ECW AAR

[Captain Darling]

Monday night we stepped into the ECW with a scenario based upon the Battle of Stow-on-the-Wold, we used Baroque Rules. Dave and I commanded the Parliamentarians and George donned an outrageous plumed hat (not really) and took charge of the Royalists!

The Royalists were deployed in a line covering two thirds of the table, facing them was the main Parliamentary force with about a third of their number entering the table top behind the Royalists left flank.

The Roundheads gained the initial move and their line advanced! The other Roundheads advancing on the Royalists flank units were horrified by this they were quite away from the fray! By advancing the Roundheads exposed themselves to possible combat with the Royalists before the flanking Units could engage.

Taking up the challenge the Royalists advanced all but two cavalry regiments to engage the main Parliamentarian force! The Horsemen moved to cover the Army's' left.

The first shots were exchanged between the Royalists Forlorn Hope and two Regiments of Roundhead Pike and Musket, the Forlorn Hope was blown away during the brief shooting match! The rest of the Royalist Army drew up to their opponents and a brisk firefight ensued the Parliamentarians getting better of the action. On the far flank the Cavalier and Roundhead horse deployed there engaged in a charge and counter charge in which the Royalist horse were soundly defeated, Roundhead Cavalry were loose in the rear of the Royalist Army!

The Roundhead flank force raced toward the action and engaged the King's horse that were screening their Army's Flank, again the Parliamentarians got the better of the fight destroying both the Royalist Horse Regiments for the loss a Foot Unit.

Meanwhile in the centre of the battlefield the Royalists still stubbornly attacked! Two of their Pike and Musket Regiments advanced and despite their heroic efforts the Parliamentarian Foot held them off!

The better disciplined Parliamentarian Foot at this point broke the centre of the Royalist attack and the Morale of the King's troops collapsed, they turned and fled from the field followed by the cheers of the Government's New Model Army.

It was a close run thing but a Victory to the Roundheads.

The two lines of battle engage, Royalists to the left and Parliamentarians to the right...


A brisk firefight commenced both sides awaiting the right moment to charge....


A Parliamentarian flank attack is meet by Royalist horsemen...


For the full AAR including OOB's and more pictures visit the TSOG Blog...
https://toysoldiersforoldgits.blogspot.com/2023/06/yet-another-ecw-aar-baroque-rules.html

[Sparrow]

Looking good. What’s your thoughts on the rules? (I’ve got a copy and read them but never actually tried them).

[Captain Darling]

Thanks Sparrow!

Re the Baroque rules, for the ECW we have only tried three sets, this one, Pike & Shotte and Victory without Quarter, Baroque was best of the three for us.
Victory without Quarter is very promising but incomplete, too many gaps to fill.
Pike and Shotte didn’t capture the feel of the period and was complicated and overly long
Baroque is easy to learn (resolving combat the first time seems odd but once you’ve done it a few times is fine), the initiative breaks ups the game turn so it’s not IGoUGo, combat modifiers and special rules give a good period feel, the morale and command rules work nicely and overall it plays quickly.
Baroque is not necessarily the best set of rules for the period but it fits the TSOG requirements; easy to play, a reasonably large game can be completed in an evening and it has (for us) a good period feel.

If you already have them I’d definitely give them a try, plus the variable turn initiative helps solo play, armies are divided into commands and they may not activate when you want them to, all units do get to do something every turn but the sequence will vary turn to turn.

[Sparrow]

Cheers, much appreciated. I will fish them out and give them a try!