This month has not seen a great deal of progress on the painting desk. I had thought I might finish the batch of Spanish infantry that were primed while finishing off the Spanish cavalry, but other projects have absorbed me, leaving these men with only a smattering of coats and other areas of broad colour done. It may be possible to finish some off before I set out on my travels on Thursday, but not the whole lot.
The main things that have been taking up my time have been thinking through and drawing up quick reference sheets for the English Civil War battle game and for Aegaeon, the ancient naval game, both of which are now ready to test out in play.
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| Front and back of Aegaeon quick reference sheet |
Only when sitting down to work on the naval game QRS did I realise how much detail had still been missing from the game, particularly on handling boarding actions and managing the results between different attack/defence dispositions. Fitting everything onto two sides of A4 was a very good discipline, helping to streamline the rules themselves, not just the layout. I will need to try out all the points before use at the Society of Ancients convention in late October but it feels about right.
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| Front and back pages of QRS for battles under 'The King's War' Campaign |
For the table top battles arising from the campaign, the QRS incorporates changes to the rules prompted by the failure of firing to cause any casualties so far during the battle of Stow-on-the-Wold. Rather than fiddle around further with firing rules I have gone down the route taken by Peter of Grid Based Games and merged musketry with melée in a single combat phase. This simplifies the sequence of play as well as making effect less engagements much less probable. What I seem to have ended up with is a stripped down version of Twilight of Divine Right, which is probably what I should have started with!
As an initial test of the revisions I set up a quick "what if" scenario : What if the Royalist infantry had got its act together on the right flank at Stow-on-the-Wold and launched an attack across the stream against Waller's infantry? Six Royalist infantry regiments in a double line advanced into combat with Waller's three regiments in line along the stream, supported by a gun and a single regiment on the hill behind. In the first round of the engagement, Waller's men had the advantage of firing on an advancing enemy, as well as the defensive benefit of the stream. The Royalist regiments in the front line had the benefit of their supports to the rear but in two out of three clashes this was offset by the Parliamentary gun and support line. After the first round, Waller's regiments lost the musketry bonus but kept the stream bonus.
Before the dice were rolled, my estimate was that on the left and centre, Parliament was likely to hold the line but that the Royalists might break through on the right owing to numerical advantages. As it turned out, the Royalists had very few rolls go their way so never stood a chance. With average results, Parliament would still have held the line. Only poor rolling by Parliament, or the intervention of other units on a flank, would have given the Royalist attack a fair chance of success. This is about right, I think, given the natural strength of Waller's position.
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| Waller's men face off against the Royalists at Stow-on-the-Wold. This picture comes from the game reported last week, not the trial of revised rules mentioned above. |
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