Peter’s English Civil War Campaign for One Hour Wargames

You might remember that Peter of Grid based wargaming inspired my Terrain Cards. Terrain cards were actually part of Peter’s Campaign set in the English Civil War (see Grid Based Wargaming – ECW). There is quite a lot to this campaign – Peter wrote something like 45 posts on it and played 30 games. I love it. Tons of inspiration. And I appreciate the obsessive element that saw Peter completing this project – I think it took him 18 months.


Reflections on the ECW Campaign System

The most striking thing about the campaign is that Peter hand draws his campaign assets. The includes the campaign map, the game maps, the random event cards, Terrain Cards. Everything. I like his style. Simple and effective. Peter kindly gave me permission to use some of them here.

1642 Start of the campaign and the contest begins in the Yorkshire region
1642 Start of the campaign and the contest begins in the Yorkshire region

Peter’s ECW campaign system uses a simple area based campaign map to drive tactical battles and weaves in a bit of flavour along the way. I really like the simplicity of this campaign system. It is quite DBA-Campaign-esque, but has some unique features. There is a simple area based map with 13 areas in England and Wales. There are no complicated economics and no tracking of casualties.

Peter introduces a number of new elements. The orders of battle are randomly generated, allowing unbalanced match ups. The starting point for the orders of battle are:

Cavalry = 2 + D3
Infantry = 2 + D3
Dragoons/Commanded Shot = D3
Artillery/Elite units = D3-1

The rules have two different mechanisms to counter-balance bad dice luck when rolling for the orders of battle. In 1642 you can re-roll recruitment dice for adjacent friendly regions. Later in the war the rules use random chance cards that also allow the protagonists to get more units.

ECW Campaign - Chance Cards
ECW Campaign – Chance Cards

I like that fact that the first year of the war (1642) has different goals. Being a civil war, the first year of the campaign is a drive to seize uncontrolled territory to create a base of operations. In a sense this provides a recruitment base for each protagonist. In contrast in the later years the focus shifts to capturing enemy territory.

The system relies on Terrain Cards for the battles. Unlike mine, Peter hand draws his.

Terrain cards
Terrain cards

Peter used his home grown variant of One Hour Wargames (Horse and Musket) called D3 English Civil War Wargaming Rules. Peter has a thing about three sided dice.

1642 Game 1 Yorkshire
1642 Game 1 Yorkshire

Peter played solo and fought 30 games when he played through the campaign. That must have been quite a big investment in time, even at one hour per game.

So I like it. A lot. I like it so much I might steal/borrow some of it for my own purposes. More to come.


Peter’s Campaign – the Posts

Peter’s ECW Campaign is a great read. You can find everything on his site Grid Based Wargaming – ECW. But if you want a short cut to the more important posts I’ve included links to them all of them, in order. I’m obsessive like that.

Campaign Set Up

Peter evolved the campaign rules so they are spread over several posts. I think these are the main ones.

Beginning the ECW Campaign
WW2 unit and preparing for ECW campaign games
WW2 on a grid and ECW cards
ECW Campaign rules for 1643
ECW Campaign Cards and Terrain Cards
Continuing the ECW Campaign

1642 – 11 games

ECW Campaign – Game 1 Yorkshire
ECW Campaign – Game 2 at tale of two bridges (East Anglia)
ECW Campaign – Game 3 Battle of Dunington (Lincolnshire)
ECW campaign – Game 4 Set up
ECW Campaign – Game 4 Battle for Bryburn (South Coast)
ECW Campaign – Game 5 set up
ECW Campaign – Game 5 Battle of Appleby (Lancashire)
ECW Campaign – Game 6 setup
ECW Campaign – Game 6 Battle of Lenham Heath (South East)
ECW Campaign – Game 7 Setup
ECW Campaign – Game 7 Battle of Brecknok (Wales)
ECW Campaign – Game 8 Setup
ECW Campaign – Game 8 Battle of Otterly St Mary (South West) – Day 1
ECW Campaign – Game 8 Battle of Otterly St Mary (South West) – Day 2
ECW Campaign – Game 9 Setup
ECW Campaign – Game 9 Battle of Birdlip (West Midlands)
ECW Campaign – Game 10 Setup
ECW Campaign – Game 10 Battle of Bakeman’s farm (East Midlands)
ECW Campaign – Game 11 Setup
ECW Campaign – Game 11 Battle of Callington (Cornwall)

1643 – Four games

ECW Campaign – May 1643 Game Setup
ECW Campaign – Game 12 – May 1643 – Battle of Pershore (West Midlands) – Day 1
ECW Campaign – Game 12 – May 1643 – Battle of Pershore (West Midlands) – Day 2
ECW Campaign – Game 13 – August 1643 – Battle of Lodge Farm (East Midlands)
ECW Campaign – Game 14 – October 1643 – Battle of Kings Sutton (West Midlands)
ECW Campaign – Game 15 – October 1643 – Battle of Banbury (West Midlands)

1644 – Six Games

ECW Campaign – 1644 begins
ECW Campaign – Game 16 – March 1644 – Battle of Nether Wallop (South Coast)
ECW Campaign – Game 17 Setup
ECW Campaign – Game 17 – April 1644 – Battle of Upper Windrush (West Midlands)
ECW Campaign – Game 18 Setup
ECW Campaign – Game 18 – May 1644 – Battle of Ponderbridge (East Midlands)
ECW Campaign – Game 19 Setup
ECW Campaign – Game 19 – July 1644 – Battle of Alton (South Coast)
ECW Campaign – Game 20 Setup
ECW Campaign – Game 20 – August 1644 – Battle of Driotwich (West Midlands)
ECW Campaign – Game 21 – September 1644 – Battle of Barton Hall (East Midlands)

1645 – Four games

ECW Campaign – Game 22 Setup
ECW Campaign – Game 22 – May 1645 – Battle of Brinklow Bridge (East Midlands)
ECW Campaign – Game 23 – September 1645 – Battle of Fernhurst (South Coast)
ECW Campaign – Game 24 Setup
ECW Campaign – Game 24 – September 1645 – Battle of Lurgashall (South Coast)
ECW Campaign – Game 25 – October 1645 – Battle of Yaxley (East Midlands)

1646 – Five games

Preparing for the final ECW campaign year
ECW Campaign – Game 26 – April 1646 – Battle of Oakham Hill (East Midland )
ECW Campaign – Game 27 Setup
ECW Campaign – Game 28 – June 1646 – Battle of Dunnington (Lincolnshire)
ECW Campaign – Game 29 Setup
ECW Campaign – Game 29 – September 1646 – Battle of Bishop’s Waltham (South Coast)
ECW Campaign – Game 30 Setup
ECW Campaign – Game 30 – October 1646 – Battle of Oxford (West Midlands)

Leave a Reply