As you might have noticed I have a penchant for taking sets of rules into other periods. Musket Action started off as a Muskets & Tomahawks game, but we have found they work just as well in other periods & for much larger battles. Tonight we tried them out in an English Civil War battle.
Mike's Scots: 3 lowland regiments (1 pike & 3 shot), 4 highlander units, 2 brigades of 4 medium cavalry & 2 guns.
Jim's English: 4 pike & shot regiments (1p+2s), 2 musketeer coys, an extra heavy cavalry brigade of 2, & an heavy cavalry brigade of 4.
Steve acted as UN observer.
The English are on the left. In the first turn they held back their foot & their extra heavy cavalry on their left & pushed forward on their right. The Scots made a general advance, a bit disrupted by a command failure in the centre. Half their left flank cavalry have pulled back behind the wood on the right, other half is on the flank of the highlanders.
The English right has mostly turned left into a defensive position with just 2 cavalry pressing forward.
On the far flank the English extra heavy cavalry charged the Scot horse with mixed success, breaking 2 enemy, but losing 1 themselves. Right of centre the English have become more aggressive, perhaps a bit too much so.
On the far flank the cavalry has clashed again, this time indecisively. In the centre the musketeers are now slugging it out. On the near side of centre the highlanders caught the careless musketeers in flank, but the English horse has broken the Scots cavalry. On the near flank, the English have lost a unit, but it took a few Scots with it & they have a good unit left.
On the far flank the English cavalry has called discretion the better part of valour & fallen back.
On the near flank the English cavalry has taken out all the Scots cavalry & a highland band as well.
In the centre the Scots still haven't got their big schiltrons into action.
As the English lapped around the Scot's left flank with foot & horse more English units broke & the Scots army failed its army break test. The English plan of avoiding the big schiltrons & attacking everything else worked (maybe helped by some good luck with cavalry, but the English commander felt he was owed that by the dice gods given what they done to his cavalry in most recent battles).
These rules have really come together now. This battle didn't show up any omissions or quirks in the rules that needed fixing. It was also finished in very good time - under 2 hours with 21 to 24 units a side.
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