"The Kingdom Is Ours - New English Civil Wars Rules by Helion & Bicorne From the Author" Topic

The concept of ''swirling'' Cavalry in this period is putting me off buying them – sorry :-( .

Why?

It should not, as that is what they did. Most of the rules I have for this period try to put this into the battle.

I like the sound of these rules. If nothing else I'd like to read them.

How many bases to a unit? I mean, i know it will probably vary but would be good to know an average.

Price?

Hmm, 15.25 pounds if you order now.

That's $ 22.53 this side of the pond.

I dunno. File Leader is, for me, the best ECW set of rules outside of WAB ECW rules. It does all the things that this author seems to want, and all the rules fit onto an A2 sheet printed both sides.

I'm going to pick up Baroque, as I am a fan of the Impetus system, but otherwise, I really can't see buying any other new set of rules.

File Leader?

How do the pike rules work in File Leader?

If mounted pistols are so useless in File Leader why did so many cavalry, historically, carry them? As late as the NMA cavalry were issued with a brace of pistols.

This is why I have been advocating for so long that rules be FREE. People need to STOP STOP STOP charging for rules and simply ask for donations. Either that or just charge five bucks or something.

Reason:

Authors say the rules work, customer buys them, then find out they dont work.

"work" is a relative term and therefore, "pay" should be equally relative. We must all put an end to this insanity before this hobby really does a nose dive.

STOP CHARGING FOR RULES because

a. they are not
b. they are just a guide
c. stop trying to make money and simply be happy with your efforts to help the hobby, not yourself.

BTW.. swirling cavalry has recently become under scrutiny once again. The more reading you do on this the more it becomes apparent that what was written as a procedure was rarely followed for cavalry. These guys were simply mounted hordes and mostly behaved like thugs lead by a chief thug. We need to stop with the romance and get with the realities. If cavalry didnt charge full tilt until the last 50 paces and then the infantry didnt run out of FEAR of contact, then the cavalry simply ran away after discharging pistols.

you can get this on Amazon if you have prime it will be shipped free. pretty good price for a set of rules

Companycmd – really? I'm not criticizing your opinion just questioning it? I understand where you are coming from but at the very least for printed rules there are costs for printing, binding, etc. So the author needs to recoup these costs at the very least. Also, for some folks it is a business and not just a hobby. So they most treat the efforts of their work as such. There are a number of free rules out there so gamers do have choices out there. As for your observations on donkey wallopers of the period I would agree from what I've read.

P.s. Do you have rules that you've written you'd care to share? I'm always interested in reading rules.

I think everything should be free. So send me all your stuff.

There are plenty of free rules around if people want them … and plenty of options where designers expect to recover a small proportion of their costs in charging for them.

The choices seem simple enough.

No real surprise that a publisher charges for a publication though.

I'll be happy to see a few games played, anyway (maybe there will be something appealing in the rules – you never know )

Phil

As a generalisation free means sketchy, poorly explained, rough-edged, underdeveloped and under/not play tested, whereas commercially published rule sets have been polished, if not always to a high sheen, at least to the point where a common understanding of how to play is possible with a thorough reading.

Most of the work involved in producing a commercial set of rules comes AFTER the rules have been formulated and committed to print.

To paraphrase the man, 'you takes your choice, and you pays (or doesn't) your money'.

To all who responded,
I agree with you and I do not mean to hijaak this noteworthy article so lets end it. Rules should be free so peeps spend their money on the manf. of figures which are the heart and soul of this entire business. The point is, publishers PLEASE produce samples of the rules AT THE MINIMUM for free distribution so peeps can SEE what they are getting into BEFORE they do it. Martini, all our rules are specifically designed for online hence there is no printing cost hence the rules are "free" albeit part of the entire Wargames Archive of our stuff that we ask people to subscribe to for lifetime fee of $10 USD bucks.

I agree with you and I do not mean to hijaak this noteworthy article so lets end it. Rules should be free so peeps spend their money on the manf. of figures which are the heart and soul of this entire business.

Except, of course, that is just an opinion and probably wrong: … the heart and soul of wargaming was basically rules by Featherstone, Peter Young et al, in books commercially published (and bought – if, in many cases, that was the library and we then borrowed them) …

Sorry: I don't think it is at all true that rules are just a tack on to the making/selling of figures. If anything, the rules are the core product and figures are just a sort of luxury counter that we use to play them with.

Phil
PS – no dog in a fight: mine have always been pretty much free

" as you don't have those pesky single figures that keep falling over " that ended it for me. Another chess-game ?

Hmm … if it had single figures I would be unlikely to take it seriously …

Phil