"The Battle of Hopetoun; a fictional ECWgame" Topic

The 'Battle of Hopetoun' is a fictional ECW battle, based on a scenario from the internet. It was devised to allow a smaller Montrose army to effectively fight a larger English Royalist army.

Rules used were 'Victory Without Quarter'which provided an enjoyable, fairly simple yet historical game.

The English Royalist army was surprised by the sudden rising of the Hope River, leaving most of the infantry & artillery centred on Hopetoun:
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Most of the cavalry was on the "wrong" side of the now unfordable river, with only 3 distant bridges allowing a crossing.
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Rupert's crack Horse were off marauding but were expected back at any time.

Meanwhile, Montrose's army had stolen a march & were determined to destroy King Charles' army in detail.
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An Irish Pike & shot regiment, lost, found it's way to add woe to the English by turning up to harass the mostly mounted, river bound force.
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The English pike & Shot infantry, under Astely, Derby & Carey waited for the onslaught of their Celtic foes.
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Meanwhile, Rupert finally turned up too late to influence the fighting.
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The battle played out to the push of pike & the English were routed of the battlefield whilst their Horse, unable to force acrossing, looked on.

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Marston Moor anyone?

Did you modify the rules in any way from the previous game you had, where you had large forces? Curious why this one went well for you (well assuming you weren't the English).

Nice looking game and it must have been frustrating for the English…."Just one little puddle chaps, go on…"

Sadly, I was the English. However, the game flowed from one side then the other looking at victory & until the last half hour, it could have gone either way.

The smaller deck worked wonders – cards for brigades rather than individual units & with an overall commander able to give any brigadier in command range additional orders.

I'd located a better QRF & then altered it to reflect some of the tweaks we'd added eg "Shaken" was turned to "Disordered" & command radii were enlarged etc.

We were simply more proficient with the rules as well. It isn't a complex set but some mechanisms take a little practice – the charge/faux charge of Trotter cavalry, for example.

Perfect, thanks for the explanation.

Very nice, thanks for sharing

6 people in our group, so 6 different opinions on the rules.

The main controversy with VwQ is you can shoot & move/change formation & he other side doesn't get an immediate chance to respond.

Anyone care to weigh in?

I don't see a problem with that. I don't necessarily think rules should break movement from other actions, particularly those who combined movement with firing. Horse archers, skirmishing mounted javelin men spring to mind from Ancients. I would suggest trotters are similar. If it was a historical tactic, it should be a tabletop ability?

Great looking game and units!

There is a mechanic I like called Firefight from the Rampant series of rules. You need to roll a 7+ to be able to fire at someone who is firing at you. It is an assigned trait so not everyone may have it. You could always adjust it up or down. Whether you mark the unit as not being able to fire in their own phase would be up to you. The rules as written allow you too. However, it isn't this period.

Thanks

John