Jeff Wiltrout brought over what he said appeared to be an interesting new set of rules he saw published in the March, 1999 issue of the REITER, the magazine of the PIKE AND SHOT SOCIETY. What was the name of these rules? And the answer was... "CLIF'S RULES" (CR), authored by a fellow named Clif Castle (note the single 'f' in Clif). And so our next function was to take out my 25mm renaissance figures, set up the game, and begin a play-test. Usually, a single game is enough to tell me whether or not I'd want to play a set of rules a second time. A one-time tryout may seem an awfully arbitrary and unreasonable method of evaluating a game, but you'll note I didn't say that I could judge the full merits of a game based on a single test, but only that I could tell, from my own personal viewpoint, whether or not I would be interested in trying it a second time. In this particular case, assisted by John Shirey, we decided that CF had merit to it, and when the game terminated, we thought it worth a second try. What intrigued me about CF was that the author tried to amalgamate the combat/movement systems of the DBX series, with the action-card deck system of PIQUET. I'm not particularly fond of either game, but you've got to give a guy credit when he tries to combine the best with the best (or here, perhaps, the worst of the worst). In our first play-test, Jeff commanded the side of that famous Lithuanian leader, Prince Walakonis, once again fighting for his crown, trying to evict the invader from his sacred land. John and I were on the side of Lord Hurst, trying to maintain a foothold in Lithuania, although why anyone would want to maintain such a position is a very difficult question to answer. We decided to give Prince Walkonis 11 units against Lord Hurst's 9 units... the unit types ranged from arquebusiers to 'shock cavalry' to bowmen to mounted skirmishers. Each unit had either 3 or 4 or 5 stands... but the number of stands was simply "for pretty"... the number affected neither the fire power nor the melee capability of the units. In other words, the fact that one unit had more stands (more people) than another didn't factor into the combat calculations, it was only the type that mattered. Each type of unit was graded, a la the DBX series of rules, for a combat value ranging from 2 to 5, and all combat, both fire and melee, depended upon comparitive dice tossing by the opposing sides. For example, when the Prince's 'shock cavalry' contacted one of Hurst's light cavalry units, the shock cavalry combat value was a +5, while our unit's was a +2. Each side tossed a 6-sided die, added its combat value, and the higher total won the combat. And, as in DBX, if your total doubled the other side's, his entire unit was 'swept from the field'... gone forever. If your total exceeded the opposition's, but didn't double him, his unit staggered back, in disorder, one full move's distance. If you could hit him again while he was disordered, and win, then POOF!... off he'd go... two consecutive 'staggers' equals destruction. The second DBX parameter used in CF had to do with 'pip movement'. In DBX games, the number of pips tossed on a 6-sided die determines the number of groups of troops that will move. In CF, the author used a 10-sided die, and this time, instead of groups of troops, each pip permitted a single unit to function. The above describes the DBX influence on CR, and the PIQUET flavor stemmed from the use of an action-card deck... 30 cards annotated with such functions as: 'rally', 'infantry move', 'cavalry move', 'artillery fire', etc. Each turn, each side drew 3 action cards, and the way we first interpreted the rules, the active side could select one of the three, a single card, to apply to all of his units, and every unit on the side could carry out the function (assuming it was applicable to that specific type of unit). If, for example, he selected "artillery fire', then his one function was to fire his guns, and the rest of his army remained immobile while the guns blasted away. Having performed the function, the initiative passed to the opposing side, and the opposition, in turn, selected a single card to play. When a side played a card, it immediately replenished... you never ran out of the action cards, and always held 3 of them. More cards. As a variation on the theme, the author also tossed into the action deck a couple of 'event cards', such as 'when fired, gun blows up', or 'one specific town adds 1 victory point', or 'fog prevents all long range shooting'. But we're not finished yet... there was also an officer deck. Officers (there were two per side in our game) were each given a card denoting whether or not they could add a plus factor into combat. The officers' cards told of whether or not they could help on defense or on the attack. Given all the above, my first impression of CF was that it produced a 'fun game'. To me, it had as much to do with historically reproducing an era of warfare as the DBX series... in a word, nada, nought, nil, nothing. But because of the card system draws and the variation in play they produced, the resultant table-top scenario was very entertaining. There were a few drawbacks. For example, one of Prince Walkonis' infantry units charged forward to engage in hand-to-hand with Lord Hurst's sole artillery piece, placed to defend the town of Spritz. The Prince's unit was placed in contact with the artillery piece, and there the two units stood, the men in each of the units standing idly by, chatting with each other, combing their hair, washing their socks, cleaning their underware. "How come?", you say. And I'm glad you asked. Even though the two units were virtually in contact, there would be no determination of the result of the encounter until one side played a 'melee resolution' card. At that time, the sides would toss a 6-sided die, add their unit modifiers, and the winner would be determined. This is the PIQUET method of combat... units are placed in contact, and they then wait until the proper action card is drawn. At one time in our CF game, we had 5-count-'em-5 melees in waiting, about half the troops on the table, all looking forward to the play of a 'melee resolution' card. In the charge on the artillery battery in the town of Spritz, this 'waiting time' permitted Lord Hurst to draw 2 'artillery fire' cards, trying to cause the attacking troops to fall back. No such luck. The town eventually fell to the Prince, victory was declared, and all the church bells in Lithuania rang out. Back to PW Review October 1999 Table of Contents Back to PW Review List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1999 Wally Simon This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com