Spring Break Battle Report: Playing The English Civil War using Victory Without Quarter

 I like these rules. Really, really like them. Even better that they are free.

As Honorable Son #2 and his beautiful bride are moving away, we decided to have a going away miniature battle with my new units. This is "officially" the first time we battled it out using the English Civil War rules Victory Without Quarter by  Clarence Harrison of Quindia Studios.

Royalist Infantry Brigade at the start of the game.

Victory Without Quarter borrows ideas from other game systems to create a fast paced, player involved game.  Actions are card driven as each unit and commander has a card which allows movement orders or firing to take place.

Reload card, Army commander card, unit card for the King's Lifeguard and Event card.

There are cards that allow units to reload (allowing a prepared volley) and a card that can suddenly end the turn and cause the deck to be reshuffled. In addition you can add an Event card to generate random events on the battlefield which in our game resulted "blown horses" (the next cavalry unit card had -2 inches of movement for the rest of the game), a master spy providing intelligence (viewing the top 6 cards and reordering how you want), and a sudden downpour of rain rendering all gunpowder weapons useless for the rest of the turn!  I made my own cards by printing out the unit flags or images of the commanders and gluing them to 3 x 5 inch index cards.

Turn over card, unit card for Lord Brooke's Regiment, and Royalist Army commander card.

When a unit card comes up or a commander card to issue orders the unit can move, wheel less than 45 degrees and move half, change formation, hold (allows rallies), shoot or charge to contact.  Units must pass a morale check to charge and become "shaken if they fail.  Shooting and melee is very similar to Warmaster and if you take 3 hits, you get a casualty marker.  When your casualty markers equal the amount of stands in unit, they unit is removed.  Morale is rolled for charges, counter-charges and pursuit;  rallying units and if you receive a casualty marker or a hit from artillery.

Various casualty markers.

The scenario I devised is based on the Queen's resupply of the King's Oxford Army.  Some of the supply wagons got lost and ended up in the town of Gointofar just north of Oxford.  A small Royalist army heads out to escort the supplies to Oxford not knowing that a Parliamentary force is already in the peaceful town of Gointofar.

The Supplies.

The sleepy hamlet of Gointofar.

The Royalist forces had one infantry brigade of 3 infantry regiments, one cavalry brigade with 1 regiment, 2 brigade commanders and one army general.  Parliament's infantry brigade had 2 regiments and the cavalry had one regiment of horse with a regiment of cuirassiers.  In addition there are two brigade commanders and one army general.  All units were rated as trained.

 "Advance!"

The Royalist units moved out smartly as the infantry advanced across the field.  The Parliamentary general did not like the look of things and decided to send Lord Brooke's Regiment across the bridge and advance his cavalry on his left flank.

 Move out lads!

The general card and then the unit card allowed them to cross the bridge quickly and deploy.

A unit of Horse (trotters) and Cuirassiers.

The Royalist cavalry, not impressed with the Parliamentarian cavalry deploying advanced, sounded the charge . . . and mingled around in utter confusion. (They had failed their morale test to charge and were now "shaken."  Right before the attempted charge, they had the event "blown horses" which reduced their movement by 2 inches.  I figured the cavalry was not sure they could charge home with their tired mounts!)

 Charge . . . not!

The Royalist command was now paralyzed by the sudden movements of their opponents as Jones' Regiment climbed over the hedges and advanced.  Soon gunfire erupted and the Royalist's took the first casualty. (When a unit receives a casualty marker, they have to test for morale. Early on the cavalry and 2 infantry units kept failing morale.  As a result, I kept issuing hold orders in order to rally my shaken troops allowing Honorable Son #2 to start imposing his will on me)

 The units exchange fire at long range while Charles I rallies the cavalry.

The King's Lifeguard of Foot receive 2 casualty markers early in the game causing some concern!  It reduced their firing by -1 per casualty marker.  Once a unit receives casualty markers equal to the number of stands in the unit, it is removed from play.

Fortunately I was able to get my cavalry back into the fight.  The next event card was "Master Spy" who provided me with some vital battlefield intelligence about my opponent. (I was able to look at the next 6 cards and put them in the order I wanted.  I made the next 3 cards for me and the 4th card was "Turn over")  Before I could charge, the enemy horse charged, I counter-charged and a furious melee was fought.  The Royalist carried the fight, pursued the defeated horse and subsequently scattered all over the field making them unavailable for the rest of the fight. (During the pursuit, when I thought I had them, Honorable Son #2 rolled some great dice and we both eliminated each other.)

A furious melee!

The weight of Royalist firepower started to take it's toll on the forces of Parliament; and, even though the right flank was threatened, Newcastle's Whitecoats successfully held off the Haselrigge's lobsters pistols and charges on their steady pikes.

Arrghhh!  I've been hit!

The other 2 Royalist infantry regiments advanced and their fire power caused first Lord Brooke's unit and Jones' unit to scatter.  The lobsters, thinking the discretion the better part of valor, rode away vowing to fight another day. 

The game was touch and go all the way to the end when Honorable Son #2's forces suddenly gave way - and mine were not too far behind them! A great set of rules, a great game and a jolly good time!

A few extra pictures of the battle in progress.

Jones' Regiment in open order which allowed them to cross the hedges faster and reform.

Note the reload marker.

First blood!

Newcastle's Whitecoats have 2 casualty markers - it was a close game!

And the parson gets the last word speaking the Holy words of God . . .

Spring Break Battle Reports: Teddy Roosevelt and the Wild, Wild, Wicked Witch of the West, Part 2

In our last episode we were at the half-way point in a game between the Wicked Witch of the West (WWW) and the Knights Templar supplemented with some heroes including Teddy Roosevelt, Special Agent Thomas Sawyer, Marshal Wyatt Earp and the Bounty Hunter. The Knights Templar would be tasked with killing WWW while the WWW company would need to recover the treasure of the  helmet and breastplate of Jason of the Argonauts.  Both sides received reinforcements: the Templar reinforcements were on the train and the WWW reinforcements were the dreaded Wolves of Oz arriving from from the North edge of the board.  Current Score: Templars 8, WWW 2.

 The Bounty Hunter puts out the fire on his duster and confronts WWW: "I don't think it's nice, you laughin'. You see, my hawk don't like people laughin'. Gets the crazy idea you're laughin' at him. Now if you apologize like I know you're going to, I might be able to convince him that you didn't mean nothin' by it..."

 The Winkies have the Train! (Sounds like a catchy children's song).  Round 6 between the flying monkey and the hired man.

 Special Agent Thomas Sawyer takes one for the team . . . will evil win this one?  And where did the Winkies learn to shoot? (Note: I forgot to mention earlier that the stream is fordable every where and just slows your movement a little)

Wyatt Earp: "All right, Mr. Gargoyle ... you called down the thunder, well now you've got it! You see that? (pulls open his coat, revealing a badge) It says United States Marshal! 

Gargoyle: RRROOOAAAARRR!!!!

Wyatt Earp:  You die first, get it? Your friends might get me in a rush, but not before I make your head into a canoe, you understand me? POW POW POW POW KACHING! (That's the noise pistols make when you roll two "10's" and you are shooting using the gunslinger talent.)

 Crying.  That's the sound the gargoyle makes when he fails both pluck rolls.

 Just a pile of rocks.

 Grandmaster Sir Hugues de Payens takes out a wolf with his sword.

 And the hired hand (this is embarrassing), disengages from the winged mechanical horror, leaps down from the train, and breaks his fall with his neck.  Exit the hired hand.

 Sir Hugues sneaks up on WWW with a pale of water while the Bounty Hunter engages her in witty banter, pistol shots, and a sword block of her magic broom.

 WWW decides to fly away as that water gets a little too close for comfort . . .

 The Winkie grabs the treasure while Teddy Roosevelt (just barely seen) tries to stop another Winkie.

 The helmet and breastplate of Jason of the Argonauts.

 "A man's life in these parts often depends on a mere scrap of information," says the Bounty Hunter as he pursues WWW.

 The wolves continue to do their mistresses' bidding as they attack Sir Hugues, Sir Ralph and Billy Bearclaw.

 "You gonna do somethin'? Or are you just gonna stand there and bleed?"

 "I guess you're just going to bleed."

 A winged monkey attacks the Bounty Hunter.

  “When you're at the end of your rope, tie a knot and hold on.”

 "One bullet riddled wolf. Having the armor helped too."

 Sir Hugues slays another mighty beast . . .

  . . . while Billy Bearclaw thinks he should've joined the wolf clan when he was younger.

Teddy uses his Bowie knife against the Winkie: "I am an American; free born and free bred, where I acknowledge no man as my superior, except for his own worth, or as my inferior, except for his own demerit."

 You have got to be kidding me!  The monkey wins?

 WWW just remembers that a flying mechanical monkey might be better at getting the treasure away instead of a walking Winkie.

 Sir Hugues advances with his bucket to slay the foul fiend.

   “A man who has never gone to school may steal a freight car; but if he has a university education, he may steal the whole railroad.”

"How about a little fire, Marshal?" Marshal Earp advances and dodges a ball of flame.

 While Wyatt engages WWW the Templars advance.

 "When you play, play hard; when you work, don't play at all.” KAPOW! The last monkey is taken out by Teddy.

 Slash and bite. Exit Billy.

 "Hmmmm," thinks the Winkie, "Everybody who grabs this gets shot."

 "So, you won't take warning, eh? All the worse for you tin man. I'll take care of you now instead of later."

 The monstrous wolf attacks Sir Ralph from behind.

 “Courage is not having the strength to go on; it is going on when you don't have the strength.” 

 WWW wounds Wyatt Earp with her own gun . . . 

 . . . and then smacks him with her poisoned broom. Wyatt rolling a "1" for pluck kinda helped too.

 TR plugs another Winkie.

 Sir Ralph defends himself with pistol and sword.

 "Witch. I will not suffer your evil to continue."

 “Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.” 

 Looks like the final showdown between two mighty beings.

 An overhead shot as the game reaches its climax.

 Sir Ralph kills the last wolf.

 WWW disengages from Sir Hugues and flies to the treasure.

 WWW attempts to mesmerize TR but fails and is surrounded by our heroes.

 Sir Ralph guns down the "Last of the Winkies."

 Discretion being the better part of valor, WWW disengages and flies away on her broom screaming, "Curses, curses! Somebody always helps that girl. Shoes or no shoes. I'm still great enough to conquer her. And woe to those who try to stop me!"

The surviving heroes.

Wow. What a game!  The monkeys used to be the red shirts of WWW's company but came into their own (-4 to hit while flying) and the Winkies are more durable than imagined.  The surprise attack of the wolves almost tipped the scales but the game started to slip away from the bad guys when Wyatt Earp gunned down the gargoyle. Neither team achieved their objective though and the final score was Templars: 26, WWW:15. The question is, with the Witch King locked up, WWW loose and the Professor pulling the strings from the center of his web, where will evil strike next?  Will the ruby slippers and a certain consulting detective show up soon?