ECW: Time to make war

Scenario:

English army has entered the Borders of Scotland and have defended themselves in a village with a vital crossing point.  The Scottish army has approached with the task of pushing the English back and holding the bridge.

The river is low level and crossable by all troops. However doing so NOT at the two ford sections or the bridge costs a 1” move reduction for foot units, cavalry are not restricted.  Trees are impassable for all troop types.

Crossing a hedge costs Pike & Shot units 2” of movement; Highlanders lose 1” of movement.  If the full move cannot be made, the unit has to halt by the hedge until the next command.

Melee can take place over a hedge without penalty.

Buildings are hard cover and block line of sight, hedges give light cover and increase “to hit” number by +1.

A roll of “6” is an exploding dice and an additional die is rolled for each perfect 6.  Continue if additional 6’s occur.

Pike & Shot 5” standard move (no “charge” move)

Highlanders 6” (Charge 8”)

Cavalry 8” standard move (Charge 10”)

Pistols maximum range 5”

Muskets maximum range 12”, close range 6”

Artillery Maximum range 36”; Medium range 24”; Close range 12”

To Hit with firepower:             at maximum range = 6

At close range 5+

Artillery hit on Max range (36”) 6; Medium (24”) 5+; close (12”) 4+

Unit Base dice 6d6.  +2d6 if first volley (or if previous command was “down”)

Units lose a die when their Cohesion level falls into a “Red Zone”

Melee combat P&S units 6d6

Gallopers charging home against P&S 4d6; against other cavalry 6d6

Lancers first round charge 6d6, thereafter 4d6

Trotters “stand off” at short range and discharge pistols 4d6 (first volley + 2d6)

ALL to hit points in melee are 5+ (with 6 being “exploding dice”)

Turn one ended early with three white dice being drawn (these represent turn end once the 3rd is drawn) with few moves made by each side.  Basically Scots advanced across the board.  In reflection the “village” was somewhat of a funnel, which meant the fire fights would become very restricted. (Poor table set up by me).

Turn 2 was the complete opposite with every dice being drawn, including the 2 Artillery dice.

Scots advance continued with some fire fights taking place and casualties markers with the small discs I made last year.  The casualty marker is placed on a unit for every THREE hits scored on it. This reduces their “Cohesion” level, and they have to make a moral test against this number at the end of the turn.

Failing to make the test means removal from the game as “Routed” as seen by the first casualty of the game with an English unit leaving the field of battle.

So fare, the experience with ‘exploding’ 6s works well and they did have some limited impact on the outcome of firefights.

A terrible turn for the Scottish left wing as almost the entire force was decimated by the English cavalry.  Although taking some hits in return only the Gordon Horse remain fighting.

I need to think of ‘force’ breaks as this unit remained for the rest of the game whereas in reality I think it would have broken as well.  It didn’t really affect the final outcome, but it may well have.

Otherwise I also want to rethink melee combat a bit more. Perhaps increase hits to 5+ rather than 6s.

Scots fight back with a good turn and cause a number of English casualties.

The “cohesion” table works well, I think with some units surviving even when their level had dropped to 5.  2d6 needing a 5 doesn’t happen too often.

An extremely short turn 5!  It all depended on the final turn (turn 6) unless a 4+ on a die gives a final 7th (it didn’t).

The Scots were totally eliminated on their Left, they had pushed back the English on the Right wing with the Highlanders breaking the English units, but the centre was pretty much a stalemate as there was insufficient space between the bridge and the village for an effective fight.

Perhaps a more thoughtful battle plan would have helped, but in any case most of the rule mechanisms appears to work, although a few tweeks might be required.

A few pics of the final position follows.

A Defensive win for the English.