I’ve updated Populous, Rich and Rebellious to version 2. 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.
Why a new version?
I felt an update was needed.
We’ve been play testing the campaign rules for a couple of years. As I write this we’ve play 11 battles in our four player English Civil War campaign. That play testing showed some of my early assumptions were unfounded. Version 1.0 through 1.3 assumed players would want to play multiple games in simultaneously. I used “rounds” to facilitate this. However, it turned out, if four players turned up, we didn’t want to play two small games side by side, we wanted to one big game, all together. So this version abandons rounds in favour of a more sequential approach with bigger and smaller battles depending on the number of players present.
Having abandoned rounds, this version puts more focus on seasons. Actually the main difference is they now appear on the revised map.
I also simplified the sequence of play. Previously strategic sequence of play was separate from the tactical sequence of play. This version combines those into one overriding series of steps.
All of which demanded a complete update to the Quick Reference Sheet.
I think the end result – rules, map, QRS – is simpler and clearer.
Why a version 2?
The current version is 1.3 and I’m moving to version 2.0. I think the changes to the sequence of player are sufficient large to warrant a major version change.
Why now?
Why now? Well, I want to ensure The Vulture’s Feast is built on the best baseline I can.
Where to get Tilly’s Very Bad Day and Populous, Rich and Rebellious
You can get the campaign rules and QRS here:
Populous, Rich and Rebellious – English Civil War Campaign (PDF)
You can get the tactical rules here:
Long time lurker, first time commenter.
I am have a couple questions about the rules:
1. Is there any particular reason that in 2.0 only the strategic attacker gets a card (& not the strategic defender) for fighting a battle, or is that a typo?
2. Where in TVBD is the ‘two streams makes a river’ rule? I don’t understand how that is supposed to work.
1. The strategic attacker needs an advantage. They get this in two ways. Firstly by choosing where to attack; this influences the number of campaign cards each side based on controlled regions. The second one is the +1 for the attacker. I justify this because they know they are attacking and have prepared for it more than the defender. We also play tested both players that the +1 for fighting a battle, but prefer only the strategic attacker getting this. The net effect is that the strategic attacker is marginally more likely to have a bigger army and be the tactical attacker.
2. Good spot Amos. The “Two Streams Makes a River” Advanced Rule isn’t in the Tilly’s Very Bad Day rules. It is described on Terrain Cards – Random terrain placement for pick up wargames.