Last weekend I had the chance to re-play the final scenario in my Marlowe to Maidenhythe scenario pack for FK&P: Rogue Nation.

It’s a stand-up fight between a late ECW period Parliamentarian army and a combination of militia and clubmen set, once again, around the village of Gappe.

As is customary these days (but not for much longer!) we played via Zoom: with my opponent being able to see the whole table via an overhead webcam, and more specific areas of the battlefield via an on-table mobile phone.

Here’s the report:

The Parliamentarians approach the Gappe

Although it looks as if I outnumber the rebels, the points scores are equal!

The Rebellious Scum

Typical: you spend years defeating a Papist King and then everyone else starts rebelling as well!

View from behind the Guns

The Roundhead artillery would only fire a few shots before being masked by their own troops.

Opening Phase

Much to my surprise, the rebels come forward: pike in front, Rabble behind, and Dutch horse on the wings.

Note my horse charging forward in a both-wings enveloping movement.

Crunch!

Both sides’ infantry met in the middle of the field and a colossal scrum ensued.

A Different Viewpoint

Quality Counts

It’s a bit dicey for a few turns, but slowly my superior quality starts to count. His foot are pike-heavy, so quickly run out of ammunition for double-shot volley fire. Not so for my men! Plus his Rabble have no guns.

The Centre...

…is starting to thin out now as the enemy units collapse and flee.

Meanwhile my Swedish horse are keeping his Dutch horse occupied

The moment the rebel line collapses

I’ve already punched through his line with a unit of Swedish horse and a battalia of infantry. Even if he hadn’t crumpled now, my subsequent flank and rear attacks would have finished him off.

So a glorious victory for my Parliamentarians for a change. My opponent’s post-game e-mail began “what was I thinking?” as I think he realised that coming forward as his men did had been a mistake.

What was also pleasing was that my run of extremely (really extremely) bad cards seemed to have come to an end. In fact, another reason that my opponent gave for his defeat was that he was careless of his tactics as he was expecting my cards to be as bad as usual! Well, this game I actually had some quite good luck for a change, especially in the opening stages of the main infantry clash.

My victory was, however, not enough to reverse the course of the campaign in general. The M2M pack gives you a totaliser to keep track of how you do in each battle…and I think it fair to say that after twelve games played I was firmly on the losing side.

Great fun, and I must start writing the new pack soon!