A Brisk Engagement - For King and Parliament! AAR

On Saturday at Cold Wars 2019 I signed up for two participation games. One was For King & Parliament, a variation of To The Strongest! and put on by fellow SJGA club member Ted. 

The scenario was a recreation of the Battle of Montgomery, 1644. I was one of two Parliamentary commanders, and we faced off against three Royalist commanders.

Both sides would have six turns to score more Victory Medals. The Royalists started with an advantage in numbers, since the Parliamentarians had two units of cavalry off the table, foraging for supplies.

The infantry battle started with the two sides skirmishing with their forlorn hope units.

And the cavalry got right into the fight, with both sides charging as soon as they could.

The Parliamentarian infantry commanders were having trouble getting their orders to their troops, and so the blocks of pikemen and musketeers sat in place as the Royalists marched across the field.

The cavalry engagement quickly turned against me thanks to some truly awful card draws.

All three of my units were routed and chased from the table! This left the Parliamentary forces on the hill completely vulnerable.

My foraging units chose that moment to return to the battlefield, and were likely confused by the lack of anyone - Royalist or Parliamentarian - in the area. I started to send them after the Royalist cavalry.

But by then it was too little, too late. The Parliamentary infantry were flanked and, even after going into a "hedgehog" formation, were routed. With that, the Royalists rewrote history and claimed the field in the name of the King.

Ted was somewhat taken aback by the Parliamentarians' poor performance. We were done in just under two hours of what had been a four hour slot! But as my cavalry was so quickly wiped out, and the infantry couldn't hit the side of a barn from five paces away, the game was over rather quickly.

Even though the other Parliamentarian commander and I had some horrendous luck when it came to the card draws, we still had a great time. Like To The Strongest!, For King & Parliament is a fun, fast playing set of rules that looks good on the table.

As I mentioned in the post about what I bought at Cold Wars, I immediately went and purchased enough to start a small army in 28mm using Warlord Games' plastic and metal models. So while I supposed I've failed my "no new games" challenge, I've picked up another army to paint to completion!