Preparing for the last ECW campaign game and a book arrives

My English Civil War campaign is coming to a conclusion. The first year 1642 began with both sides trying to gain control of regions which continued until all regions had been battled over. This initial phase of the campaign and its games were so I could finalise a variation of One Hour Wargame ECW rules.

The following years had marching armies trying to wrestle control of neighbouring regions. The fortunes of these armies were influenced by campaign chance cards drawn with each battle. The months of these years progressed with a D3 dice roll, so the number of battles varied. Throughout the years 1643-1645 control of the regions has remained pretty steady with Royalist forces controlling the most and Parliament holding tightly to the South-East of England and their London base.

Campaign map

In a last ditch effort to break the stalemate Parliamentarian forces have marched on Oxford and the West Midland region. Technically, from a campaign point of view Parliament cannot win as the Royalists hold 8 regions to Parliaments 5 regions. However, victory here will make it a marginal 7-6 victory at best for the Royalists.

This begs the question - what would have happened with with a Royalist victory? A quick google search found this site with some possible outcomes: "What if Charles I had won the Civil War?".

As usual terrain cards were used to determine the tabletop layout and campaign cards drawn for influences on the coming battle. The luck of the campaign cards favours Parliament with additional artillery being available along with an extra unit from raining taxes earlier in the year. While Royalist forces are not being paid and will lose a unit due to desertion.

Terrain cards

Campaign cards

Order of battle...

Royalist:

• 3 Foot
• 1 Elite Pike
• 5 Horse
• 2 Dragoons
• 1 Commanded Shot

Parliament

• 5 Foot
• 5 Horse
• 1 Lobster
• 2 Dragoons
• 1 Artillery

So all is prepared for a game once I have finished and cleared the tabletop 19th Century game currently on the tabletop.

Currently occupying the tabletop

And finally, a secondhand copy of "Napoleonic Wargaming for Fun" by Paddy Griffith arrived in the post. While I have to ebook the diagrams are not effective in this medium and I could not resist grabbing a copy.