Tuesday, July 30, 2013

ECW Rules

 I'm not completely happy with any of the rule sets for the ECW that I've read . . . so I think that I am going to write my own.

And at least I've decided upon a name for my own version of ECW miniature rules . . . and I've taken a clue from Larry Brom's "The Sword and the Flame" Colonial rules by plucking a phrase from a famous English author.

However the phrase did not come from the English Civil War.  In fact it was written before ECW had even occurred . . . that's right, as a man of the Theatre, I pulled something from Shakespeare.

Almost everything title I liked for the ECW has already been used.  The best that I came up with was "King vs Cromwell" but that really didn't do it for me.  Then I recalled a bit of a speech in Act III, scene iii of Shakespeare's "Richard II":

“But ere the crown he looks for live in peace,
Ten thousand bloody crowns of mothers' sons
Shall ill become the flower of England's face;
Change the complexion of her maid-pale peace
To scarlet indignation , and be-dew
Her pastures' grass with faithful English blood.”

 This seemed to me to be a fair assessment of the situation during the ECW (even though it referred to 1399) . . . so I picked the last four words for the title of my ECW rules:

"With Faithful English Blood"

Now all I have to do is write the rules, eh?
-- Jeff
 

3 comments:

  1. Jeff, that is a good working title. I like it!

    As for rules, what are you looking for in an ECW game? What figure-to-man scale are you considering? Unit degradation at the figure or element level?

    I prefer element based unit degradation but many prefer to count casualties.

    Good luck in your quest for a ruleset.

    Jon

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  2. Jon,

    Thanks for your comment/questions. I am looking to adapt/simplify some of my own 18th century rules. They will be quite simple in many game mechanics; but will feature a lot of "fog of war" mechanisms (particularly in terms of command confusion).

    A typical pike & shot battalion will be in the 20-24 figure range (4 per base); while mounted units will be in the 8-12 figure range (2 per base). And removal of elements, not individual figures.

    But, of course, I'm still reading different rule sets and I might find one that I like enough so that I don't have to write my own.


    -- Jeff

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  3. Jeff, working on my own set of rules, happy to chat about it. My blog:
    http://ecw40mmproject.blogspot.com/
    And I posted a few replies to your very nice post on simple and flavorful rules at TMP. Updated a few questions and answers.
    Cheers!
    Alex

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