"Which SIMPLE ECW Rules Give Best Flavor ???" Topic

What the hell – I'll add a small set I wrote myself – see runtus.org

File Leader anyone -I've got them but haven't played them yet.

Has anyone tried A crowning mercy?

Obviously I and my gaming chums have played "A Crowning Mercy" out loads of times in playtesting, but it would not be right for me to comment directly on the rules. Quite by chance I received this email today from Gary Keep's gaming group who have been using the rules ~
"Hi!
well we did the battle of Edgehill and it went very well using your rules, from setting up to a final appraisal of the battle outcome was from 09.00 – 17.00, the rules were liked and were considered well thought out and presented, and are ideal for a BIG game.

The result, well it was a decisive royalist victory due to their cavalry actions on their left flank, and not Rupert who the player in charge of this commander decided to engage in a hedge hopping pistol duel, sigh!!.

Interestingly I umpired this and was quite amused when I found out the C in C of both sides decided to wait for the other commander to attack with the infantry, however the royalists boyed on by their cavalry success decided to attack and swept the rebels from the field.

Now I plan to do the siege of Worcester for the next big ECW game. I also found the rules suitable for replaying the ECW battles from the Partizan press series of ECW scenario books."
Of course, that's only one point of view. I have a piece in WI later in the year which includes a small scenario for beginners which might interest some folk.
David

We've been using A Crowning Mercy as well and have really enjoyed the games we've played – 10-14 moves in 2-3 hours makes them ideal for an evening's gaming.

Available from Caliver Books I believe & at least you won't have thrown away £30.00 GBP or so if you don't like 'em ;-)

I'm usually a fan of the Black Powder system but I don't like the ECW version at all and the ones for WAB are just plain dire.

Thanks for the review! I'm sold! Next step battle of Maidstone!

I've just ordered 'A crowning mercy' -the basing is the sort of thing I like.

I'd be grateful for some more details of 'A Crowning Mercy' from those who have played it. Is it suitable for the more typical, smaller ECW engagements?

For Parliament, King, or Glory is a great set of rules and the author is very accessible. And they are free!

For fast, easy to play, I'd try Kings of War. All the various troops are there in one form or another, you just have to forget what they are called in their lists and consider them by their factors.

Also, after over a dozen playtests with newbies and veteran gamers, I can say that they're the cleanest and most satisfying to both groups.

Oh, and they're free from Mantic Games:
link

With all due respect to Bill Protz, I don't see the Wargamers Guide to the ECW as a simple or small-level game. There's several calculations to do almost anything. However, I highly recommend buying them for their meticulous research and usefulness, they aren't just a rules, they are a Wargamers guide, as advertised!

Forlorn Hope is a big pile of charts and clunky.

Both sets are old-school in the sense that they propose that lots of little details are more "realistic" and give better "feel".

File Leader I have but haven't played. They do sound like they might work for you. I could also see them being easy to tweak with a special rule or two on occasion to copy an historical situation not in the rules. They use stands as their basic unit, which are commanded on a turn by turn basis. They also have a hilarious and flavorful incident table.

The question always comes back to scale and perspective. If you want a lower scale set, than nothing that is used for Edgehill will be of any use to you. If you want a set of rules that gives the commander's perspective in an historical and flavorful way, then I don't know any off hand that fit that bill exactly.

But I'm still looking!

stumbled across a copy of Ironsides that I printed out years ago – the cover indicates it's for large battles, so an Edgehill set of rules.

Hope that's helpful.