Old school: Wargamer's Guide to the English Civil War

I just welcomed an old friend back into my home. I bought a very good copy of the first edition of William B. Protz's Wargamer's Guide to the English Civil War online and it's just arrived in the mail.

I have fond memories of this particular edition. They were the first ECW rules I ever bought, around 1975 at San Antonio Hobbies (long gone) in Mountain View, CA. I built some units using the classic Minifigs strip 15s—which were such a chore to cut off the strip.

I was, however, one of the few enthusiasts (really, the only enthusiast) for the ECW among my local gamers, so pursuing this project was a one-man show—the first of many in my hobby career. I eventually applied my energies towards Ancients, ACW, and Renaissance, which is like ECW in being all pikey and shotty, but Landsknechts and gendarmes aren't quite the same as Cavaliers and Roundheads.

When we played Renaissance, we used the (still) excellent 2nd edition Renaissance rules by George Gush, published by WRG. I still love these rules and keep vowing that I'll do some project with them again, destined to be another one-man show.

But back to Wargamer's Guide to the English Civil War...

One of the things I like about WGECW is that units of foot integrate both muskets and pikes, which is unlike a lot of other rules (Gush, for example) that keep them as separate units or as a unit and subunits. The last hurrah for us with Gush's rules was playing late 17th century (Dixon's still excellent Grand Alliance range—despite being 40 years old—was our inspiration for that). However, the unit + subunits equation really broke down when the unit was a stand of 6 pikes and the two subunits were each 12 musketeers. Once the unit was broken, the subunits soon melted away (reaction test at -3), even though they comprise 4/5 of the whole. (However, if they passed the reaction test, they would thereafter act as independent units.)

In WGECW, regiments of foot adopt postures (i.e., formations), some of which aid in defence against attack by horse units.

The combat mechanisms for WGECW are charmingly old school, which is to say a bit arcane. Giving fire with small arms (i.e., shooting), for example, requires all of seven steps and five charts.

Part of the issue with combat is that units are given a combat rating (CR) from which is derived their combat abilities and morale value. CR has to be kept track of using a roster. For horse, it's just one number. For foot, the CR needs to be reckoned separately for the pikes and each sleeve of musketeers. 

Using CR involves some fiddly calculations, for example:

A foot unit wants to give fire at 11 inches range to another foot unit that is in the Ring posture. The firing unit's total CR is 47, but only the first rank of musketeers is shooting. Each musketeer has a point value of 1, so the first rank of both divisions comes to 6 CR firing.

• On the Range Chart, 11 inches for muskets is medium range.
• Roll a die (D6).
• The die roll is 4, modified on the Die Toss Adjustment Chart by +1 for first fire and +1 for target not firing back, so a modified die roll of 6.
• On the Effect Letter Chart, cross-index the adjusted die roll (6) with the range (medium) to get an Effect Letter of F.
• On the Small Arms Casualty Chart, cross-index the Effect Letter (F) with the CR firing (6) to get a Casualty Integer of 1.
• On the Final Casualty Adjustment Chart, the Casualty Integer is modified by +50% for firing on foot in Ring. So, the final Casualty Integer is 1.5.
• Now covert the Casualty Integer to CR loss on the target by multiplying it times the point value of the target soldiers. In this case, the pike division of the target unit. Their points value is 2, so multiplied by 1.5 is 3 CR loss for the pike division, which is noted on a roster.

I haven't noticed it yet, but I'm still of the opinion that there's method in the madness. Having almost completely written my own rules, Pike & Periwig (an unfinished version of can be downloaded here), I'm aware that a lot of thought goes into rules mechanisms in order to get the result you want.

Shooting doesn't tend to result in a lot of CR loss. Melee, however, can take a bigger bite. Melee is also based on CR, but the calculation is less fiddly, but does involve math.

In the case of two units fighting, each adds up their total CR and throws 2 dice (D6), multiplying the result time the CR. The higher result is considered the winner of the round of combat. The loser deducts 1/4 of the winner's CR and retreats 1 inch. The winner deducts 1/10 of the loser's CR and follows up. The loser then takes a morale check. If it passes, the melee continues next turn. If it fails, the unit rolls a D6 and routs if the result is 4, 5, or 6. Otherwise, it retreats 1/2 march move away facing the enemy.

Shooting will tick away at CR, only melee will cause a significant loss and possible force a losing unit to run away. This is a big distinction with some rules where shooting can have decisive results. The emphasis in WGECW is on melee and whoever succeeds there wins the game—but it's dicey. Most melees will be at near-even CR and the roll-2-dice-and-multiply-by-CR method can have a huge swing. 

The average foot unit will start at 47 CR, which could be increased by +25% if the unit is rated elite. 

Horse unit's CR varies from unarmored (24 CR), armored (36 CR), "lobsters" (48 CR). But this can be modified by whether the unit is elite (+25% CR) and also whether they charge enemy horse at a faster speed. For example, Cavaliers would tend to be unarmored horse (2 points per figure), but have more elan than most Roundhead troopers, so make them elite and a unit of 12 has 30 CR. Cavaliers also tended towards a more aggressive dash in attacking, whereas the Roundheads preferred to attack at a trot. If our unarmored cavalier horse attacks a unit of trotting Roundhead troopers, they get another +25%, this 38 CR attacking 36 CR. Nevertheless, it still really comes down to those 2 D6. 

A melee between units of equivalent or near-equivalent CR could see-saw for a while before one side or the other breaks. That actually adds a bit of drama to the game and gives the feel of true push of pike.

So, what then?

I'd certainly love to play these again, but that means building and basing an ECW army for them. I'm not sure how much return I'd get from that. I have a lot of irons in the fire. I still have to scare up players—or play against myself, and I'm not really keen on solo wargaming. 

I might, however, consider a project in 15mm, which is where I started with these rules 45 years ago. I've recently re-joined the Old Glory Army, so I can get those nice Blue Moon 15mm ECW for 40% off. It bears some consideration.