Continuing the ECW Campaign

It seems to have been quite a while since I paused my English Civil War campaign. A check back on my posts shows it is three months since the last campaign game was played. To restart the campaign a quick recap is necessary, mostly to remind myself where it ended.

The last campaign move was in the autumn of 1644 with Parliament marching on the East Midlands and after successfully defeating the opposing Royalist force at the Battle of Barton Hall, September 1644, took control of the region.

Last moves of 1644

The campaign to date has been fought in two phases. The first phase had Parliament and Royalist forces fighting over each region trying to get control in 1643. The second phase has marching armies trying to add to the areas control. The campaign rules for the current phase can be found here.

The situation at the beginning of 1644

The resumption of the campaign begins in 1645. Royalist forces are able to make the first move on the West Midlands. They rolled a 3 plus 8 for controlled regions scoring 11. While Parliament rolled 5 plus 5 for controlled regions scoring 10.

The first battle will take place in May 1645 near the small market town of Brinklow.

Royalist move on the West Midlands

The terrain cards were used to determine the tabletop layout. However, there was a slight twist this time with some clever ideas from Steven's Balagan blog for allowing players to switch cards and how to deal with streams and rivers. The terrain cards and mechanisms are very nicely laid out and written up on Steven's blog.

The terrain cards were shuffled and laid out. The defenders selected a side and then rather than switching a card, they chose to rotate the stream to run across the tabletop. The attachers with limited choice of cards, all woods, opted to rotate the lefthand woods to limit the views from the hill.

Terrain cards laid for a 6x4 foot tabletop. Attackers and defenders make one card adjustment.

Final terrain setup

All ready for the tabletop to be setup. I must say I am looking forward to a few ECW games. The games will be using a square grid for play, continuing on from the last campaign game where I switched from free movement to a grid.