So I’ve been Musing on the Vulture’s Feast, a Thirty Years War version of my Populous, Rich and Rebellious Campaign for Tilly’s Very Bad Day. Most of the flavour of the campaign comes from the Campaign Cards. I’m not sure which ones I’ll end up with but I thought I’d share the possibilities. Please comment if you have endorsements, tweaks and/or new suggestions.
Country
I am fascinated by military history and in particular the history of Spain and Portugal. But with my connections to New Zealand and Israel I’ve also acquired an interest in the wars of those nations as well.
Musing on the Vulture’s Feast – A 30YW version of Populous, Rich and Rebellious
We’re really joying Populous, Rich and Rebellious, our four player Campaign using Tilly’s Very Bad Day, and set in the English Civil War. But people keep asking me, what about the Thirty Years War? (Most recently Peter Godden.)
1645 Game 11 – Wales – English Civil War Campaign
Adam and Chris played the 11th game of Populous, Rich and Rebellious, our four player Campaign using Tilly’s Very Bad Day, and set in the English Civil War.
Summary: In probably the best game yet, Parliament thoroughly crushed the Royalist defenders in Wales.
1644 Game 10 – South-East – English Civil War Campaign
After a 10 month gap, Adam and Chris played the tenth game of Populous, Rich and Rebellious, our four player Campaign using Tilly’s Very Bad Day, and set in the English Civil War. Unfortunately we’d forgotten about Game 9 so it was a bit of a replay … with a different result.
Summary: A strong Royalist attack crushed the Parliamentary defence of the South-East.
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.
Kiwis vs FJ in Italy – A Crossfire Scenario
We’ve played this a couple of times now so I thought I’d put it into my scenario format. This is a Crossfire scenario for a fictional battle between 2 NZ Division (Kiwis), including Kiwi Armour, and German paratroopers (Fallschirmjäger). It is primarily to play test my Balagan House Rules for Crossfire Armour (2nd Edition).
Valour, Discipline and Training
I like the idea of using contemporary language within rules but I have two competing sets of terms: Napoleon’s “Valour and Discipline” and South American “Training and Discipline”. What to do? For Bolivar’s Very Bad Day should I replace the “Resolve” attribute of Tilly’s Very Bad Day with two attributes, one reflecting bravery and the other training? And what should I call them?
Perano – A Crossfire Scenario and Battle Report
Gunnery Sargent Rock (Bruce Stewart) played another game in the Italian Campaign using 2 New Zealand Division. This time it was Perano using my ideas for a scenario. All words are Bruce’s except where noted.
Twilight of the Britons – A Battle Report 3
I have some newly painted dark age heroes along with tons of new armoured infantry, plus an update to the rules, so it was time to play Twilight of the Britons again. Chris and Adam were willing to give it a go.
Summary: Good game and very dark age in flavour. Chris overestimated the ability of his dark age warriors to manoeuvre and got into a bit of a tangle. Adam’s Briton cavalry crushed the English flank guard and hit the Great Fyrd at the rear of English line causing the English shield wall to collapse.
Tucuman – A Bolivar’s Very Bad Day Battle Report
Adam and I play tested Bolivar’s Very Bad Day using my Tucuman Scenario. We wanted a small game to test my variant of Tilly’s Very Bad Day for the South American Wars of Liberation.
Summary: Good little game with the Patriots strong in cavalry and the Royalists strong in infantry. My Patriot cavalry stripped off the weak Royalist cavalry and encircled the Royalist infantry columns. Then we had a hard grind with repeated cavalry charges against the staunch Royalist infantry. Eventually Adam accepted he couldn’t win and conceded.
Tucuman – A Bolivar’s Very Bad Day Scenario
Feedback from the guys was that Battle of Sipe Sipe (29 Nov 1815), although a good game, was too big for regular play testing of Bolivar’s Very Bad Day. So they asked for a smaller scenario with less terrain. The Battle of Tucumán (24-25 September 1812) seems perfect for this. Although the deciding battle in the War of Argentine Independence, it was a small scale affair with, in game terms, only 11 units on each side. It also features the a wide range of troop types and troop quality. And it has Gauchos. This scenario is based on my write up of the historical battle and how to wargame the battle. Bolivar’s Very Bad Day is my Liberators variant of Tilly’s Very Bad Day.
Sipe Sipe – A Bolivar’s Very Bad Day Battle Report
Jamie and Adam came over to play test Bolivar’s Very Bad Day, my Liberators variant of Tilly’s Very Bad Day. I’d just finished the hill for Battle of Sipe Sipe (29 Nov 1815), so decided to give the associated Sipe Sipe Scenario a go. Because we were play testing the rules, we wouldn’t have enough time to complete the battle but we figured we’d give it a go anyway.
Summary: Draw because we ran out of time. But good play test of the scenario and rules. Lots on insights most notably, the jungle fighting felt wrong under the draft rules and there shouldn’t actually be jungle fighting at all in the scenario. Both rules and scenario need tweaks.
Sipe Sipe – A Bolivar’s Very Bad Day Scenario
I’ve been working on Battle of Sipe Sipe (29 Nov 1815) for a while now. So I thought I’d write a scenario for Bolivar’s Very Bad Day, my Liberators variant of Tilly’s Very Bad Day. This is a large game on a large table.
Battle of Vargas Swamp 25 July 1819
The Battle of Vargas Swamp (Batalla del Pantano de Vargas), fought on 25 July 1819, was the bloodiest battle of the 1819 campaign but set the scene for the liberation of New Granada. I cover the historical situation, the battle itself, the terrain and the two orders of battle.