A straightforward set of combat rules for skirmishing, adventuring and derring-do in the age of Gentleman, Gunpowder and Grenzers
Anybody have any better ideas for a title? Anybody like any of the above?
These are intended primarily as a straightforward, simple set of skirmish rules, covering the period from about 1700 to the mid nineteenth century (though we intend using them for the Seven Years War in Europe and Asia) suitable for a quick, cheerful game, possibly involving a large number of participants. However, we wanted to include a degree of tactical skill, involvement with the rule system and an element of tension and surprise. We hope that we have succeeded in doing so without making the game at an puzzling or complicated. Consumption of alcoholic beverage and high-carbohydrate snacks and the playing of these rules are not necessarily mutually exclusive.
We have tried not to introduce a lot of fussy rules to cover every eventuality, so if you are playing with large groups of strangers, you might like to use a gamesmaster; a god-like fgure whose word is law. Fortunately, even the most competitive gamers don't come to a skirmish looking for an argument, so the way should be clearfor a good time to be had by all.
However, for those of you who prefer a more sophisticated game, especially if you intend to run a campaign, with the extra level of detad and involvement that familiarity permits, there is a selection of optional rules for you to mix and match according to your tastes.
We eventually intend to polish these rules up and publish them, with a cover, proper illustrations and everything. Meanwhile, they need extensive playtesting if you'd like to participate, let us know. If you would like to purchase another copy of the rules, then I'm selling them for £ 1 or $2 if you are ordering miniatures as well, and you don't mind me folding the rules up top in the box, £ 2 or $6 if I provide an envelope and stamp and post them separately. I know that they only consist of a few sheets of paper and a staple, but it's not very economical producing them on my laser printer! You can also have it on an IBM Word 6 disc at the same cost if you prefer. Until we get the commercial version out (when you are just going to have to go out and buy one), feel free to pass copies of this version out amongst your friends.
We're very keen to have your opinion, so get in touch! What we're looking for is what you like about the rules (assuming you find anything to like of course), and if you have reservations, what it is you are uncomfortable with.
If any of you intend running skirmish games at conventions, let us know so that we can sponsor you with a prize of some of our miniatures.
We also have grand-tactical Seven Years War and tactical American Civil War rules in need of playtesting, but these are too lengthyfor me to run off hard copies of so you need to be able to print from IBM Word 6. Especially with the Seven Years War rules, there are a good number of charts and over five hundred cards which seem to always scramble if you try to translate to another word processing programme.
Those of you who have played our Western gunfight rules will already be experiencing a sensation of deja vu. Yes, these rules are indeed similar, and do include whole paragraphs of identical text, as they share identical objectives and design philosophy, card driven movement, morale and experience systems. However, beware! The firing and combat rules are quite different, both in them mechanisms and in play.
Because your men will not be firing many times in an encounter, and because those huge balls of lead they will be firing at each other have such devastating effect if they actually hit, the character of the game is very different. It really doesn't matter in a casual group participation game, or if you're just playing for fun in an odd moment, but if you have any pretensions of using tactics you will find that you will be planning the encounter in terms of fields of fire and killing grounds; with the first consideration being trying to create a situation that gives you the opportunity to create the maximum number of clear shots. You will need to think carefully about whether you should take any given shot, bearing in mind likely opportunities on subsequent turns to get a better shot or reload, and the likelihood of effectivee return fire.
The Fate Deck
Each player needs one or more models, each representing a single person or character. You will need something to note your characters' wounds down on and plenty of ordinary six sided dice! Someone has to organise a Fate Deck: This consists of just six special cards: one each Raw, Skilled, Veteran and Itiero Action Cards, a Reload card and a Joker, plus one character card and one fire card for each character. We use the smallest size of file record cards, but you could just as well use card chits or small squares of paper thrown in a box and drawn out randomly.
Classes of Character
There are four classes of character:
-
Raw: ordinary or worse regular soldiers who have no experience of skirmish warfare, poor quality irregulars and armed civilians.
Skilled: trained or experienced skirmishers, civilian hunters, woodsmen or similar, and particularly steady regulars (some officers and NCO's, the better class of Grenadier) irrespective of skirmishing experience.
Veteran: particularly tough and widely experienced skirmishers, some officers and NCO's.
Hero: unique, heroic individuals.
In addition, you mightlike tofeaturelocals: extra characters who provide part of the backdrop to the scenario, and whose actions are controlled by the gamesmaster.
The Fate Deck
The Fate Deck is used to determine which character takes a turn, and which characters load their weapons. The players take it in turn to draw a card (or chit or whatever), then:
If it is a character card, that character takes a turn, and the card is placed on the discard pile.
If it is an action card then it is display face up on the table: The next player to draw a character card of a class at least as high as that of a displayed action card can either:
- 1. Take it into his hand until he uses it to give a free turn to any of his characters of a class at least as high as that on the card at any time; even part way through someone else's tum. He can take any number of action cards simultaneously.
Or:
2. Use just one card immediately to allow the character just drawn to reload and fire a hasty shot, but only if he is stationary and has a target within his arc of fire.
When more than one action card is played in the same turn, then irrespective of the order in which they were declared, the superior card goes first.
An example:
The Skilled action card is drawn, it is left up on the table.
The nest card drawn is Karl Weitz, a Prussian militiamen. Karl is Raw, which is a lower class than Skilled, so the player cannot pick up the Skilled action card. Karl tares his turn.
The next card is Big Olaf the infamous murderous outlaw and partisan leader. Big Olaf is a Hero, a higher class than Skilled, so his player picks up the action card. Big Olaf tales his turn, advancing menacingly through the trees towards his opponents. If his player wished Big Olaf could use the action card to take another turn immediately, but he decides to wait and see what happens.
Next, Sergeant Donner's card is drawn. The Sergeant draws a bead on Big Olaf but before he can throw his firing dice, Big Olaf s player announces that he is using the card to make action. The action card is played and discarded, Big Olaf fires and the Sergeant falls wounded to the ground.
If it is the reload card, it is placed face up on the table.
If it is a character's firing card, then if the reload card is face up on the table and that character is stationary, the firing card is passed to the appropriate character's player. Otherwise, the firing card is discarded. It is up to the drawing player whether he reveals which character's card this was. This, together with the use of action cards to reload and fire, introduces an element of tension, as often it is not possible to tell which characters have their weapons loaded.
If it is the Joker, all discards, the reload card, and any action cards held by players are shuffled back into the Fate Deck.
Character Cards
A good way to do character cards is to cut out the photos of your models from magazine adverts or catalogue sheets and glue each one to a card. Do one of these for each model in your collection, then you can give them all names, or you can allow the player to use each character in a game to name him.
When the card is drawn, it's immediately apparent which character and model should take his turn.
This gives you a good way of randomly determining which characters to we in a game; you just draw from the deck that represents your collection. As characters have battles and adventures, and gain skills, they tend to develop their own personalities, and nicknames that reflect this can be entered on their card along with a record of their kills and the skills they have gained.
When a character finally meets his end you can either start a new card far that model, or obliterate his name and information with a self-adhesive mailing label or similar and start again.
Actions
During a characters turn he can make one of the following actions:
-
Stand: do nothing (except turn to face any direction)
Move: throw three dice, this is the maximum distance in inches that he can move, he may set off in any direction at the beginning of his move, but must move in a straight line, making no further turns. He must end his turn facing the direction he has moved. Skilled and better class characters can move as far as they like up to that distance, but must move at least three inches. Raw characters must move the actual distance rolled, if this means that an impassable obstacle would get in the way, then they must move in another direction if doing so would allow them to move the full distance, otherwise they stay where they are or behave as the gamesmaster thinks appropriate.
It's very hard for you to rely on Raw troops ever being exactly where you need them; this is hardly surprising, they are confused and frightened when presented with shoaling and violence. This, combined with their low abilities and inability to aim means that citizens are open of only margins/ use unless gathered together en masse.
Any character who throws three 1's with the movement dice falls over (treat as knocked down), a Raw character who throws two 1's falls over.
There are special rules for moving in wooded areas.
Move and Fire: works just as above, except that only pistol armed characters are allowed to move and fire. Only two movement dice are thrown, and the character must fire end of his movement if an enemy is within his arc of fire.
Fire: turn to face any direction then fire, but only if the player holds the character's firing card! Raw characters may not aim.
Aim: the character aims at an opponent. He states who his target is, and turns to face him. If the aiming character is able to take another turn before the target makes a move or ducks back out of sight, he makes an aired shot. If the target does Move or duck, or the aiming character is forced to duck back, he may immediately make a hasty shot. Raw troops may not aim.
Recover: characters who are wounded or duck back must use a turn recovering before they can make any other action.
Get up: characters who are knocked down by a bullet or in a fight must get up before they can make any other action other than recovering.
Duck back: a character may voluntarily duck back, so that he can no longer see or be seen. He must recover before he can then make any other action.
Charge: starting a charge works differently to any other action. Charging characters move the full distance rolled on three dice towards an enemy each time that there into character card is drawn, and also each time that the Joker is drawn, until they fight with an enemy, are knocked down, are halted or their fortitude fails.
Raw and Skilled characters can only start a charge if a hero, officer or NCO (or equivalent) is already charging within nine inches.
Halt: a character attempts to break off from a charge. Throw for his fortitude, if he loses his nerve, he retreats back to the nearest cover further away from the enemy than his current position: unless he has thrown two or more 1's, in which case he flees.
Unless Moving or Moving and Firing, the character can end his turn facing any direction.
Angle of Fire
Characters can fire within an arc of 90 degrees; 45 degrees each side of straight ahead. The best way to calculate this is by making a simple template from a folded square of paper.
Woodland Fighting
Many skirmishes will take place in wooded areas; with the protagonists only gaining glimpses of each other through the trees and scrub. The first thing that a character wishing to fire at an opponent must ascertain is whether he can make a clear shot.
Wooded terrain is represented by terrain pieces. There are four classes of wooded terrain; each is represented by different combinations of modelled trees and undergrowth mounted on card of a circular, oval or an irregular shape:
Loose scrubs, dense scrub, Loose woods, Dense woods: These can be any size, roughly from three inches to six inches in diameter works well. The spaces between the wooded terrain represents relatively clear areas and woodland tracks.
Once a player has decided that a character will attempt to fire, he must throw a dice to discover if he has a clear shot at his proposed target. Draw a line between the firer and target. Total up the density of the woods between them, this is one for each area of loose scrub or woods, and two for each area of dense scrub or woods. The firer must throw a dice and score more than the total density to be permitted to fire. If he fails the throw he stands instead.
Example:
In the open, all characters must move in a straight line. In wooded terrain, they have the option of following the edge of any terrain piece that they would otherwise enter, ending the turn facing their direction of movement. We call this skirting the terrain piece.
A character skirting a terrain piece can choose to move away from it at any point in his turn, moving away tangentially as shown in the diagram below: Characters choosing to enter terrain pieces had immediately their entire base is within the terrain, on subsequent turns they have their movement reduced; by two dice if they start their turn in dense terrain, one dice for loose terrain.
If a character in loose or dense woods is grazed or wounded, throw to see if the shot was stopped by a tree; needing a 4, 5 or 6.
A character grazed, wounded or having a shot stopped by a tree, in either woods or scrub must duck back.
Rocky ground can be treated exactly as wooded terrain if you choose, with terrain pieces representing dense or loose rocky terrain. Alternatively, single, large rocks can be treated as solid cover, just as if they were walls or buildings.
Firing
All shots hit if the player rolls a 4, 5 or 6; with the following modifiers to his dice throw:
-
Raw -1
Veteran +1
Hero +2
Aiming +3
Hasty shot -1
Head wound -1
Flesh wound on firing arm for pistol, either arm for shoulder weapon - 1
Each Serious wound - 2
Firing pistol after moving - 1
Firing two pistols, wrong-handed, or shoulder weapon one-handed - 2
Target stationary in open +1
Target charging -1
Close range +1
Long range -1
Extreme range -2
Pistol at close range +1
Musket or rifle in combat -1
Gamesmasters may further modify the number of dice as they find appropriate.
| RANGE CHART | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weapon | Close | Medium | Long | Extreme |
| PISTOL | 6" | 9" | 12" | 15" |
| MUSKET | 9" | 18" | 36" | in sight |
| RIFLE | 12" | 24" | 48" | in sight |
HOWEVER: on a roll of 1, the shot always misses. Raw characters always miss on a 1 or 2. If a total of more than 6 is required, die can still hit with a lucky shot: throw three dice, he must roll two or three 6's to hit.
Hit Location and Effect
Either Prow two dice, the first for location, and the second for effect, or draw a shooting chit:
| HIT LOCATION CHART | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dice Throw Location | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
| 1: Head | Graze | Flesh Wound | Flesh Wound and Knocked Out | Dead | ||
| 2: Chest | Graze | Flesh Wound | Flesh Wound and Knocked Out | Serious Wound and Knocked out | Dead | |
| 3: Right Arm | Graze | Flesh Wound | Serious Wound |
Serious Wound and Knocked Out | Dead | |
| 4: Left Arm | Graze | Flesh Wound | Serious Wound |
Serious Wound and Knocked Out | Dead | |
| 5: Belly | Graze | Flesh Wound and Knocked Out | Serious Wound and Knocked Out | Dead | ||
| 6: Legs | Graze | Flesh Wound | Flesh Wound and Knocked Out | Serious Wound and Knocked Out No Movement | Serious Wound and Knocked Out No Movement | Dead |
Wounded (but not grazed) characters must use an action recovering before making any other action.
Knocked down to characters must get up before making any other action other than recovering.
Movement is reduced by one dice for each serious wound and each flesh wound on a leg.
No movement or turning is permitted with a serious leg or belly wound.
Knocked out characters must attempt to throw a 6 each time they have a turn, until they succeed, they may make no actions.
Characters with a serious wound cannot fire a pistol in that hand, fire a rifle at all, or reload any weapon.
Seriously wounded characters will not move closer to any enemy.
You know enough now to stage your first skirmish! Take out eight miniatures one each Raw, Skilled, Veteran and Hero for each side, give them all appropriate names. Make up a Fate Deck cut out the hit location chits, overleaf if you want to use them, then set the two sides up about twelve inches apart. Turn your first card, and let battle cammenee!
USING CARDS TO DETERMINE HIT LOCATION AND EFFECT
Instead of rolling two dice to determine the location and effect of a hit, you may find it quicker and more fun if you make up a pack of 36 cards instead and have the victim pull out a card, or simply make the shooting chits below and draw one out of a box for each hit
| Shooting Chits | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Graze | Graze on Head | Fatal Head Shot | Flesh Wound on Head Knocked Out | Fatal Head Shot | Fatal Head Shot |
| Graze | Flesh Wound on Chest | Shot Through the Heart |
Flesh Wound on Chest Knocked Down | Serious Wound on Chest Knocked Down | Shot Through the Heart |
| Graze | Flesh Wound on Right Arm | Serious Right Arm Wound Knocked Down | Dead | Serious Wound on Right Arm | Serious Right Arm Wound Knocked Down |
| Graze | Flesh Wound on Left Arm | Serious Left Arm Wound Knocked Down | Dead | Serious Wound on Left Arm | Serious Left Arm Wound Knocked Down |
| Graze | Fatal Gunshot | Flesh Wound to Belly Knocked Down | Flesh Wound to Belly Knocked Down | Fatal Gunshot | Fatal Gunshot |
| Graze | Flesh Wound to Leg | Flesh Wound to Leg Knocked Down | Dead | Serious Leg Wound Knocked Down | Serious Leg Wound Knocked Down |
Special rules deal with characters taking cover in wooded terrain, but we still have to deal with the protection offered by walls, individual rocks, buildings and other man-made or natural sources of refuge.
A character behind cover is protected from some of the shots that would otherwise hit him.
A gamesmaster can be useful to adjudicate which parts of a targets body are protected, but as a rule of thumb:
Characters firing round the corner of a building always expose their head and chest. Pistol shooters also expose their right arm, and rifle shooters always expose both their arms. When firing over a wall or other obstacle, the chest is not exposed.
If a character has taken cover behind something reasonably substantial, like an adobe wall or a pile of crates, then shots that would have hit protected parts of his body cause him to duck back, but cannot injure him.
If he is only behind something like a wooden building wall or fence, then throw for each shot that hits cover:
-
1, 2 - shot penetrates, target hit, subtract one from the damage dice
3-6 - shot is stopped.
Unless a character ducks back, his head is always visible when he is behind cover.
Other characters provide cover too: if the firing line is obstructed by another character, detemmine which parts of the targets body are protected by him. Hits on these parts are rolled for again on the unfortunate interloper.
Some cover, like hedges or stands of wheat, is too insubstantial to stop a bullet, treat these as dense scrub and use the woodland fighting rules.
Duck Backs
Duck backs are an importantieature of these rules; you can use the duck back rule to pin and neutralize your opponents and provide realistic coverings refor yourfriends.
Only characters behind cover are subject to duck backs.
When a character behind cover is grazed or wounded, or his cover stops a shot for him, he is forced to immediately duck back; getting his entire body behind the cover.
He must then use an action recovering before he can make any other action. He can use one action to recover from any number of wounds and duck backs simultaneously.
While he is ducked back or even while any character is known to be lurking, completely behind cover, opposing characte; can still fire at him. All the successful shots will hit the cover, but the hidden target will still be subject to the duck back rule, and will have to spend his next turn recovering. This is a good way of protecting your friends while they dash across open ground.
Fighting
When two opposing characters physically come into combat, they will fight.
In a turn, there are three rounds of combat:
The assault round: when a the attacker first lunges towards his intended victim, and weapons with the longer reach have the advantage, firing at almost point blank range may also take place in this round.
The close combat round: when blows and counter-blows are exchanged.
The grappling round: when one side comes through the other's guard and the bloody business of grappling, gouging and hacking commences.
Each class of character has a number of combat points; which are adjusted by various character modifiers and the effect of some skills.
Each player divides his character's combat points between the three rounds, allocating between one and six points to each round: the player takes three dice (a different colour for each round) and secretly turns each one up so that it shows the number of combat points allocated to each round, he conceals these beneath his hand. When both players are ready, they simultaneously reveal their dice!
The exception to this is Raw characters, who are not capable of planning their tactics, and simply throw a dice for each round of combat:
| Raw Characters | |
|---|---|
| Dice Throw | Combat Points |
| 1,2 | 1 |
| 3,4 | 2 |
| 5,6 | 3 |
Weapons modifiers are then applied, and the result of the fight is calculated.
The character's objective is to either:
Completely overpower his opponent in any of these rounds: by scoring double his opponents total in any round.
Or: Beat down his opponents guard, then follow through with a telling blow: by scoring higher than his opponent in any two rounds.
Success in either objective strikes a blow on his opponent. The maximum number of blows that can be struck is therefore four; if the victor scores over double on each round.
COMBAT POINTS:
-
Raw: throw a dice for each round in turn, as chart above.
Skilled: six points.
Veteran: eight points.
Hero: ten points.
CHARACTER MODIIFIERS:
These modify the total number of combat points that the character has available to divide between the three combat rounds.
-
Each flesh wound -1
Firing -1
Each serious wound -4
Striking passing blow -1
Opponent behind cover -2
Outnumbered -2
Charging +2
Knocked down -2
Attacked from side -2
Attacked from rear -4
Gamesmasters may further modify the number of dice as they find appropriate.
| WEAPONS MODIFIERS | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Round | Sword | Bayonet | Butt | Club | Knife | Spear Spontoon |
| Assault Round | +1 | +2 | +1 | - | - | +3 |
| Close C. Round | +2 | +1 | +1 | +1 | - | -1 |
| Grappling Round | - | -1 | -1 | +1 | +2 | -2 |
Other (fists, clubbed pistols etc) have no modifiers.
Compare the opposing characters totals one round at a time.
A character who scores exactly double his opponent in a single round immediately disanns him.
A character who scores over double his opponent in a single round immediately strikes a blow and automatically knocks him down.
A character with the highest scores in any two rounds immediately strikes a blow.
Outnumbered characters
The character whose turn it is must fight all enemy characters that he is in contact win at any point in his turn. If he fights more than one enemy, either simultaneously or consecutively, he counts outnumbered.
Passing blows A character can eider end his move or charge when he first contacts an enemy, or attempt to make a passing blow and keep moving to He end of his rolled distance. Each player prepares their combat dice as usual, but only one round is fought unless die attacking character is knocked down or suffers a serious wound.
Firing in combat A character entering a fight with a loaded weapon may fire at his opponent. This occurs alter combat dice are selected. Characters fire a shot before the assault round. Characters armed with a pair of pistols fire a second shot before the grappling round.
| Throw a Dice to Determine the Effect of Blows | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weapon | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
| Fist | Knocked Down | Flesh Wound | Knocked Out! | |||
| Bayonet | Knocked Down | Flesh Wound | Terrible Wound | |||
| Butt, Club Clubbed Pistol | Knocked Down | Flesh Wound | Knocked Out! | |||
| Rifle | Knocked Down | Flesh Wound | Shot | |||
| Spear Spontoon | Knocked Down | Flesh Wound | Terrible Wound | |||
| Sword | Flesh Wound | Terrible Wound | ||||
| Knife | Knocked Down | Knifed | ||||
Throw on the for the location of flesh wounds, the location and effect of knife wounds, and for the effect of head wounds, on the hit location chart.
You also throw for the location and effect of terrible wounds!, but a:
-
Graze or flesh wound becomes a serious wound.
And a serious wound either also causes the severing of a limb or the head, or reals through the body treated as killing the victim and, in the latter case, having a 50% chance of causing the weapon to become stuck.
Fortitude
You will find that there is a tendency for games between stubborn opponents to only end when the last wounded survivor from the losing side is hunted down and shot or beaten unconscious by his enemies, many of whom must be hobbling around with wounds of their own by this point. Really, the skirmish should have ended long before when it became apparent that one side was severely disadvantaged and could not fullly meet its objectives. In "real life", the losing side, finding themselves in an untenable situation, would have scampered while the opportunity was still there to get away in one piece. However, the little lead men only have as much common sense as either their players or the rule system provide them with, and if youf nd thatyour skirmish drag on beyond the point of common sense or lively entertainment, then you will find the following rule useful.
There are four circumstances when a character must throw to test his fortitude and see if his courage fails him:
1. When he is BADLY HURT: this happens when:
-
A Raw character suffers any wound.
An Experienced suffers any two wounds.
A Veteran suffers any three wounds.
A Hero suffers any three at least one of which is serious.
Fortitude is tested again each turn that the character is subsequently wounded.
2. When half of his friends go down, either killed, seriously wounded, knocked out, surrendered, lost their fortitude or left the table.
3. When a charging character is ordered to halt.
4. Whenever the gamesmaster thinks it appropriate (badly outnumbered, several friends hit simultaneously, isolated from all his companions etc).
The character immediately rolls a number of fortitude dice: Raw: 3 Experienced: 4 Veteran: 5 Hero: 6
Officers and NCO's (and their equivalents) add two and one dice respectively.
Subtract one dice for each flesh wound, and two dice for each serious wound.
Subtract two dice if the character is aware that his officer or NCO's courage has failed.
Add one dice if he and his friends have caused more of the enemy to go down than they have lost themselves, and if a respected officer, NCO (or equivalent) or Hero is within six inches.
He must throw at least one 6, otherwise his courage has failed, and starting on his next turn, must move towards cover further away from all enemy than his current position. If this is not possible, or half of his friends are down, he will hide, run (as if charging, but towards the edge of the table) or surrender, as appropriate.
Optional Rules
These will include: experience and skills, more sophisticated character definitions, horses and horsemanship, scenarios, blunderbuss/musketoons and rifles, grenades, buildings, terrain obstacles, random force generation, primitive peoples and their weapons, an event card system.
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© Copyright 1996 Hal Thinglum
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