Another Rules Update

I recently put the latest version of my Old School rules to the test with a game loosely based on Blastof from Charge!  I played against my son who had never played before.  It quickly became apparent that I had violate two of the five goals that I outlined two year ago, when I previewed the first iteration of these rules.  To refresh, 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

The rules had grown to 4 pages from 2 pages which violated rule #2 but it also became clear that the increased length violated rule #3.  I decided to go back to the drawing board and strip out much of the chrome and morale details that seemed to impact the speed of play.  I managed to get all of the rule mechanisms on one page, with an additional page for formation diagrams.  The result is something that has all the necessary basic mechanisms but can be understood quickly.   Anyhow, here is the latest:

Old School Rules - 1 Page Version

Here are a few pics from the game.

Update to Old School Rules

I have significantly revamped my Old School Rules.  The biggest change is resolving combat in groups instead of individual single combats.  Single combats became tedious and time consuming even for small actions.   I created new rules by modifying aspects of melee rules from Donald Featherstone and Charles Grant.  

The other change was updating the morale rules which were amended to a variation the one found in The Wargame by Charles Grant.  I wanted to have them reflect the impact of officer losses on command and control.  I also streamlined the overall rules and included more tables in place of long text explanations.  I did not materially change the rules for artillery and musket fire.

Overall, I'm pleased with how they work.  Here is the link for anyone interested.

Old School Rules 2021

Finally a pick of some of my latest old school figures.

 Grenadiers from the Hanovarian Dragoons - Breidenbach Regiment

Hanovarian Infantry - Hardenberg Regiment

Five Allied Infantry Regiments:

    Hessian Grenadiers, Hessian Erbprinz, Hanovrian Von Scheither, British 4th King's Own, and Hanaovarian Hardenberg

Rules Update

I have updated my Old School Rules, incorporating some feedback received on TMP.  I have cleaned up the formation diagrams, added a summary table for musket and artillery fire, and added some details to hand-to-hand fighting especially around the procedure for firing at a charging unit.  There is now only one cavalry line formation, a line in two ranks.  After play tests, this seemed the only formation that made sense for a variety of reasons, mainly allowing for reinforcements during melee and space considerations.   I have updated the links.

Old School Rules

They remain a pretty basic framework and don’t address details such as passing fire, and a bunch others, but I think still provide a good basic framework to add details and tinker with.

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.