A game of skirmishes in Elizabethan England

1588 and all that, is a meeting of two hobbies for me. I was a wargamer first but have also been a re-enactor for a few years now. My main period of interest in re-enactment is the 16th Century.

On summer weekends I can often be found at Kentwell Hall in Suffolk, or elsewhere in the guise of a soldier during the Tudor period. Sooner or later my two hobbies were going to collide and 1588AAT is the result.

As with all systems that SOTG play 1588AAT is a skirmish game, it uses Warhammer Historical's Legends system. I was very involved in the development of Legends of the High Seas and have always enjoyed playing games with this system since it first came out as Lord Of The Rings and there are few better skirmish systems so why reinvent the wheel? So you will need LOTR or one of the Legends series to play, plus our ammendments.

Essentially 1588 And All That will provide rules for What If? scenarios assuming that some of the Spanish Armada managed to land on England's shores. A popular, if diminishing, interpretation of the possible outcome of a Spanish invasion is that the Spanish would have been easily victorious. The Army Of  Flanders, commanded by the Duke Of Parma, was indeed a formidable army, possibly the finest in the world and Parma himself had proved himself to be an excellent leader. The Spanish were a force to be reckoned with. However the popular myth that the English were not ready for an invasion and could not have fought well against the Spanish is just that, a myth. The evidence suggests that many thousands of men were well organised and trained in the use of weapons, granted, some counties were better equipped and trained than others (notably the southern maritime counties) but all counties had men under arms who were ready to meet the invaders.

The Spanish would have faced terrible logistics problems, and the men of the Army Of Flanders were already of low morale due to poor pay and conditions. Parma himself had made clear his doubts that the invasion would not work. He hoped for a fast strike towards London forcing the English to come to terms. In our world this doesn't happen and small bands of Spaniards are forced to fend for themselves, sallying out from precious strongholds, seeking supplies and booty and trying to survive until the Armada can be reformed to reinforce them.

1588 And All That will also provide rules and army lists for gamers who wish to play 'real' Border Reiver games, where the names and families of the English/Scottish border marches raid and feud against each other. So enjoy our new endeavour and we will see you at some shows with 1588 And All That in 2009.

Cheers Tim