1645 Game 12 – South-East – English Civil War Campaign

Chris and I played the 12th game of Populous, Rich and Rebellious, our four player Campaign using Tilly’s Very Bad Day, and set in the English Civil War. Actually there were four of us on the night. Adam joined me, of course, on the Royalist side. And in the absence of Jamie, Big Dave turned up from the USA to help Chris with the Parliamentarians.

Summary: Fantastic game. Parliament did some clever moves with well timed interpenetrations. Chris’s careful manoeuvring and Dave’s shear impetuousness was a winning combination. That and the fact Parliamentary shooting killed two Royalist Generals. Parliament victory.

Strategic Situation

I made a mistake in 1644 and gave the Royalists the strategic initiative for both battles. So, to balance the books, Parliament got to attack twice in 1645. Things were definitely tipping in their favour; last time they took Wales. This time they wanted to retake the South-East.

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 four players we played 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

Chris didn’t do so well on campaign cards. He drew one Detrimental, one Beneficial and one Royalist (discarded).

[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
[Beneficial] ‘Best shifter and chooser of ground’ (William Waller): When generating terrain, after Step 3. Defender swaps terrain cards, the player can swap any two terrain cards (for some reason this wasn’t in the photo)
[Royalist] Cornish Levies: Before the battle add two Pike+Shot units to the order of battle, but only if fighting in Cornwall or South West. Retain until used.

I got also got campaign cards, quite a few of them. My Detrimental card cancelled the Royalist one. The Parliamentary card was ignored. But that still left me two Beneficial cards.

[Royalist] Veterans rally to the King: Before the battle add one Pike+Shot unit to the order of battle
[Beneficial] Army well supplied: Before the battle add one Pike+Shot unit to the order of battle
[Detrimental] Divert forces to put down Clubman risings: Before the battle remove one Pike+Shot unit from the order of battle, but only if 1644 onwards
[Beneficial] Experienced officer: For the entire battle increase one chosen commander’s to hit in melee from 4-6 to 3-6
[Parliament] “The Assessment” – Parliament’s excise tax: Before the battle add one Horse unit to the order of battle

Orders 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 20 units, compared to the Parliamentary array of 19 units.

Big Orders of Battle / 2 players a side
Royalist Order of Battle 3 x Commander 6 x Horse 7 x Pike+Shot 2 x Shot 1 x Dragoon 1 x Cannon 20 units; 78 coins; break point 7	Parliament Order of Battle 3 x Commander 6 x Horse 6 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 20 units to Parliament’s 19 units. So despite being the strategic attacker, Parliament was the tactical defender.

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

1.3.B. Game duration

The battle was fought in Autumn (10 game turns) on an Overcast day (-1) and started at noon (-1). So the game would finish after 8 game turns.

1.4. Place Terrain

As defender Chris on a big table, drew six Terrain Cards. He got a large field, medium field and a medium gentle hill.

Chris has draw the beneficial card: Best shifter and chooser of ground’ (William Waller): When generating terrain, after Step 3. Defender swaps terrain cards, the player can swap any two terrain cards.

That gave them two changes in the terrain. As defender he could swap or rotate. Best Shifter gave him a swap. Chris opted for a rotate and a swap. That these he had the hill and medium field together on one flank and close to both the centre line and central zone.

ECW-1204 Terrain Cards - Final — ECW-1204 Terrain Cards – Final

1.5. Scouting

We still didn’t do scouting. I now think we’ll ignore scouting for the rest of the campaign.

1.6. Deployment

Chris organised the Parliamentarians conventionally with an infantry centre and two cavalry heavy wings. His infantry were in the centre and a cavalry wing on the right. Unusually he deployed his left wing cavalry as a reserve behind the infantry. This gave him options on which direction to send them. They could go left, if the Royalists threatened his hanging flank. Or they could go right to create a hammer blow.

We also

1.7. Bombardment

Nothing to report.

Turn 1

Turn 1 demonstrated that Chris’s deployment was sound. My left wing (under Adam) roared forward and my centre also advanced quickly.

ECW-1206 Parliament responds to Royalist advance

ECW-1209 Royalist horse gallops forward as fas as possible on the left

But my right lagged behind. This is because they started in and behind the big field. They had to extract themselves from that before they could reach Parliament’s exposed left flank.

ECW-1207 Parliaments left wing looks wide open

Turn 2

The Royalist infantry trudged forward.

ECW-1212 Centre infantry getting rolle close in centre — ECW-1212 Centre infantry getting really close in centre

I advanced my right flank as fast as possible, but they were not fast enough.

ECW-1213 Right - Royalists have a long way to march to get close enough — ECW-1213 Right – Royalists have a long way to march to get close enough

Adam was leading the cavalry charge. The hope was to sweep away the Parliamentary defenders of the gentle hill and swing around behind their flank.

ECW-1214 Left - Royalists horse closing with Parliamentarians on hill — ECW-1214 Left – Royalists horse closing with Parliamentarians on hill

Chris perceived no imminent threat from my slow right flank so swung his reserve horse towards the other flank, where we were attacking.

ECW-1211 Royalists close on left and in centre

His reserve cavalry could move freely because they were using the infantry as a shield.

ECW-1215 Parliament launches the cavalry reserve towards their right

ECW-1216 A swarm of round heads approaching the Parliamentary front line

We were hoping that congestion would stall the Parliamentary counter-attack.

ECW-1217 Left - Royalists hoping for a Parliamentary traffic jam — ECW-1217 Left – Royalists hoping for a Parliamentary traffic jam

Then the embarrassment began. One of our pike+shot units routed from melee.

ECW-1219 Centre - Royalist infantry unit routs — ECW-1219 Centre – Royalist infantry unit routs

Turn 3

I talk a lot about “Chris” and “Steven”, but each side was a team. On the defending team, Chris and Dave conferred a lot about what to do.

ECW-1221 Careful planning by Parliamentary leaders

Adam was pushing his Royalist horse forward as quickly as possible.

ECW-1223 Left - the Royalist horse have swept over the top of the hill and around the flank — ECW-1223 Left – the Royalist horse have swept over the top of the hill and around the flank

The centre was becoming an infantry grind.

ECW-1222 Centre - infantry fighting shaping up as a knock down and slug it out affair — ECW-1222 Centre – infantry fighting shaping up as a knock down and slug it out affair

ECW-1225 Centre - Parliaments muskets roar — ECW-1225 Centre – Parliaments muskets roar

ECW-1230 Centre - Parliamentary foot rout — ECW-1230 Centre – Parliamentary foot rout

ECW-1231 Centre - More Parliamentary foot rout — ECW-1231 Centre – More Parliamentary foot rout

Then the embarrassment turned to fear. A lucky shot by a Parliamentary musketeer kills our right wing commander. Our attack on their open flank had now stalled.

ECW-1224 Right - Parliamentarians shoot down a Royalist commander — ECW-1224 Right – Parliamentarians shoot down a Royalist commander

By this stage, our Royalists were overlapping the Parliamentary defenders. But with a stalled right wing any advantage was more apparent than real. Chris was playing his traditional cat and mouse with my infantry. I’d advance and he would shoot and then pull back.

Just in case Chris turn one of his horse units around and sent it back the other way to face my stalled command.

ECW-1227 Centre and Right - At the back the you'll notice some roundhead horse reversed direction — ECW-1227 Centre and Right – At the back the you’ll notice some roundhead horse reversed direction

And challenging the odds, some of the “stalled” Right Wing managed to make their command rolls and charged.

ECW-1229 Right - Royalists ignore deeath of their general and charge — ECW-1229 Right – Royalists ignore death of their general and charge

The rest of the Parliamentary reserve horse raced to face Adam on our left.

ECW-1228 Left - Roundhead horse advance through their own infantry — ECW-1228 Left – Roundhead horse advance through their own infantry

ECW-1232 Left - Hill - Roundhead horse driven down hill — ECW-1232 Left – Hill – Roundhead horse driven down hill

ECW-1233 Left - But some Cavaliers rout at the foot of the hill — ECW-1233 Left – But some Cavaliers rout at the foot of the hill

A couple of shots of melee.

And then post-melee.

Turn 4

Adam kept pushing his cavalry forward on the right.

ECW-1238b Centre and Right - Movement — ECW-1238b Centre and Right – Movement

On the hill, Dave’s cavalry interpenetrated the Parliamentary foot and charged the opposing Royalists.

There was a brief moment of light relief for the Royalists. To make space for Dave’s horse, Chris had to pull one of his infantry units back off the hill. And I charged it behind flank. Yay! Go the good guys.

ECW-1241 Centre - Royalist foot rout Parliamentary shot — ECW-1241 Centre – Royalist foot rout Parliamentary shot

Adam’s horse was pushed down the hill.

ECW-1242 Left - Hill - Royalist rally back — ECW-1242 Left – Hill – Royalist rally back

But it seesawed and in other places we won.

ECW-1243 Left - Roundheads rally back at foot of hill — ECW-1243 Left – Roundheads rally back at foot of hill

ECW-1244 Left - Roundhead dragoons rally back — ECW-1244 Left – Roundhead dragoons rally back

Turn 5

Chris continued to pull his infantry back.

There were lots of charges on the left and left centre

I lost my second general in the left centre. Now I had two commands that were stalled!

ECW-1249 Centre - Second Royalist general dies — ECW-1249 Centre – Second Royalist general dies

We scored a kill.

ECW-1251 Left - Parliament Horse rout — ECW-1251 Left – Parliament Horse rout

But Dave got a decisive result on the hill.

ECW-1250 Left - Hill - Royalist horse rout — ECW-1250 Left – Hill – Royalist horse rout

That was end game. Parliamentary victory.

Conclusions and Observations

A great game. I don’t know about the others but I find the bigger games, with more troops on a bigger table, more exciting.

“Let’s see the terrain and then organise our army.” This was a quote from one of the players. Nice try. Didn’t work. The campaign dictates that the armies are organised into commands before the players see the terrain. This is deliberate. Armies effectively deployed in march order. Sometimes they literally deployed from march. So decisions on structure happened before the terrain was seen.

I’ve noticed that, as the campaign progresses, we are trying different things in terms of army structure and deployment. We went through a phase where both armies would weight all their cavalry into one attacking wing. That was a pretty good tactic but we quickly discover that the other wing, with no horse, was quite weak and couldn’t do its protective job. So we are drifting back to wings which are more balance, both with cavalry. This hints that the rules reward historical organisation and deployment.

Going into the last year of the campaign, the odds are definitely against the King. The Royalists hod both capitals but Parliament holds the majority of regions.

ECW-1255 Strategic Situation - Final — ECW-1255 Strategic Situation – Final

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
10	1644 Late	South-East	Small	Adam Strategic Attacker Tactical Attacker Victory	Chris Strategic Defender Tactical Defender Defeat
11	1645 Early	Wales	Small	Adam Strategic Defender Tactical Defender Defeat	Chris Strategic Attacker Tactical Attacker Victory
12	1645 Late	South-East	Big	Steven Strategic Defender Tactical Attacker Defeat	Chris Strategic Attacker Tactical Defender Victory

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)