1644 Game 9 – South-East – English Civil War Campaign

Adam and Chris played the ninth game of Populous, Rich and Rebellious, our four player Campaign using Tilly’s Very Bad Day, and set in the English Civil War. Actually, they played it on 9 Apr 2024 and I forgot to post it.

Summary: Parliament successfully defended the South-East from a large aggressive Royalist army.

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Strategic Situation

The last game saw the Royalists defend London. Now the Royalists had a chance to expand.

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Phase 1: Game Set up

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

1.1. Agree game size

I wanted to play, so made it a big game, with big armies on a big table.

1.2. Recruit armies

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

Campaign Cards

Adam got four campaign cards for the Royalists, two Royalist and two Beneficial:

• [Royalist] Dashing Horse: Before the battle add one Horse 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] Dashing Officer: For the entire battle increase one chosen commander’s to hit in melee from 4-6 to 3-6
• [Beneficial] Powder explosion: Once during the battle reduce resolve of one enemy unit by 2 Resolve

Chris drew three campaign cards for Parliament, two Parliament, one Detrimental:

• [Parliament] New Model Army: Before the battle add one Pike+Shot unit to the order of battle
• [Detrimental] Fodder is scare: Before the battle remove one Horse unit from the order of battle
• [Parliament] Parliament unifies command structure: Each turn during battle one commander can make an additional move

Orders of Battle

For a big game, we started with the big order of battle. After applying the campaign cards, the the Royalists got a 21 units, compared to the Parliamentary array of 19 units.

Big Orders of Battle / 2 players a side

Royalist Order of Battle 3 x Commander 7 x Horse 6 x Pike+Shot 2 x Shot 1 x Dragoon 1 x Rabble 1 x Cannon 21 units; 80 coins; break point 7

Parliament Order of Battle 3 x Commander 5 x Horse 7 x Pike+Shot 2 x Shot 1 x Dragoon 1 x Cannon 19 units; 74 coins; break point 7

1.3.A. Determine attacker

The Royalists had 21 units to Parliament’s 19 units. That made the Royalists both the strategic attacker and tactical attacker.

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

1.3.B. Game duration

10 Game Turns because it was Spring (10 game turns), overcast (-1) and a noon battle (-1).

1.4. Place Terrain

Terrain Cards. Chris drew two open, a small gentle hill, a large town, a medium wood and a small wood. He then swapped the large town, which was in our centre zone, to an open space on the flank.

1.5. Scouting

We still didn’t do scouting. Next time as it gives dragoons more value.

1.6. Deployment

Adam deployed the Royalist force in three conventional battles/wings, spread across the table. Parliament had the smaller army and to compensate, Chris deployed from the large town to the far table edge.

The Royalist right were facing Parliamentary forces, quite a lot of them, in the large wood.

Adam deployed the Royalist left opposed the Parliamentary infantry. However, he had a unit of Horse lined up to circumvent the large town and his Dragoons to pass through the town.

1.7. Bombardment

Nothing much happened, as usual.

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Turn 1

The Royalists rushed forward. Their right had to shuffle around a bit to avoid the small wood.

On the left the Royalist horse rushed towards the waiting Parliamentary Pike+Shot. Moving rapidly they left their support Dragoons and Pike+Shot behind.

In the centre the two infantry commands glared at each other.

Chris had a lot of troops in and around the woods on his left.

And the flanking Horse advanced down the edge of the town.

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Turn 2

Here’s a shot of the Royalist rabble, proving they were on the battlefield. Of course they played no part in the battle.

Near the town the Royalist horse slowed down a bit to let the Dragoons catch up. If you look closely you’ll see the Parliamentary infantry have started to withdraw. They started fully on the road, and have now pulled back off it.

The flanking Horse got to the rear edge of the town.

And the Royalists advanced in the centre and right as well.

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Turn 3

The Royalist horse reach the road near the town. The Parliamentary infantry start shooting.

And then withdraw further.

There was one charge and the Royalist horse pushed the Parliamentary infantry back.

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Turn 4

Adam did some complicated manoeuvring on the right.

But went straight forward in the centre. The Royalist infantry now spanned the road.

Adam was attacking violently near the town.

The flank march was in striking distance.

And charged.

But the Royalist commander got struck down by shooting.

In the centre Adam was desperately trying to catch up to the withdrawing Parliamentary infantry.

And then the second commander got hit by shooting.

But that didn’t stop Adam declaring charges into the face of the Parliamentary fire.

Adam also charged on the right.

This resulted in mutual routs.

Chris used his Campaign Card to move his general: [Parliament] Parliament unifies command structure: Each turn during battle one commander can make an additional move. This had the neat effect that his general couldn’t get hit.

And that ended the game. Win to the defending Parliamentary troops.

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Conclusions and Observations

Once again Chris executed a fighting withdrawal. So there was quite a lot of discussion about whether that was even possible in the 17th Century. I’ll ignore that and focus on whether this is a game winning tactic. Well, no, it isn’t. Chris is keen on this tactic but it doesn’t guarantee victory. Actually with a an aggressive attacker it makes very little different. As you can see from the photo, the Parliamentary infantry didn’t actually withdraw very far.

And the diagram shows that an aggressive attacker will catch the unit withdrawing pretty quickly. So quickly the withdraw makes little difference.

Personally I think Chris won because he played cautiously and sensibly, and Adam made some mistakes. He sent his troops in piecemeal, attacked in unfavourable locations (horse versus pike+shot) and exposed his generals to unnecessary risk. If he’d take a bit more time he could have hammered Chris.

I’ve got a few stands of rabble. But this was the first time I got any of them on table. That is one of the reasons I like the campaign cards in Populous, Rich and Rebellious – they inflict undesirable troops and undesirable orders of battle on the players.

The Campaign Card “[Parliament] Parliament unifies command structure: Each turn during battle one commander can make an additional move” seems to generous. Probably should be only once. Chris used it during shooting, but that seemed okay.

Chris also brought along a board game from his collection: Unhappy King Charles.

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
7	1643 Late	Lower Thames Valley	Small	Adam Strategic Attacker Tactical Defender Victory	Chris Strategic Defender Tactical Attacker Defeat
8	1643 Late	Lower Thames Valley	Small	Adam Strategic Defender Tactical Attacker Victory	Chris Strategic Attacker Tactical Defender Defeat
9	1644 Early	South-East	Large	Adam Strategic Attacker Tactical Attacker Defeat	Chris Strategic Defender Tactical Defender Victory

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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)