"For God, King and Country -- any thoughts ???" Topic

The Canadian Wargames Group ECW rules ("For God, King and Country") look interesting.

Has anyone played them? And if so, please share your thoughts (both positive and/or negative).

-- Jeff

I played them a long time ago.
They seemed good and made sense.

I'm also interested, could anybody explain the unit sizes and basing requirements?

Own them but not played. Looks to be a good set of simple rules for playing ECW. If for nothing else, it is a fantastic wargame source book.

I played them a while ago as well, here's what I pulled from their Yahoo group:

"For God, King and Country" Sequence of Play
Players alternate moves according to the following sequence

1.Check command and control. Command and Control. ◦Any cavalry which has been in a melee must check for control at the beginning of every turn.
◦Commanders in chief (CinC) have command radii based on their quality ranging from 9" to 18". Wing commanders outside this range must roll their initiative or receive one less action than normal.
◦Wing commanders have an 8" command radius. Units outside this range may not move or change formation unless the CinC is attached and receive one less action than normal. (Uncontrolled cavalry must use all actions.)

2.Draw an action card. Each CinC has a deck of 10 cards, each of which gives each unit in the army between 1 and 3 actions. Better commanders have more "3" actions and fewer "1" actions in their deck.
3.Carry out actions. Each action entitles a unit to move, change formation, fire, or melee.
4.Non-phasing player checks morale for each unit taking casualties.

and…

Scale:
•1 turn = 15 minutes
•1 figure = 50 men
•1" = 50 yards

Basing (dimensions are width x depth)
•Muskets and highland mobs: 2 to a 1"x0.5" base
•Pikes and melee troops: 4 to a 1"x1" base
•Cavalry: 3 to a 1.5"x1" base
•Artillery: 2 crew and 1 gun on a 1"x1.5" base
•Leaders: 1 or 2 figures (2 for the army commander) on a 1"x1" base

Units:
•Spanish system units have 4 pike stands and 4-8 musket stands. Only one scenario uses Spanish system units.
•Swedish system units have 1-2 pike stands and 2-4 musket stands.
•Forlorn hope units have 4-6 muskets.
•Cavalry and artillery units are formed by single stands.
Stands may be rearranged depending on a units formation.

Table sizes:
Table sizes range from about 4'x5' up to around 6'x9'.

So, if you like a card driven game, then you are in luck. I bought all of the CWG rule booklets for primarily the excellent information contained within. The rules are ok, not too crazy or awful. I use another set of rules for ECW play.

Hope this helps.

P.

The campaign rules are pretty sweet, I've looked at adopting them for other periods, the only trick is the combined victory points/events table.

I have the rules and played them years ago. I thought the rules worked well and were fast. One plus for these is that you can fight larger historical battles with a smaller amount of figures – I think Edgehill and Cropredy Bridge are scenarios in the book in addition to several of the Scottish battles. Good historical info as well.

As written the rules are for 15mm figures. One of the nice things include maps and OBs for a number of battles (Edgehill, Cropredy Bridge, Marston Moor, Naseby, Tippermuir, Aberdeen, Preston, Dunbar, Worchester, and the TYW battle of Lutzen).

If I play them I will need to adjust things for 28mm figures . . . so I would particularly appreciate people who have played commenting on them.

-- Jeff

I played them a few times. I used my 6mm figs and tracked hits. Units are a little small. I liked the rules. Just sold my figs at the time and only recently started rebuilding in 28mm. I'd try them again.

Thanks,

John