1642 Game 2 – Wales – English Civil War Campaign

Jamie and I played the second game of Populous, Rich and Rebellious, our four player Campaign using Tilly’s Very Bad Day, and set in the English Civil War.

Summary: At the “Battle of Montgomery”, the defending Parliamentarians (Jamie) defeated the Royalists (Steven) in five game turns.


Strategic Situation

Previously Chris had taken the East Midlands for Parliament. In Game 2 I (Steven) was attacking Jamie in Wales.

ECW-101 1642 Early Round Strategic Moves
ECW-101 1642 Early Round Strategic Moves

Campaign Cards

I picked Wales because of my Welsh heritage and because I would get more campaign cards than Jamie. I got three cards and Jamie got 1.

Parliament = 1 Campaign Card
+1 for being the strategic defender

Royalists = 3 Campaign Cards
+1 for being the strategic attacker
+2 for control of the adjacent Royalist Capital (i.e. Upper Thames Valley)

ECW-202 Campaign Cards
ECW-202 Campaign Cards

Jamie drew “Queen raises funds abroad: Before the battle add one Cannon unit to the order of battle”. This is a Royalist card and so Jamie had to discard it. That meant Parliament ended up with the standard order of battle.

I got three cards:

  1. Veterans rally to the King: Before the battle add one Pike+Shot unit to the order of battle
  2. Army pay delayed: Before the battle remove one Pike+Shot unit from the order of battle
  3. Sergeant-Major-General Boy, the ‘Dog-witch’: Once during the battle reduce resolve of one enemy unit by 2 Resolve – Retain until used

The “Veterans” and “Army pay” cards cancelled each other out. So, like their opponents, the Royalists got the standard order of battle.

Which left me with the ‘Dog Witch’ card, perhaps my favourite of the entire game system. Boy (also Boye) was a white hunting poodle belonging to Prince Rupert of the Rhine. Boy accompanied his master into battle. Parliamentarian propaganda alleged that the dog was “endowed” with magical powers, hence the ‘Dog Witch’ label. Boy is so famous he has a wikipedia page.

Orders of battle

Despite drawing four campaign cards, between the two players, the two orders of battle were matched. Both sides had the standard order of battle of 14 units.

Royalist Order of Battle

  • 3 x Commander
  • 4 x Horse
  • 4 x Pike+Shot
  • 1 x Shot
  • 1 x Dragoon
  • 1 x Cannon
  • 14 units; 54 coins; break point 5

Parliament Order of Battle

  • 3 x Commander
  • 4 x Horse
  • 4 x Pike+Shot
  • 1 x Shot
  • 1 x Dragoon
  • 1 x Cannon
  • 14 units; 54 coins; break point 5

Initiative

We play the tactical attacker has initiative.

Map and Table

We used Terrain Cards to generate the map and hence the table. The table was mostly open with a small hill in the Parliamentarian deployment zone.

ECW-203 Terrain Cards
ECW-203 Terrain Cards

Pre-game

Being a scenario most of the pre-game phase was ignored. The pre-game bombardment causes some confusion in the Royalist ranks. Not much but enough that I didn’t fancy marching straight into the guns.

ECW-204 Bombardment
ECW-204 Bombardment

Turn 1

I forgot to take a photo of deployment. So the Turn 1 photo is the first of the battle. I deployed with a cavalry command on the left. A small command with a unit each of horse, shot and dragoons in the centre. And my foot were placed on the right. Jamie had a strong cavalry command facing my left. His foot were in the centre, facing my mixed command. He had a small command of shot and dragoons to face my right.

I figured Jamie would hold his infantry in the centre, hoping to get advantage from the hill. My grand plan was the entice Jamie’s cavalry command to advance into a pocket on my left. I advanced on the right and centre, and I held my cavalry command back on the left.

ECW-206 Royalists advance towards the hill
ECW-206 Royalists advance towards the hill

Jamie pushed his dragoons forward to slow up my advance on the right but otherwise waited.

ECW-209 Parliamentary dragoons advance on flank
ECW-209 Parliamentary dragoons advance on flank

Turn 2

In turn 2 I lost the battle. Strictly speaking in turn 2 I made a decision which eventually lost me the battle. Rather than stick to the plan, I advanced my cavalry on the left. Mad, rash, impetuous fool.

ECW-211 The moment the Royalists lost
ECW-211 The moment the Royalists lost

The other two commands used oblique moves to drift towards their respective flanks. On the right I had quite a lot of infantry facing a single unit of dragoons.

ECW-212 Royalist Pike+Shot looking good on the right
ECW-212 Royalist Pike+Shot looking good on the right

On the left I had two commands, with superior numbers, facing Jamie’s cavalry command.

ECW-213 Masses of troops facing Parliamentary horse
ECW-213 Masses of troops facing Parliamentary horse

There was a lot of charging as the cavalry lines clashed together.

ECW-214 Charge declarations for opposing horse
ECW-214 Charge declarations for opposing horse

Cavalry fights are short and brutal in Tilly’s Very Bad Day.

ECW-216 Mutual destruction - melee between horse is brutal
ECW-216 Mutual destruction – melee between horse is brutal

We both lost a cavalry unit

ECW-217 Mutual routs
ECW-217 Mutual routs

At the end of turn 2, I still felt I was winning on the left.

ECW-218 Results of melee
ECW-218 Results of melee

Turn 3

In turn 3, I continued my drift towards the flanks.

ECW-220 Royalist movement
ECW-220 Royalist movement

On the right, Jamie had a very thin line facing my pike and shot.

ECW-221 Royalist Infantry on the right
ECW-221 Royalist Infantry on the right

Jamie pulled back the dragoons to keep his distance.

ECW-224 Parliament pulls back on the right
ECW-224 Parliament pulls back on the right

On the left I felt I was closing in on Jamie’s horse.

ECW-222 Horse on the left
ECW-222 Horse on the left

But it was an illusion. Jamie advanced.

ECW-225 Parliament advances on left
ECW-225 Parliament advances on left

Then there was a bit of mutual charging.

ECW-226 Charge declarations
ECW-226 Charge declarations

I lost a horse unit.

ECW-229 Royalist rout - Well that is embarrassing
ECW-229 Royalist rout – Well that is embarrassing

Jamie lost a horse unit.

ECW-230 Parliament rout - That is more like it
ECW-230 Parliament rout – That is more like it

Sigh. I lost another horse unit.

ECW-231 Royalist rout - Not another one
ECW-231 Royalist rout – Not another one

Quite a lot of routs. But the odds were definitely going against me.

ECW-232 Look at all those routers
ECW-232 Look at all those routers

Suddenly Jamie controlled the extreme left. And I had little to stop him.

ECW-233 After the routs
ECW-233 After the routs

Turn 4

I kept pushing forward on the right and started trying to pull back on the left.

ECW-235 Royalist movement
ECW-235 Royalist movement
ECW-238 Parliamentary shooting
ECW-238 Parliamentary shooting

Jamie saw his moment and started advancing everywhere.

ECW-239 Parliament movement
ECW-239 Parliament movement

Only a couple of charges this turn. One by Parliament on the left and one by the Royalists on the right. Both were inconclusive.

ECW-240 Charge declarations
ECW-240 Charge declarations
ECW-241 Melee - Royalist Pike+Shot v Parliamentary Shot
ECW-241 Melee – Royalist Pike+Shot v Parliamentary Shot
ECW-242 Melee - Parliamentary Horse v Royalist Shot
ECW-242 Melee – Parliamentary Horse v Royalist Shot

Turn 5

I kept advancing my infantry on the right and tried to hold the line on the left.

ECW-244 Royalist movement
ECW-244 Royalist movement

And again Jamie advanced everywhere.

ECW-245 Parliamentary movement
ECW-245 Parliamentary movement

I finally got my infantry to bear on the right and charged.

ECW-246 Charge declarations
ECW-246 Charge declarations

But the Parliamentary shot were staunch.

ECW-247 Staunch Parliamentary shot
ECW-247 Staunch Parliamentary shot

The routed one of my pike and shot units and killed the general. [Note: Actually, looking at the dice now, there were 3 hits, which wasn’t enough to rout the unit. But hey, fortunes of war.]

ECW-248 Rout and death among the Royalists
ECW-248 Rout and death among the Royalists

That was the end of the game.


Observations and conclusions

Well, that was short and sweet. 90 minutes leading to a clear Parliamentarian victory. Jamie played a solid game. I thought I had a good plan in game turn 1, but then threw it away in game turn 2 and advanced. My original plan might have worked. My new plan game face to face with superior numbers and I got hammered. Serves me right.

Two victories for Parliament. The only good news for the King is that now, after two games, the Royalists had two campaign cards to carry over into future games.

ECW-249 Royalist retain two Campaign Cards
ECW-249 Royalist retain two Campaign Cards

Where to get Tilly’s Very Bad Day and Populous, Rich and Rebellious

Both are available for download as PDFs:

Tilly’s Very Bad Day (PDF)
Populous, Rich and Rebellious – English Civil War Campaign (PDF)

1 thought on “1642 Game 2 – Wales – English Civil War Campaign”

  1. An enjoyable game by the looks of it. The photos from above the table with arrows added certainly help the reader understand the flow of the game.

    Reply

Leave a Reply