inconsequential ruminations

Unhappy King Charles is an excellent wargame, full of flavour, depth and replayability. Disclaimer: I know Charles Vasey personally, and have a lot of respect for him, but this has not affected this post.

I have played Unhappy King Charles once over Vassal and three times face to face, but only managed to finish one of the face to face games. I did not want to comment sooner, as this is a deep game and I wanted to get a clear idea of it.

I knew very little about the English Civil War before I played Unhappy King Charles. Andy Daglish recommended Cromwell, the 1971 film about the English Civil War, starring Richard Harris, Alec Guinness and Timothy Dalton. It slips into a pseudo-Western at some points, but the acting is superb, with Richard Harris dominating the screen.

I will not summarise the game mechanics of Unhappy King Charles as the description at the BoardGameGeek is enough.

Comparison with other CDGs
Unhappy King Charles’ mechanics are based on We the People, but this game is significantly longer and more complicated. I have played a few card driven wargames and UKC is at a similar level to Shifting Sands and more complicated and longer than War of the Ring or Twilight Struggle. I found UKC a bit more complex than Hannibal: Rome vs Carthage, but the rules are much harder to get through – more below.
Length – six hours, but we are slow. I think we could get this down to five hours. Fast, experienced CDG players can get this down to three to four hours.

Rules
The rules were the only area where I really think the game could have been better, as they are verbose and hard to read. On the other hand they are very hard to misinterpret and we had almost no rules questions. This is always a tough balance, but they just did not work for my learning style. I considered putting together a concise summary, but real life has intervened. While we were on holiday, my wife read a novel of several hundred pages in almost exactly the same time it took me to parse these rules.

Hints

1. Read the rules first. I found the playbook tedious and it did not help my understanding much. I never usually read strategy guides, but do read Andy Daglish’s hints in the playbook. The learning curve is too great in this game otherwise.
2. Print Andy’s reference sheet – as it clears up some particularly unclear parts of the rules.
3. Don’t bother with the counter displays and use normal counter stacks. The counter density in this game is very low, so they are a waste of time.

Gameplay
There is no open front and Unhappy King Charles plays like a swirling WW1 dog-fight. It is the opposite of an Operation Market Garden game or a Battle of the Bulge game, where the gameplay is linear.
The way to win is to concentrate on the control markers and to try to isolate the opposition’s markers for removal.
Counter intuitively, it is usually best to disperse/evade if you are at a disadvantage, as the penalties are very light.

I don’t have room in my life for many games of this intensity and depth, but I am happy I made space for this one. 9/10

I played the introductory game of American Megafauna with my brother-in-law tonight and it went far better. We finished in about an hour and we enjoyed it.

It felt far more like a €urogame than I expected. My b-i-l was not overly interested in the theme and just played it as a regular game, but it worked for him. So far it seems that the chrome may be overly distracting, but we really need to play the Advanced version.

I like the way the game is split into four versions:

• Introductory
• Basic
• Advanced
• Solitaire

You have to respect a game that is flexible enough to include rules for late starters and early leavers. This would definitely make it feasible to squeeze into a regular games night.

I just tried unsuccessfully to solo American Megafauna using the Advanced Solitaire rules. The immigration and “X” biome rules confused me and I ran out of patience.

I should have started earlier and been less ambitious and just tried the intro game instead.

I found the answers to my questions online and I’m definitely going to try again, as this game is too rich with theme to ignore.

This blog got a mention on The Messy Game Room Podcast.

They made a total hash of my name – which was hysterical in their Dukes of Hazzard accents. For everyone’s information, my first name is just the Scottish spelling of Ian. My last name is pronounced “chain”, although Cheyne Walk is pronounced the way they said it.

The Messy Game Room is pretty good, especially for a new effort. The two presenters, Mike and Marshall have decent radio voices, their sound quality is fine and they are good conversationalists. If you were a fan of the Dice Tower in the days of Joe Steadman, you’ll enjoy this show.

Sadly our games night is really struggling to find a regular set of gamers, so my unplayed games list is stubbornly hanging at 29 games.

• 100 Strategic Games for Pen and Paper – I bought this to play in the car with Ness. It hasn’t happened in 6 years. I live in hope.
• Adventures by Gaslight – We’re still playing through West End Adventures.
• Agricola Z-Deck – I am not sure I want to risk a games night on this, but maybe if we’re in a silly mood.
• Aladdin’s Dragons – Want to play this soon.
• American Megafauna – Keen to play this multiplayer, but might have to persuade one of my grognard friends to try this two player first. Any volunteers?
• Bittereinder – Eight hours, so unlikely to play. Shame as I’m fascinated by the subject.
• Cobra – Cheap eBay purchase. Looks good, but outdated. Big stacks of chits likely. Unlikely to play.
• Die Dolmengötter – Want to play this soon. Looks short and fun.
• The Drive On Metz, 1944 – Ideal if I can find a history buff who might be persuaded to try a wargame.
• Drunter und Drüber – Should work well with non-gamers.
• EleMental – My wife bought this for me. Local Chiswick designer. Was being sold at the Science Museum, and is still might be. Looks too abstract for me, but none of my regular players like abstracts.
• Gumshoe – I’d like to try this after West End Adventures.
• Heimlich & Co. – My kids are a little young for this. Might try with non-gamers.
• Höchst Verdächtig – My kids are a little young for this.
• A House Divided – I’m optimistic about playing this with my brother-in-law over the next few weeks.
• Inka – Math trade sweetner. Looks too abtract for me.
• The Mansion Murders – We’re still playing through West End Adventures.
• Mhing – Mikko alerted me onto this. Looks good as an after-dinner couples game. Maybe I’ll buy a Mahjong set if it goes well. I’m not ready to read Finnish Mahjong sites yet though.
• Polarity – Somewhere lost in my house. Bad news as I know I could get a game of this anytime after the runaway Christmas hit of Bamboleo.
• The Queen’s Park Affair – Tried to play this with three, but it’s huge. Probably best played solo.
• Rommel at Gazala – I printed this out and it works well. I tried it with my brother in law, but he wasn’t impressed. It’s a bit too easy for my grognard friends. I won’t try it again with Drive on Metz unplayed.
• SeaSim – Math trade sweetner. Haven’t really looked at it.
• Settlers of Catan – Event Cards – Bought at Essen 2006. Next time I play Catan it is coming out for sure.
• Steam Tunnel – Math trade sweetner. Haven’t really looked at it.
• Um Reifenbreite – Bought for five euros at Essen 2006. Looks too light for my gang, but at least it is simple.
• Union Pacific – Keen to play this soon.
• Werewolf – I don’t go to these sorts of parties any more, so I’m unlikely to play it. I hope Chris’s daughter gets to try it at some point.
• Wildlife Adventure – I liked Expedition. This one is in English, so should be more kid-friendly. Probably will not get played for a few years.
• Zapp Zerapp – My kids are a little young for this.