The Nine Years War in Ireland -Reading The Cards

 

I like card powered games. Mostly the cards represent individuals, units, actions or events. Turn a card and an individual or a unit does something or an event happens. What sort of events happened on Nine Years War battlefields in Ireland?

Weather certainly happened.

On one occasion the rival Armies simply marched past each other because the rain made fighting impossible.

At the Moyry Pass the fog was so dense that the English shot their own men returning from reconnaissance. Twelve men out of thirty were lost.

What about the volatility of Black Powder? Yes, notoriously so. At the Battle of the Yellow Ford. Scores were wounded or killed when a powder cart went up. The card, above right, shows an English officer's drawing of that event. 

Lucky shots? Yes, Sir Henry Bagenal and Hugh Maguire of Fermanagh both fell to lucky shots. Many more too, not all of them fatal. Call it disrupted command in either case.

Military Madness has its place too. Situations where inherent military probability was simply ignored in pursuit of glory. Consider Sir Henry Cosby going over the trench at the Battle of the Yellow Ford. Or perhaps the charge of the Irish cavalry at Kinsale.

Running out of ammunition was also a problem in Ireland. Not so much the bullets but the powder. English accounts are replete with officers complaints that units had “burned off” all of their gunpowder. 

At Clontibret O’Neill’s shot burnt off all theirs too. How happy then when re-supply appeared.

Looting stopping play? Yes, we can add that. It is how the English Army escaped at the Ford of the Biscuits.

Ambush? Most certainly, we can add ambushes to our list. The Pass of Plumes comes to mind.  Below, you can see my latest completed units. 

Exceptional Training? It can be observed with the naked eye  and it pays off too. As the English Officer noted “Rory Og O’ More’s soldiers were the best men of war in the kingdom.”

I’m making some cards for my Nine Years War in Ireland game. You can see some of them on this page. 

The officer cards are starred to indicate varying command abilities. I imagine I'll be doing quite a few of these as I paint the figures. On that, Khurasan do a very nice 15mm Mountjoy. He will be a 3 Star Commander of course.

These cards are very rough and ready. I needed something quick for play testing. Once the full card deck is done I'll post it here.

I'm minded when I first started playing Piquet, and its siblings, of the plethora of custom cards available. Some of them quite lovely in terms of artwork. The bulk of which were produced by individual enthusiasts.

Next on this one we will see a play test.