Horse & Musket: Dawn of an Era
Game design: Sean Chick
Art: Ilya Kudriashov
Players: 2
Solitaire Suitability: High
Duration: 60-90 minutes
Hex Number: 12
Theme: 17th Century, 18th Century
Series: Horse & Musket
Price: $15.00 USD
Publisher: Hollandspiele
Sean Chick's Horse & Musket is a simple tactical game system covering musket warfare from Vienna in 1683 to Appomattox in 1865. This first volume in the series, Dawn of an Era, covers warfare in the west from 1683-1719, which saw matchlock muskets and pikes give way to flintlocks and bayonets. Ranks became thinner and battles more linear as firepower and infantry discipline became the deciding factors.
Double-sided terrain tiles and thirteen armies not only allow you to recreate the twenty historical engagements contained within the scenario book, but also any number of battles both real and imagined. This is the era of Marlborough and Eugene, of Catinat and Luxembourg, of William III and Charles XII, of Peter the Great and Rob Roy Macgregor: loyalists and rebels, Georgians and Jacobites, the Grand Alliance and the defiant Bourbons – they're all here:
- Vienna – September 12, 1683 – "We came, we saw, and God Conquered."
- Sedgemoor – July 6, 1685 – The Bloody Assizes
- Killiecrankie – July 27, 1689 – Slaughter at Sundown
- Fleurus – July 1, 1690 – The French Cannae
- Aughrim – July 22, 1691 – Bloody Hollow
- La Prairie – August 11, 1691 – Double Ambush
- Neerwinden – July 29, 1693 – Le Tapissier de Nôtre Dame
- Marsaglia – October 4, 1693 – The Massed Bayonet Charge is Born
- Narva – November 30, 1700 – Charles XII Smashes the Russian Army
- Chiari – September 1, 1701 – Catinat's Last Battle
- Klissow – July 19, 1702 – Charles XII Invades Poland
- Blenheim – August 13, 1704 – "A Famous Victory"
- Fraustadt – February 13, 1706 – The Swedish Cannae
- Turin – September 7, 1706 – Eugene's Greatest Victory
- Almansa – April 25, 1707 – Battle of the Exiles
- Poltava – July 8, 1709 – The Student Surpasses the Master
- Malplaquet – September 11, 1709 – Mort et convoi de l'invincible Malbrough
- Villaviciosa – December 10, 1710 – A Bourbon on the Spanish Throne
- Sheriffmuir – November 13, 1715 – Confusion on the Moors
- Glen Shiel – June 10, 1719 – Rob Roy's Last Battle
Designer Sean Chick has taken a simple core system and embellished it with nuanced special rules for differences in infantry doctrine and armaments without depriving the game of its elegant, primal simplicity. And for folks who want added depth and complexity, there are a number of optional rules for facing, formation, nationalities, and more that will allow you to tweak the game to suit your own play-style and preferences.
The result is a big, splendid game for a big, splendid era.
- (1) 33" x 17" map
- (352) ⅝" counters
- (54) 2" x 2.5" hex tiles
- 16-page Rulebook
- 28-page Scenario Book
- 1 Player's Aid Card
- 1 Turn Track
- You will need (4) 10-sided dice
- You will need (2) 6-sided dice
