Scourge of Princes at EWG

On Wednesday, Bruce brought out Scourge of Princes ( The Dawn of Modern Warfare from Machiavelli to Cromwell) by Sam Mustafa. Bruce seems to really like Mustafa's stuff & has several of his game systems. 

We had 6 people out, so 3 players per side. A central objective (a town) was placed at the centre of the table. Then blinds were placed splitting the table into 2 halves. Each side then got to place 3 terrain features on their side of the blind.

We then switched sides & were able to move 1 terrain piece from where they were placed. The blinds were then removed. We were then each handed a box & the forces inside were what we had to maneuver with.

Most of us had never played this system before.

The table is set, the forces deployed!

A view of the opponents left flank.

We had the initiative so made a rush to get atop the hill securing our left flank. The objective was to capture & hold the town in the centre at the end of the game. However I was focused on our left.

It really didn't take long before we were within musket range & the shots began to occur. Our forces (the Spanish) had better musketry, whilst the Dutch had larger pike units.

A better image of the centre of the battle. Our side did get into the town first & were able to hold it throughout the game. I didn't get any pics of the far end of the table, but it was bloody.

My forces squaring off with Jonathan's. Players roll for command tokens at the beginning of each of their turns. Their general then uses the tokens to activate various units. Units further than 4" cost double the chits. This isn't as bad as it seems however as units who are remaining in place will always get to fire.

Each unit can suffer a certain amount of disruption before succumbing. You can see the boxes on the units above. Jonathan did make a couple of charges up the hill to try to destroy my unit. He was unable to get enough hits against mine to  push me back however. I then relied on my musketry to whittle him down. The other effect of the boxes being ticked off, is that you go from Fresh to Worn to finally exhausted. Those states affect the value you will need to roll on dice.

The game ended in a victory for our side as we were able to defeat a larger number of their units. Having the hill was key as it made their attacks harder. Also charging a cavalry unit into a pike wall isn't a good idea. 

Thanks for a great game Bruce!