely with 2nd Newbury, but would love to hear of it if you have discovered one.

Rating troops is hugely difficult, given the paucity of information available, the subjectivity of judgement, and the different way different rule sets treat the various categories you mention. My take, for what it is worth, is that the ECW has a huge range of troop abilities and experience, but with rather fewer at the top end than most Wargames armies! Second Newbury was fought at the back end of October, after a long campaigning season, and the armies had seen much action. Battle and desertion can be expected to have taken its toll of even experienced Regiments, and a certain weariness can be expected to have set in. Newbury doesn't see many feats which a wargamer might have expected of ‘veterans' or ‘elites', with even Cromwell's Ironsides being bested by Goring's troopers! I would recommend very few Veteran/Elite Units, a goodly proportion of experienced units, and more raw than one would desire. If your rules allow, some degree of uncertainty as to how troops might perform would also be worthy of consideration. Overall, this looks an interesting and challenging game, and I look forward to hearing how you get on – it is quite high on my ‘To do' list.

No worries, I decided I'm either going to go with First Newbury or Edgehill anyway!

Thanks.

Good decision, much more accessible!