Saturday, July 30, 2022

Battles of the English Civil War by Mike Lambo

        I just received a copy of Mike Lambos' newest solitaire wargame book; Battles of the English Civil War. With  a complete ruleset and 15 battle scenarios for under $20.00, it is a great value. With Mr. Lambo games there are aways some changes in the rules so you're not just playing same rules with some small change to justify charging full price for the same rules.In this game the Artificial Intelligence tends to be more aggressive than other games. Such rules I think would be great in an Ancients game. Also when a unit is hit, it becomes disorganized and starts fleeing the field. There is uncertainty as the unit can retreat different distances based in the roll; then there's the fact you must try to rally before it retreats off the board or is hit a second time, which destroys the unit. 

    I got my first game in last night, using Peter Laing figures for my units. The battle was Edgehill. The AI were Royalists. And instead of deploying in Edgehill, they mainly deployed at the base of the hill. After my first move, the Royalist cannon fire disorganized one of my pikemen units, which promptly fled the field! The battle was downhill for me from there.

Initial troop deployments. Royalists on top, my army on the bottom. One can see the Royalist artillery has a clear shot on one of my pikemen.

The Royalist cannon and hits my pikeman, who retreats off the board. An ill omen!

The end of battle. The accursed General AI gave my army a sound thumping. With no chance of victory, I concede defeat.

The cover of the book. A good value that even non hermits should consider buying.

     

4 comments:

  1. Looks good John. If all the scenarios are as tricky to win you should get a lot of fun from this book.

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    1. Hopefully I will get some more games in soon. I plan to move onto the next battle instead of trying Edgehill again. I also plan to work on making 2mm armies for the game.

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  2. This looks familiar and sounds like a lot of fun. I shall look it up!

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    1. I have seven of his game books and have played 4 of the game sets, all are challenging in their own way. I usually play them right before going to bed; they set up quick and usually play quick. I strongly recommend them; even if one only selects one book. With multiple scenarios and random enemy deployments the battles are unpredictable.

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