Game: Army of Ireland

Thread: Re: Army of Ireland

madDdog67 — 2008-09-18T02:59:23+00:00

OOPS...typo.

Thread: Re: Army of Ireland

droe — 2008-09-17T23:33:52+00:00

madDdog67 wrote:

... There was an ill fated Fenian Rebellion in Ireland that failed in 1967. But that rebellion planted the seeds for the 1916 Rebellion, which didn't fail...

Ill fated because it arrived 100 years too late, perhaps?

Thread: Re: Army of Ireland

madDdog67 — 2008-09-17T22:26:03+00:00

mkirschenbaum wrote:
I guess it seemed like a good idea at the time.

Well, to some folks, attempting to toss the Brits out of Ireland (even if you had to start in Canada) was ALWAYS a good idea.

As mentioned, it was all part of the overall grand plan to take an army of well trained former Civil War soldiers and drive the British out of Ireland once and for all. That, of course, didn't happen. There was an ill fated Fenian Rebellion in Ireland that failed in 1867. But that rebellion planted the seeds for the 1916 Rebellion, which didn't fail. How well that one succeeded is open for debate, but at present 26 Counties are now free from "John Bull's Monarchy".

To many, it was Patrick Pearse's graveside oration for the Fenian leader Jeramiah O'Donovan Rossa in 1915 the cemented the inevitability of what became the Easter Rising. It produced one of the most famous lines in the fight for Irish independence:

(Speaking of the British)..."They think that they have pacified Ireland. They think that they have purchased half of us and intimidated the other half. They think that they have foreseen everything, think that they have provided against everything; but, the fools, the fools, the fools! They have left us our Fenian dead, and while Ireland holds these graves, Ireland unfree shall never be at peace."

Over 10,000 people attended the funeral, many of whom would end up with Pearse, Connolly and company when they took over the GPO and other buildings in Dublin on Easter Monday in 1916, where "twas better to die 'neath an Irish sky than at Suvla or Sud el Bar."

If you haven't figured it out by now, there's a reason for that 67 at the end of my screen name.

Thread: Re: Army of Ireland

mkirschenbaum — 2008-09-17T16:09:10+00:00

I guess it seemed like a good idea at the time.

Thread: Re: Army of Ireland

madDdog67 — 2008-09-17T15:00:52+00:00

Oh, had they died by Pearse's side or fought with Cathal Brugha
Their graves we'd keep where the Fenians sleep, 'neath the shroud of the foggy dew.

Here's a detailed account of the Fenian's attempts to sieze Canada.

http://www.bivouacbooks.com/bbv2i3s6.htm

Thread: Army of Ireland

mkirschenbaum — 2008-09-17T13:27:34+00:00

I picked up Army of Ireland as an impulse buy on a recent trip to the Compleat Strat in NYC. It's a small-box Counter Strike game, designed by one David Cuatt, covering the Battle of Ridgeway in 1866.

Never heard of the Battle of Ridgeway? Neither had I. Well, it seems that just after the American Civil War a bunch of Irish-American vets calling themselves the Fenians decided it would be a good idea to invade Canada and seize some land, thereby to force concessions from the British Crown in Ireland. Or something like that. Anyway, these worthies ran smack dab into a couple of regiments of Canadian foot a day's march into Ontario and both sides let fly.

Individual unit counters represent companies more or less, thus placing the game in the same family as the various attempts to do tactical ACW, the best of which is surely OSG's venerable 20th Maine. You've got a few dozen counters on each side, and a smallish 10 x 17" map to fight them on.

Basic system is chit pull activation with ranged combat. A chit draw activates the leader and any two units from the leader's formation. Each activated unit then gets four activation points, which it can spend on various activities in any order so long as the total of four is not exceeded. So one unit might edge up slightly and shoot, another might attempt to rally, another might fire off a more carefully aimed volley. Units can also charge into hand to hand combat for the expenditure of all four action points, provided they first pass a morale check.

There's no defensive fire--that's left to the luck of the chit draw. Scoring a hit (=>8 on 2d6) means a follow up d6 on another table, where there is a base 50% chance of the hit having no effect after all. Units can progress from Shaken to Broken to Elimination by accumulating hits, but they can also achieve any one of those results outright from off of the Hit table. It's all a little arbitrary.

Some rules for leader effects, rout and rally, and ammo round things off. There's a smattering of chrome, such as one Canadian unit armed with Spencer repeating rifles. Victory conditions? Beat up on the other guy. There are optional rules for placing objective markers on the map, but these don't make much sense to me.

The whole thing plays out in a couple of hours. It's not bad. The Fenians have a one hex advantage at short range, and that can make a big difference in tactics as the game plays itself out. There are also slightly fewer Canadians, *and* they are subject to ammo shortages, so all in all maybe a little tough on the Maple Leafs. Not that much thinking involved, basically just a high wristage shoot-'em up.

There is some nice artwork on the counters, though it would have helped to have the leaders better distinguished from the regular guys and the art for the Charge and Broken markers is, weirdly, basically identical.

Again, not bad. Not great, but not bad.

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Wulf Corbett — 2008-05-26T18:06:57+00:00

The quite simple map

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Vandal — 2008-05-20T20:11:24+00:00

Back of game box

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Vandal — 2008-05-20T20:10:19+00:00

Front cover art