"Your view on English Civil War wargaming?" Topic

What is your view and/or experience with wargaming the English Civil War?

(a) It is my favorite historical period for wargaming (state reasons why if you'd like).
(b) It is among my favorite historical periods.
(c) I've considered ECW, but never tried it.
(d) I've tried it, but ECW is just not really my cup of tea.
(e) Not interested. I have never even considered ECW.

D) Maybe I just need to watch a game or two again, with newer* eyes.

Dan
* I mean new perspective, of course. My eyes are getting older.

A strong B.

B. It's become one of my top five favorite periods.

B.

F. If someone else in my group would want to collect and paint figures, I would join in. I'm through with being the only one doing a project.

Strong B. Hail Prince Rupert!

Strong B Hail to the King Baby!!!!!

G. I've never had much luck with it, but I keep circling back. The current set of armies is my third.

Oh. You wanted reasons. I know the history. I like the history. It has all kinds of color and campaign potential. But I don't have a group to campaign with, and I find "pike and shot" awkward in miniature--at least partly because it's tricky to scale well. So I keep giving up and then starting over a few years later.

B.

C

C – very interesting period but I have not come across a set of rules that inspired me enough to take the plunge

B

A strong B

B/C : I like to play it once in awhile.

Also bridging B & C: single-based for Pikeman's Lament, but slowly building up to full engagements with sabot-based units.

B, just wish I could find a few more Bs in my area instead of all C, D, Es!

B, bit like TYW but less interesting troop types!

Tally Ho!

B

definite E although 30YW is interesting

B It has always been a period that has fascinated me, and I have an extensive library and have visited many of the fields. My first metal figures were Minifigs ECW, and I have collected thousands of 10mm over the last twenty years. But, sadly, although I have tried over a dozen rule sets in that time, I have not found one that I have felt entirely happy gaming. So the collection languished until 2016 when I began work with Simon Miller on producing an ECW variant of his fun Ancient Rules, To the Strongest. 18 months and masses of playtesting later we are now almost there. It has been a long road, but I may actually be approaching a satisfactory end!

B. It is one of my five "horse and musket" periods, although technically it belongs in the "pike and shot" era. I have two generic 25/28mm armies and will soon be working on a Naesby project with the goal of putting on a game at Warlord Games con in Oklahoma City in May. I tried the Black Powder version, but it treats the pike and shot elements of a regiment as different units, and even allows them to move off separately from each other. Does that seem odd or historically inaccurate to anyone else?

C.

nickinsomerset +1

B

Just haven't had the time to devote to it. Although I play it now and again with someone else's figures. I think part of the reason I haven't jumped in is the pike issue. I can't get a handle on the number of pikes versus matchlocks and how to do the formations.

B. On it's way to A as we are having a lot of fun with Fire and Sword and Renaissance has always been the sleeping giant on our club. An infusion of figures from one keen guy in the club is helping immensely.

B.

B

@ Okiegamer: At the Battle of Adwalton Moor (1643) the Royalist pike made a push, as a unit entirely separate from their muskets, against the Parliamentary musketeers who had no pike.
Something similar happened in one of the West Country battles, I believe.
In a fair number of smaller battles, only horse, dragoons and commanded musketeers were involved.

B

B.

for some reason i enjoy it more than our own civil war.

maybe its the hats or the boots.

actually its definitely the pikes.

i enjoy the Pike and Shotte rules from warlord.

i know some do not like the ruleset, i do.

Frank Chadwick once related to me the story of a fan he met a convention who thanked him for writing Striker, which was "the best set of rules for pike and shot era wargaming". So that might be a set of rules worth trying out.

I myself have never played a game set in that period, although I have read about it. I do have a 25mm Roundhead who explored a dungeon under a pyramid in a D&D game in the late 1970s, as well as a 25mm Cavalier figure that an ex-girlfriend who was then an art student painted very well. Both were Hinchcliffe figures, as I recall.

E the local squabble that gets all the miniature, while the giant world changing war in Europe only get the left over figures.

Definitely B (favorite historical period), but I've actually not gotten a lot of wargaming in for it. Partly because my friends don't have a lot of interest in ECW, but mostly because I'm a project horder and not a project completer.

F – started building and painting armies they're now on the back burner

B

I like ECW quite a bit, so B I would say.

G – it is one of my favourite historical periods; I have extensive armies for it but have never found a set of rules that I am completely happy with.

I intend to try again using Carnage & Glory computer rules fairly soon.

I'm at C, right now. I really wanted to hear from others to see what people like or dislike about this war and period. As an ECW history buff located on the wrong side of the Atlantic, I'm also a bit concerned about getting other gamers interested.

B – although I prefer the term British Civil Wars as discussed previously on TMP.

C – strangely as I live 10 miles from Oxford and have lived even closer to Naseby and did the period for A Level history. Always preferred the TYW.

I have often felt the call of ECW gaming. My uncle helped foster that interest around Donnington Castle and Newbury. Sadly, those wide blocks of pike and shot just can't be fit onto my small table with space left to maneuver. Fascinating era, though.

C – Even bought figures (10mm AIM) but still haven't tried it