Hi all,

My 14-year old son is expressing some interest in ECW, and for obvious reasons, I'd like to use the opportunity to hook him on 6mm.  I'm aware of Pike and Shotte, and the Polemos rules.  What would people recommend for a novice wargamer in the period?  In terms of background reading, can anyone recommend please, a good survey with enough narrative appeal to catch the imagination of a kid his age?

FMB

The osprey essential reading one is probably ok for him. Haythornthwaite's ECW is also probably fine.

As to rules, can't help you there, still looking for some that tick all my boxes myself. I have used my own based on Sword and Spear a couple of times and they seemed ok, pretty simple ones, and tried a Maurice-based one too, but I'm not sure where my notes are for that one or how far along I got. PM me on FB and I can send a link to the S&S one if you like. You'd need the S&S rules as well though.

Just getting into that period myself, and will probably go with Pike & Shotte (and the supplement To Kill A King), simply because it ties in with the Black Powder and Hail Caesar rules my friends and I are already familiar with.

For background, apart from the obvious Ospreys mentioned above, I picked up a book called "The English Civil War - A Military History" by Peter Gaunt, which at 14, I probably could have just about managed. It is a good, chronologically-ordered description of the armies, their leaders, and the nature of the war(s). As well as the big battles and sieges, he also gives space to the raiding and skirmishing that was the day-to-day reality for many - I certainly hadn't known how much went on in my local area - no Edgehills or Nasebys, but plenty of smaller scale fighting.

Haythornthwaite's book can be useful, but needs treating with care.  There are a number of  issues and factual errors with it.   The Osprey elites on ECW foot and horse are very good.  Not so good are the earlier titles by Peter Young and Stuart Asquith.   If you can get hold of it, the Brasseys volume on the English Civil War is actually pretty good and has a lot of colour piccys and photos of decent reenactors.  I'd also reccomend Stuart Reid's book, 'All the King's armies'.   It is a very good military history of the period and has a lot of solid detail.

For starters on uniforms and infantry colours you will find two free pdf guides in the 'How To' section on this very website.

As for rules, there are a number to choose from, but I would very strongly advise against any set that treats an infantry battalia as three or more seperate sub-units.   Formations of foot were tactical units and rules that don't reflect that, (and I am looking at Pike and Shot and DBR) are focussing on the wrong things.

As it happens a publisher is working on a guide to wargaming the ECW for publication later in the year and I am contributing a couple of chapters.

Good luck with the project.  It is a fascinating and complex period which rewards any time put into it.

For a beginner, I think that you could do worse than the Pike & Shot set within Neil Thomas' Wargaming:An Introduction book.  They are pretty intuitive, especially if the lad is novice to wargaming as a whole (and treat infantry battalia as distinct units containing pike and shot).

Totally agree with the caveats on rules that seperate pike and shot units.

On the table this makes for a very cumbersome game, whilst historically, it appears that, from Maurice of Nassau's original writings up to the adoption of the socket bayonet, the two were always regarded as a single tactical unit. Musketeers without pike protection, and pikemen without fire-support were mincemeat, as any of the leaders who learned their trade in the Holy Roman Empire would know. Commanded Shot (the exception) was so called because it was ordered/"commanded" to detach from its parent unit for a specific task or role.

Fortunately for me (see above), the guys at Warlord Games amended their unit stats to reflect this in the ECW supplement

I would second Neil Thomas and also his One Hour Wargames. Both sets are easily adaptable and there are specific adaptions for ECW available on various websites. As for reading, a book I loved when I was 14 was Battles of the English Civil War by Austin Woolrych.

Many thanks, all - particularly Peter, as I know you're rather busy right now.

FMB