1644. The King's army from Oxford had sallied forth to Oxford, to be met by Cromwell's forces of the Eastern Association somewhere near the River Thame in the Vale of Aylesbury.
Andy very kindly invited me over to the Aylesbury club on Friday night to continue my scholarship in REG. Andy has a beautiful collection of ECW units, thoroughly researched with custom made flags for each unit, whereas mine are nearer completion than their last outing but still not finished (sorry, I did add 3 units this week)! 
Cromwell's scouts know the area well, and force 60% of the Royalists to deploy first.
On the left, my two Cromwellian horse, plus an average parlimentary horse face down two lines of enemy cavalry, including the fearsome PwinceWupert Prince Rupert and his personal bodyguard. In the center a dragoon unit and my six foot (four average, two superior veterans) face five foot, three average and two poor, plus another three average cavalier cavalry! We both have batteries centrally and dragoons fighting over rocky ground on the right, but they would not do that much...
Both our forlorn hopes and scouts push forwards. 
Not a great set of cards for Cromwell's subordinates!
Turn 2, seriously! I know Cavaliers class as aggressive, but that's suicidal! Andy's two units of average cavaliers pile into my grey pike block, there is a sharp intake of breath down my line as my superiors look on in shock. Neither of my two foot units had the cards to reach and support the greys, life could get a little lonely out here!
On the far left, Cromwell leads his two Ironsides into the advancing caveliers. 
On the charge, the greys suffer no damage, but cause two wounds on Andy's green cavalry. 
The action in the centre and right hots up, my Blues cross my guns line of fire as they see a threat from Andy's red foot, while my other three foot from my central command push forwards hoping to draw the Royalists in. On the right one my superiors (in red) watch in puzzlement as the infantry-cavalry brawl drags on.
I've really not got the way to move these units sorted yet as my yellow unit postions itself in front of the greens and both face two of Andy's units, the one on the left is poor, which could be interesting, as Andy uses them to charge my central superior unit!
After impact Cromwell's horse are slightly down on wounds (remember, it is three wounds to kill a base in ReG), it is an exactly equal fight, so deadly to the max on green dice. Cromwell with his massive +2 for legendary, has missed! But it has allowed the average unit to reach the flank of the cavaliers. However, they are partially in a wood, and Wupert is advancing with his lifeguard. 
The melee is somewhat more in my favour as the Royalist horse score no hits, and we do enough on each unit to kill a base.
On the right, dragoons push each other all over from shooting, but no damage is done! In the cavalry vs foot melee, the cavalry are as good as my pike block, and there were more of them! I say were, as we kill two bases and wound Andy's general! In return we lose a base, but it's looking hopeful as we have friends spare in the backfield (although the superiors are reading their field manuels on how to attack horse, it basically says 'Don't!'. 
Andy's red unit attempt to charge my blues, but three slowing shots stops them dead in their tracks, and causes a lot of damage too (five wounds, that's a base and two wounds on a second, youchies)!
Crash! The Parimentarian horse charge in on the flank, causing an automatic wound and then rolling for damage in a moment. 
Well rolled boys! Flank attack on +5 and a double skull, that's enough to shatter the floppy hatted Cavaliers (although if you look carefully, they are sensibly armoured in lobster helms) (2-0)
It does cause a SLIGHT embarressment as Cromwell and his unit barrel straight into Prince Rupert of the Rhine with his exceptional bodyguard of elite cavaliers (All game Cromwell's cards maxed out at green, so I could not hold the pursuit). My other horse can only move speed 3 in the woods...
The immediate impact causes a wound on the elite horse, and kills a base and a half of mine! (As exceptional, they are +2, the file that is a bodyguard treat Rupert as a Legend like Cromwell, so get another +2, it's a bit powerful!)
Spreading out? Not sure it was my best idea, but it stops future overlaps, and we cause a wound. However, a second superior unit is joining the floppy hated hatted one... 
We lose a base each in melee, and manage to wound each others C-in-Cs. Rumour from the field afterwards suggest that Cromwell himself faced off against the Prince, and his pistol grazed the Royal, while a sword thrust caught the brave Parlimentarian in the shoulder. Meanwhile, my second Ironside unit broke through the Royal lines (4-0).
Over in the centre, the Parlimentetetetetrian foot stood to recieve as the poor conscripted Royalists after taking shots from the Royal Artillery, which had weakened a stand enough to allow the poor troops to kill it. However, the veterans, backed by the Earl of Manchester himself, were causing great hurt to the weaker foot in return.
A situation the Parliment's cavalry does not want to be in, two relatively untouched and better troops eye us up greedily!
In the centre, the dragoons leave the safety of their enclosures to assist the blues in holding back the beaten up Royal reds, while another Royalist unit has engaged the blues and both have inflicted two wounds. To the right, the yellows continue to match their colours' reputation by losing two stands to the Royals one! The poor units are fighting hard, one against my superiors, the other pouring inn fire in support.
On the right, my reserve parlimentary horse takes matters into it's own hands and swings round the stalled superior foot to face down the green royalist horse (and also threaten the Royalist dragoons) as the greys take more losses, but keep dealing wounds on the Royal cavaliers.
Rupert laughs off his wounds as his horse dispose of the Ironsides (4-2). The Parlimentary average horse, having spotting the inevitable, headed to the perceived safety of being deep in the woods! Rupert and his horse pursue off 15 BW, not enough to take them off table, but it does take them out the fight for the remainder of the game.
My black coated elites (based on Western Association Meldrum's foot, not anything 20th Century and unpleasent), crack the poor foot to their front (6-2) 
Unfortunately, my yellow jackets crack at the same time to Royalist efforts (6-4)
While my second Ironsided unit fall beneth the stirrups of the superior cavaliers, who pursue them deep into Royalsit territory before realising that they were lost (6-6).
The hand of the king points to where it all goes wrong! On the right, my parlimentary horse had politely crash into Andy's green clothed horse, getting enough hits in the melee to break them, which collapses the Royal horsy unit next to them. This is enough to force three KaBs (including one from the Royalist blues to their left) in teh red vistorious Royalists (plus three automatic wounds) to shatter the morale of the Royalist foot that had just broken my yellow jackets! Three units = 6 points! (12-6)
Over in the centre, the red unit fighting in concert with a blue unit against my blues is cruelly shot in the flank by my dragoons, which after taking successive hits from my blues, is enough to shatter their morale and they flee too, gifting the Parlimentarians a solid victory, and a lot of roast mutton for dinner! (15-6)
To be fair, I had about three units within a whisker of breaking, so it was a lot close than the scoreline suggests, but, it was, most importantly, a brilliant game. Thank you Andy for showing me the ropes, and I look forwards to a rematch soon, hopefully with my army finished and with basing and flags making them look somewhere near as good as yours!
Nice one, Will.
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