Portable Southam

I tried a refight of the 1642 Battle of Southam early on in my experiments with using the Portable Wargame for the ECW so it used an earlier version of the rules. This evening I tried it with some of the refinements I've put in place since then.

I switched back to full hits for this game. I'm not sure the reduced hits on units really added to the game or made it play the way I felt it should; not for the ECW anyway. In addition I properly added in the rule that only once side scored hits or retreats in a close combat. I may play around with this still; I have an alternative idea that if the both sides hit, the defending unit (or maybe the unit which rolled lowest) checks for effect first. If they choose to retreat, then the other side suffers no adverse result. But if the first unit chooses to take a hit (or has no choice but to take one), then the other unit that has taken a hit also tests to see what the result is.

The 'only one side hits' rule might explain some of the sustained close combat slogs in the two games I played.

I also worked out a consistent 'turn to face' rule. In addition I added in a change that a unit only pursues if it is that side's activation. This made it less likely I'd lose track of whose turn it was, amongst other things.

Actually I tried all sorts of tweaks and changes because I just can't leave these rules alone ...

So here's the setup. The Royalists are closest to the camera.

Parliament started things off with a strong attack by their right.

The Royalist foot is very much outclassed in the battle, and must rely on their superiority in horse. Unfortunately Parliament got a really lucky run of cards for initiative and left the Royalists  completely flat-footed.

Whilst the Royalist horse got some action towards the end, Parliament won the battle in the centre.

I set it up and ran it a second time. The Royalists went for an early attack, on the basis that pushing their horse forward slows the advance of the Parliamentarian foot. Unfortunately I also rashly decided that they'd attack the Parliamentarian cavalry up a hill-slope, and that went as well as you'd expect.

The Parliamentarian foot advanced once more

Royalist horse failed to do anything useful on the flanks.

Another win for Parliament.

I fitted in a third run of the scenario before work this morning (really), with some more minor changes which may actually put the game where I want it to be! I'm going to try them again this evening. But the two games above showed me I'm on the right lines with the other stuff; the rules feel much more logical and streamlined now, and I'm making up far less stuff on the fly.