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.