D3 ECW games online

Many thanks to Jeffrey for coming online and playing as my opponent in two games of the D3 ECW rules from Grid Based, but not always.

We used the system put forward by Grid Based, with the following addendum:

Trotter horse *may not* initiate close combat, but may continue any close combat initiated by others.

Trotter horse may initiate close combat only if  'out of ammunition'

in all cases Trotter horse fights at a d3-1 in close combat

This change made, we entered into combat.

first battle, the Royalists had the 'attack' position - I was commanding the Royalists for the first time

the Royalists had purple 'paper' under them

Parliament had orange 'paper' under them

the colors idea came after the last Napoleonic game where the units got close and we had troubles telling them apart with the green grass paper ... again the pebbles denote hill slopes, the outer limit and the 'ridge line' or center 'top' of the hill

after a few turns I was in trouble with too many units far apart and taking damage from multiple shooters

at least the units can all take a few hits and not just vanish instantly (each can take 6 hits)

the artillery is sometimes more of a hindrance than a help - certainly it cost me in this battle as I was unable to keep it safe from being charged ... on contact with close combat artillery is eliminated

Parliament took that hill and held it

Royalists attempted to make a stand on the other little hill

just not able to make the same level of fire

Parliament kept their firing capacity (no 3's rolled in shooting)

in the end a melee was needed to resolve the situation, Royalists came up short

No doubt it was the Parliament that won the first match (though it was 3-3 tie at one point) as the Royalists just never collected together

Time enough for a second game and to watch even closer on the moves and command 'pips' from the commanders.

This time Parliament was to be 'attacker'

even using random die to determine where we came from we ended up fighting from the same sides as before

Royalist was more embedded in woods

Parliament was even more spread out on the hill

in progress, Royalists had hit the left of Parliament with horse, while Parliament had shot the Royalist left

scoring damage, but in so doing rolling a '3' - meaning no powder left and the pike & shot must go to close combat

horse battle on the hill flank

Royalist foot move hard behind the Horse

Royalist Lord General had to keep in motion to keep the most 'pips' available for command

eventually the battle began a counter-clockwise movement as the Royalist Gallopers shredded the Parliamentary Trotters

artillery got in a couple of shots, yet again were mostly useless

luckily (for Royalists) not so lucky for Parliament, their foot ended up all 'out of powder'

this meant a charge was inevitable

a charge which would not work against solid pike & shot which could fall back and shoot up at 2:1 the Parliament troops that were out of powder

at the end all remaining horse formations for both sides 2 Gallopers for Royalists and 1 Trotter (of the 4 started with) for Parliament were at 6 'hits' and just barely existing - Royalists won this battle, though again at one point it was 2-2.

With the small adjustment for Trotters , this ECW game system plays like a DBA for English Civil War and I can certainly see myself using it to tell tales of the War between the Kingdoms.

Thank you again Jeffrey!