Daniel Brown  - Jun 19, 2007 2:48 pm (#18775 Total: 18952)  
Where many were, how few remain Of old Familiar things! But seeing 
to mind again, the lost and absent brings. - A Lincoln 	 

A Happy little Discovery

On my last order to Noble Knights Games (where I managed to get "On To
Moscow S&T171 for $25.00), I ordered S&T 101 "Cromwell's Victory:
Marston Moor". It was only like $10.00 and it has more stuff for
"Central Command". 

I set up and played "Marston Moor". I like English Civil War, I have
been into 15mm minatures ECW since 1980. I have "This Accursed Civil
War" the GMT Musket and Pike game, but I havent played the Marston Moor
battle in that game yet. But that is now at the top of the list of
things to do. Due to the S&T game. 

The game "Cromwell's Victory" uses the 30 Years War quad rules; nice,
simple, utterly uncomplicated. 

1) Rally phase (roll a D6, less than or Equal to the morale number =
Rally) 

2) Artillery fire (arty cant move, can only disrupt enemy units -Never
eliminates them! and can be captured and used by each side.) 

3) Move phase 

4) Combat Phase. typical odds CRT with Terrain effects being built in to
the CRT, uses different columns for Inf in Woods, everyone in Marsh or
in Clear/Slope/Hilltop. uses DE, AE, Defender/Attacker Disrupted,
Disruption Exchange (defender disrupted and an equal amount of attacking
units disrupts as well; a Disrupted unit dies if disrupted again. 

The map is very nice and portrays a huge amount of the area, much more
than was used in the historical battle. And also in the GMT Musket &
Pike "This Accursed Civil War", that mapsheet fits on about 15 hexes by
10 hexes of the S&T map. 

My first game began at 4 in the afternoon and was over by 7 in the
evening!! (turns are 30 minutes.) Parliment goes first and I had a
general advance all along the line. Unfortunately, the forces of
Alexander Leslie, Earl of Leven attacked and all got disrupted. SO in
the Royalist turn they counter attacked, with Heavy Cavalry, and
slaughtered the disrupted Army of the Scottish Kirk. 

Cromwell and the Eastern Association Horse and some excellent infantry,
being placed in the bad terrain in the West or top of the map, promptly
got- literally- 'bogged down', having to move and fight their way
through marsh. And Rupert and Lord Byron's Horse made life difficult for
them. All-in-all, Cromwell and his forces were pretty much wasted and
unable to influence the battle. 

Newcastle and the Royalist Artillery and three brigades of pike just
smashed the Scots. Lord Goring and Thomas Fairfax had their own private
war going on; Fairfax got the worst of it as he tried to engage Gorings
horse across the ditch.Three bad rolls of Attacker Disrupted started a
snowball effect and soon Thomas Fairfax was out of the fight. And
allowed Goring and his horse, with yet more infantry, to roll up the
enire Parlimentarian right, all the way up to Cromwell's Plump. And
Demoralize the Parlimentarian Army. Which meant the Earl of Leven fled
the battlefield, which meant that the Scottish units could no longer
rally, which meant that Cromwell and both Fairfaxes had to run to avoid
encirclement. Losing all of the artillery and the Train. 

Long Live The King. 

Now, onto another game (it only takes about 90 minutes to play) with the
Parlimentarians and the Scots being a little more cautious. And keeping
some more Horse in reserve.