Something new

We had an interesting foray recently into a period I have played very little, the English Civil War. I have literally played two ECW games before in my entire life. Like the WSS, a period I am vaguely interested in but haven't summoned the energy to do in a serious way.

This was a tryout for the rules Mark has been working on them for a while, and he brought a selection of his beautifully painted 28mm figures along to play with.

Mark and I were the staunch defenders of liberty and parliament, while John and Kayte were the foppish monarchist absolutists. Photos all taken from the Parliamentarian side.

Parliamentary infantry deployed in very modern order with independant wings of shot.

Brave parliamentary cavalry. Hurrah!

Artillery and cuirassiers. Hurrah!

Wicked Royalist infantry deployed in unimaginative clumps.

Our brave chaps advance and get a bit shot up. The Royalist cavalry also take some casualties from artillery fire.

We press on in the centre.

Royalist dragoons open up from behind the hedgerows on our cavalry.

The remains of our cavalry take on Royalist musketeers.

Getting to grips in the centre.

On the right our infantry form a sort of vaguely square-ish formation.

Much to everyones amazement, our cavalry manage to rout the Royalist infantry regiment, even though they have been all but wiped out.

Our cuirassiers get stuck into the Royalist fops.

In the centre another Royalist infantry regiment routs, and it is pretty much game over  at that point.

This was a lot of fun, the game move along at a fair pace and we reached what seemed to be a reasonable conclusion in a sensible manner. We gave Mark some feedback about layout and presentation, but generally the rules seemed very sound and it would be nice to try them out again.