I mentioned previously in comments that the rules used for The Khan's Gambit were a mashup. It occurred to me post-game that there were some bits that might need fixing. Those bits didn't come into play during my game but would have broken things had they, so I set out a little test game on Wednesday night to work through the issues.
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| The Cossacks have already suffered a loss and retreated. |
It turns out, the final result is largely unchanged from what I used for the Khan's Gambit, just some rewording.
To give credit where it is due, these rules are not novel or ground breaking and indeed borrow heavily from the work of others: Kevin White's In Good Company provided much of the framework and the base mechanisms, while Bob Cordery's The Portable Wargame (despite not being a grid-based game), Joseph Morschauser's rules for close combat and eccentric 2/4/6 hits, Buck Surdu's and Chris Palmer's G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T. , and others I have no doubt internalized but forgotten, inspired or directly provided elements of the rules.
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| This was surprising - and might be one of those flaws in my system, but I'm OK with heroic, if ultimately doomed, last stands by reduced units. |
These rules have not been robustly play tested and are hardly tournament tight, so you may encounter questions if you choose to use them. If so, always err, as the free FUBAR rules note, in favor of the Rule of Awesome.
For those interested, here is Lancer Rifle Gatling.
If you should find something in the rules that is backwards or is contradictory or terribly unclear, please let me know.
*Final for now.
The rules look good John, I have bookmarked them and intend to try them sometime. I did use Bolt Action for my NWF games and found them pretty good.
ReplyDeleteCheers,
Paul.
Thank you, Paul! I am pouring over your NWF game posts now. I don't know how I didn't see them go by at the time. The games look wonderful. I really like Bolt Action's dice-draw mechanism, and have enjoyed the games I've played with the rules. I may have to give BA a go for some games with these figures now.
DeleteCheers!
I am with you. Tweaking, adapting and combining rules is all part of the fun.
ReplyDeleteLove the photos.
Regards, James
Thank you, James! It is definitely one of my favorite parts of the hobby.
DeleteHaven't tried, but the rules look interesting and Old School and Classical [whatever those terms mean]. I dunno... You may enjoy just getting "A Gentleman's War" and playing that with small units, as it seems very much in the way you want to go. More focused, perhaps. It is mostly army lists and explanation, the rules are actually pretty short. I'll be playing them again soon. Best, Alex
ReplyDeleteIf A Gentleman's War works with smaller units, I will bump them up on my shopping list. I've used Fistful of Lead Bigger Battles with the same figures and had enjoyable games, but there is a lot of customizing possible and I have yet to play it with more than the basic rules. G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T. is still top among my preferred rules for this period (the forces were built with them in mind, albeit with undersized cavalry units because I just can't afford multiple packs of Britains!), though I suspect it's largely because it's one of the first rule books I ever acquired.
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