ECW Rules Part 2 - Into the Glossy Era

The nineties were a bit of a miniatures gaming doldrums for me.  Locally, Warhammer and Warhammer 40K were (and are) very big, and I had had little exposure to them but discovered their marketing practices the hard way when I think I bought a rulebook about two months before it got “revised” (translated as binned).  The historical gamers were either DBA etc, or 15mm (or often both):  25/28mm historical gaming was not on anyone’s horizon.  I was still roleplaying although boardgames had started to feature much more.

Warhammer Ancient Battles came out in 1998 followed by Warhammer ECW in 2002. 

This is the first of the “glossy” rulebooks on this period that I have.  There were probably earlier ones but they managed to pass me by.

I’ve never played these rules (although have done a certain amount of WAB).  Some things it had going for it though:

~Officers, standards and musicians had a game effect

~The Personalities and specialists including The Marksman (aka sniper).

With the demise of Warhammer Historical then the rules are probably consigned to history as the chance of any other publisher being able to pick them up are I suspect nil,  given that I imagine dealing with GW is difficult. 

Probably at the same time I buy the 3^rd edition of Forlorn Hope.  Now A4 sized, with computer aided layout.  Despite never having played it I still like the features from it that I mentioned in Part 1.

Forward to 2012/13.  My chum in Oxford announces he has bought Pike and Shotte and we have been talking about some miniatures gaming weekends for a while.  Warlord Games have it in their January 2013 sale, so a splurge. 

Pike & Shotte – 208 pages of hardback glossy goodness (well eye candy at least).  I’ve not played any of the Warlord systems (Hail Ceaser, Pike and Shotte, Black Powder) to comment on if /how they work. 

On a quick glance through:

~We are back to Pike and Shot figures being that – none of this unit ratio that appears in Forlorn Hope. 

~However, no apparent unit/sub unit awkwardness but it seems like a straightforward command roll to see if the shot get the benefit of the pike support if charged by Cavalry. 

~The organization (battalia) suggests some interesting command and control issues.

~Halbards are there (Double handed infantry arms p87) – although not as they originally appeared as say  train guard or bodyguard – I suspect in context this rule is going to apply to Highlanders/Irish in Pike and Shotte. 

Clubmen are there

Snipers are there as a “by agreement” addition (p168)

Downsides

~Generic again – the Italian wars of 1494 to the War of the Grand Alliance (1689?).  It is covering the Pike period, but I do like my English Civil War flavour.

~No baggage camp as an inherent part of the rules. 

No Train Guard with Firelocks.  Firelocks are there but in a “storming party” role and a quick glance at the stats would suggest that a storming party is something you need to use in a game..

I suspect Pike & Shotte will be the next ECW system I play  - because as always – it depends on what you can get an opponent for.   

On a quick whim I looked at the authors:

Warhammer ECW: John Stallard.  With help from Jervis Johnson and Rick Priestley.   Playtesting by Steve Morgan.

Pike & Shotte: Steve Morgan.  Based on the Black Powder game by Jervis Johnson and Rick Priestley.  Special Thanks to John Stallard.

Forlorn Hope: Pete Berry and Ben Wilkins. 

ECW Rules Part 1 - the Pre glossy era

This post was inspired by a comment made along the lines of “what are the best ECW rules, and why do you like them” after I’d confessed to buying Warlord Games’ Pike and Shotte set recently.  Inspired by that set to and went through how many sets I actually have for this period. 

First a bit of background.  My interest in the ECW dates back to probably the tweens and reading the Shire Battlefields of Britain books.   

We used to go to Newark when I was a child quite a lot.  In those days (late sixties, early seventies) then it had lots of antique/bric a brac/junks shops.  In those days anything old didn’t necessarily command a premium price and I got some ex army stuff (badges, berets etc) to play dress up with, along with an almost (2 cards missing) set of cigarette cards on military uniforms (some 15 years I got the missing cards as singles in Leicester from a stamp cum coin shop), so my parents used to go for a day out and a general poke around the shops.  I don’t really remember that they ever bought very much that came back with us.  Well, after reading the battles books there’s the Museum to now visit.  My parents were vaguely aware of the siege of Newark (Nottingham itself being of course for Parliament, except that Charles had raised his standard outside one of the pubs in the early days), and especially so that they had made their own money. 

So, it’s off to the museum.  I suspect I’m eleven or twelve.   And yes, we have siege money. 

John Kinross in the shire book does a slight dis-service at this point – in the visiting bit, he makes reference to the book, Newark on Trent, The Civil War and Siegeworks.  No book on display to buy – quote curator “It’s quite an expensive book and we don’t normally put it out”.  17 shillings and sixpence – or roughly four shire books – which today would be 4x say £7, so say £20-£25.  I didn’t have pocket money then but my parents (bless ‘em) bought me the book.  I think by this time the realization had sunk in that Football, Football annuals and the likes of Bobby Charlton and George Best weren’t going to feature highly in my life.

 

The cover is a bit creased and the pages yellowing (well the book is forty years old) but the spine isn’t broken and the map is still neatly folded and not torn. 

But more was to come – equipped with knowledge from the museum and book, then off to the Queen’s Sconce on the way home (not much of a detour).  My Dad and I climbed to the top and looked out… 

A few years later Hinchliffe introduced their English Civil war range.   If I knew then what I know now then I should have been buying Les Higgins 30mm ECW figures (does anyone know where those moulds are?) instead.  Miniature figurines also expanded their range – in essence the range now had older, poorer sculpts, and newer much nicer sculpts although the “round bottomed” horses seem to persist.

The very first set of ECW rules we had were the Musketeer Rules by George Gush.  I can’t find them right now, but they were the forerunner of the WRG rules.   We played a few games with them.  My memories are that we struggled with the whole unit/sub unit thing and that Halbardiers and Cuirassiers were the most effective troops in melee.  We never had very large armies, especially cavalry, and generally spent time on large Napoleonic battles with plastic Airfix figures supplanted by the odd metal unit, cannot etc. 

My gaming chum for this period then discovered squash, girls and music (and I would ultimately by his figures from him so he could spend money on these things) and I discovered Dungeons and Dragons (amongst other things) so the ECW gaming went on the back burner. 

So, we come now to 1979-1980 and University.  D&D is still the big thing but someone has two Thirty Years War armies.  WRG is one of the big names in historical rules at this time (I always had and have a spot for lots of the Leicester Wargames club rules – lots of which ended up with Tabletop etc).  Again the whole unit/sub unit concept deters us and we don’t get enough games in to really explore and understand the rules. 

Mid to late 1980’s and now that I’ve been in work my spending power has increased (if my painting time has decreased) and we’re seeing the “explosion” of rules and figures.  Front Rank appear with an ECW range, Redoubt do some and Wargames Foundry is there somewhere as well.  Essex have lots of strange 

horse positions to my eye, and occasionally I feel that their human anatomy was a bit oversize, especially when mixing it in with other ranges.   I buy the WRG army lists during this period and I do like the idea of the “baggage camp” and points for its loss, as so many battles seem to have the Royalist Cavalry in search of loot and baggage. 

DBA/DBR was flavour of the time in many quarters.  Bought the books, never took to wanting to game it.  (I was still roleplaying at the time though, and discovering the Chaosium rules system, especially Pendragon).  

Tercio is copyright 1986 and I can see that I’ve made notes at the back on the army lists about what figures I had.  I would presume that this would probably date from a shopping trip to Nottingham and a visit to Tabletop Games.   Likewise would be the skirmish rules “Sword and Pistol”.  

The big news from this period though would be Forlorn Hope. 1988 amended edition, almost certainly purchased at the World Championships (although I don’t think they were called that then) at Derby Assembly Rooms.   My gaming chum bought lots of figures and I bought some (especially dragoons) from Front Rank.  And then disaster struck as we’re trying to paint figures to play games – he gets a new job in Oxford (from Leicester) (although I shall return to him later) and I get a promotion but which means 12-15 months of continuous assessment and an exam: both things curtail gaming big time.  I painted quite a lot on this period though– Lord Brooke’s Purple Coats, the yellow Regiment of the London Trained bands and John Hampden’s Green coats, whilst I was doing Foundry in Red and Blue coated regiments with swappable banners to provide a Royalist opponent– I fancied early Parliamentarian (so Edgehill) that morphed into Eastern Association.

Forlorn Hope had (and still has) lots going for it that I liked:

~Dicing for your army rather than points – although they were available as well – so you gamed with what you got.

~A mechanism for determining varying ratios of pike: shot in a unit and no messy unit/sub unit rules.

~Dicing for the morale of your troops, and I especially liked the Edgehill option where this was done for this battle, the first time they were called to test.

1991 sees the second edition, which I buy (for some reason).  It’s marginally better laid out than the first edition, although still essentially done by typewriter or early word processor. 

This style of layout etc marks the watershed to Part 2.

The Sloth returns in 2013

OK I'm back with plans to update more regularly.

The tail end of 2012 disappeared in the usual end of the year gaming frenzy - World Championships at Derby, the Spiel at Essen (Germany) and Crisis (in the new venue) at Antwerp.  And I went to all three of them, and each was worth going to for different reasons.

What remains now is to post the pictures and detail the goody bags.

Aside from the bad weather, 2013 has seen a bit of a flurry of activity as well with the purchase of some more rulebooks - Deus Vult (from Fireforge), Pike & Shotte (Warlord) and the medieval and later army lists for Hail Ceaser (Warlord).

Watch this space...

Chris

Awayday - Battle of Britain Bunker

Last weekend (8/9th September) was the annual heritage open days weekend and I went up to London in part to see the Battle of Britain Bunker.  Opening for individuals as opposed to groups has always been a bit limited, but it was a bit of a shock to discover the 2 hour queue waiting time to get in.  Health and safety meant that only a limited number could be down it at any one time because of evacuation difficulties.

I see that website now has virtual tour.   Only one of its kind left - there were I think we were told five to cover the whole of the UK, and this was the one that directed the Battle of Britain.

Worth the wait ?  Yes, since  may never get the chance to get inside it again.

Same weekend saw me also get to a big medieval tithe barn - Harmandsworth.  Saturday saw me in Central London:

Wallace Collection for an exhibition on The Noble Art of the Sword: Fashion and Fencing in Renaissance Europe which finishes on the 16the unfortunatley and no photography.  Only a few rooms, with perhaps 20-30 swords, fencing books, clothes and some other accessories.  Rapier hilt fashioned to look like chains or ropes etc.  As a three musketeers fan though this was my sort of exhibition. 

Another one that finishes soon 930th September) is The Horse from Arabia to Royal Ascot at the British Museum which in the first part has some nicely displayed stuff from Ur and other biblical kingdoms on the development of the chariot.  This then moves through the muslim world to the thoroughbreds that are the backbone of English racing stock.  

The morning had seen a visit to some fairly average exhibitions at the National Army museum with lunch an (expensive - this is Sloane land - but nice) salt beef bagel from the farmers market, and the evening was rounded off with lashings of German beer and sausage.   

Partizan 2012 (May 27th)

As always Partizan entertained and inspired me.  If I could only ever go one wargames show then I suspect Partizan would be my show of choice.  Quality participation games, quality demo games, and lots of the great and the good in the wargames hobby there. 

Firstly I must make big apologies to the staff at Wargames Soldiers Strategy - I didn’t take any photos of the naval wars of the Roses game. 

There are some pictures on the Too much Lead Blogspot and here at Another Slight Diversion

  

It was only going to be a morning visit as I had both mum to visit on the way back to the in laws and then to get back down to Exeter.  The plan was to start at the furthest place from the entrance/exit and work my way backwards.  That sort of fell apart as at 10.30 I was offered the chance to play Muskets and Tomahawks.  I was intrigued what was within this rule set given that I’m a fan of the fairly innovative SAGA and this is by the same author. 

For the most part the rules are very similar to what we have seen elsewhere – dice rolls to hit, dice rolls to kill (or save), dice for morale etc.   The cards reflect that this is a card driven activation system.   Where M&T has evolved is that rather than one card per unit (as per Battlemasters), and lots of rules from Two Fat Lardies (Which I also like) this give different numbers to different types: at its crudest analysis then irregulars like Rangers get 4 cards with one action (move, shoot, reload) per card, whereas regulars get 2 cards but 2 actions per card.  There is a bit more to the system than that – Indians, Civilians, Grenadiers, Officers and morale all playing a part along with optional event cards.  As I understand it so far (need to read rules) the contrast with the Two Fat Lardies system is that your cards are guaranteed to come up, compared with the “tea break” card that causes a re-shuffle although I’m not sure.   More on M&T and the French Indian Wars in a subsquent blog post.  

The Camera came out somewhat sparingly – as usual these days.  A few more pictures will appear on my next blog entry ‘scatter terrain’.  

An Arthurian game from Westbury Wargames

A VBCW game from the Gentleman's Wargames Parlour 

A Vinland game from Shaun at the Bunker.

In talking with him he did admit that lots of the rock - including that at the left had been reused from a '633 Squadron' game.  

A World War One game from Great War Miniatures.  Lots of really nice details in this and freely admitted to be a spatial compression game (so that a manufacturer can show off what they do) - the front line to the artillery to the supply tractors would in reality have been miles.   A nice change from the brown mud games.   

A Wars of the Roses game from Perry Miniatures.  As one might expect, this was stunning although I might have liked something that told me about the battle or the sides/heraldry (if fictional).  

Muskets and Tomahawks participation from Rich Jones. 

I probably spent more at Partizan on goodies than I did at Salute.  

        

~Muskets and Tomahawks

~Two Rice paddies (A4 size) from The Last Valley

~Song of Arthur and Merlin (Ganesha Games) - Ready printed copy from Dave Thomas

Various bits for M&T - Two Totem poles (Grand Manner) for use with Indians, Redendra Bell Tents for regular soldiers, Trade goods (two different sets) from Ainsty Castings, and some second hand French Indian Wars which I have now identified as Redoubt Enterprises (and good sculpts: I feel some Redoubt stuff is good and some poor). 

Chris

Legionary 2012

Legionary is my local show in Exeter.  It's had somewhat of a chequered history in recent years having been through several different hands and venues.  Alongside this has been the rationalisation of show attendance by traders and the effects of the downturn in the economy.   With Exeter being roughly 100 miles from Bristol then aside from any overnight costs its going to be a good 5-6 (if not more) gallons of fuel for anyone to get there and back from North of Bristol or West of Bournemouth.  In 2010 I'd been somewhat disappointed and whilst 2011 saw it move to the new venue as part of my general lack of enthusiasm I didn't go.
As always the show was very mixed - lots of Warhammer 40l/Fantasy and Flames of War from traders, and generally smaller local traders.  This does not always mean little league as for example Black Scorpion produce some of the finest figures available today in my opinion.   The Square and Dreamholme are some of the big producers of resin terrain.  None of these had much new though to interest me, and the first two (not sure about the third) were certainly at Salute only a few weeks previously.
A major part of the show in recent years has been the tournaments - Warhammer fantasy and 40K (Flames of War and Warmachine have been in/out as well in recent years) - which do not interest me at all.
The quality of the wargames on show seems to reflect the very variable nature of the hobby at the moment.  Some were very good, some were just disinterested in people around them, and a few (Saga / Dystopian Wars / War and Conquest) were linked in with traders at the show.
I'd arrived reasonably late on the afternoon and still had my stick re my bad back (see Salute blog).   I only got the camera out for two games, although a third featuring the Sudan was interesting but not of much interest to me to record.
Firstly a VBCW game from the Abbeywood Irregulars.

Next was a Victorian themed steam tanks plus HG Wells/Jules Verne "liftwood" aerial gunboats.  NOt something I particularly want to game but some excellent modelling being demonstrated. 

I had a quick explanation of the use of Strategy dice within War and Conquest from Rob Broom and Scarab Miniatures,  My copy from the Northstar sale had arrived that lunchtime and I'd not even had time to open it.  Had I been more organised then I should have allowed time for a walkthrough of the full game/rules.   

I bought very little at the show - a reflection probably of it coming only a couple of weeks after Salute and the traders that were there.  I got a few figures out of a bargain bin to convert into SAGA personalities - if its cheap when it goes under the hacksaw and I botch it then I'm not too upset.  One discovery made as I was literally heading towards the door, and people were starting to pack up /go home was some laser cut MDF terrain from Warmill - had I looked more closely then getting one of their cargo pods for me would have been on my list.  As it was I got a stargate (small centre one) for my chum in London.  Warmill are exactly the sort of small supplier with a niche product that I would like to see at Salute if the economics could be made right. 

Chris

   

Games Expo 2012

Saturday 26th May saw me get up at an unearthly hour - 5.45 I think to be on the road for 6.45 to try and get car parking at the venue in Birmingham.  In the end we didn't but were one of the first cars turfed out onto the side street and got parking within a hundred yards or so of the venue.  I got here for Saturday morning and had 9.30 til 2 pm at the show.   It encompasses everything - LARP - RPG - Miniatures - Boardgames.  To be fair the historical miniatures side of the show is varied and generally small - I think they had the UK Flames of War tournament one year.  This year it was a busy and well attended Warmachine tournament.  Mostly the miniatures side is the Horror/SF/Fantasy skirmish/collectable/display end of the market - the 28-32mm stuff.

I got to play a boardgame - Snowdonia - in what appeared to be a finished pre-production version.  Interesting resource management game but nothing military about it.  No pictures I'm afraid.  

There was a very nice Pirate game from Redditch Wargames Society which suffered somewhat from its location of being next door to the bring and buy and therefore lots of people nearby and somewhat crowded.

Lots of Buildings by Grand Manner (Spanish Convent and other peninsular stuff painted slightly different colours to be more grungy and piratey and less whitewashed Spain) and Cutlass rules from Black Scorpion.  There were some other miniatures games but generally of the Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror genre which don't do much for me.  

Total purchases at the show were two dice - with a logo on one side - as presents for others, and a couple of very reduced price but still in shrinkwrap boardgames, again to give away as presents.  

I didn't go last year (and not sure about the year before) but am looking forward to the change of venue.  The timing though now appears to be fixed which means that there is always going to be the clash with Partizan.  

Website is here - Games Expo