A couple of months ago I was very excited to see that there is a ECW-specific set of rules in the Dominion series - Dominion of Cavaliers and Roundheads. Regular readers will know that for the past year I've been using the Pike & Shot version, as that has ECW stats in it, and made a few minor adaptations to better reflect the conflict. So I was interested in seeing how a specific set of rules would approach things.
I was generally impressed. Obviously it follows the standard Dominion format; armies of 3-7 units, simple troop types and the standard Elite/Fortified/Unreliable modifiers. In this case we have Artillery, Dragoons, Cavaliers, Cavalry, Musketeers, Pikemen and Highlanders. Foot are assumed to be mixed pike and shot, but the division between Musketeers and Pikemen is based on their emphasis. The Royalists tend towards Pikemen, whilst the better equipped Parliamentarians emphasise Musketeers. Cavaliers are used for Royalist horse; they are more aggressive against other horse, but prone to uncontrolled pursuit. Dragoons get to shoot, but in certain circumstances they skirmish, for which there is a special rule. Artillery is best used from the reserve.
In terms of rules there's a nice mechanism for making cavalry unpleasant on the flanks when opposing foot. And there's an interesting optional rule in rallying where you drop all extra traits and rally a unit as a base unit instead, which makes things a lot simpler.
There was only one thing I didn't like. It uses what I think is the original combat resolution system, where each turn you make combat rolls in all three sectors, then fill in gaps from the reserve. There's no alternating player turns, or choice of where to fight. Stephen has rightly pointed out that this reflects the relative lack of control a commander had over the battle once the armies were deployed and stuck into each other. Unfortunately it also makes for a dull game. There's not a lot of decision in the Dominion games as it is, and this takes away a good proportion of it. However there's no reason why you can't use one of the activation systems from another set of rules instead.
To finish off this run-through of the game there are 28 scenarios covering key battles of the era. All the ones you'd expect are there, and some of them are very interesting indeed.
So how does it play? I've played a few of the scenarios, and having now got the mechanisms sorted I thought I'd document one for you. Not in detail though.
I abandoned the activation system in the rules and used the one from Dominion of Napoleon Bonaparte instead. This uses alternate turns with fighting in one sector only. It has a random element as to which sector is selected, but also a chance of allowing the player to make a choice. It's a nice balance between uncontrolled battles and the player getting some agency.
One of my standard test-beds for my ECW Portable Wargame was First Newbury, which is a nice head-to-head fight between relatively equal forces. So I set up the First Newbury scenario from the rules as a simple example. Here's the set-up, looking at it from behind the Parliamentarian right flank. We can see the horse of both sides facing off on Wash Common*, Parliament formed up around Round Hill in the centre and Royalist horse facing Parliamentarian foot in the enclosures near the River Kennet. I put on some houses to represent Newbury.
Black counters show elite units (the Royalist horse) and brown counters show steadfast units (some of the Parliamentarian foot - the Trained Bands)
Parliament won the cavalry fight on Wash Common. Orange counters show destroyed units.
And to make matters worse, the Royalist foot was thrown back in the centre.
On Wash Common Parliament's horse continued their rampage, turning the Royalist flank. The white counter shows an unreliable unit. Why is it unreliable? It's one of the period specific rules in play.
And the horse kept going, rolling up the Royalist army in what was a rapid defeat for the King's army.
I set it up again. At first the fighting on Wash Common was inconclusive.
But the Royalists soon swept to victory and managed not to ride off in pursuit.
In the centre and on Parliament's left the fighting settled into a stalemate. The Royalists pushed forward, but couldn't shift the steadfast Parliamentarians. But Parliament couldn't blunt the Royalist attack.
In a reversal of the pervious game, the Royalist horse swept off Wash Common and into the Parliamentarian foot.
Essex frantically rallied his panicking foot ...
... but it continued to waver and break.
However eventually the position was stabilised.
And then reversed as the Royalist horse broke, no doubt exhausted from its efforts.
The stabilised Parliamentarian line faced a continued Royalist advance.
The Royalist left fell back and the King failed to rally them.
On the other flank the Royalist horse there had been trying to winkle the opposing foot out of their enclosures. At this key moment in the battle they succeeded, leaving Parliament's left exposed.
But in the centre the Royalists were collapsing. The battle now hung on a knife-edge.
But it was the agile Royalist cavaliers that swung into the centre to claim the win.
To be fair this battle doesn't show all of the special rules in the game (no dragoons or artillery, for starters), but I hope this shows something of how a battle plays out. Controlling the flanks with your horse is important. The Royalists have more punch, but their lack of discipline can be a problem.
I want to play through a few more scenarios, and then I will have a look at updating my random army generator to reflect this set. And then? maybe a campaign. But no promises.
*Just on the south edge of Wash Common is the warren that was the original home of the rabbit protagonists of Watership Down. Watership Down itself lies a few miles to the south.
