ECW Campaign May 1643 Game Setup

It seems to have been a while since I played an English Civil War game as part of the current campaign, which has now moved into a new year, 1643.

Time for the Hinchliffe ECW armies to take to the tabletop again

The first stage of a campaign year is to decide who will strike the first blow. This is decided by both sides rolling a D6 and adding to it the number of regions they control. The side with the highest score will make the first campaign move. From then on campaign moves alternate between sides.

Parliament rolled a 6 and added their 5 controlled regions to give a total of 11. It looked like they might get the jump on their Royalist opponents, but the Royalist roll was also a 6 and adding this to their 8 controlled regions provided a total of 14. Allowing them to make the first attack.

To determine which month the opening battle of the 1643 campaign year. The score of a D3 is the number of months added to February. A 3 is rolled so this year's campaign begins quite late in May 1643. This approach continues for each battle until the year moves into (or past) December when the campaign year ends.

Royalist forces now had the choice to attack any Parliament controlled region adjacent to a friendly controlled region. They chose to attack the West Midlands.

Campaign map

Before each battle both sides draw one chance card apiece which may influence either the battle or the recruitment for the battle. In this case both sides drew command cards, the Royalist card was not advantageous while Parliament's card was to their advantage.

Chance cards drawn

The order of battle were decided with D3 rolls shown in brackets.

Parliament units

• Infantry units = 2 + (3) = 5
• Cavalry units = 2 + (3) = 5
• Dragoons/Commanded Shot units = 0 + (3) = 3
• Artillery or special units = (2) - 1 = 1

Royalist units

• Infantry units = 2 + (3) = 5
• Cavalry units = 2 + (2) = 4
• Dragoons/Commanded Shot units = 0 + (2) = 2
• Artillery or special units = (1) - 1 = 0

It looks like Royalist forces will be entering this battle with a few problems with their recruitment and commanders.

The terrain cards decided the terrain which includes a fordable stream running down the length of the tabletop. This will be setup once the current Napoleonic game in progress is tidied up.

Terrain cards

I had better get on with that Napoleonic game now. Hopefully I will have a cleared tabletop ready for a weekend of ECW gaming.