Old School Rules

I have created a set of horse and musket rules inspired by the classics such as those by Grant and Young as well as a one pager titled “Universal Rules for War Games” published in 1958 and authored by A.H. Saunders.  I found this last one online but can’t remember where and unfortunately I do not have any information about the author.  Anyhow, I wanted something more economical than the classic rules and ones that could be easily modified so have been making my own. My initial goals were:

1. Old school feel: units with individually based figures
2. Brevity: core rules limited to two sides of one page
3. Simplicity: something intuitive enough for a novice to grasp quickly
4. Economy: minimum number of dice rolls and modifiers to get a result
5. Morale: simple but something better than last man standing

I have attached a copy of the rules for those interested.

Old School Rules

Unit sizes and movement rates have been sized to accommodate time and available space.  Infantry units are 32 soldiers with additional officers, ensigns, etc. as shown here.

I also tried to make the combat rules, such as musketry, less “bloody” than the classic rules and have less steps.  I accomplished this by having one die roll serve as the “to hit” roll as well as the “casualty” roll.  The mechanism is to roll a certain number or less to hit and have that number also equal the number of casualties caused (per group of eight firing soldiers).  This allows for distinctions by range and a unit’s “first fire” in a single die roll without the need for additional modifiers.  

Morale rules are simple but prevent units fighting to the last man while allowing for the possibility that an “under strength” unit may carry on, at least for a little while.  Again, these rules are a distillation of various old school mechanisms with changes to suit the goals listed above.  They are not comprehensive by any means but easily amended and perhaps useful for those familiar with the classic rules but who want a concise set to use as a base for their own amendments.