Lace Wars Series #2 - Charlie's Year (Deluxe Edition)

Please note that this is a DTP (Desk Top Publishing) game designed on a desktop computer and all components, including the counters which will have to be cut and mounted, are printed on paper. These are designed by some very well-known designers and are a low cost alternative to today's professionally produced games. On rare occasions, some of these games are reproduced by other companies with higher quality components including die-cut counters but most of them are not. If you believe this game to have a professionally produced version, please contact us with your inquiry and we will help you to locate it if it does indeed exist.

Charlie's Year

Charlie's Year Redux is a remake. Like its predecessors, it is a two player strategy game. You play one of the royal contenders, with all of Scotland and England as your battleground. You must decide when and where to commit resources, where to feint and where to strike. But you also have command of any immediate battlefield, and must array your forces for battle, deciding when to employ the cavalry, when to release your reserves, or whether to launch a fearsome 'highland charge'. Technically CYR can be rated as an operational game for scale, but at that time there was no operational theory of war: individual regiments were temporarily banded into armies for a single campaign (often with no clear purpose beyond the seeking of glory by an aristocratic officer corps), and the army commander, or even the King himself, would be in charge on a battlefield still small enough to see his entire command.

The game is played in a series of turns, each representing one month, and broken into a series of discrete 'operations' by your mobile forces, using garrisoned fortifications as bases and pivot-points. As the seasons change, a variety of weather conditions will plague your decision making. You have many sources of assistance, but their employment in this 'sideshow' may ruin your chances of victory elsewhere and thus lose you the game. The primary focus is on the campaign game, but there are also shorter historical scenarios covering portions of the Rising and even individual battles. The campaign game is quite flexible in its victory conditions, allowing you to experiment with different ideas for victory. There are also variant campaign rules.

Components

1) Six 12x18 inch full color maps representing all of Scotland, England, and Wales as they were in the pre-industrial age. There are hills and woods and rivers, towns and cities, fortifications, and many other terrain types, each with its own unique effect on movement and combat. Holding boxes store off map forces like the French invasion army. A dot grid is superimposed on the board to regulate movement - 13.6 km between dots (8.5 miles).

2) Nearly 1000 counters. The counters represent every unit that fought or could have fought: British, Jacobite, or French - even neutral clansmen and foreign mercenaries. The combat units are rated for morale (training & esprit de corps), and movement. Most are battalions of Foot or regiments of Horse. These are grouped under Headquarters counters. Other counters are Leaders, rated for initiative and command capability, and personality.

The Highland Quorum (The Earl of Mar's Rebellion 1715)

Remade at the same time as Charlie's Year, this module uses the standard King's Regulations and Orders, plus the rules from Charlie's Year, plus a set of game-specific rules. An historical commentary is included. (While most of the Lace Wars titles are games with commentaries, this one is more of a commentary with a game attached). The scale and general flow of play are the same as in Charlie's Year. Once again, a Jacobite Rising is simulated, but this time, the Jacks have a potentially overwhelming force. It is up to the Government player to contain his opponent until he can muster sufficient strength to challenge him. The weakness for the Jacobites lies with their abysmal commanders.

Components

As with Charlie's Year, the counters represent the forces available to both sides. Some counters from Charlie's Year are required, as are the maps. THQ contains 2 & 1/3 counter sheets, a card with some extra charts, and a combined rules and commentary book.

Perdition to King George! (The Jacobite "Little Rising" of 1719)

The scale and general flow of play are the same as in Charlie's Year. Once again, a Jacobite Rising is simulated, but this time, the Jacks have a potentially overwhelming force, backed up by large professional armies (players may even conduct a combined Swedish-Spanish assault). PKG comes with additional counters for the Spanish and Swedes, a card with special charts, and historical commentaries.

Charlie's Year Deluxe Edition also now contains the entire Highland Quorum module (previously sold separately)!