Every month or so, out come my 30mm ECW figures, on the table go the Royalists, the Parliamentary forces, and once again the King attempts to break through the opposing lines on his way to London. As is usual, each new game sets out a new procedure or so as the rules are updated according to the comments rendered by the participants at the previous game.
During the '94 summer season, Duncan MacFarlane, noted British editor, entrepreneur and wargamist, passed through on his way to HISTORICON, and he partook of an ECW scenario... "exposed to the rules" is how someone put it; as if they constituted some sort of dreaded disease.
Duncan, however, survived... perhaps in a weakened state, but he survived. He commented favorably on the ECW system, which caused me no end of joy... for who else can more knowledgeably comment on a set of ECW rules than a loyal subject of the crown? This is but an extension of the thought that all Americans are equally expert on both the ACW and the American Revolutionary War. I know that I am. * * *
Since the time that Duncan nodded his head in affirmative fashion, the rules have kept the same basic structure, but, as I've stated, they get "tweaked" each month.
Recently, to add a wee bit of interest to the presentations, I outlined a six battle, quasi-campaign of which each battle plays a part. The elements of the campaign are:
- a. The forces for each battle will essentially be equal, but will reflect, to some extent, previous victories.
b.The winner of each battle will accumulate ? number victory Points (VP) determined by the town where the battle is fought. The total VP per battle is the sum of the town value plus a random amount generated by a 10sided die roll.
- Winchester 10 + Die Roll
Newmarket 8 + (2 x Die Roll)
Edgehill 20 + Die Roll
Newark 15 + Die Roll
Norwich 5 + (2 x Die Roll)
Cholsey 12 + Die Roll
c. In each battle, each side is initially perched on a ridge, approximately 12 inches in from its baseline. This places the forces, on my table, about 3 feet apart. Units may be deployed or in column. At least half the force must be on the field. The remaining off-board troops may enter anywhere along the side's baseline.
d. Stealing a page from the WRG rules-book, each side has 2 pieces of "moveable terrain" which it may place anywhere on the field (terrain does not have to be used). The sides dice for their terrain pieces:
- 01 to 33 A town, 8 inches by 8 inches
34 to 66 A woods, approximately 10 inches by 20 inches
67 to 100 A hill, approximately 10 inches by 20 inches
Three battles have been fought thus far... Parliament won at Winchester, while the King won at Newmarket and Edgehill. The totals to-date are: Parliament 13, and the King 47.
The sequence employs a derivative of what I term "The Haggarty System"... based on an input from Gary Haggerty, a subscriber to the REVIEW. Gary used a deck of 52 playing cards, and I have vetted the deck down to 20 cards, each stating two parameters:
- a. A Priority Number. The cards are numbered 1 through 20.
b. A number of Actions - 2, 3, or 4 - given to each unit on a side.
Each bound consists of three "bid" phases. Prior to the bound, each side is dealt 4 of the numbered cards. The sides then bid to see which goes first on each phase. The first two phases are identical... high Priority Number on the card wins the bid, that side moves and fires, the opposing side moves and fires, and melee occurs.
The third phase is slightly different... high bid again wins, but this time, winner take all. The winner gets to move/fire one infantry or one cavalry wing. The losing side does nothing. This "bonus" phase, most of the time, is the one far participant reserve their highest bid number.
A rally phase follows the third bid phase, after which the sides turn in their one remaining card, and are dealt another four for the next bound.
King's Victory
The King's victory at Newmarket was mainly due to the gallant charge of Bob Hurst's cavalry. Bob's cavalry commander, Sir Robert Hurstly, led his left wing cavalry units in a series of critical advances against the opposing Parliamentarian cavalry units. In the melee phase which follows each movement/fire phase, when one unit contacts another, melee is resolved unit-on-unit.
Sir Robert's extra-heavy horsemen charged into the ranks of the Parliamentarian not-so-heavy horse. Extra-heavies are favored over not-so-heavies, and so Sir Robert's horse received 15 combat points per stand, a total of 30 combat points for the 2-stand unit.
The Melee Result Chart states that the attacker sums his points, adds them to a toss of percentage dice and looks up the result on the chart. The chart indicates that the attacker must, with his summation of dice plus combat points, total 70. If he doesn't total 70, he loses.
Since Sir Robert's cavalry started out with +30 combat points, all they need to toss on the dice throw was a 40 or more. Easily done. After much experimentation with melee charts and tables that purportedly compared weapon values... pike versus swords, and muskets versus pike, and so on... I gave up and decided to simply categorize unit-on-unit capabilities. When a unit contacted another, there were three possibilities:
- a. The unit contacted a "vulnerable opponent". Here, for example, cavalry attacking a musket unit, a forlorn hope, would, by definition, be contacting a vulnerable opponent. In this case, the cavalry get 15 combat points per stand.
b. The unit contacted a "like kind" unit. Pike-versus-pike would be considered such an encounter. Here, the attacking unit receives 10 combat points per stand.
c. The unit contacted a "more powerful opponent". J1 musketeer unit charging into a pike unit, for example, would be considered a melee in which the poor muskets would knowingly be outclassed. In this case, the musketeers received 5 combat points per stand.
As I indicated above, the Melee Result Chart requires that (a) the attacker toss percentage dice, and (b) his combat points plus his dice throw must total 70 or more for a victory. An examination of the point values assigned per-stand for the different types of melee shows that he who hits a vulnerable opponent has the probabilities on his side, whereas he who runs up against a more powerful opponent isn't likely to come out on tap.
The system requires that only the attacker toss percentage dice; the chart results detail what happens to both winner and loser. When Sir Robert Hurstly's extra-heavy horse charged into Parliament's not-so-heavy horse, the Hurstly cavalry were facing a vulnerable opponent. And they took good advantage of it, as they knocked off several enemy units.
As I remember, the Hurstly dice, when added to their combat points, were sufficient to reach the total of 70 in some 4 out of S encounters. Only in one instance did the Hurstly dice fail, and this was only a momentary setback, for Bob immediately sent in another extra-heavy cavalry unit to take up the slack.
In the last battle to date at Edgehill, the King won handily, so handily, that I and Tony Figlia, Parliamentarians to the end, actually gave up, the situation looked so hopeless. The victory point tallies, at battle's end, showed the Royalists at +15, and we Parliamentarians at -5!
Two turns before, we had been even, when suddenly, all went downhill.
I led Parliament's left flank, consisting of one cavalry wing, and one infantry wing. The center had been given to Brian Dewitt, who arrived in midbattle... and now that I think on it, our downfall seemed to stem from the time that Brian appeared. Did we have a Royal Mole in our midst? Had Brian secretly sworn fealty to the King? Had he taken the King's shilling? We'll never know.
Opposing me was that sturdy King's Man, Sir Robert Hurstly. Despite my shifting from flank to flank and back again in each battle, I always seem to end up facing Sir Robert. I've become, in effect, his patsy... I think he purposely seeks me out.
I lost a couple of "big", i.e., costly, melees to the Hurstmen. The fire and melee charts are structured so that, as I mentioned, only the attacker tosses the percentage dice, and the greater his total (his combat points plus his dice throw), the more decisive the victory.
The charts are arranged so -that they fall in "bands". If the attacker's total is in the region of the first band, 70 to 100, he kicks back his opponent, not decisively, but enough to warrant a victory. The next band, 101 to 130, causes the opponent to fall back even more, and this time, the opponent's unit receives a marker. Four such markers removes a unit completely.
The last band, a total over 130, is the attacker's dream, for it constitutes a decisive victory and here, the opponent is not only two markers, and at, if to pour salt all the wound, one staff officer from the losing side will desert to the winner.
I believe we Parliamentarians lost three such decisive unit-on-unit victories to the Royalists, and the loss of the officers, althouqh not immediately felt, was one of the major factors in our ultimate defeat.
Officers help out when units take morale tests and in melee. In both these functions, when the officer is committed, his particular value is not known, but must be diced for. I noted that as the ECW campaign progresses, there is the tendency, more and more, to too* more than one officer into the pot to ensure that the officer's point value is sufficient to be of assistance.
When the dice are tossed, the officer's value becomes:
- 01 to 33 10 points
34 to 66 20 points
67 to 100 30 points
Thus in a morale test, an officer can augment the testing unit's morale level by anywhere from 10 to 30 percent. Similarly, in melee, the officer can add to the engaged unit's combat value from 10 to 30 points.
Use of the officer can be decisive, and that's why loss of one in melee, i.e., desertion to the opposing side, although not immediately apparent, works against you.
Officers have yet another function, that of staving off defeat. Victory Points are assigned to each side at the beginning of a battle, with the total related to the size of the force. Each side starts out with around 25 points.
Each time a unit fails a morale test, 1-point is deducted from the side's total, each defeat in melee produces a 2-point loss, and each time a unit flees the field (receives 4 markers) , 3-points are lost.
The battle is over when, at the end of a bound, one side's Victory Point total reaches zero. As the zero-point is gradually approached, and defeat is imminent, there is only one way to increase your Victory Point level, i.e., stay above the zero mark... toss in the ubiquitous officer and have him augment your victory Points.
Again, the officer's augmentation is unknown when called upon; his value is diced for:
- 11 to 33 1 points
34 to 66 2 points
07 to 100 3 points
Towards battle's end, and I believe our Victory Point total at this time was around 3 (down from 25), our side decided to use 2 of our precious officers to increase our Victory Points. We diced... and PHOOMPH! ... all we got from the 2 officers was a total augmentation of 2 points, bringing our victory Point total up to 5. Our gamble didn't pay off, for we had sacrificed the officers' use in the morale and melee procedures, and gotten little in return.
In contrast, Sir Robert Hurstly, displaying a fine command of the dice, a neat flick o' the wrist, a graceful tossing of the cubelets... he tossed in 2 of his officers, and received a total 5 points for them. Yes, the sun shone that day on Sir Robert and the King.
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© Copyright 1994 Wally Simon
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