Warfare in the Age of Reason

18th C. Miniature Rules

by Mike Schudler

By Tod Kershner. $22.50 from Emperor's Press, 5744 Irving Park Road, Chicago, 11. 60634. Includes a 103 pg. 8.5"x11" booklet with pull out reference sheet and European map for use in the campaign game.

The rules have been around in their current form since the early 1980s. The rules fit in the playability category and because of the small size of units (generally 12 castings or less) are very suitable for beginners or convention game. The use of a significant number of dice, result in many individual actions and in some cases the whole game hinging on the toss of a fistful of dice. The booklet includes a campaign game, Sport of Kings, which uses a map very similar to Empire in Arms and some simple rules to create battles which can be moved to the tabletop. I have not played the campaign game but it looks pretty easy.

The rules also include a siege game by Bruce Bretthauer called Siegecraft. The rules appear to provide a playable paper game for conducting a siege which can be interrupted by a miniatures game in the event either side decides to launch a sortie or attack through a breach in the walls.

First a quick overview of the rules booklet. The cover and physical presentation of the rules are first rate with only a few printing errors (be sure to get the Official Errata, March 1992 sheet). The rules are well written with only a few sections that are difficult to understand with the first reading.

Besides a significant number of illustrations and examples to clarify the rules, the booklet includes a large number of black and white reprints from various books. In addition, it contains sections on Tactical Suggestions and Army Lists adding to the its heft.

From an accuracy point of view, the scale appears off since 1" equals 50 yards, but with a six inch range and six inch frontage for a 600 man battalion, I believe the actual scale would be closer to 1" equals about 25 yards. The army lists appear to be inaccurate in places. National modifiers are kept to a minimum. None of these issues are material to the general play however I encourage players to do their own historical research on unit organization and army composition. In summary, I have played these rules many times at conventions and always enjoyed the game. -

EDITORS NOTE: I concur that the army lists should be ignored as being misleading. This is a pity. The expensive package and wide distributing could have better advanced current scholarship of the period. I cite a few major errors in the lists. The Russians did not have Jaegers, rather than the suggested 10 percent The French did not use field howitzers. The British cavalry were mostly "heavies" not merely dragoons. The new designation as "dragoon guards" was only to deprive the former troopers' of "horse'pay. The operational maps in the "Sport of Kings" don't resemble eighteenth century Europe, but are similarto the old Warplan 515 game maps published in the 1970's. This is a very good system for generating table top games. I've never played these new rules, but have always observed that the author's convention games are well attended with everyone enjoying themselves. KEN BUNGER.

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