Camp Cromwell Thursday 31/08/06

English Civil War to Warhammer Rules

Jim & SteveJ's Parliament v. Mariusz & SteveP's Royalists - Nick umpiring.
The Parliamentary army was larger & better equiped but had poor morale. Their commanders decided to defend & let the Royalists do the walking. Rupert lead an attack with an unsupported cavalry unit at the centre of the Parliamentary line. Nearly half of Rupert's unit got shot down as they advanced but when they charged the Parliamentarian pike & shot ran away. The follow up took out a second pike & shot unit, then was stopped when it hit a cavalry unit. On both flanks, the Parliament's horse ran without a fight when charged by Cavaliers. At left centre SteveJ's cavalry got lucky & routed the best Royalist horse unit. A Parliamentary Pike unit in good position to counterattak Rupert in flank was taken over by an Agitator & charged off in the other direction - to be overwelmed by Royalist pikes. The Parliamentary reserve cavalry was prevented from attacking Rupert's other flank by follow up of the rout from the right flank. Rupert's unit, down to about 20% strength cleaned up the horse to their front to finish the battle.

The rules are not to my taste. Issues include:
1) The combat resolution system is tedious, overly complex & there are too few options to influence things by tactical decisions - troop types & luck seem to be all that matter.
2) The movement rules don't reflect what I think is reality - no penalty for wheeling & units can even wheel freely in a charge.
3) The morale rules are too luck dependant - you're either lucky or not - with too few options to influence things by tactical decisions.
4) A cavalry unit can make an unsupported attack on a line of pike & shot & have an excellent chance of carving their way through. Even for a charge lead by Rupert against mediocre troops it seemed a bit rich - stopping cavalry is what pikes were for.
5) 6's are not always good - in morale you need to throw 1's, in combat you need to throw 6's.
6) Too many crazy rules about heros, agitators, standard bearers, etc, etc.
7) It seems very easy for a capricous or random issue like having a unit 1cm this way or that to determine victory or defeat.