1642 Game 1 – East Midlands – English Civil War Campaign

ECW-121 Royalists take a hammering - Banner

Adam, Chris and Jamie agreed to play Populous, Rich and Rebellious. As I hope you recall this is a Campaign set in the English Civil War. Chris, representing Parliament, invaded the East Midlands from London. The Royalists rose to the challenge and Adam tried to take it for the King.

Summary: At the “Battle of Ely”, the heavily outnumbered Parliamentarians defeated the Royalists in seven game turns.

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Snakes and Ladders Campaign for Tilly’s Very Bad Day

Tilly's Very Bad Day - 30 Years War - Snakes And Ladders Campaign - Banner

Peter of Grid based wargaming has sparked some interest in using the children’s board game Snakes and Ladders as the basis for a wargaming Campaign. The snakes become tribulations and the ladders are campaign successes. So I have made up a board for a Tilly’s Very Bad Day Snakes and Ladders campaign based on Peter’s board for the 18th Century.

There is no skill in playing this campaign system as, like the children’s board game, random dice rolls lead to success. If you are lucky, you will win. For me this makes a Snakes and Ladders Campaign most suited to solo play where the goal is to provide narrative for the game. I’m not really a solo player myself, but I know some Tilly’s Very Bad Day players do play solo and I hope this will appeal to them.

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Download Populous, Rich, and Rebellious – English Civil War Campaign

Populous, Rich, and Rebellious - ECW Campaign - Banner

Populous, Rich, and Rebellious is a campaign game system for the First English Civil War (1642-46) in England and Wales. The campaign assumes Tilly’s Very Bad Day as the tactical rules, although you can any rules that suit you. The campaign uses a simple area based campaign map to drive tactical battles and weaves in a bit of flavour with campaign cards. The first version was a web page, but I thought folk might like a PDF version, hence a download page.

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English Civil War Campaign Rules for Tilly’s Very Bad Day

Populous, Rich, and Rebellious - ECW Campaign - Banner

Chris is really keen that we do a Campaign. Every time we play Tilly’s Very Bad Day he mentions this. So here it is. At least here are the rules. Unexpectedly I’ve chosen the English Civil War as the setting for the campaign, but only because I’m following the lead of Peter of Grid based wargaming – but not always. 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. Exactly what I’m looking for, but I feel obliged to change some things, of course. I’ve called my version “Populous, Rich, and Rebellious”.

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Factions in a multi-player Thirty Years War Campaign

Factions for a Thirty Years War Campaign - Banner

I keep thinking about a multi-player Campaign for the Thirty Years War. Two of the big questions is how many factions and what are they? I take a quick look at board games for inspiration before taking a view. There are quite a few board games for the Thirty Years War. Many focus on simulating the entire war so I thought I have a look at what factions they have.

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Holy Roman Empire (HRE) Board Game

Holy Roman Empire - 1984 version - Map with errata - Banner

Mark McLaughlin designed a game of the Thirty Years War called “Holy Roman Empire” or HRE for short. I’ve never played it but I do have a copy. It looks a good basis for a miniatures campaign so I’ve summarised some of the features which I think make it interesting. I found the material on Board Game Geek: Holy Roman Empire useful when looking at the game.

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