Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Thinking About Rules

For whatever reason, I happened to think about a bunch of 15mm WSS figures that I have . . . (110 cavalry and 460 foot) . . . and what rules might work for them the way I'd like.

So I dug out a number of rule sets that covered the period . . . and was rather appalled at the length of most of them.  Does a rule book really NEED to be several score pages long?

Which got me to thinking about what really needs to be in a set of rules . . . and, off the top of my head, this is what came to mind:
  • Troop Types -- and variations within type
  • Movement Rates -- including terrain effects
  • Shooting -- and what modifies it
  • Melee -- and results thereof
  • Morale -- how it works & when
  • Victory Conditions
So that's six pretty basic areas . . . and it while some require a bit of expansion, they shouldn't result in the thick (unused) rulebooks that I see on my bookshelf.

I suspect that if I do ever get around to painting and playing with these figures that I might just have to write my own short simple rules.


-- Jeff

5 comments:

Steve-the-Wargamer said...

Jeff - fear naught - I have the answer! :o))

http://steve-the-wargamer-wss.blogspot.co.uk/p/rules.html

...happy Boxing Day...

joppy said...

I feel just the same. It can sometimes take an age to find the right rule and work out events. I do remember having once written out 10 rules on a postcard. Very basic and gave a quick game when required.

Bluebear Jeff said...

Steve-the-Wargamer,

The link to the McNally rules on you page is bad . . . and the dark gray text on dark brown is unreadable . . . I had to copy/paste it into a text file to read it.

I did a search and McNally's rules can be found here:

http://delyall.tripod.com/awirules/awirules.html


-- Jeff

Steve-the-Wargamer said...

Why thank you, Jeff! :o))

PS. Those are the AWI rules, I use a his Seven Years war rules from here:

http://www.freewargamesrules.co.uk/uploads/7/0/8/1/7081303/syw.pdf

...with the modifications documented on my project page...

PS. Blogger look and feel update on the cards for 2013...

MurdocK said...

Chainmail?

Has the gunpowder section, the relevant rules are on 16 1/2 pages - or about 8 full pages with descriptions, examples, illustrations and artwork.

While meant for medieval situations it can cover gunpowder with some ability.