Thursday 20 September 2018

ECW Campaign Game 1

The English Civil War (ECW) campaign started in Yorkshire as Royalist forces began their recruiting to control the region. They were supported from their adjacent North Midlands base. Parliament had not been as successful recruiting, and when the forces clashed at Sherborn Parish they were outnumbered.

The opening campaign move

Order of battle

Parliamentarian forces:
1 x lobster unit
3 x trotter cavalry units
4 x infantry units (mixed pike and musket)
1 x commanded shot

Royalist forces:
4 x galloper cavalry units
4 x infantry units (mixed pike and musket)
1 x elite pike unit
2 x dragoon units
1 x commanded shot unit
1 x artillery unit

The method for deciding the composition of forces is described in a previous post. Because there is a Royalist controlled region adjacent to the Yorkshire region, they were able to re-roll a single dice roll and improve their chances of a large force.

Starting positions (Royalists in red and Parliament in blue)
Parliamentarian forces took the initiative and moved their trotters forward hoping to disrupt their opposition Royalist cavalry. To begin with they did, but the weight of Royalist numbers and their charge bonus saw them routed after a few turns.

Starting positions
The cavalry engagement begins.
Royalist cavalry charge.
With their left flank threatened the Parliamentarian commander moved his lobster unit held in reserve to counter the Royalist threat. The Royalist cavalry attack was nullified, but at the cost of the remaining Parliamentarian reserves. The Parliamentarian left flank was now open and Royalist dragoons moved forward along with their centre. The Parliamentarian commander saw his army's situation was untenable and retired.

Parliamentarian forces move to counter the threat to their flank
Parliamentarian forces with an exposed flank and outnumbered retire and victory goes to Royalist forces
The flow of the game
The victory gave control of Yorkshire to the Royalist cause. While further south Parliament seeks to control East Anglia and where the next battle will be fought.

Campaign situation


15 comments:

  1. That was a quick victory for the King!

    Your maps and gaming table look superb, Peter. Well done!

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    1. Thank you. The maps are quite fun to draw, as to whether I draw one for each game, I am not sure yet.

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  2. A nice sharp action for openers, I shall enjoy following this

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    1. Thanks, I enjoyed playing through the game. The opening campaign games of 1642 (of which there will be 11) to control the regions will all be geared to smaller actions.

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  3. Annnnnd they'rrrrre OFF! Good start! A very attractive game.

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    1. LoL. Thank you, I am really looking forward to playing through these games.

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  4. Good to see the campaign season has begun. I shall follow developments with interest, hoping for a Parliamentary victory!

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    1. It will be interesting to see if history repeats itself in this campaign.

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  5. Hi Peter,

    Great campaign ideas here. Well done once again!

    Cheers

    Jay

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    1. Thanks Jay. I hope to get 15 to 20 games out of this campaign.

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  6. I picked up The English Civil War by David Clark today. Published by Pocket Essentials, and set as an overview of the war, I thought it might make an interesting primer to help me visualise your manoeuvres, recruitments etc. Oh, and it’s less than 150 pages :-)

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    1. I do like compact history books for idea as I am not a great reader of books. For the second part of the campaign 1643 onwards I will be having chance cards as the marching armies try to recapture regions.

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  7. How do you set up the actual battles once you have determined the forces?

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    1. Terrain is written on cards and 6 features (cards) selected. The table is divided into six 2x2 foot square sections. One terrain feature (card) is placed in a section. The exception being rivers which go side to side and dice are used to determine where on a side its starts/finishes.
      The defender picks the tabletop side to defend and places their forces. The attacker (who made the campaign move) then places their forces. The defender can then reposition D3 units.

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