After a week of skirmishing (during which your forces consistently outperformed those of the enemies) you have lured the enemy onto open ground near Inverness. You have broken contact with the Rebels around Auldearn and received further reinforcements. With a large army (which has a substantial core of regulars) you are confident of defeating the Rebels once and for all. To this end you have made a rapid night march (leaving your guns behind) to surprise the enemy in their camp. Unfortunately your march was detected just before dawn as you approached the village of Auldearn. However, the Rebels have not yet deployed so you still have the advantage and a bold attack cannot be anything but successful.

The Rebel forces are believed to consist of 2000 foot in 4-5 regiments supported by some horse (numbers unknown but rather less than yours). The Rebels are camped in Auldearn and to the north of the village. Only a small proportion of their force has formed to face you, the rest are still desperatley trying to organise.

Objective is to crush the enemy. Failing this you should capture Auldearn and inflict more casualties than you suffer as this would disrupt the enemy and force them to retire from Inverness in confusion. Failure will result in serious defeat.

Where 2 morale ratings are given (e.g. B/C) it's for you (the umoire) to decide! The rules I currently use have a Morale system which rates a unit form 1 to 10 which is more flexible than the standard 4-5 letters or 'Forlorn Hopes' 3 basic Morale types. Converting these ratings to use with other sets results in some falling on the 'cusp'.

You may prefer to drop Seaforth to 24 figures and make it 'C'. If playing with Forlorn Hope I suggest you either have both Lawers and Seaforth as Trained or Lawer as Veteran and Seaforth as Raw (I would prefer the latter).

All the foot should be conventional musket & pike units (although Seaforth, the Northern Foot and Sutherlands should be rather less 'regular' than the others in appearance being militia/levy units).

'Moray' horse should be whatever the worst type of cavalry is in the rules you use! If using Forlorn Hope it should suffer an additional minus for Morale tests and checks and initiative. In reality Hurry appears to have thought this unit was reasonable. To reflect this the umpire may wish to apparently give this unit 'average' ratings and only reveals its true quality when it becomes engaged!

RATIO is the musket to pike proportions of the unit.

Buchanons Foot may only have been only 100 strong at Auldearn (at 1:20 this gives a 5 figure unit which is ludicrous as a wargames unit). Alternatively it may have had 200-300 men. I would suggest you field it as the smallest viable unit according to the rules you use (I would imagine around 12 figures) and give it a fairly low morale.

ORDER OF APPEARANCE

TURN (1) Lawers & Seaforth.
TURN (2) Hackett & Moray.
TURN (3) Hurry (CinC), Lothian & Loudon.
TURN (4) Findlater & Northern Foot.
TURN (5) Sutherland Foot.
TURN (6) Buchanon.

All Government units enter from the marked entry area on the map.

SPECIAL RULES

Command Control Problems.

Despite achieving surprise there does not seem to have been a great deal of initiative shown by the Government officers during the course of this action. Therefore, if a unit starts its move further than 12" (6" f Hurry is currently attached to another unit) from Hurry it must roll 1D6. On a 1 it will not move, on a 2-3 it will only move 1/2 speed. If using Forlorn Hope any unit which is outside Hurry's command radius will suffer an additional -1 if it wishes to change it's orders.

Lawers & Seaforth will automatically be in Command until turn 3. They will be in command until turn 6 provided they can see Hurry (regardless of distance). The easiest way to do this will be to put them on the central hill. If using Forlorn Hope allow these 2 regiments to change their orders automatically if the above conditions are met.

If 3 units are currently broken Hurry must roll 6+ (D1O) in order to move (even if attached!). If in danger of being over run he may flee (at full speed, either directly away from the threat or to a position behind the nearest friendly unit).

A Forlorn Hope may not be formed for this battle

TERRAIN

Castle Hill is very difficult for Horse and difficult for Foot.

The village is impassable for Horse and difficult for foot (but will give a bonus against fire and an advantage if defending in melee).

The marsh is?

The streams are?

The central hill is difficult for Horse.

GOVERNMENT FORCES

CinC HURRY AVERAGE ABILITY BUT LOW CHARISMA
Lawers Foot 24 figs B/C, EXPNET 2:1
Seaforths Foot 30 figs D. RAW 3:2
Lothians Foot 20 figs C, EXP 2:1
Loudons Foot 20 figs B, VET 2:1
Findlaters Foot 16 figs C/D, RAW/EXP 2:1
Northern Foot 24 figs E, RAW/LEVY 1:1
Sutherland Foot 24 figs D, RAW 3:2
Buchanons Foot D, RAW 2:1
Hacketts Horse 8 figs D, EXP C'COLE
`Moray' Horse 6 figs E, RAW/LEVY C'COLE

Auldearn: 9th May 1645 An English Civil War Scenario

Background and Set Up
Government OOB and Briefing
Rebel OOB and Briefing
Map (76K)