Hopton & Waller, a 2-Player ECW Campaign

[w_michael]

I have created a simple, 2-player campaign system for Pike & Shot:

Hopton & Waller, a 2-Player English Civil War Campaign
The arrival of Sir Ralph Hopton's royalist army from Cornwall into Somerset in June 1643 was part of an advance aimed ultimately at combining with the king for an attack on London. This army swept through the county, establishing garrisons at Bridgwater, Dunster and Taunton. Meanwhile, parliament had despatched an army of its own under Sir William Waller to strengthen the resistance of local forces and to halt the advance on London at all costs.

Campaign Overview
This is a simple, 2-player campaign system for the English Civil War in the south-west using Pike & Shot to resolve the battles. The campaign consists of six turns: Summer-1643, Fall-1643, Winter-1643, Spring-1644, Summer-1644, and Fall-1644. A battle is fought on each campaign turn and the result of the battle used to increase or decrease the current campaign position on the Victory Track below:

0. Victory in the south-west for Parliament
1. Cornwall (100/60)
2. Devon (90/70)
3. Somerset (starting position, 80/80)
4. Wiltshire (70/90)
5. Hampshire (60/100)
6. Victory in the south-west for the King

The campaign's starting position on the Victory Track is 3 (Somerset). The county name associated with each Victory Track number indicates where the next battle will take place, and the numbers in parentheses are reinforcement/replacement levels for the royalist and parliamentarian armies respectively (see Post-Battle Adjustments). Each battle won by the royalist player adds one to the Victory Track number and, conversely, each battle won by the parliamentarian player subtracts one. Should the Victory Track number reach 0 or 6 then parliament or the king wins a decisive victory in the south-west and the campaign is over immediately. Indecisive battles do not alter the Victory Track number. If at the end of six campaign turns neither player has achieved a decisive victory then the outcome is based on the ending Victory Track number as follows: 1 - major parliamentarian victory, 2 - minor parliamentarian victory, 3 - stalemate in the south-west, 4 - minor royalist victory, 5 - major royalist victory.

Pike & Shot Battle
Each player starts the campaign with 800 Force Points. The Scenario Type is normally Open Battle, unless one side has 25% or more Force Points than the other side then the larger army plays an Attack scenario. The Force Size is Custom, based on the current Force Points in each of the armies (which should be rounded to even hundreds to match the settings available). Both players may only use an army list that is valid for the campaign turn year; the royalist player: Royalist or Royalist Raiders, and the parliamentarian player: Parliamentarian only. The player with the larger Force Point army chooses their army list first, followed by the other player. If tied, the parliamentarian player chooses first.

Post-Combat Adjustments
Battle losses are carried forward into the campaign based on the percentage of the army routed (as per the Mission Info text at the end of the battle and not the Final Losses screen), using the following formula:

Battle Starting Force Points x (1 - Percentage Routed/3)

For example, if a 800 Force Point army won the battle with 23% of their force routing then the Force Points left in the army after the stragglers have been rounded up, captives pressed into service, and minor wounds bandaged is: 800 x (1 - 0.23/3) = 739 Force Points.

After each battle the number on the Victory Track is adjusted and reinforcements and/or replacements are received in each army based on the current position. As an army is victorious, it advances further from their core territory and deeper into areas that are predisposed to favour the enemy. The Victory Track indicates the number Force Points received in the format (R/P), where R is the number of royalist Force Points, and P is the number of parliamentarian Force Points.

If the battle in the example above occurred in Somerset then the Victory Track number would change to 4 (Wiltshire), and the royalist army would receive 70 Force Points as reinforcements/replacements bringing the royalist army strength to 809 Force Points in the next battle.

Optional Cornish Regiments and Haselrig's "Lobsters"
The core of Sir Ralph Hopton's royalist army were the regiments of foot from Cornwall. To represent this the Royalist player must choose the Royalist 1642-1643 army list for the first three campaign turns. If the Force Selection for the battle is set to Default then the royalist player must also choose the maximum number of Cornish Royalist Pike & Shot units possible.

Sir Arthur Haselrig raised a regiment of cuirassiers which served in Sir William Waller's parliamentary army of the west. They were nicknamed "Lobsters" because they had an armoured "shell" from head to knee, and were probably the last cavalry unit to fight in England wearing full armour. To represent this the parliamentarian player must choose the Lobsters unit if the Force Selection for the battle is set to Default.

Optional Historical Army Size
At the battle of Lansdowne, July 1643 (which is the start of the campaign) the royalist army had approximately 6,300 men, and the parliamentarian army had approximately 4,000 men. To represent the historical disparity in the size of the opposing armies the initial Force Points should be 800 for the royalist player and 700 for the parliamentarian player. Pike & Shot uses Force Points to balance games, which do not directly correlate to army size, so the numbers are an approximation only.

[Doyley50]

This certainly would seem to be a clever idea, a simple campaign system to give a framework to a series of battles. If you want any play testers then I'm game.

[w_michael]

This certainly would seem to be a clever idea, a simple campaign system to give a framework to a series of battles. If you want any play testers then I'm game.

Thank you for the offer, which I will happily accept. Do you have a side preference? If it is parliament then let me know your army list preference and I will set up the initial challenge. Otherwise, I will let you know my army list preference and you can create the challenge.

Will (w_michael)

[Doyley50]

I think I would like to go for Parliament, army list 1643-1645,please.

[w_michael]

I think I would like to go for Parliament, army list 1643-1645,please.

Before we start I am going to change the turns from triannual to seasonal. The Battle of Braddock Down, for example, was in January so winter campaigning was a possibility in the west. This rules out the New Model Army for parliament.

[Doyley50]

Fair enough. I am happy to stay with the one army list.

[w_michael]

I tried creating the challenge, but I receive the following error when I try to create a multi-player skirmish challenge: "Upload Failed - CRC check did not validate data. Please retry." I have re-booted my computer an tried three times, all with the same error message. I have created several MP skirmish challenges previously with no problems, but using different parameters. I've posted the problem in the Tech Support section.

Perhaps you can try creating the challenge. The skirmish parameters that I used were: English Civil War, Open Battle, Small, Medium, Agricultural, Royalist, Royalist 1642-1643, Parliamentarian 1643-1645, On, Default. I also clicked on the Advanced button just to confirm that the Force Points are 900 for each army. After clicking the Create button, I entered "Hopton & Waller Campaign: Summer 1643" in the Comment field, and "Waller" in the Password field. I click on the Create button again and that is when I receive the error message.

Will

[w_michael]

It worked when I removed the ampersand from the challenge comment. The challenge is posted for you, password: Waller

[jomni]

Routed units at the end of the battle are always lopsided. The winner seems to get back most of the routed troops losing only the dead and wounded but loser doesn't.

The campaign rules can be played solo as well but the AI always gets a boost in purchase points.

[Doyley50]

Having just completed a campaign as the Parliamentarians and another as the Royalists, this campaign system works well for two opponents who are looking for a fairly short campaign. I enjoyed it greatly, thanks Will! Now to try a solo campaign against the AI...

[w_michael]

Thanks for the games Alan. Both campaigns we played were a lot of fun, with a lot of nail-biting outcomes for the battles. The Royalists received a decisive victory in both campaign games, using a variety of army lists for both sides.

[shawkhan2]

I consider this concept brilliant.

I only wish that someone(anyone but me of course) would work out a similar guideline for the 30 Years War, Italian Wars and a few others.

[w_michael]

I consider this concept brilliant.

I only wish that someone(anyone but me of course) would work out a similar guideline for the 30 Years War, Italian Wars and a few others.

Thank you for the compliment. This campaign system works well for the ECW in the south-west because there were two discrete armies in an isolated region. If someone can find the same circumstances in another renaissance war covered in the Pike & Shot period then the conversion should be easy. I have an idea for a different simple 2-player campaign system for the 30 Years' War which I will try to post on the weekend.