"Land of the Free rules (Osprey Publishing)" Topic

Hello everyone. Please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Joe Krone and I have worked and played in the miniature wargames industry for the past 20+ years. After spending time with Games Workshop and Battlefront Miniatures I decided to work in a different industry but continue to develop my writing. Over the past several weeks news has been posted on this and many other sites announcing a new range of plastic American Revolution miniatures and a new rules book. I was kindly asked by another member to start a new topic regarding my rules that are being published later this year. The book is called Land of the Rule: Wargames Rules for North America 1754-1815.

The rulebook is currently on pre-order all over the web and the cover can be previewed on those sites or my blog at link

Over the coming months I want to be available to introduce the rules to anyone who is interested, discuss the contents of the book, and overall just enjoy talking about wargaming during my favorite time period. My presence here, on my blog, and forums like Wargames Factory is an openness and willingness to be part of the community of gamers that have given me so much enjoyment over my 15+ years working.

Please feel free to post questions and I will make sure that each of them is addressed at the appropriate time. Thanks and enjoy the thread.

Joe Krone

Joe

Thanks for the link to your site, just getting into AWI so will be a regular vistior

Good luck with the rules.

Cheers
MH
:-)

P.S you've misnamed them as the Land of the Rule in your original post above ;-) – Maybe that should be the tag line for the TMP rules lawyers board

Joe,

You know me, but not by this name, from GW back in 1998-2003 days (I was in Trade Sales before I moved to Retail as a store manager, for a hint. You can find me on FB through the staff group). Glad to see you getting these rules published.

Check out my blog at royalistroundhead.blogspot.com and when the time comes, I will acquire your rules, play them a bit, and even post a review.

Hope all is well with you!

Justin

Glad to meet you. I've been curious about this set of rules for months but can find very little information on it on the web.

Greetings Joe,

Looking forward to getting some info on the rules!

Any general thoughts on how the book will differentiate itself from some of the rules available now?

Thanks,

H

Thanks for the post. I'm always very interested in AWI rules. However, there is no information about these rules at all. I (and I assume many others) are hesitant to preorder rules sight unseen.

What are the unit sizes? WHat are the basic mechanics? Is it points based? What is the ground scale?

Sorry, though you have my interest, I'm justnot going to buy a pig-in-a-poke.

I'll ask some of my standard questions:

What size battles – 2,000 per side? More? Less?

Is there a figure – troop ratio, like 1:20?

Are figures counted for combat calculations?

How much time does a turn represent?

How many turns should an average game take to play?

How long in real time will it take?

Is the turn sequence IGO-UGO or something else?

What kind of dice are used?

Are American Indians portrayed as ferocious in melee but lousy shots? Many games have them as fast militia, which does not explain what they did to Braddock (or St. Clair later on).

What vtsaogames said.

Recommend you contact Super Max and Historygamer on these forums for a chat.

My two shillings worth.

Eric

Hello everyone and thanks for such quick posts. Hopefully I edited my rulebook better than my post above. :) Good catch MH. :)

Let me collect the questions that are asked and I will begin to lay out a nice brief for everyone to read that will hopefully address everyone's comments.

Thanks again for the interest and friendly conversation.

Joe Krone

What scale are the miniatures??

Joe, Looking forward to reading the new AWI rules

SFC Retired
(Ron)

VERY interested in this. I have played Black Powder in the past but lost interest since there was no real period flavor.

I look forward to reading the brief on the game and seeing some snippets of the rules.

Both this post and your blog have been added to my favorites folder :)

No info at all just adds for Osprey pictures and miniatures?

greenknight4

I wrote the rules and Osprey Publishing is producing them so I need to make sure I am following their marketing plan and cooperate with their social media efforts. They announced the book a few months back and over the coming months I will be sharing information to give you a better understanding of the contents in the book.

Right now I am collecting the questions that are being posted and I will put together a nice briefing to hopefully address everyone's interest.

Thanks,

Joe Krone

Just questions that everyone else has posed –

Ratios (1:15, 1:20)
scale of miniatures
Turn mechanic
basing structure
Are there orders that are issued? Can they be disobeyed or misinterpreted
How are militia played
Are there multiple characteristics for a unit (command rating, discipline or quality rating, morale etc)
What theaters will it cover, will there be a main book and then supplements or will the book be all inclusive
How much $$ should I be saving up to get into the game

I'll post more as I have them.

Hello everyone. I wanted to answer your questions in the hopes of giving you guys an idea about the rules of the game. I know this will generate more questions and I will do my best to answer what I can but the book is currently being reviewed and edited so I don't want to disappoint someone if something doesn't make the book. Anyways here is some information about the game.

Standard size or number of miniatures in a game?
Land of Free uses a flexible force building system utilizing 4 different sizes to represent your elements (units) in the game (tiny, small, medium, large). These sizes can represent anything that the players elect to play allowing gaming groups to play at smaller 'skirmish' level actions or bigger battles.

Troop ratio?
There is no set ratio because the players determine the size of their games.

Basing standard?
There are recommended basing styles in the book but again the basing is flexible to accommodate the myriad of existing collections in the world.

How does army building work?
Players must have a Force Commander and a minimum of two Group commanders. Each Group Commander must have a minimum of two elements (any size). So a legal army would be a Force Commander, Group Commander with 2 Elements, and another Group Commander with 2 Elements

Ground scale?
All movement and force setup in the game is standardized regardless of the scale of the miniatures.

Time scale? Battle and reality
The ordering system takes into account that an element is performing their actions over a couple minutes of combat time. In reality a game that consists of about 6-8 elements per side will take about 2 hours once the players know the rules.

Phases of the game?
The turn operates by Groups. One player will activate a group then activate each element within the group until all elements have had an opportunity to receive orders. Then the other player will do the same. The sides will continue to alternate activating groups until all groups and elements have performed their orders or passed. So an active element will perform all their moving, shooting, melee, etc. before moving to the next element.

How do orders work?
Each element has a number of maneuver and combat orders it may perform in a turn. These orders can be done in any sequence giving an element a measure of tactical flexibility. Maneuver actions are things like moving forward, backward, turning, wheeling, changing formation, and reloading their weapons. Combat orders are shooting and fighting a round of melee.

Unit stats?
A unit has the following stats: Maneuver, Combat, Discipline, Morale, Action, Points

The stats are based on the elements size but also can be influenced in the Advanced Rules by the elements type.

For example a medium element would look something like this:
Maneuver: 3, Combat: 3, Discipline: 3, Morale: 7+, Action: 4, Points: 25

Maneuver and combat are the number of orders an element may take in a single turn. See above. Discipline is the number of hits an element may take before it loses a level of discipline. Morale is the value or higher an element must roll on 2d6 in order to pass morale related tests. Action is the number of d6 dice the element roles for both shooting and melee combat. The points value is used for players wishing to play balanced games.

Historical aspect (theaters, scenarios, etc)
A lot of historical re-fights were written for the book but until the book has been edited I think it would be best to hold off on listing the battles. I tried to incorporate battles from all the wars that are represented by these rules. There is also a section on 'generic' scenarios that are typical of why these armies would fight.

Investment?
If you are someone very interested in this time period and don't have any miniatures then your initial cost of investment could be quite low. For under $200.00 USD you could have your rules and both American and British forces to create some nice games. This value does not take into account a gaming table and scenery. The rulebook retails for around $35 USD leaving you $165 USD for miniatures. Wargames Factory is releasing 6 boxes of toy soldiers and even if they sell them at $30 USD a piece that will give you 5 boxes to choose from. More than enough to get you started and playing some decent sized games.

Special rules for different unit types?
The initial stats for the troops are generic allowing new players to quickly grasp the concept of play and issuing orders without the added confusion of special rules. In the Advanced Rules section I have added several element types that players can use in their games for an added points cost.

Hi Joe,

Thanks for posting this information here and on your blog. Sounds interesting, although the explanations at the moment being a bit generic in relationship to the period's actual combat formations (granted the rules are still being edited).

On the relationship between combat results and the game elements, do the units attrite stands or suffer "flake-offs", or is this done through a reduction in their morale, or some disruption mechanic(s)?

Thanks FlyXwire and I understand the concepts are pretty vague at the moment. As we get closer to the release date I think we can ramp it up and get more into the details. Maybe I will even try my hand at a few walk-through YouTube videos. I think I have a face for radio so I will have to hire a stunt team. :)

As far as your question is concerned the elements maintain their footprint throughout the game. So the element is either on the table or not. The hits represent casualties, loss of discipline, loss of cohesion, loss of will, etc. Since casualty rates were not minding blowing during this period I thought maintaining the elements footprint would be more representative of the day. On a personal note I have always liked systems where you keep your unit intact on the battlefield which is always more visually appealing and rewards all that hard work painting those little guys. :)

Thanks,

Joe

Joe, thanks for your response here.

I support your design concept of maintaining an element's "footprint" until it leaves the field of battle, and as you note, in the main, casualty rates were not high for the period – it was the will to fight which usually decided the engagements mostly, IMO. This also enables your flexible units scale to work almost universally across gamer's collections and their chosen [committed] basing conventions.

How will hits, loss of discipline/cohesion/will be tracked for units – markers, rosters, tattered formations, etc.?

Players can use anything they want to mark hits and I am currently working with a company to design some markers that work in conjunction with Land of the Free. During our playtesting we used wound markers and I printed my own status markers and glued them on 25mm round bases. I am also a big fan of using casualties and battlefield debris to represent markers in order to maintain the aesthetic of the game.

Elements have 4 levels of discipline: Fit, Shaken, Exhausted, Shattered. As elements take hits they will move down each discipline level and they are removed when they become shattered.

Excellent!

I passed on your embellished dice for the game (offered on your blog), but look forward to see what you'll arrange as far as 3D battlefield markers.

Osprey ought to include a game marker page with the rules too (by default).

…yawn…