I missed most of the good hype around Simon Miller's 'To the Strongest' ancient rules, though I knew that a grid and cards were involved, so when the two Steves set up a game of 'For King and Parliament' - the ECW version, I just had to attend.
Also of course, Simon has looked at a late C17th version of this, so already, he has my attention..
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| Actually, just for contrast, these are some of Steve's 28mm Empress figures painted up - awesome... |
The key take-aways from the game for me were:
- As mentioned above - a few tweaks based on French doctrine and cavalry doctrine for the 1680-1690 period, and these rules allow me to do Boyne, Aughrim, Neerwinden, and even stretch to Marlburian battles - I believe. Just look at a map of Almanza for instance - it looks perfect for the gridded approach.
- Everything operates off a grid. Now, that does create a a few issues with diagonal decisions and charges.
- BUT more is solved via using a grid, than is made complex - i.e. delineation of terrain is simple; movement is simple; range is simple; arguing is mostly invalid, and my concerns about it all appearing 'too' linear were mostly disproved.
- Ok , ok ...I'm a heretic - I didn't like the playing cards, and I prefer D10s ...I know, I know.
- D10s still work, and to my mind, give a nicer element of randomness when required, and are quicker in a large game.
And as Bruce used to say 'Tonight's the night, if you play your cards right!'
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| Time for a Brucey Bonus??? |
(I fully appreciate that this 1980s/90s British TV reference is so far off base for my American friends, that its relevance as a meme, joke or otherwise humourous skit, is about as useful as a fart in a space suit...)
The figures are all from the two Steves' excellent 15mm stuff.
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| The initial set-up |
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| Those Rubbery Royalist forces |
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| Those Pesky Parliamentarians |
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| The first cards for activation go down - now a D10 can be used, and much debate over their pertinence, vs the 'passion' of using cards was discussed. Apparently the rules say I am a 'heretic' for preferring D10s ...oops |
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| The chits are used to delineate dash (no of charges as horses get blown, which is a great mechanism) and fires (for cavalry it is literal, for infantry firing at full effect does wear down) |
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| Cavalry clash on the Royalist right |
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| Royalist infantry engages in the centre |
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| The right would see an epic clash of horse all day |
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| Now the cards aren't visually great looking, but they have their place. Again, I will playtest with D10s and maybe use small cards for actual group games. |
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| The Royalists are getting the better of the clash - Dutch style cavalry vs Swedish style cavalry - one is lithe, the other enduring... |
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| It's all going off in the centre - the Royalists have seized the initiative |
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| Guns pretty much sit when emplaced - a feature that we can use right into the early C18th. |
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| By game end, the Parliamentarian left and centre had started to collapse. |
There is a lot to like in these rules, and this style of play. I love the fact that I can transpose this to Grand Alliance / Nine Years War / even Marlburian - I believe, with relative ease.
It's a very different style of play, but I think one that really lends itself to a good game - the tactics are somewhat different - but the key to play is knowing 'when' to commit. That's probably a lot closer to the real decisions made at this time, in these periods, than we actually realise.
More to come...
