Hasn’t everyone wanted to own a castle? Well you always could, how’s this one for size!
History is full of monumental moments of heroic clashes, death defying accounts and brutal sieges, nothing is more iconic than taking a castle! It has always been that moment for a King or Lord to finally take over the land and nothing is more satisfying than taking the enemies precious castle. But nothing’s better than knowing a little bit of history from one!
Bodiam Castle
Looking like the perfect representation of a castle, Bodium was built in 1385 by Sir Edward Dalyngrigge, it’s initial intention was to protect England from France. At the beginning of the English Civil war (1641) it was owned by Lord Thanet, John Tufton who was a supporter of the royalists. From the castle he helped lead an attack on the town of Lewes and following that he was involved in the Royalist defeat at Haywards Heath and given a steep fine. In order to pay for it, he was forced to sell the castle for £6,000 (£930,000 today) to a Parliamentarian.
In Pike & Shotte
In the new book To Kill a King, you’ll find new siege rules with everything from weapons, to defences, to mining and counter mining, enabling you to really make each battle epic! Here’s an example!
City/Castle Walls & Stone Buildings
This is slightly adapted from the ‘Walls & Breaches’ special rules for the ‘Siege of Worcester’ scenario in the Pike & Shotte rules.
• Walls, buildings and barricades are given ‘structure’ points. Once the number of hits from cannon matches the structure points of a wall section then a 3″ breach is formed. Each hit from light or medium cannon equals one point of damage. Each hit from heavy cannon equals two points of damage.
• City/Castle Walls: 10+D6 structure points.
• Stone Buildings: 5+D6 structure points.
• Barricades & gates: D6 structure points.
• Firing at defences with a view to causing a breach does not inflict any casualties on the defenders. Firing at defenders sheltering behind defences does not cause any structural damage to the obstacle.
• Palisades can be counted as barricades for the purposes of breaching.
Sapping & Mining
Saps were trenches excavated while under defensive musket or artillery fire in order to advance a besieging army’s position in front of an enemy fortification.
Sapping was conducted by trained sappers or miners. When an army was defending a fortress with cannon they had an obvious height advantage over the attacker’s guns.
The attacking army’s artillery therefore had to be brought forward under fire to facilitate effective counter-battery fire.
The sappers began the trench at such an angle so as to avoid enemy fire enfilading the sap. As they pressed forward, a position was prepared from which cannon could suppress the defenders on their bastions.
The sappers would then change the course of their trench, zig-zagging toward the fortress wall. Each leg brought the attacker’s artillery closer until the besieged cannon would be sufficiently suppressed for the attackers to breach the walls. Sometimes the cannon were unable to breach the fort walls. Then the sappers would dig a tunnel from the forward-most sap up to and under the fortress wall, then place a charge of gunpowder and ignite it, causing an explosion which would hopefully destroy the wall and permit attacking infantry to close with the enemy.
With 9 pages absolutely packed with rules and weaponry just for sieges, To Kill a King can bring your castle combat to life!
Our Castle!
Bodium Castle has seen mighty clashes and some proper awe inspiring and gruesome battles! Obviously we can’t redo that in real life but we certainly can on the table top!
The Citadel is nearly perfect for the Bodiam castle so you can replicate the history of it or create your own history and put the castle to the test.
Create a long standing wall on the outskirts and have whole armies clash within or without. Have archers upon the wall fending off the invaders below as they attempt to scale your walls!
A lonely tower stood tall with tales of treasure and beauty within, standing guard are loyal troops ready to lay down their lives for the contents of the tower, unsheathe your sword as you charge from the treeline and be ready to take your prize!
Be it protecting a town, a castle or a simple bridge it is essential that the gates don’t fall! Man the defenses with the most steadfast troops as the cavalry come charging in, because if the gates are taken, all is lost!
Gotta have something to put it all together! These connectors allow you to re-position your walls and towers, enabling you to extend your fortifications and impress upon your foes the power you hold over the lands…
With one piece or all, you can certainly create whatever castle you desire, a castle is always a fitting end for a glorious campaign!
Dan Hewitson
Charlie Monaghan
Simon Tift