Published by Partizan Press, Forlorn Hope is a set of rules for fighting the English Civil War. Written by Peter Berry and Ben Wilkins, it is a second edition of a set which was originally published in 1987. Designed to be used with either 15mm or 25mm figures, the figure scale is 1:33 and the ground scale is approximately 1 inch equals 20 yards, although the authors caution that the rules "have been written to give a correct "feel" to the period rather than bow to any set of mathematical formulae." Troops are defined in five ways: arm (i.e., foot, horse, dragoon or artillery), class (veteran, trained, raw), tactics (cavalry only, i.e., trotters or gallopers), order (normal or open), and ratio (foot only, representing the ratio of shot to pikes). Units may act on any of five orders: Advance to fire combat, advance to hand-to-hand combat, hold, retreat, or screen. Leadership is important as leaders have leadership value which can influence the actions of a unit. Additionally, units may attempt to use initiative to change their orders using a chart and die roll. Movement is pretty straight forward with maneuvering and formation changes varied by troop quality. Morale is broken down into three categories: general morale checks for initiating or reacting to charges and rallying routed units; morale tests which cover leader casualties, artillery hits and reacting to routing units'and finally, melee reaction which assesses results of hand-to-hand combat. Fire combat is determined by a fire factor which takes into account range and musket to pike ratio. Casualties are in whole figures. Also as the title of the rules indicate, there is a rule for forming forlorn hopes, small bodies of men to hold critical terrain or such. Additionally, there are optional rules for cuirassier, ammunition and fighting in Ireland/Scotland. The rules are well written and organized with many examples for each rule. There are designer's notes which explain the reasoning for many of the author's concepts which are welcome when gamers try to figure out why a rule was inserted. Finally, there is a 20 page Guidelines for ECW Armies, which outlines how to construct ECW armies for your battles. Although I haven't played these rules, they appear to be well thought out and would produce an enjoyable, accurate game. . The rules are available for $12 from Editions Brokaw, 8234 King's Arm Drive, Alexandria, Virginia. More Reviews Bicorne Miniatures 25mm Napoleonic and ACW Eagle Miniatures 25mm 7YW, Napoleonic, and ACW Wargames Foundry 25mm War of 1812 Wargames Foundry 25mm French Napoleonics Frontier 15mm Napoleonics Thistle and Rose 15mm Sassanid Persians Combat Miniatures 20mm WWII Battle Honors 15mm Napoleonics Wargames Foundry 20mm WWII Partisans Platoon 20 20mm WWII Soviet Naval Troops Essex 15mm Seven Years War Thoroughbred Figures 1/72 Scale US WWII Vehicles Vac-U-Cast 1/76 Scale WWII Wargame Accessories Signifer 15mm Franco-Prussian War Flags How-To Books Building Terrain Terrain Specialties Terrain Pieces GHQ 1/285th WWII and Modern Soviet Equipment Pass of the North 25mm Mexican Peasants Panzerschiffe 1/2400 Sino-Japanese War of 1894 Warfare in the Age of Reason 18th C. Miniature Rules Rebel Yell ACW Rules Forlorn Hope ECW Rules Chariot Warfare Army Lists of 3000 BC to 343 BC Review Rebuttal: Grande Bataille, Grande Victoire Wargaming in History Romans, Goths and Huns Iron Duke and Rally Once More Computer Assited Wargame Rules The Barrett Scale for Reviews Back to Table of Contents -- Courier #58 To Courier List of Issues To MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1992 by The Courier Publishing Company. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com