Thursday, November 14, 2013

Royalist Commander Selected

In the rules that I'm writing for my in-house ECW battles, all Generals and Brigadiers have a "personality" (Aggressive, Steady, Careful and Political).  Each personality has differing advantages/disadvantages which will affect the Brigadiers under him as well.

Before each battle we will roll to see which personality our General and Brigadiers will have.  There are thus four possible Generals (one of each personality) and eight different Brigadiers (two of each personality).

Originally my thought was to fit various historical figures to each of the C-in-C's personalities (as I expect my Roundhead opponent to do).  But in researching various commanders, one leaped out at me.

The Earl of Forth (Patrick Ruthven) had battle results all over the map (some great, some terrible, some where he wasn't there, etc.); and he had a very strong reputation as a "hard drinking man" . . . viola!

He will be perfect for me.  He will always be in command (unless killed, in which case I will revert to the "traditional" four general solution).  I will simply roll to see which of his inebriated states will come to the fore on the day of battle . . . Aggressive, Steady, Careful or Political.

Fun, eh?

Now to pick the eight Brigadiers (who will also be rolled for on the day of battle to see who is there).

-- Jeff

1 comment:

  1. Hilarious! the personalities and funny words _make_ the period. Btw, it's Voila!, viola is the instrument. Then again, maybe when he's drunk the Earl plays the viola??

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