The King’s Treasure

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The second in our ECW in Scotland campaign.

Once again, Dave’s feisty Scots-Irish in Montrose’s army but this time facing my no doubt drunken English Royalist army in a Field of Glory: Renaissance game.

Scenario: There’s a Mousse Loose in the Hoose.
Preamble:
The late King Charles unwisely entrusted his most prized possessions to the Marquess of Montrose & his Scottish-Irish army. These possessions included barrels of his finest whisky, many sacks of coin & the crown jewels: chief of which is the Orb of the Crown featuring a large, brownish-hued diamond affectionately known as the ‘King’s Mousse’.
Montrose had given his oath not to relinquish these treasures to anyone but King Charles. Montrose must keep the treasure until Charles asked for it in person. As the King is now unfortunately dead, it seemed an unlikely occurrence. The English Royalist army, under Prince Rupert, thought they could use the riches to good purpose so………
The Game:
Montrose can deploy his army first, lengthways down the table, starting in the second quarter.
The English can deploy in the first quarter, no closer to Montrose than outside charge distance.
The wagons, loaded with treasure, are placed at the half way mark & must exit safely for Montrose to win.
The Scots get to deploy 6 ambush markers anywhere on their 75% of the table, any of which can hide a unit that can only be discovered when the enemy are within 6MUs.
The English may deploy an outflanking force of 3 units & a general whose arrival will be determined by being higher than % dice, thrown at the start of each game turn. Their number starts at 90 & goes down by 10 each turn. If they get the needed score, they deploy according to the FoG rules on flanking forces.
The game should go for 9 Turns. Montrose’s army must remain as a “force in being” and may not simply become a stampeding rabble, intent on escape (see Minor Victory as an incentive)
The game was very different to last fortnight’s encounter battle. It was primarily a game of manoeuvre but ended in a flurry of combats.

The set-up had Montrose’s force positioned over the middle & upper parts of the table with the English Royalists massed at one end.

Here can be seen the wagons filled with gold (& whisky), waiting to begin the journey to safety:

And Montrose himself:

The English had a superiority in cavalry and their plan was to charge down the central road with strong pike and shot units on either flank.

The Scots watched on from the higher ground:

Part of the English planned involved a flanking force :

that miraculously (lucky dice) arrived in the right place in Turn 2:

Montrose & his vanguard watched warily:

Not so lucky, many were destroyed by McColla’s mad Irishmen:

The centre saw some fierce fighting:

A last ditch charge by Bassett’s cavaliers came within a whisker of taking the wagons but were held by a Scottish Pike & Shot regiment (Earl of Cromarty’s) as the wagon train escaped.

Game over:

donald

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