I like uncertainty in my table top wargaming, therefor it should be no surprise that I will incorporate a number of "fog of war" aspects into "Faithful English Blood" . . . particularly since there are a great many ECW encounters where the stronger force was severely whipped by an apparently weaker foe.

One of the ways in which I hope to achieve this is by using a "card driven" device.  Generals and Brigadiers will mostly have two or three "action cards" in the deck and when such a card is drawn then that officer will be able to act with the forces under his command (as long as they are within his command radius).

As I see it, using action cards will sort of be like watching a movie where the scene jumps around among various sub-plots.  When I was fighting the battles of "The Alpian War" I really enjoyed the use of "action cards" and not knowing what would happen next.

-- Jeff

Source of Name for my Rules

I'm not completely happy with any of the rule sets for the ECW that I've read . . . so I think that I am going to write my own.

And at least I've decided upon a name for my own version of ECW miniature rules . . . and I've taken a clue from Larry Brom's "The Sword and the Flame" Colonial rules by plucking a phrase from a famous English author.

However the phrase did not come from the English Civil War.  In fact it was written before ECW had even occurred . . . that's right, as a man of the Theatre, I pulled something from Shakespeare.

Almost everything title I liked for the ECW has already been used.  The best that I came up with was "King vs Cromwell" but that really didn't do it for me.  Then I recalled a bit of a speech in Act III, scene iii of Shakespeare's "Richard II":

“But ere the crown he looks for live in peace,
Ten thousand bloody crowns of mothers' sons
Shall ill become the flower of England's face;
Change the complexion of her maid-pale peace
To scarlet indignation , and be-dew
Her pastures' grass with faithful English blood.”

 This seemed to me to be a fair assessment of the situation during the ECW (even though it referred to 1399) . . . so I picked the last three words for the title of my ECW rules:

"Faithful English Blood"

Now all I have to do is write the rules, eh?

-- Jeff