Cruel Necessity: The English Civil Wars 1640-1653

This is a reprint/deluxification of the VPG classic, CRUEL NECESSITY. It will be printed with super high quality components. The box, board, and counters will be thick and mounted. The player aids will have the largest font possible and be on nice quality card stock.

Designer John Welch has updated Victory Conditions and gone through Q & A, and errata from the 1st edition. There wasn't a ton of clean up to do, but we have done our best to update the game where necessary or desired by John Welch.

This solitaire game, suitable for group and classroom cooperative game play, tells the story of the English Civil Wars (1640-53) through its key events and decision points. You attempt to stop the advance of four armies bent on destroying Parliament and Puritanism, whom you represent; simply holding on to London is not enough.

Each of the three English Civil Wars are replayed through the use of separate card decks that recreate the historical military and political events that could spell doom to the Parliamentarian forces. There are civil wars going on not just in England, but in Scotland and Ireland too; and each will have varying impact on the play of the game at different times.

The title comes from the purported response to the beheading of King Charles by his implacable foe, Oliver Cromwell, who remarked that this act of regicide was a “cruel necessity.”

What's in the box:

• One full color Rulebook (Designer's Notes included)

• One large mounted game board

• One Player Aid

• 75 cards

• One sheet of thick, two-sided, multi-shaped game pieces

• One blue (Parliamentary) 6-sided die

• One red (Royalist) 6-sided die