Fnurban #17 : Free Rules and well-stocked Magazines

This week I picked up the latest issue ( no. 418, October 2022 ) of Wargames Illustrated magazine, and found an interesting suprise: it features a complete set of rules for Napoleonic wargames. These are Valour and Fortitude  by Jervis Johnson and the Perry Twins, which have been specially commissioned by the magazine.  This issue  naturally goes big on the whole concept, including a feature and Q&A article on Jervis Johnson,  a scenario suggestion and  battle report of the same scenario played by the authors, and army lists and  'special rules' for French and Prussian armies. 

 

As the magazine says, 'everything you need to play intriguingly simple Napoleonic big battles'.  Of course I'm not strictly a Napoleonic gamer, but this is an interesting concept, so I am reading the rules and the articles.  Jervis says in his introduction to the rules 'I said it might be interesting to come up with a shorter set of rules designed to fit onto just four sides of A4'.   Well, technically he does just that - the core rules are on just four A4 pages, though they are pretty closely printed! No room for pretty pictures here, it's all in the tightly-written text. 

don't try to read this, buy the mag - or there's a free download!

Actually there's a bit of cheating here, as there are quite a lot of 'special rules' which are included in the separate  Army Lists articles  - given that the 'special rules'  include those for artillery firing canister and infantry skirmishing or forming square, you could argue they should really be in the core rules! But of course this doesn't really mattter, you get everything one way or another if you buy the magazine.

I read the rules, and  I can report that they passed the important test of  'finished before the bath water got cold' (!) , and that they read perfectly well. They use a brigade structure for the armies - units are grouped into brigades and activations ( and morale )  apply at brigade level, which I like as it seems the right for the period and 'bigger' battles. And the mechanisms are simple; both firing and melee are 'attacks' with similar procedures, simple D6 die rolls.   The more powerful the attack, the more dice rolled - but not 'buckets of dice'- which may inflict losses. After a certain number of losses the target unit becomes 'shaken',  and the parent brigade in turn suffers a 'setback' , after a number of which the brigade too may become shaken. Commanders can then attempt to rally shaken units/brigades -  I won't go into more details, you can get the rules yourself easily enough.

For an idea of how a basic  mechanism works I looked at a French Line Infantry ( 1812-1815 ) unit firing at a Prussian counterpart - essentially the French get 3 dice, with a 'hit' on a roll of 4,5 or 6, so I suppose they should expect to get one hit, maybe  two, for their volley. A Prussian Line Infantry unit has 'Tenacity' factor of 4, meaning that they would become 'shaken' after 4 hits. So, two or three decent  volleys from the French unit should do it - seems fairly reasonable? The Prussians' musketry ratings are the same, so an exchange of fire between these two should be evenly-matched. 

There's no specified base sizes, but unit sizes are specified in the army lists, e.g. that French Line Infantry unit is 24 to 36 figures, and the possible unit formations are defined very simply but effectively. Move distances and ranges are given in inches and I assume for 28mm figures,  but it's suggested that for smaller figures and/or smaller tables, you can halve the distances ( or use cm for inches ), and/or halve the strength of units.  This all seems very flexible and straightforward, and I think that's pretty much the same throughout the rules.

Of course I have not actually played them : but Norm has, over at Battlefields and Warriors ( which may of course have rendered my comments redundant! ) , with a positive verdict - well worth a read, as ever. I couldn't help noticing that the magazine provides army lists and a scenario for French vs. Prussians c.1813, and the magazine's recent issues have included sample sprues of Warlord Games 'Epic' French and Prussian Waterloo figures - indeed, Norm used his collection of the same figures for his game. I have a feeling that the combination of these rules with the Epic figures range might be a winner - though that is perhaps  not so helpful  for sales of Perry figures or Warlord rules! 

You can download the rules, army sheets ( also Austrians and Russians, I think ) and scenarios from perry-miniatures.com for free,  but I think it would also be polite to buy this issue of the magazine if available,  to reward the work they have done - and get a nice glossy-printed copy of the rules booklet, plus the other articles I mentioned above.  About £6 for a decent set of rules and background ( and the usual selection of other  articles too ) is not too painful, is it?

 

top  piece from Brian Cameron in MW473..

 While talking about magazines, I have continued to buy most issues of the three mainstream wargaming magazines in recent months, when I see them, and am quite glad to support them. In particular  I think John Treadaway is doing pretty well  at Miniature Wargames. He has a regular squad of excellent writers like  Conrad Kinch ( whose  Send Three and Fourpence in particular is always interesting ) , Arthur Harman, Dave Tuck and Jon Sutherland ( it was interesting that Jon's Command Decision, usually historically-set column recently used a fantasy setting, I liked the 'cross-over' effect ).  And then in September's MW473 there was a really, really good piece by Brian Cameron on Wellington in India, called Sepoys and Soldiers. This was inspired by Brian's rules for the 'Maharatta' game at Salute last year - now I am not going to rush out and start gaming this period, but the piece is actually a bit of a masterclass in rules/game design and how to think about the subject. How about the bullet points below, for example  ( if the publishers object to my reproducing  their text here, I will of course remove it ) : 

 

Those should be in every rule-writer's mind, shouldn't they? Brian's piece runs to 8 pages, and I thought it was worth the price of the mag on its own, pretty much! 

 

 

has anyone seen this mag?

Having covered the other two, I'd better mention Wargames Soldiers and Strategy too - but oh dear, where is it these days?   I bought WSS 120 ( June/July 2022 ) as normal in my local WH Smith,  but what happened  then? There are still a couple of copies of issue 120 in the shop, but no sign of WSS121, and the same applies in a couple of other branches I've tried - and by now, shouldn't we be seeing Issue 122  for Oct/Nov ?  On the WSS Website,   WS121 'Warfare in the Age of Arthur' only fairly  recently seemed to appear as 'out now' ( with no dates on the cover image ), and the 'where to buy' button for the magazine gives no details of stockists.  I wonder if there has been a falling-out with distributors who supply the retailers like WHS ( other retailers are available, as they say ).   Has anyone else had this, ahem,  'issue'?  I hope WSS is doing OK.. Meanwhile, The Arthurian issue looks quite interesting, even if 'not my period' - I may have to  put in an online order, and we'll see what happens. 

I know I promised last time to report on my experience with In Deo Veritas rules and a 30YW transplant of Cheriton, but I'm afraid 'time and space, dear boy' has intervened rather - including a vey nice week in Shropshire, I admit. But the game will go ahead - I am hoping to play it ( hmm..start it ) tomorrow. So I do hope to bring you a report soon, honest.... In the meantime keep well, eveyone - and maybe even  buy a magazine?