Over The Hills and Far Away

A campaign game of Regimental management in the 18th century.

This is game that was originally designed to be played in a club or group context over a series of sessions, the aim being to build up a ‘campaign’ of experiences and a context for a number of small 18th century skirmishes involving just a handful of battalions a side. In the game the players represent colonel proprietors of British Infantry regiments in the mid-eighteenth century. The premise is that in this period, Colonels were, in effect private military contractors to the state – contracted to provide a battalion for the King. The game is a development of an original idea developed by Brian Cameron and Jim Wallman in June 1996 and subsequently played by the enthusiastic members of the Chestnut Lodge Wargames Group.

Background

The British Army in this period (the date is deliberately not specified, it is “Seventeen forty-something”) consists of a variable number of regiments (usually 50 - 60) each of which is normally a single battalion.

For administrative purposes each battalion consists of 10 companies, 9 centre and 1 grenadier. In effect the colonel owns the regiment and is paid by the government to recruit and maintain it. Each player makes up a character name for their Colonel. This is, in many respects, a roleplaying game, so players are encouraged to define such things as age, marital social status, background and previous military experience (which is not required to hold a colonelcy). If in doubt about what the period was like watch the film Barry Lyndon.

The colonel should be regarded as being the player in person – so risk to the colonel in battle is risk to the player.