You are James Graham, Marquis of Montrose. Your objective is to capture the four important towns of the north of Scotland: Aberdeen, Perth, Dundee and Inverness, which can then be used as recruiting grounds for the King. You begin at Blair Castle, in Atholl, with the following forces: 9 bases of Irish musketeers, C class, under Alasdair MacColla. (Bold general) 8 single rank bases of Atholl highlanders, D class. 3 bases of lowland musketeers, D class, under Lord Kilpont. You can equip one third of your foot with pikes AFTER your first victory over a covenant army. Each time you defeat a covenant army, on 5 or 6 you can add a light gun to your army. The enemy: The Covenanters can have up to three armies at any one time, formed at Aberdeen, Dundee, Perth, Stirling, Inverness or Inveraray. Their objective is to destroy your army. Dice for the covenant armies' starting points - only one army per location. Movement: Moves are alternate. Royalists move first. Any army can move one map square per move. Your army can move into the mountainous areas, but you must move back into the lower ground by the same route. You may not take artillery into the mountains. The covenant armies, in their turn, will move all their armies one square closer to your position. At the start of each move, take an event card from the deck. The deck should comprise the following: 6 cards - Forced march - take two turns. 6 cards - Rest - miss a turn. 6 cards - Highland recruits come in. Add 2D6 single bases of highlanders to your army. 3 cards - Gordon recruits. Throw D6: 1,2: 1 foot regiment (C class, 1 pike, 2 shot) 3,4: 1 regiment horse (C class, 3 bases) 5: 2 foot regiments, as above. 6: 2 regiments horse, as above. (N.B. If Gordon Horse recruited, they are led by Lord Gordon (rash general) 3 cards -Gordons desert. Throw D6 for each Gordon unit in army. 1,2,3,4, they desert and go home. 2 cards - Lowland foot regiment joins. (D class, 2shot, 1 pike) 2 cards - New horse unit joins. (2 bases, D class) 2 cards - Alasdair MacColla. If with army, he leaves for west with 1 base of Irish. If already away, he returns with 2 D6 single bases highlanders 4 cards - Covenant recruitment. If they have less than three armies, this allows a new army to be raised. Dice for location as above. 20 cards - Blank. The composition of the covenant armies is diced for at random. At the start of the campaign, the armies consist of: Cavalry: Throw a D6: 1 = 1 regiment. 2,3,4 = 2 regiments. 5,6 = 3 regiments For each unit, dice at random for two or three bases. Then: 1,2 = E class 3,4,5 = D class 6 = C class Infantry: Throw an average dice for number of regiments, each one base of pikes, two of musketeers. Throw for class as above. Plus throw a D6: 5 = four bases of highlanders. 6 = eight bases of highlanders. Add a light gun for each three infantry units. Covenant armies recruited after the campaign are made up as above, but throw for class as follows: 1 = E class 2,3,4 = D class 5 = C class 6 = B class (i.e. veterans from covenant armies in England or Ulster) Dice at random for which commander is in charge of covenant armies, e.g. Elcho (cautious), Balfour (cautious), Auchinbreck (bold), Argyll (average), Hurry (bold), Baillie (average), Leslie (bold) After a successful battle, all your highland troops go home with their booty. You capture a town simply by moving in to it. Any covenant army in the town will come out to meet you in battle in the open. Campaign ends if your army is defeated in battle or if you have captured the four strategic towns of Inverness, Aberdeen, Perth and Dundee. Solo English Civil War Rules Rule Applications - 1 Back to Table of Contents -- Lone Warrior #129 Back to Lone Warrior List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 2000 by Solo Wargamers Association. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com