For King & Parliament - 'Battle of Soggy Bottom'.
One of the games last Saturday at the Border Reivers was a bit of a departure from the ‘normal’ (or the kind of game I would have called as such – until recently, that is).
The game we played was an ECW affair using ‘For King & Parliament’ rules written by the ‘Big Red Bat-Man’ himself, Simon Miller and Andrew Brentnall
I have to admit I’m a bit of a dinosaur when it comes to wargaming (a bit! – I can hear my wargaming companions rolling around laughing at that understatement!).
Although I imagine myself more of a ‘traditionalist’ - all things considered (cough!).
In all the years I’ve indulged in this hobby, I’ve observed most enthusiasts slip into one particular camp or another when it comes to laying out the table and playing the game. Some are far more interested in the rules and the competition, so the ‘look’ of the conflict becomes (sometimes distinctly) secondary. Others are appearance aficionados to the ‘Nth’ degree, almost to the point where their figures are ‘jaw-droppingly’ display-class but they seem unconcerned about the gaming side much at all.
I think most of us fall somewhere in between, but personally, I’ve always been more in favour of the ‘visual appearance’ aspect than the ‘gaming’ side of things. Not that the ‘game’ isn’t essential of course – it wouldn’t be War-GAMING otherwise – would it?
Nonetheless, my obsession lies with ‘MINIATURE Wargaming’, and it’s always been the miniatures that have appealed to me the most. Miniature figures, model buildings, terrain, scenery – the whole gambit. From my childhood days, it’s been the eye-candy that has grabbed me hook, line and sinker every time –
Of course, the game-rules matter (especially relating to historical conflicts) but nowhere near as much as a really nicely-presented wargames table.
I will further admit to being more than a little OCD(ish) about this – a state of affairs which has not mellowed with age (no kidding! – my mates again!).
I could quote numerous examples which gets an eyebrow twitching (and sometimes both!).
For instance, I cannot understand the mindset of players that never seem to think about their (often beautifully) painted miniatures constantly being laid out and fought over a nondescript green cloth (or worse), frequently with equally nondescript terrain. Or, (even with well-thought-out terrain), huge dice or bright plastic (often day-glow!) tokens or rings stacked next to (or on top of) unit formations. Or, (a pet hate here!), units ‘hovering’ over the top of ‘doormat’ cornfields.
Obviously, tabletop miniature wargaming has to be about some compromises somewhere – but…
Anyway, you get the drift – what has this got to do with ‘For King and Parliament’? Well, let me say that it is based on ‘To the Strongest’, the Ancients and Medieval set by the same author. Both are very popular sets of rules and they have adherents in our membership too.
Now, I have played ‘To the Strongest’ – twice to be exact, some time ago and I didn’t like the games at all. The rules use ordinary playing-cards instead of dice to activate units and conduct things like shooting and melee. It means dealing out cards behind each unit as the turn progresses – and the visual aggravation that gave my OCD tendencies was impressive to behold! Not only that but quite a substantial number of tokens are required to be stacked next to the units too. And - if all that wasn’t enough, the game is fought on a grid of square boxes – excuse me for a moment, I need some meds!
I wouldn’t care, I’d already bought and downloaded a digital copy of ‘For King and Parliament’ on the back of recommendations for TtS. But stuff like grids and tokens and placing cards down behind units was the slippery-slope to oblivion for TtS for me. After a brief glance through, my copy of FK&P just languished in a forgotten folder on my desktop PC.
Then recently, I found myself perusing through a copy of FK&P at the Vapnartak show in York. I don't know why but I had been reading 'All The Kings Armies' by Stuart Reid - so maybe that was the trigger?
My eyes drifted across an option to use dice instead of playing cards in the FK&P rules – well that was intriguing! So I bought the hard-copy, even though I had the digital version at home – sigh! Wargamers are strange people – and do strange things!
I read the physical copy of FK&P in some detail in the car journey home from York (I wasn’t driving!). I had not read the digital version in the same way (maybe hard-copies really are so much easier to read and digest).
Anyway, I became struck by the very clever but straightforward systems Simon and Andrew have designed into the ruleset to interpret historical outcomes. I had not noticed that so much before. The more I read, the more I understood why this unique rule system has become so popular.
Dividing the wargames table area into a grid does indeed make the game function smoother and faster than a ‘normal’ wargame with measuring tapes. And to be fair, Simon goes to some lengths to illustrate how to disguise the fact that there is a grid in use at all in his games – just look at some of the BigRedBat demo games online. And now there are the dice and chit options described in FK&P that players can utilise instead of playing cards.
Hence this game of ‘For King and Parliament’ was organised at our club – but with some of the changes to the offending (for me anyway) cards, tokens and grid inspired by the welcome options suggested in these rules (and some very helpful e-mails from Simon himself).
We used our 2ft (600mm) square terrain boards for the game as they were easily further sub-divided (by eye) into 1ft (300m) ‘boxes.’ D10 were used for unit activation and ‘Activation Dials’ (suitably textured) numbered 1-0 placed next to the unit to record the result of each roll. The other counters, tokens and ammunition ‘chits’, were disguised in the same way in an attempt to avoid triggering too many OCD twitches.
The photographs should give an idea of how it all worked – although most (insensitive) people will probably be fine with the rules as they stand 😊
In a nutshell - I have (belatedly) become quite fascinated with this rule system, with all the enthusiasm of the newly converted!
And I’ve ordered digital and hard copies of ‘To the Strongest’ too!
I have to say also, the rule-books are very well written and presented – probably among the best out there IMO.
The scenario we played was a fictional one called ‘Soggy Bottom’ which can be downloaded from the BigRedBat website. We found it a good one to try as a first big(ish) game. Although our result turned out to be a draw.
The figures we used were my old 25mm Hinchliffe standing in for Royalists, (with a few Perry’s thrown in) and the Parliamentarian forces were from the extensive 28mm collection of member Ken Boyle.
Enjoy!
Some extra pictures here: -
https://photos.app.goo.gl/HRDAQso7d1iZeuRm8
Chris (twitch!) 😉
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| All credit to Chris and the Border Reivers Wargame Society. |
