Battles of the English Civil War

I've previously mentioned that I enjoy Battles of Medieval Britain. When Geoff aka elliesdad told me that the author released a pike and shot solitaire game, I ordered it from Amazon.

It a nutshell, the jury is still out on this one. Lambo made some changes which I'm not sure I like.

Let's take a look.

Physical Layout
Like Battles of Medieval Britain (BMB), Battles of the English Civil War (BECW) is printed as an 8.5 by 11 inch, paperback booklet. It is about 10 pages thicker than BMB, a slight problem that I will discuss in my evaluation.

Contents
Inside, BMB contains two sections:

• Rules - which lay out how to play the game
• Scenarios - 15 battles from history that you can play using the rules

The Rules
The rules are longer and a bit more complex than BMB. They are still fairly simple compared to most wargames.

Turns follow this sequence:

• Roll a number of D6s = the number of units remaining in your army.
• You may reroll one group of doubles or more. This represents command intervention.
• Assign each die to a unit.
• Take actions. Generally a 1-3 means move and 4-6 means attack. You can also use 6s to rally demoralized units.
• To attack, roll 2D6. Then reference a table that shows the score to hit based on the types of attacking and defending units. For example, cavalry will need to roll higher when attacking pikes than when it attacks muskets. You will also apply any modifiers for terrain or other factors to the to hit number.
• Starting with cannon, determine actions for each enemy unit. There is a chart for each type of unit (cannons, cavalry, muskets, and pike). Sometimes you may need to roll to determine what a unit does. Unlike BMB, enemy units will move in this game.
• Check for victory conditions. Typically, 

The Scenarios
Most of the book comprises the scenarios.

Like BMB, each scenario comprises 2 pages.

• The first page has a very brief introduction, the charts you need for the scenario, a summary of combat modifiers, and the victory conditions.
• The second page has the game map, like this:

I liked this setup for BMB and it does make for handy play. But BECW is thicker which creates an issue of units sliding "downhill." I am toying with the idea of removing the pages and transferring them to a spiral bound notebook so the game will lay flat.

Again like BMB, BECW features random setup of the enemy forces. However, the rolls vary based on unit type. You may roll D6, D6 + some value, 2D6, or even 3D6 to determine the starting position.

There are no reinforcements, however, so the numbers only function at the start of the game.

The tracker at the bottom allows you to keep tabs on the turn.

My Play Tests
I played the first scenario, Edgehill, twice, and lost both times.

Evaluation
Lambo made a number of changes. Ironically, some of them resolve issues that I identified with BMB.

• The activation system is different, giving you more flexibility. You roll a pool of dice and can allocate them as you see fit. In addition, you have some limited re-rolls.
• Enemy units move in this game instead of remaining static. Lambo provides an AI to determine enemy moves.
• Hit odds use a table that cross references the attacker versus the target.
• Lambo includes counters at the back of the book.

But does it make for a better game?

One thing about the changes is that they make the game a bit more complex. Because there are more charts to reference, I find that it takes longer to play, about 45 minutes vs. BMB's 15-20 minutes. This means that "better" will be a matter of preference. If you like a more realistic game, you'll prefer BECW. If you're looking for quick play, BMB is for you.

My preference is for quick play, which means that I will likely gravitate toward BMB. Still, I want to give BECW more of a chance. Perhaps with practice I can cut down the play time.

I Played a Game!

After more than 6 weeks, I finally got around to recording a war game!

Last night I decided to give Mike Lambo's Battles of the English Civil War a try. I actually played a test game some weeks ago but didn't take photos and never got around to posting about it.

The Scenario

I played scenario # 1 from the book - Edgehill.

I played as Parliament, starting at the bottom with the Royalists at top.

The Battle

The initial set-up. One interesting feature is that the Royalist musketeers line up in a clump on the hill while the pikes are forward.

Indecisive cavalry clash on the left while artillery fire destroys a unit of Parliament's pikes.

Parliament wins the cavalry clash on the left while another begins on the right.

Parliamentarian musketry causes a unit to rout while cavalry on the wings are demoralized.

Both sides lose a unit.

Royalist pikes gang up and demoralize Parliamentarian cavalry on the left. On the right, Parliamentarian cavalry routs its counterpart but gets demoralized by musketry.

A rough turn for the Royalists as two more units rout.

Another Royalist unit routs while cavalry attacks the King's artillery.

But sundown saves the Royalist. At the end of the day, they still hold the hill so Parliament loses.

Game Notes

For the most part, the Royalist shot was useless. However, in one instance they forced the enemy cavalry to retreat. This may have delayed the cavalry enough to save the cannon.

I have some thoughts to share on BECW but will save them for another post.

Kill and Grill

On Saturday, I hosted a cookout for some local LARP friends. I forgot to take pictures. :(

The highlight was the "feast" that put together. I decided to replicate it with some leftovers.

The feast included:

• Appetizer - crackers and cheese (provided by a friend)
• Main course - Bratwurst with grilled potato wedges and an onion gravy
• Dessert - Sansa's lemon cakes
• Libations - Dragon "wine" (aka Gator Ade)

I made the onion gravy and lemon cakes and was quite pleased with the results. 

Both recipes came from the Official Game of Thrones cookbook, which I've mentioned before on this blog.

As I mentioned back in 2013, the cakes are more like cookies, but still delicious. I messed up the onion gravy at first, making some substitutions and getting proportions wrong. I was able to fix it, however, and liked it a lot. It tasted like French onion soup, albeit a little thicker as expected for a gravy.

After a very pleasing afternoon, I'm already thinking about another feast. Perhaps a Yuletide celebration!

A LARP Update

It's been quiet on this blog because I've been occupying my free time with LARP preparations.

Last time, I mentioned that I've been pondering changes to my group, which hopefully will stimulate more interest. Over the past couple of weeks I have been writing down my ideas for rules enhancements (e.g., spells) and setting notes.

I also worked on a flyer for the group. I'd like to get a photo that will show different character classes. Something like this, but live action.

Picture from https://nerdarchy.com/is-there-a-best-way-to-build-a-dd-party/

I invited some LARP players from the local area for a photo shoot and am bribing them to come with a cookout. My initial thought was to grill some hot dogs. I've been toying with something a bit more thematic, however, which leads to this.

I purchased Heroes' Feast on Kindle months ago, but never bothered with any of the recipes. They are clearly modern rather than historical medieval (some include potatoes) but should work for medieval-ish fantasy. Just ask J.R.R. Tolkien. Anyway, the dwarven bangers and smash may be a perfect substitute for hot dogs!

I also spent some time yesterday fixing some weapons - a couple of swords and a mace.

Anyway, this is a long-winded way to say that I haven't been playing any games.