For King or Country - The English civil war

[Carl von Döbeln]

Yes it looks great

[AlphaDelta]

Time for a status update.

I've been busy setting up the family tree for the Royalists today. It's quite a large and complicated family and the learning curve for editing the descr strat and names has been steep. I've also been working on adding the Royalists commanders. I wanted to produce unique accurate portrait pictures for every starting general. Then it got me wondering if many people viewing this thread know much about the people of the conflict so I decided to make this mini-preview of the generals to give people an idea about who they will be fighting or commanding as.

Royalists Commanders in "For King or Country"

The armies of these men will form the backbone of the Royalist force. With 12 turns per year, sons won't come of age for a long time. It will be crucial to keep these alive if you wish to beat the Parliamentarians.

The following portraits had to be restored from Black and white images. The image on the left is the portrait I produced from the original on the right.


King Charles I is the faction leader for the Royalists. At the start of the war his army will consist of mainly his red coats and will actually be quite small. It will be important for him to quickly raise support, link up with his Nephew Rupert, and march on London. He will stationed in Oxford in central England, within striking distance of London.


Prince Rupert of the Rhine is a Newphew of King Charles I. He is your faction heir. He is young, intelligent and a capable leader. In history he was a cunning cavalry leader during the war. He was nicknamed the "mad cavalier". In every battle he brought his White poodle "Boye", which the Parliamentarians believed had supernatural powers. He remains one of the most controversial men of the war.


William Cavendish, the Earl of Newcastle became the commander of the forces in the North. His army were famous for wearing white coats. He will start the campaign in York and it will be his job to march on either Leeds or Hull. His likely adversary will be the daring Fairfax.


Sir Ralph Hopton was the leader of the Royalist forces in the Cornwall (the southwest Peninsula of the UK). This man's army is one of two 'thorns in the side' of the Parliamentarians. His role in the campaign will be to do battle with Colonel Ruthin and attempt to push eastward into England, the capture of Sherborne castle being a primary aim. Historically he was succesful and a strong leader. His army will march in blue coats.


Lord George Goring was appointed as Governer of Portsmouth in 1639. In August 1642 he declared for the King and became a problem for the Parliamentarians. He soon surrendered Portsmouth to the Parliamentarians in August of 1642. In "For King or Country" you will have the chance to fight off any attempt at taking the city, and perhaps move your militia northwards to take on the southern and eastern Parliamentarian controlled counties. Historically Goring went on to become an excellent cavalry commander and was one of the few to beat fairfax in a battle.


Spencer Compton, 2nd Earl of Northampton was a soldier and politician. In 1642 he was given the task of raising a force in Warwickshire. He took his army and fought for the King at Edgehill. He will be crucial as a defensive mechanism in the midlands of England. He will be an position to go in any direction to support whichever command needs help. His end came at the battle of Hopton heath after his cavalry charged and swept away the enemy force but was afterwards surrounded. He was offered quarter but instead he refused to accept it from such rogues and rebels.

Patrick Ruthven, earl of Forth was an experienced commander at the outbreak of war, he was 70 years old and he distinguished himself in the battle of Edgehill. Thereafter he became the general in chief of the Royalist armies. He will be in important in the early days of the war, his army wil be a helpful tool in suppressing the Earl of Essex and taking London. His age may work against him.

Hope you enjoyed this preview. I'll be producing one for the Parliamentarians soon.

Cheers

[Guiscard]

Sheeeeet, Alpha.

You're a monster.

One of those rare modifanatics that gets it done. Nice.

[Der Angelsachse]

Hope you don't mind Alpha, but your preview post inspired me to have a go at a General Portrait.
Please feel free to use it if you like it or need it.



Patrick Ruthven 1st Earl of Forth http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick...l_of_Brentford

If you need any others, i'd be happy to help if it means lightening your workload.

[DaVinci]

AlphaDelta, very mod thread, and an appealing timeframe on the british isle(s).
I'll for sure install the finished mod if it will be in a modfolder contained.

Good Luck

[TWoxy]

This work is fantastic AD, I can't believe I had not noticed it sooner.

[Yelü Dashi]

Great stuff AD. glad to see rumours of your retirement were greatly exaggerated. Only thing that seems to be missing is my hometown !

As the second most important port in England, the parliamentarian city of Bristol was a likely target for Royalist forces at the beginning of the English Civil War. I think it warrants an appearance and was more significant than Taunton in Somerset. An early storming of the city and an siege important battle were fought there in 1643 & 1645:

The Fall of Bristol, 21 August - 11 September 1645

On 18 August 1645, the day after the surrender of Sherborne Castle, Sir Thomas Fairfax marched for Bristol, arriving before the city three days later.Prince Rupert, who had conducted the first siege and captured the city in July 1643, now returned to defend it. Rupert faced similar difficulties to those encountered by Colonel Fiennes in 1643, having insufficient troops to defend Bristol's five miles of walls and fortifications. The Royalist garrison was strong in cavalry and artillery but the infantrymen were mostly raw Welsh recruits. Plague had broken out in the city and most of the leading citizens had fled. There was little enthusiasm for a siege amongst the civilians who remained; a plot to surrender the city by treachery was discovered. Nevertheless, Rupert believed that he had enough stores, guns and ammunition to withstand a long siege and wrote to the King assuring him that he could hold Bristol for several months.

With artillery carefully placed to defend the walls, Rupert's cavalry raided and harassed the Parliamentarians as they set up the siege. Colonel Okey was taken prisoner during one raid; Sir Richard Crane, the veteran commander of Rupert's Lifeguard, was killed during another. The Parliamentarians proceeded to encircle the city while a naval squadron in the Bristol Channel blockaded the Royalists by sea. However, Fairfax was not confident that his army was strong enough to conduct a full siege of a major fortress; he was also concerned that Lord Goring or the King might send a relief force.

On 4 September, Fairfax called upon Prince Rupert to surrender the city for the good of the whole kingdom. Rupert entered into protracted negotiations, playing for time and hoping to hear from the King. On 9 September, Fairfax broke off negotiations and prepared a general assault. In the early hours of 10 September, Parliamentarian siege guns opened fire on the defences at five different points, while infantry prepared to storm the breaches. The well-placed Royalist guns made the assault dangerous and bloody, but the New Model Army was inspired with the same zeal and resolution that had carried the day at Langport. Within an hour, the outer walls were breached and the infantry attacked, breaking through the defences at several points. After a further two hours ferocious fighting, Prior's Hill Fort was taken by Colonel Rainsborough and its defenders massacred. Rupert abandoned the outer walls and fell back towards the strongpoint of Bristol Castle, but as the Royalists withdrew, Cromwell's cavalry charged in. Rupert realised that his position was hopeless. His forces were divided, with some of his best troops isolated at various points along the walls. The well in the castle had been damaged so he had no water supply. Hoping to save at least a part of his army, Rupert called for a treaty.

Fairfax granted honourable terms. All the Royalist troops were allowed to march out of Bristol with colours flying. Their artillery, stores and ammunition were left behind. The surrender of Bristol enraged King Charles. Encouraged by Lord Digby into believing that Rupert had betrayed him, Charles abruptly dismissed Rupert and his officers from his service.

It would be best represented as a fortress, the remains of which I live over the road from http://www.fortified-places.com/bristol_image1.gif

[AlphaDelta]

Thanks for the support gents. Fingers crossed I'll be getting a subforum soon.

Yelu,

That's an excellent idea. I had noticed many maps of the era showed bristol as a site of conflict but i hadn't bothered to read up on it. What I'll do is take a slice of out of southern Gloucester and call it Bristol.

Cheers

[Lord Anubis]

Nice work!

[AlphaDelta]

Parliamentarian ironsides keep their distance from an advancing unit of Ralph Hoptons pikemen. From this range they can give fire and pull away and onto the flanks at a moments notice.



This picture is from a battle I had on "The downs", a ridge just southeast of the town of Guildford. I grew up in this area, my secondary school was at the foot of the ridge. I walked on the downs literally hundreds of times and I was amazed to see how similar the terrain was in the For King or Country map.

Cheers

[Miraj]

[Carl von Döbeln]

Simply GREAT

[Yelü Dashi]

The amount of material you're producing in itself warrants a sub-forum, hope the moderators action this soon. great news about Bristol, and didn't realise you were a fellow Brit !

Are you going to represent the lull in hostlities between '46 and '48 and then again between 48' and 1651, there were kind of three English civil wars in this sense, rather than one continous one ?

I'm no expert on the period, knowing more about 12th century Northern China than I do about my own country during the 17th century but if there is anything I can do help out, let me know.

[AlphaDelta]

A new unit.

Pre-New model army Parliamentarian musketeers.



These men represent the bulk of Parlaments armies before the new model army was created in '45. The faction can be identified by the sash around his right arm. Historically sashes were worn to prevent 'friendly fire'.

This unit will be the basic 'militia-esque' musketeer unit available to the Parliamentarian side until 1645 when the new model army will become your only available choice. The Royalists will recieve a similar unit. On Each side there will be 6 regimented units each wearing a single coat colour (Hopton blue. Essex Orange. The King red). These regiment units will be restricted by AoR to mimic the commission of array (recruiting authority) for each commander.

Cheers

Yelu,

My main focus is the early part of the campaign, from '42 to '46. The campaign will run until '51 but by then it will be way out of sink with history. I may well include a similar script to the one that allows BC's KoJ to spawn a crusade stack. I would use this to simulate the way the both sides looked for outside help, the King to Ireland and Parliament to the Scots. It's just a possibility right now however.

Cheers

[Carl von Döbeln]

This is great Alpha

[AlphaDelta]

Parliamentarian musketeers fire on approaching pikemen of Ralph Hoptons regiment.





Der Angelsachse,

Sorry I missed your post. That portrait looks good, however it's important to colour the hair and facial hair a different colour to the face. Thanks for posting this though, it's brought this man to my attention, my previous research had missed him. It seems he was made commander in chief of the Royalist forces after Edgehill. I can't really find a great deal of history about him afterwards however? I don't think he had his own regiment so I will add him as a cavalry commander around Oxford.

Cheers

[AlphaDelta]

Parliamentarian infantry officer. The Royalist version will be much the same. Drummers to follow.



Cheers

[zznɟ ǝɥʇ]

Excellent work AD!

[DaVinci]

Beautiful skins

[Amroth]

Very, very nice work!