Wales Archives - Steven's Balagan

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

26 May 20253 May 2025 by Steven Thomas

ECW-1211 Royalists close on left and in centre - Banner

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.

Version 2 of Populous, Rich and Rebellious

29 Mar 2025 by Steven Thomas

Populous, Rich, and Rebellious - ECW Campaign - Banner

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.

1645 Game 11 – Wales – English Civil War Campaign

2 Mar 2025 by Steven Thomas

ECW-1105 Royalist view - Centre - Banner

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

23 Feb 2025 by Steven Thomas

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

22 Feb 202515 Feb 2025 by Steven Thomas

ECW-936 A Parliamentarian blaze of glory - Banner

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.

Twilight of the Britons – A Battle Report 3

5 Oct 2024 by Steven Thomas

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.

1643 Game 7 – Lower Thames Valley – English Civil War Campaign

21 Oct 2023 by Steven Thomas

ECW-702 Late Round - Strategic Situation - Royallists Attack London - Banner

Adam and Chris played the seventh game of Populous, Rich and Rebellious, our four player Campaign using Tilly’s Very Bad Day, and set in the English Civil War.

Summary: Although caught by a larger Parliamentarian force, Adam had spectacular victory at the “Real Battle of Turnham Green”. London fell to the Royalists. The campaign cards were critical to the battle with the interventions of John Hurry and Sergeant-Major-General Boy, the ‘Dog-witch’, deciding the outcome.

1643 Game 6 – Wales – English Civil War Campaign

5 Aug 20235 Aug 2023 by Steven Thomas

Jamie and I played the sixth game of Populous, Rich and Rebellious, our four player Campaign using Tilly’s Very Bad Day, and set in the English Civil War.

Summary: Although the Royalists invaded Wales, the Parliamentarians had a larger army on the day and attacked. The “Battle of Colby Moor” was a Royalist victory.

1643 Game 5 – Upper Thames Valley – English Civil War Campaign

6 May 20236 May 2023 by Steven Thomas

ECW-508 Bombardment - Parliamentary General becomes casualty - Banner

Adam and Chris played the fifth game of Populous, Rich and Rebellious, our four player Campaign using Tilly’s Very Bad Day, and set in the English Civil War.

Summary: After losing a general in the preliminary bombardment, Parliament fought well but could not break the Royalists within the game limit. Royalist victory at the “Battle of Chalgrove Field”.

1642 Declaring for King or Parliament – English Civil War Campaign

22 Apr 2023 by Steven Thomas

ECW-454 Consolidation Round - Final - Banner

In Populous, Rich and Rebellious, the first year of the Campaign ends with a “Consolidation Round”. This is the English Civil War and the idea is, after a few battles, every region declares for either King or Parliament. In our campaign the two sides started the consolidation round even, with 3 regions each, but finished with Parliament significantly ahead.

English Civil War Battles on the map for Populous, Rich and Rebellious

1 Apr 2023 by Steven Thomas

ECW Campaign - Map - With historical battles - Banner

Chris suggested I overlay the historical battles of the English Civil War on the campaign map for Populous, Rich and Rebellious, our English Civil War Campaign. So I did, although only for the the period covered by the campaign, i.e. the first civil war (1642-1646).

1642 Game 2 – Wales – English Civil War Campaign

18 Mar 2023 by Steven Thomas

ECW-212 Royalist Pike+Shot looking good on the right - Banner

Jamie and I played the second game of Populous, Rich and Rebellious, our four player Campaign using Tilly’s Very Bad Day, and set in the English Civil War.

Summary: At the “Battle of Montgomery”, the defending Parliamentarians (Jamie) defeated the Royalists (Steven) in five game turns.

Twilight of the Britons – A Battle Report 2

30 Aug 20247 May 2022 by Steven Thomas

Chris and Adam played tested Twilight of the Britons – a version of Twilight of the Sun King for the early medieval period in Britain.

Summary: Much better game. The shield wall clash was realistic but took too long to resolve. Battles on the wings were interesting and had an impact in the centre

Twilight of the Britons – A Battle Report 1

23 Apr 2022 by Steven Thomas

Britons-103 Army A - Warlord's Shieldwall - Banner

Vincent Tsao and I have been playing around with a version of Twilight of the Sun King for the early medieval period in Britain. I started with a rewrite of my original 2001 version of Twilight of the Sun King and incorporated ideas from Vincent’s Battle of Hastings variant. The result is called “Twilight of the Britons: Fast play rules for the English invasion of Britain”. I got Adam and Chris to give an early draft a go. So early I’d only written the rules that day, so isn’t wasn’t so good.

Summary: Too much dark age shield wall stodge. Not enough heroics. But a glimmer of hope for the rules.

Solo DBA Arthurian Campaigns

16 Aug 202114 Aug 2021 by Steven Thomas

I’ve shared some DBA Arthurian Campaigns based on Martin Smith’s “Arthurian campaign” article in Slingshot (Smith, 2021), itself based on Kaptain Kobold’s solo HoTT campaign (Dux Bellorum). Both Martin and the Kaptain give solo opportunities so I thought I’d share how to use my campaigns in solo mode. You can play a solo variant of the campaign, like Kaptain Kobold. Or you can play a multi-player campaign with the table top battles fought solo, like Martin Smith (2021). Both options are presented here.