Last year, during my vacation in England, I purchased a quantity of 54mm English Civil War figures. I had seen them at a convention over here, but they were, I thought, expensive. By lugging a quantity of boxes across the Atlantic, I managed to reduce the price sufficiently to amass enough to put on a game.
The figures are manufactured by a firm known as A CALL TO ARMS (ACTA), based in London. There seems to be two styles of ACTA sculpture, resulting in one group that's fairly ordinary in girth, and another that seems to have eaten well. But sculpture aside, the main flaw in the firm's output is the lack of cavalry. There are plans to produce some, but no one could tell me when.
The 54mm figures brought out the best of my painting talents. I lined them up, whipped out my spray can, and.... ph-h-h-h-h-h-h-t!... one regiment finished. Well, not quite finished. A wee bit o' touchup with some red, some flesh, some black, some brass... and my boys were almost ready for battle.
With five different basic spray paint can colors, I produced enough variety in the units on the table to please the eye... at least, it pleased my eye. I called six men a regiment, and mounted each regiment such that each man had an area 1.5 by 1.5 inches to call his own.
First Battle
Time for the first battle... Parliament's own the Earl of Simon versus the King's representative, Sir Thomas Elsworth. We were each given about nine units... pikemen, musketeers, halberdiers, sword and bucklermen... but no cavalry. How does one fight an ECW battle with no cavalry? Shame on A CALL TO ARMS!
The sequence was an alternate one, with the active player drawing what I termed an Order Card (OC). There were five phases per half-round;
a. The active player moved his troops
b. He had his musket-bearing units fire (if their weapons were loaded)
c. The non-active side's units fired their muskets (if their weapons were loaded)
d. The active side's units closed for hand-to-hand combat.
e. Both sides rallied their men who had been placed in the dreaded Rally Zone.
On the OC there were three things listed:
First, there was a Movement Efficiency Percentage (MEP), ranging from 60 to 80 percent. The player tossed percentage dice for each of his brigades (either 2 or 3 regiments). If he tossed below the MEP, each of his units got 3 actions. An action permitted a unit to advance 8 inches. If the player's brigade failed the throw, the units received only one action. A missile unit that used none of its actions, i.e., remained stationary, could load its weapons. Second, there was a Fire Factor (FF), ranging from 0 to +3. When a unit fired, it added the FF to a 10-sided die. The target also rolled a 10-sided die. A hit was scored when the firing unit's total was more than the target's total. A hit resulted in one man being wafted to the Rally Zone. Third, there was a Closing Factor (CF). During regular movement, units could get no closer to the enemy than 3 inches. Here, in order to close for hand-to-hand combat, the player had to toss percentage dice below his CF, which ranged from 60 to 90 percent.
In the battle, a huge counter-clockwise wheel resulted. The Earl of Simon's forces were victorious on his right flank, while Sir Thomas' were victorious on his own right flank. But Sir Thomas' units were, shall we say, a wee bit more victorious than those of the Earl's. The Earl's men were being chopped to ittsy-bittsy pieces.
In melee, as in firing, a comparative toss of 10-sided dice was used. Each side added to its die roll a number of modifiers, such as "+1" for every man in the unit, a "+1" if the unit was in two ranks, a "+1" if the officer assisted, a "+1" if a supporting unit was nearby, a "+1" if sword & bucklermen faced pike, etc.
Both sides compared modified die rolls. If one side's modified die roll was twice the other's, the losing side's men all went to the Rally Zone. Otherwise, the lesser side lost one man and retreated.
In combat, the sword & bucklermen of both sides, except in one instance, proved outstanding. Each time a unit won a melee, it earned a standard (hand painted, or rather, more accurately, hand sprayed) which, in the next melee, yielded yet another "+1" for the unit.
I should note that the sword & bucklermen were not truly ECW people... these men came from several boxes of Spanish Conquistadors, who with their cuirasses and helmets, met my strict dress code standards for the ECW league.
I noted above that there was one instance in which a sword & buckler unit did not shine. This occurred when the sword & buckler persons of one of Sir Thomas' units had the misfortune to charge a unit of musketeer persons of the Earl's. Sir Thomas' boys were ready enough... they had their "+1's" for two ranks, and for attacking musketeers, and for a support, and for each of the 2 standards they carried, etc.,... in short, they were loaded for bear...
The Earl's musketeers simply stood there, grim-faced, awaiting the onslaught. But when it came time to fight, fight they did... they tossed a 10", while the sword & buckler unit tossed a rotten "1". Not only did the musketeers win, but they captured all the standards amassed by the opposing unit!
One combat, however, does not a victory make... and we shall close the curtain on this episode.
Second Battle
The second battle pitted Parliament's General Bob Hurst, known to his men as Sir Robert Hurstly, against Lord Frederick Haub, a King's man to the core.
In this battle, I changed the Order Cards slightly. Instead of saying that stationary units could load their weapons, I noted on the cards the necessary number of actions required to do so.
Another change in the rules occurred in the melee section. Now, if a unit lost a melee, it didn't lose one or two men... instead, the entire unit was zapped into the Rally Zone. In similar fashion, if a unit took a morale test and failed, it, too, was whisked into the Rally Zone.
We did nothing by halves... either you played the game, or you were condemned to the Rally Zone. This was truly warfare in the grand manner.
Sir Robert Hurstly was on the attack, even though he had fewer troops than Lord Haub.
Alas, Sir Robert's lack of troops began to tell. Especially so, when he lost a melee, and the entire unit fled the field, leaving him fewer than before.
I should note that in these rules I was trying out a "new" procedure. In all instances of fire, melee, morale and rally, a comparative die roll procedure was used. The firing and melee procedures that I've described above, have the active side tossing a 10-sided die, as does the opponent, and bad things happen to the one who has a lesser modified sum. I believe that NAPOLEON'S BATTLES uses a comparative procedure for its fire phase. I was interested in seeing if the procedure could be used in a universal manner.
Both the morale tests and the rally tests for troops were similar. The unit testing tossed its die, as did the opponent. In the morale test, the die of the testing unit was modified by adding the number of men still on the field. Most of the time, there were some 4, perhaps 5, on the field, and so the modifier for the testing unit was "+4", or "+5".
In the rally test, however, the same modifier, i.e., the number of men in the unit still on the field, was zero (since most of the time, the entire unit had fled)... which meant that, like the opposing dice throw, the modifier was zero. Here, therefore, with both sides tossing an unmodified die, the chance of rallying became 50 percent. And he who didn't rally, died! These were tough times!
Despite the harshness of the morale and rally tests, the game went well.
As in all wargames packaging, the boxes put out by A CALL TO ARMS contained some 11 useless" figures. There were drummers, and men drinking from flasks, and men not doing anything obvious, and standard bearers, and so on.
I mentioned that the standard bearers were immediately put to use. A unit that won a melee received its own standard to help in future melees.
Those not doing anything obvious became 'Weapons loaded" markers. If a unit didn't have its muskets loaded, one of these people was placed in front of it. When the unit reloaded its muskets, the person immediately fled to the rear, giving the unit a clear field of fire.
Other "useless" figures became artillerymen. Others became officers.
Officers were handy. In the comparative die tossing procedures, a side could add up to "+3" which an officer could contribute, augmenting its die toss.
An officer helping his side was at risk, of course. If he assisted with, say "+2", then a toss of 1,2,3 killed him. If he contributed "+3", then a 1,2,3,4 killed him. In other words, a die roll of one more than the pips he contributed would do him in.
Trust me... there will be more on this comparative die tossing stuff...
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