Copyright 2015 John Carroll, John the OFM, Winston Smith, William Pitt the Eldar, and Son of William Pitt the Eldar
All rights reserved.
This is a basic outline of a game I threw together last Saturday when the hard core 4 of our group were at loose ends.
I had previously painted up 5 10-figure platoons of British LI and grenadiers for Lexington, and more are in the pipeline. I have more than 100 Militia/Minutemen from Wyoming Massacre, with as many more in the pipeline.
These are singly based, and not to be confused with the 2000+ element based figures for AWI regimental.
I wanted to try out some mechanisms I have been toying with for a while, but keep it as simple as possible.
I had the figures for a Lexington Concord skirmish, so that was my first thought.
The first ruling was that the British and Minutemen were equal in most respects. The reason for this is that the British were bored, stuck on garrison duty for years, not in campaign shape, poorly trained. In my opinion, they behaved like 3rd rate troops, or worse. The Minutemen on the other hand had quite a few FIW veterans in the ranks, and were motivated.
Rating both sides equal made the game go easy. Fewer charts.
I made up 4 10-man platoons for each side, and put out buildings. Each platoon had a denomination of playing cards, and had 3 in the deck, along with 2 jokers that mandated a reshuffle.
When their card came up, the platoon rolled a D10 to determine how many "actions" it could perform.
1-2 = 1 action
3-8 = 2 actions
9-0 = 3 actions
Actions include:
Move 4"
Charge 6"
Shoot
Reload
Take an aimed shot
More can be added
Everyone starts the game loaded, and must reload once they fire. We used RISK tokens to mark.
Each figure shooting rolls a D20, hits on a 13+.
Taking the time to prepare a shot adds 1 to the die roll.
Melee was a simple one on one D6 roll like in The Sword and the Flame.
Fighters gained for having "superior weapons" like a fixed bayonet, defending a fence, etc.
They had minuses for charging more than 10", being fat and out of shape.
I had them roll for charge going in, and for accepting a charge. I gave minuses for shooting with fixed bayonets.
Dead figures were resurrected.
Hits had saving throws, to compensate for poor musketry, although a saving throw on 5 hits on an 8 man platoon do you no good when you roll 1s and 2s.
It worked. It will be simple to add troop quality, etc. However, I don't intend to give superior troops better shooting.
George Washington was not all that impressed by rifles, and I don't think I will be either.
This all started up again after a 10 year hiatus after I had an operatic scaled Trenton game, when Doug at MSC FORCED, I say FORCED some beautiful 40mm figures on me, and I decided to make up a dedicated to accomodate my necessarily limited numbers.
I will definitely be adding things like cavalry, jaegers (who WILL get some fiddly rifle bonus), amusettes, etc.
I will also now have to finish up my Philadelphia Light Horse dismounted troops and ambush foragers in New Jersey.
When I publish and sell for $100 USD a copy, I will make Trident 40mm figures the OFFICIAL 40mm FIGURES for Flames of Liberty.
Der Alte Fritz sent me a bunch of 28mm Fife and Drum figures so they will be the OFFICIAL 28mm (1/56) Figures, with Firing Line being honorary, and honorable mention going to Eureka's Ragged Continentals because I feel a parental pride in them.
That's all I have written up, and was deliberately vague in some portions.
Give me some feedback if you try them for a nice simple minded game. Change what you like, I will not get upset.