1643 Game 6 – Wales – English Civil War Campaign

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

Summary: Although the Royalists invaded Wales, the Parliamentarians had a larger army on the day and attacked. The “Battle of Colby Moor” was a Royalist victory.

Strategic Situation

With the Upper Thames Valley (Oxford) secure, the Royalists attacked Wales.

Phase 1: Game Set up

The mechanics of Populous, Rich and Rebellious influenced most of the game set up.

1.1. Agree game size

With two players we played a small game, with small armies on a small table.

1.2. Recruit armies

In Populous, Rich and Rebellious, campaign cards influence the orders of battle.

Campaign Cards

Jamie drew three campaign cards, one Parliament, one Beneficial, and one Royalist. The Royalist card would have been great as it was “Welsh rally to the King”, but it was discarded as useless for Parliament.

[Parliament] Nags for Parliament – Before the battle add one Dragoon unit to the order of battle
[Beneficial] Every able bodied man and boy – Before the battle add one Rabble unit to the order of battle
[Royalist] Welsh rally to the King – Before the battle add one Pike+Shot unit to the order of battle

I got also got three campaign cards, but two were detrimental.

[Beneficial] Foot abandon pikes for muskets – Before the battle add one Shot unit to the order of battle
[Detrimental] Army pay delayed – Before the battle remove one Pike+Shot unit from the order of battle
[Detrimental] ‘Let a cannonball divide me’ (Earl of Kingston-upon-Hull) – For the entire battle one chosen commander is automatically killed if hit by cannon fire

Orders of Battle

For a small game with a player a side, we started with the small order of battle.
For a big game with two players a side, we started with the big order of battle.

After applying the campaign cards, the the Royalists got a X units, compared to the Parliamentary array of Y units.

Small Orders of Battle / 1 player a side
Royalist Order of Battle 3 x Commander 4 x Horse 3 x Pike+Shot 2 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 Rabble 2 x Dragoons 1 x Cannon 16 units; 60 coins; break point 6

1.3.A. Determine attacker

The Royalists had 14 units to Parliament’s 16 units. So although the Royalists were the strategic attacker, Parliament were the tactical attacker.

We give the tactical attacker the initiative in Tilly’s Very Bad Day.

1.3.B. Game duration

The game limit was 10 game turns because it was summer and the battle started in the afternoon.

1.4. Place Terrain

I drew four Terrain Cards.

ECW-602 Terrain Cards - Initial — ECW-602 Terrain Cards – Initial

I thought I could get some tactical advantage by rotating the hill into the centre.

ECW-603 Terrain Cards - Final — ECW-603 Terrain Cards – Final

This is what it looked like on the table.

1.5. Scouting

We still didn’t do scouting.

1.6. Deployment

Jamie had three commands deployed as far forward as they could go:

Foot Command on the right
Dragoon Command in the centre
Horse Command on the left

I also had three commands:

Right Wing Horse
Centre Foot Command
Left Wing Foot Command

I held the left wing back but pushed the other two commands forward.

I placed my cannon on my extreme left wing. Jamie matched it.

1.7. Bombardment

Nothing significant happened.

Turn 1

Jamie pushed forward quickly and every where.

ECW-609 Parliamentary horse races forward

ECW-610 Parliamentary foot approach hill

Seeing Jamie’s deployment and movement, I decided to push my foot forward.

I took the hill, as planned.

Although I advanced, my left was still behind the main battle line.

ECW-614 Royalist foot hold back on the left

The dragoons had their eye on the Parliamentary guns.

ECW-615 Royalist Dragoons head to the left

Shooting wasn’t too significant.

But I got an edge in the charges and melee on the right.

ECW-617 Charge declarations - right — ECW-617 Charge declarations – right

ECW-618 Rally backs - right — ECW-618 Rally backs – right

Turn 2

Jamie kept pushing forward all along the line.

ECW-622 Parliamentary movement - hill — ECW-622 Parliamentary movement – hill

On the right, Jamie tried to stretch out his line by moving some units sideways.

ECW-623 Parliamentary movement - right — ECW-623 Parliamentary movement – right

Again the shooting didn’t really have a big impact.

There were charges in the centre and on the right.

The Parliamentary foot went up the hill but bounced.

ECW-627 Charge declarations - hill — ECW-627 Charge declarations – hill

ECW-628 Melee - hill — ECW-628 Melee – hill

ECW-630 Melee results - hill — ECW-630 Melee results – hill

ECW-634 Post melee - hill — ECW-634 Post melee – hill

The cavalry melee on the right was a lot more dramatic. Three horse units charged with two others already locked in melee.

ECW-626 Charge declarations - right — ECW-626 Charge declarations – right

Resulting in a giant skirmish.

ECW-629 Melee - right — ECW-629 Melee – right

A Royalist horse unit routed. But two Parliamentary units routed and a commander became a casualty.

ECW-631 Melee results - right — ECW-631 Melee results – right

ECW-632 Melee results - right — ECW-632 Melee results – right

After the casualties were removed, the right flank was very open.

ECW-633 Post melee - right — ECW-633 Post melee – right

Turn 3

On the extreme left my flank marching dragoons eliminated the Parliamentary cannon and then turned to face in towards the enemy foot.

Parliament achieved an advantage near the hill. Although I again bounced a foot unit on the hill, Jamie routed one of my units on the flat.

ECW-639 Melee - hill — ECW-639 Melee – hill

ECW-640 Melee - right of hill — ECW-640 Melee – right of hill

ECW-644 Post melee - Hill — ECW-644 Post melee – Hill

Further along, my charging horse pre-empted the Parliamentary dragoons charging, then drove the dragoons back.

ECW-641 Melee - Dragoon Command — ECW-641 Melee – Dragoon Command

On the right Jamie tried to get his line organised as my horse advanced.

ECW-637 Movement - right — ECW-637 Movement – right

Again lots of cavalry charged.

ECW-638 Charge declarations - right — ECW-638 Charge declarations – right

Another Parliamentary horse unit routed.

ECW-642 Melee - Horse battle — ECW-642 Melee – Horse battle

The right was definitely looking good for me.

ECW-643 Post melee - right — ECW-643 Post melee – right

Turn 4

On the left shooting by Royalist foot and guns routed a Parliamentary foot unit.

ECW-647 Royalist shooting routs Parliamentary infantry

This was the crunchy turn with three routs.

My flanking dragoons slammed into the side of the the Parliamentary rabble.

ECW-649 Melee - left — ECW-649 Melee – left

I drove some Parliamentary foot off the hill but that was small consolation as Jamie routed one of my foot units.

ECW-650 Melee - hill — ECW-650 Melee – hill

ECW-652 Melee - hill — ECW-652 Melee – hill

Jamie lost a horse unit on the right.

ECW-651 Melee - right — ECW-651 Melee – right

And that gave me the game.

Conclusions and Observations

It was a good fun game. Both of us went right at it, making for a quick battle at 4 game turns.

Both of us took a horse command with all of the horse. Our experience in earlier battles is that more horse, in a block, wins. Of course that denied horse to the rest of the army. I think I’ll explore other configurations. Possibly commanded shot.

I don’t think Jamie managed to fully exploit his dragoon command. Assuming I took such a command, I’d be inclined to put it on the flank rather than squeezed in between the horse and foot.

Putting cannon out on the wing worked for me. It let me shoot at his approaching foot without worrying about my own. But the same tactic didn’t work for Jamie because I managed to detach a mobile unit (dragoons) and send it out to deal with the Parliamentary cannon.

My plan involved defending the hill. Although I got some advantage from it, the hill was really small and using it in a solid defence was kind of tricky. I’d have to rethink that if I tried it again.

In the end I won with a smaller force. I really don’t know how that came about. Perhaps I was just lucky.

Game	Year + Round	Location	Game Size	Royalist	Parliament
1	1642 Early	East Midlands	Small	Adam Strategic Defender Tactical Attacker Defeat	Chris Strategic Attacker Tactical Defender Victory
2	1642 Early	Wales	Small	Steven Strategic Attacker Tactical Attacker Defeat	Jamie Strategic Defender Tactical Defender Victory
3	1642 Late	South-East	Small	Adam Strategic Attacker Tactical Attacker Victory	Chris Strategic Defender Tactical Defender Defeat
4	1642 Late	East Anglia	Large	Steven Strategic Defender Tactical Defender Victory	Jamie Strategic Attacker Tactical Attacker Defeat
5	1643 Early	Upper Thames Valley	Small	Adam Strategic Defender Tactical Defender Victory	Chris Strategic Attacker Tactical Attacker Defeat
6	1643 Early	Wales	Small	Steven Strategic Attacker Tactical Defender Victory	Jamie Strategic Defender Tactical Attacker Defeat

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)

1643 Game 6 – Wales – English Civil War Campaign

Strategic Situation