[Commercial] Siege of Norchester ECW Scenario Pack for FK&P Published

[Vis Bellica]

Hi All

Simon Miller and I have just published the digital edition of my second scenario pack for For King & Parliament: The Siege of Norchester.

https://bigredbatshop.co.uk/collections/all/products/tts-for-king-and-parliament-the-siege-of-norchester-scenario-book-digital-edition



Hopefully you'll have seen (and had your appetites whetted!) by some of the many playtest battle reports posted here, but for those who haven't, here's the marketing blurb:

The Siege of Norchester is a supplement for TtS! For King & Parliament that contains twelve free-standing, fictional scenarios in a loose chronological order.

The pack is designed to give players who don't have enough time to write their own scenarios a number of games that they can play with little or no preparation. All you have to do is print out the game and player briefings, set up the table according to the map, break out the figures and cards, and start the first turn. You don't even need to print the pack out in full: just the pages you need for the scenario you're going to play.

The Siege of Norchester tells the story of the investment of the fictional, Royalist-held city of Norchester. It starts with the Parliamentarians gradually pushing the Royalist foraging parties back into the city itself, then looks at the Royalist attempts to delay the construction of encircling works. There’s an assault on the outskirts of Norchester and then a Royalist attempt to get a messenger through to the King to ask for aid. Finally, there’s the arrival of a Royalist relief force, the fall of Norchester and the attempted escape of the main Cavalier protagonists.    The same officers and units are used throughout the campaign, and it is hoped that the players will come to adopt and recognise them as their own or the enemy.



The games can be played either as a series of linked games or as a collection of one-off battles. To emphasise: each scenario is free standing and they do not have to be played in any particular order…but it is anticipated that players will play them in order as a campaign, keeping a running total of each sides’ score as they go along. The pack provides a Campaign Record Sheet as an easy way of doing so.

Finally, although specifically designed for FK&P, with a little work the scenarios can be adapted for any set of English Civil War/Renaissance rules: the basic elements of why, where and with what each side is fighting being largely common to all systems.

So whether you’re for the King or for Parliament, The Siege of Norchester gives you everything you need for many hours of joyful gaming!

[Highlandbevan]

For those of you who haven’t enjoyed the first pack yet…

These scenarios are a lot of fun to play. They give you the kind of tactical challenges you would never give yourself in an equal points game, and are balanced in a way you don’t necessarily get with historical scenarios.

The scenarios include a selection of unusual setups including a siege assault, escorting a carriage through the battle and reserves arriving in surprising places. The battlefields give a range of tactical challenges and decisions as you negotiate the ever present hedges and other rough ground.

Hope you enjoy playing it as much as we did.

[Vis Bellica]

I'm sure you did...especially the way I lost the final play-test!

https://www.vislardica.com/blog/2021/11/20/fkampp-aar-disaster-at-skirmetts-orchards

[robh]

We are playing through the "Marlowe-Maidenhythe" scenario book at the moment using the "Tercios" rule set, they are certainly challenging and well balanced scenarios.
But sadly there is no "ongoing campaign" aspect to the story. Units can be broken in one game and characters killed, yet reappear on the next page as if nothing happened.
I don't know if this is an aspect lacking in FKAP (no way of amending unit stat lines or personality options other than Gallant for leaders) or in the way the M-M scenario book is designed. The book is a series of "Tabletop Teasers", designed to provoke a specific type of wargame rather than an actual narrative campaign.

Depending on which rules you actually use to play out the battles scenarios extending them into a full campaign could be a fair amount of work. "Tercios" has a very wide selection of officer/character traits and unit stats can be varied at a fine detail level.  The 'in game' events from one scenario can be reflected in how the unit or character is presented for the next.
From the other rules I am familiar with the George Gush Renaissance rules and the venerable Newbury sets have even more detail at a unit level, (but not officer traits/attributes) and the WAB ECW set has considerable freedom for special rules which can be applied at a unit or character level. 

Hopefully there will be some guide on linking the scenarios in the next series into a true campaign format.

[Vis Bellica]

Hi Rob

It's the way the scenario book is designed.

As the first multi-game supplements for FK&P, I wanted M2M and SoN to be scenario books that primarily provided people with lots of easily run games i.e. without any barriers to playing any of the 24 scenarios provided in any order you like.

I did think about going the whole hog and writing a campaign based on a dependency tree and with characters/units who can progress or expire (much like I do for my IABSM scenario packs) but felt that, at this stage, what FK&P needed was just lots of individual games that people can play

That said, I also wanted to link them together in some way, so there's a strong campaign thread running through each pack, the games feature the same people and units throughout, and there a neat tracker provided so that you can keep a running score of how you're doing: hopefully a good compromise, "best of both worlds" product.

That said again, the units and characters are sometimes affected by the events that precede each battle e.g. Sir John Boulters' injury was a play-test game event that I wrote into the narrative.

So whilst I'm glad you're finding the scenarios "challenging and well-balanced", my apologies for not giving you exactly what you wanted. You are right: they are a series of "Tabletop Teasers" - and I like that description very much! - linked by a concrete narrative. Perhaps you could imagine that officers who are technically killed and then re-appear were merely knocked down and looked dead: saved by a cigarillo case engraved with the regimental motto of two dead Frenchmen on a pile of dead Frenchmen perhaps...?

Cheers

R

[robh]

Thanks for the response Rob.  I have not picked up Norchester yet but will be doing so. M-M succeeds admirably as you designed it so I have no doubt Norchester will also. Should be a required purchase for anyone interested in ECW gaming.
Depending on the actual battle rules you use turning them into a narrative campaign should not be too difficult.

Much as I would like to take credit for "Tabletop Teasers" that really belongs to a couple of other guys, the formidable double act of Grant and Asquith.  A column in Military Modelling magazine back in the 1970s iirc. 
Showing my age now