The Musket's Way of War Pack
Three ziplock ATO and TPS releases for a great price!!
From the earliest battles, "ranged weapons" (like slings, spear throwers, bows) have been an important part of an army's structure... but melee/shock weapons were still where battles were usually won or lost.
That is, until the musket became an ever-larger part of armies all over the world....
From that point on, while "shock" combat still happened, the majority of the action involved projectiles -- musket balls, artillery...
"The Musket's Way of War" covers just a mere 20 years of battles to show the evolving nature of warfare and the emergence of the musket-armed infantryman as "Queen of Battle."
Lilliburlero starts with Ireland's 1690 Battle of the Boyne, and a moment when "the Troubles" were frozen in time. The Battle of Blenheim jumps to 1704 when Marlborough and Eugene thwarted French plans to dominate Europe. And Thunder Upon the Land is a two-pack set of games about the Great Northern War, showing Swedish success against the Russians at Narva in 1701 and Swedish disaster at Poltava in 1708 (after which, to go full circle, the Swedish king ended up imprisoned in Turkey.)
Lilliburlero
In Northern Ireland ‘The Twelfth’ is the most important day of the year, the anniversary of the largest battle in Irish history, the Battle of the Boyne.
Irish Catholics hopes were raised in 1685 when the Catholic King James II inherited the throne, but he was rapidly forced into exile, the mocking tune of ‘Lilliburlero’ still ringing in his ears. With the help of his cousin Louis XIV he landed in County Cork, Ireland a few months later. Quickly his nephew, son-in-law and usurper Wilhem-Hendrik van Oranje-Nassau, now King William III of England, brought his army to Belfast. As he marched south the outnumbered Jacobites retreated before him, but James was deter-mined not to surrender his capital without a fight. Thirty miles north of Dublin he drew up his army behind the River Boyne; a deep, tide-affected waterway steeped in Irish legend.
‘King Billy’ has 36,000 Danes, Dutch, English, Germans, Huguenots, Inniskillings, Scots and Welsh. ‘Dismal Jimmie’ has only 24,000 men, mostly unpaid and poorly armed Irish, but he has a veteran French Brigade and some of the best cavalry in Europe. If he can catch the Williamites as they struggle over the fords he may yet regain his English throne and restore the Catholic Church to Great Britain.
Lilliburlero and issue #40 of ATO
Map - One full color 22" x 34" mapsheet
Counters - 216 full color 9/16" die-cut pieces
Rules length - 12 pages
Charts and tables - 2 pages
Complexity - Medium
Solitaire suitability - Low
Playing time - From 2 to 5 hours
Design - Philip Jelley
Development - Lembit Tohver
Graphic Design - Mark Mahaffey
The Battle of Blenheim
Many wars have been fought to tip or maintain that illusive “balance of power” between nations, while including other objectives. The War of Spanish Succession might be the poster child for “balance” efforts, as demonstrated by the British… who allied with the Hapsburgs to stop a union between France and Spain…then left the war when it looked like the Hapsburgs could win (since Britain also feared a union of Spain and Austria!). The war included battlefields as far apart as Quebec and the Papal States, from the Netherlands to Hungary, and to various spots all over the German states. Including a small village on the Danube named Blindheim… which the British would garble as “Blenheim.”
Though the war would continue for over 10 more years, Blenheim rates as “decisive” because this cost Louis the chance to knock the Habsburgs out of the war early. Instead, it would be his Bavarian allies who would lose out and become vassals to Vienna.
The Battle of Blenheim focuses on the battlefield area itself, with each side having two distinct commands and forces. Players will command the varied forces of each side, with British, Dutch, Austrians, Prussians, Danes, and various German allies on one side and French, Bavarians, and even Irish fighting for Louis. Each unit in the game represents one brigade with each combat strength point around 400 men or 200 horses. One hex on the map equals 400 meters. A turn represents around one hour of action and the game can last up to 7 turns.
The Battle of Blenheim (TPS) includes:
Map - Full color, 11” x 17” mounted mapboard
Counters - 176 large 5/8" full color, die-cut counters
Rules length - 12 pages
Complexity - Medium
Playing time - Up to 4 hours
How challenging is it solitaire? - Poor
Design - Frédéric Bey
Development - Donald B. Johnson
Graphic Design - Mark Mahaffey
A Thunder Upon the Land
A two game package! The Battle of Narva took place in 1700, as Russia and a Saxon-Polish contingent aimed to push Sweden out of the Baltic, with the Saxons threatening Riga and the Russians besieging Narva. But it was November, and Peter left his army feeling secure that his 40,000 men could bottle up and capture the 2500 Swedes holding the city. Charles rushed to relieve the city with an army that was well-drilled and well equipped, but numbered only about 8000 men. So, including the troops in the city, he would be attacking at something like 1-4 odds. And attacking in a blizzard. But the surprise and wretched weather worked to his advantage, and virtually the entire Russian army was killed or captured, along with their artillery and equipment. It was Russia’s finest force at the time, and an immediate invasion by Sweden might well have succeeded. But there was Riga and the Saxons to consider, and Charles let the moment pass.
Three years later, having knocked the Saxons out of the war, Charles turned again to Russia, who had surprised Europe by founding St. Petersburg on what was then still Swedish territory. Charles aimed for Moscow, and this time, at Poltava, it was a Swedish army that vanished from the map.
A Thunder Upon the Land and issue #42 of ATO:
Map - One full color 22"x34" double-sided mapsheet
Counters - 264 full color large 5/8" die-cut pieces
Rules length - 12 pages
Charts and tables - 2 pages
Complexity - Medium
Solitaire suitability - Average
Design - Paul Rohrbaugh
Development - Lembit Tohver
Graphics - Terry Leeds and Mark Mahaffey
Yes, all the battles include cavalry and artillery and leaders...but the infantry and their increasingly deadly weapons really are the key element.
Find out why, with "The Musket's Way of War."
|
