Here is what is going on the website I hope it answers most of the queries. Keep 'em coming if not!
THE BIG QUESTIONSo why should you part with your hard earned cash?
You get a 40 page soft bound rule book, 2 flag sheets and a playsheet and we make a donation to Combat Stress through Henry Hyde's Combat Stress appeal in Miniature Wargames for each copy sold as well as for the extra flag sheets.
To play the rules your miniatures need to be organised as ‘company stands' .We usually base our figures (28mm in our case but other scales would work equally well) 2 to 6 to a stand depending on type it really doesn't matter as it is the stand that is important. We use 3" squares but again as long as you can match up the frontages of opposing stands, in your armies, it is not that important. If you don't have your figures based on stands then just agree how many figures equal a stand and away you go! It is consistency that is important.
Company stands are then organised into ‘brigades' (aka Impi, Rubs, Mobs etc sorry for the European definitions but it is easier this way!) of 4 ,8 , or 12 stands. For a game you need at least one Brigade a side and a force of at least 8 stands in total. If it is Europeans versus native tribes you will need about two or three times as many native troops as European, unless using the ambush rules or the Europeans are quite poor quality, such as Hicks Egyptians.
Troops are then categorised as regulars or native which affects their ability to process orders, and in the case of non -tribal forces allows them in the right circumstances to ‘rapid fire'
They are then also divided into elite, trained, second rate or levy which affects their ability to instigate and stand against a charge. All this is achieved by giving each type a number to which certain additions or deductions are made and comparing it to a roll on D6 Play a couple of games and you probably won't even refer to the playsheet.
Initiative is rolled for each turn then it is UGO-IGO with the winner deciding on whether he is U or I and the Europeans chance of winning being weighted in most cases.
It then follows a predictable orders, movement, firing, melee and morale sequence. One unusual aspect is under certain circumstances troops can fire and then charge in the same turn after they have weakened their target unit or that unit has been softened up by artillery fire. We don't recall this being available in many other sets yet it seems to us a perfectly valid tactic.
Firing casualties are randomised amongst targets that consist of more than one company and there is a trade -off allowed between taking the hit and being driven back so it is possible to trade ground for casualties , and for your nice line to be disrupted and you wasting orders re-dressing the line. This is at the target players choice except on closing fire when it switches to the firing player. So you can either damage a charging unit or just hold it at bay when being charged. You may start off a charge with six Ansar companies but if you get badly hit and the random gods are against you, you may end up fighting a melee with a lot fewer companies.
Morale is very simple and troops tend to retire rather than rout so your beautifully painted miniatures stay in view for longer, even if they cannot contribute to the result. We do not want to spend hours in painting to condemn our units to the travelling box until we must!
Added to this rules for hidden movement, ambush,going prone, railways, gunboats, leaders abilities and engineering tasks and the rules let you, the player deal with most aspects of Colonial warfare.
I hope I have persuaded you?
Those are the details I wanted.
