Friday, April 13, 2018

Whiling Away a Rainy Day

It was a dark and stormy morning with lots of wind and rain and no electricity. By 8 am all was back to normal but the mood was set and I did not feel like doing housework, or bookwork or even working on stuff for Huzzah!. I cleared my table and was on the point of flipping open OHW  and grabbing some 54mm toy soldiers when it occurred to me that I could fudge a test game of the new one page ECW rules using my 16th C lads.

The Scots prepare to defend against a horde of invading foreigners, doubtless in English pay. 
 The Scots ended up with 2 units of cavalry, 2 of pike and shot, 2 of highlanders and a heavy gun. The "English" brought a unit of Cuirassiers, 1 of cavalry, 1 of Dragoons, 3 pike and shot and a light gun. The invaders only had a slight advantage in "power" if not numbers  so the onus to attack was placed on them. If the game was a tie the Scots would win.
The English Dragoons pushed forward to "amuse" the Highlanders and attacked with the Cuirassiers while the rest marched forward at best speed. 
The Scots horse were tougher than they looked and the opposing cavalry destroyed each other as fighting units. In the centre the opposing infantry are pushing their pikes and the Highlanders on the left have decided that they can take the enemy pike now that the artillery and Scots musketeers have filled them full of 6's. 


The last few Highlanders on the left have fallen back to let the Scots pike take over but the central block of Scots have broken for the rear. Its time for a final, deciding cavalry brawl with both Generals in the front rank while the Highlanders on the right are bored with this futile shooting business. 

The Dragoons have scattered but the Scots General is down, his cavalry broken and his artillery captured.
"Back tae the hills"!
I found a couple of minor oopsies which I have fixed: Heavy guns were supposed to have +1 per die for superior firepower, not +1 die, isolated units were supposed to dice to see if they could move and there were originally 4 dice per unit in melee to heighten tension so I have restored that.

All in all though, it worked as intended. As with all one page set of rules, there were lots of bits of detail and flavour missing but I think the essentials worked and they should be easy to pick up. Tomorrows game will see about twice the number of units and 2-4 players. Bring it on.

9 comments:

  1. Hope tomorrow’s game goes well. I look forward to hearing the battle report.
    Alan

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  2. An interesting game and always good to iron out the rules. The game mat is looking really effective.

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    1. Thanks, the poor lighting helps but it'll be no better at the convention!

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  3. Nice looking game. The 16th Century looks like an interesting period to play with the mix of Medieval and Early Modern weapons.

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    1. It is, more interesting in many ways than what preceded it and what followed. Better yet, I have been able to get my hands on at least a few low level memoirs or reports for a feel of the sort of low level actions I prefer.

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  4. lovely and the ploughed field lends a nice touch to the visuals.

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    1. Thanks. I'm all thumbs on realistic terrain but starting to really enjoy the impressionistic 'playset' look.

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  5. Well done, Scots! Wonderful treasures you have in your storage racks... impressing. Good to see that you pull them out for showing us an amazing scenery. Thanks!
    Peter

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    1. Thanks, they are growing old but since many are original figures I am very fond of them.

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