GAME OF KINGS - wargaming rules for battles in mid-18th century central Europe (introduction)

I AM about to undertake, with my regular wargaming opponent, our much-delayed refight of the Battle of Dettingen.
With that in mind I am publishing the latest edition of Game Of Kings, which I last posted in June 2018.
There has only been one substantive change since then, and that is to the morale rules, where I have made units less brittle. There is also one important addition, which basically covers infantry firing at charging cavalry, that was inadvertently left out of the first edition.

The rules are, to a large extent, old school in their deliberate simplicity. I always want victory to go to the player with a better understanding of generalship, rather than a better understanding of the rules.
They are adapted, heavily at times, from Neil Thomas's inspiring books, specifically Wargaming: An Introduction and Napoleonic Wargaming.
To fully comprehend the thinking behind the rules, you will need to read his books; most of my explanations here will be about those instances where I have drastically changed his concepts.

Neil Thomas's books are old school, but slot into the more recent section of my chronologically arranged shelf of wargaming books 

Game Of Kings is designed to put you in the position of a mid-18th century European general.
He would not have known exactly how many men he had under his command. Instead, he would have known his army consisted of so many battalions of foot, squadrons of horse and guns of artillery.
European armies of this period tended to resemble each other in terms of arms, formations and tactics, eg battalions fought in lines rather than columns, and squadrons, including so-called dragoons, charged home rather than engaging in caracoling firefights.
Unit strengths varied between armies, but they varied much more within an army. Sickness, desertion and unreplaced casualties meant the fact that nation X's squadrons had a paper strength of 15 troopers more than nation Y's squadrons was of little relevance to what turned up on the battlefield.
That is why battalions, squadrons and guns in Game Of Kings are represented by the same number of figures in each army. However, that does not mean their fighting abilities will be the same.
One of the main features of Neil Thomas's rules is that his armies have a set number of units. I think this can work well with ancient armies, where the reported numbers for the contending sides are often pretty fanciful and hard to reconstruct accurately with any confidence.
This is much less so with the 18th century, especially when most battles have multiple contemporary accounts, rather than a single author writing possibly centuries after the event.
So, in Game Of Kings, when refighting a historic battle, the number of units in each army will reflect the original strengths.
There will certainly not be a 1:1 ratio in terms of battalions, squadrons and guns, but there will typically be many more units than in Neil Thomas's armies.
This is turn required me to speed up combat mechanisms in order to prevent battles dragging on to the point where players might start looking at their watches.
Another difference between Game Of Kings and the books is that I have introduced simple command & control and morale rules.
Even so, the rules, stripped of their explanations, comfortably fit on one side of a sheet of A4 paper.

ORGANISATION
An army consists of a general on a base 20x20mm, and units of foot, horse and guns on bases 40x20mm.
A foot battalion has two bases in a line, each containing eight musketmen arranged in two ranks, and an 'officer' - it could be a drummer - to indicate the unit's state of effectiveness.
The officer is placed centrally behind the bases when the unit is at 100 percent effectiveness. After it suffers a "hit," which reduces the unit's effectiveness to 75 percent, the officer is moved to behind the righthand base.
After a further hit, reducing effectiveness to 50 percent, one of the bases is removed, and the officer is placed centrally behind the remaining one. A third hit, reducing effectiveness to 25 percent, sees the officer removed, and a fourth hit means the remaining base is removed.
Note that this does not mean the unit has been wiped out, nor does losing 25 percent effectiveness mean the unit has suffered 25 percent casualties. Instead it represents a loss of effectiveness, which may be a combination of casualties, faltering spirit and disorganisation.
Light infantry is organised similarly, except each base has three figures.

George II overlooks four battalions of British and Hanoverian infantry (left to right): von Klinkowström at 100% effectiveness, Royal Foot at 75%,  The Buffs at 50% and 5th Marines at 25%

Cavalry can be heavy, medium or light, but each squadron consists of two bases, each with three troopers, and an 'officer'.
Heavy and medium horse can be distinguished by their equipment, eg a heavy cavalryman often wears a cuirass, while light horse should be placed on their base in ragged formation.
Cavalry bases are positioned one behind the other. Neil Thomas, who uses a similar system, explains this is to reflect the way cavalry kept a reserve when going into combat (and remember that a tabletop squadron represents several real-life ones). The exception is that light cavalry in a screening role may operate with bases in a line.

Prussian horse parade past an isolated farmhouse led by Brandenburg-Schwedt Cuirassiers at 100% effectiveness, followed by Posadowski Dragoons at 75%, Prinz von Preussen Cuirassiers at 50% and Bayreuth Dragoons at 25%

A gun and four gunners are arranged lengthways on a single 40x20mm base. Loss of effectiveness can be shown with a marker, eg a miniature boulder.

An Austrian 12pdr gun alongside Grenzer light infantry. There is no marker beside the gun, and the Grenzer officer is centrally placed, so both units are at 100 percent effectiveness

Making Rules Grid-Compatible

I AM expecting to use my Project Kaiser 54mm toy soldiers on a table-top battlefield formed of 12x10 3in squares.
However, I have a lot more reading to do before I decide on the rules to use, but if I do use an already published set they do not have to be specifically designed for a grid.
In fact I will probably compile my own rules, but would not be surprised if they are heavily influenced by Neil Thomas's in  Wargaming Nineteenth Century Europe 1815-1878.

Wargaming Nineteenth Century Europe … the more I read the book, the more I like it

The key to using these rules would be converting movement and firing distances from centimetres to squares.
Thomas has loose-order infantry moving 8cm in difficult terrain, 12cm in the open and 16cm on roads; close-order infantry moving 4cm, 8cm or 16cm; skirmishers, who are not penalised for difficult terrain, moving 12cm or 16cm; cavalry moving 12cm, 16cm or 24cm; and artillery moving 12cm or 16cm (no movement in difficult terrain). In addition, infantry lose a quarter of their move if turning. Note that all movement distances are dividable by four.
Weapon ranges are 8cm for smoothbore muskets, 16cm for early rifles, 24cm for later breechloading rifles, 32cm for smoothbore guns, 48cm for rifled bronze guns and 60cm for rifled steel guns. Again all measurements are dividable by four.
Bearing in mind that Project Kaiser is for toy soldiers at corps level rather than regimental, and will work best with simple - but not simplistic - rules, I would probably dispense with skirmishers and just have one formation for infantry. None of my infantry will have smoothbore muskets, so their 8cm range can also be ignored.
One possible solution would be to convert the 60cm range of rifled steel guns to five squares. This would give rifled bronze guns a range of four squares, smoothbore guns three squares, later breechloading rifles two squares and early rifles one square (in each case distances have been rounded to the nearest whole number).
Movement distances could become one square for infantry in the open, half a square in difficult terrain and two squares on roads. Cavalry could move two squares in the open, one square in difficult terrain and three squares on roads. Artillery could move one square in the open and two squares on roads.
There has been even more rounding with the movement distances, and there is the additional problematic factor that infantry have a half-square move in difficult terrain.
But as movement would be measured through the sides of grids, rather than through corners - a point emphasised by Bob Cordery in his Portable Wargame books - there would be no need to give infantry an extra penalty for turning.
Inevitably there have been some compromises in the above conversions, but I think they make a good basis for further work.

Featherstone's Franco-Prussian War

DONALD Featherstone had some intriguing ideas on refighting the Franco-Prussian War in his 1970 book War Game Campaigns.

Featherstone's War Game Campaigns … my copy long ago lost its cover

Chapter 11 is called "Re-fighting the Franco-Prussian War." In it he arranges 15 principal battles from the war into three columns, each containing five battles.
The two sides have an army for each column, with Featherstone pointing out "as they fight separately, this can be covered by using all your troops for each army."
Starting with, say, the middle battle of the central column, the army that loses the battle retreats to the site of another battle.
For example, if the French were to lose the refight of the Battle of Vionville it would likely retreat to the site of the battle of St Privat.
But under the campaign's rules it could also retreat 'west' to the Battle of Rezonville or 'east' to the Battle of Mars-La-Tour.
This sounds very interesting, but there are two flaws in the scheme. First, it is not explained what happens if an army retreats to a battlefield in an adjacent column that is already occupied by two other armies.
Secondly, Featherstone seems to have thought Vionville, Rezonville and Mars-La-Tour were separate battles, when they are different names for the same battle.
Neither flaw is insurmountable. The first could be solved by only allowing armies to retreat to a battlefield in their starting column; the second by drawing up a different set of battles.

Two of the book's photos … top is a skirmish from the Peninsular War and below is from a 'refight' of the 1870 Battle of Spicheren, but both are clearly posed dioramas rather than scenes from wargames

Chapter 13 is titled "Re-fighting an Actual Battle (Spicheren, Franco-Prussian War, August 1870)."
Featherstone starts by drawing a map of the relevant countryside equivalent to a 5x4 block of his wargames tables.
Each side is given identical forces (18 regiments of line infantry, three of light infantry, three of cavalry and six guns) and has to deploy them on the map in at least three of four possible assembly areas.
Dice are rolled to decide where the first battle takes place, with the losers retreating and the winners having the choice of following them or standing still. Casualties are not carried over so both sides return to full strength after a battle.
Featherstone writes: "Other than map-moving for relatively unopposed flanking forces, moves on maps for other troops will be largely a matter of expediency to give a good situation!"
So this system refights a battle as a campaign. Effectively the only similarity to the original battle is the terrain over which the campaign is fought, although it would be easy to adjust the two sides' strengths to reflect the real number of troops involved.
Chapter 23 is "A 'Potted' Campaign (Franco-Prussian War 1871)" and uses Featherstone's famed matchbox chest (I do not know if he invented this, but he was certainly keen on it).
The idea is that two players can fight a campaign that includes hidden movement but does not need the services of an umpire.
The chest consists of 36 empty matchboxes glued together in six rows of six, and a map is drawn and divided into 36 squares.
Each player has counters representing the 19 units of his army, and these counters are moved from matchbox to matchbox to correspond with movement on the map.
Players move alternately and out of sight of each other until one player moves a counter into a matchbox already occupied by counters from the opponent, at which point a battle occurs (unless the square is divided by, for example, a mountain range that means the two forces are not in contact despite being in the same box).
As Featherstone points out: "Such a (system) can be used for more or less any part of the horse-and-musket period or even up to modern times."
It could also be used for ancient campaigns, or at least those in which the two sides were spread out for some reason, eg Roman consular armies marching from different parts of the Italian peninsula.
I have here covered just three of the 29 chapters that make up War Game Campaigns. Many of the other chapters have material that could be of use in refighting the Franco-Prussian War, and all are stimulating for the keen wargamer.
Copies of the original hardback are available on Amazon from about £25, or you can buy a John Curry paperback reprint, retitled Donald Featherstone's Wargaming Campaigns, for under £15, including postage.

Weighing The Rules

THE early days of modern wargaming with miniatures saw rules divided into three periods: ancient, which included medieval; horse-and musket; and modern, which generally meant just WW2.
Such rules can provide enjoyable games, but usually do not give period flavour - armies in the War of the Spanish Succession fought very differently from those little more than 150 years later in the American Civil War.
One of the earliest, if not the earliest, sets of rules for the Franco-Prussian War was published in the 1974 book Practical Wargaming by Charlie Wesencraft.

Practical Wargaming … I have the 2009 reprint organised by John Curry

Wesencraft's rules use many of the same mechanisms as the book's Napoleonic rules. The interest lies, naturally enough, in the differences.
He identifies six factors as being significant for the 1870-71 conflict:
1. "The French … were armed with the most advanced infantry weapon yet produced, the Chassepot bolt-action rifle."
2. "They also had the Mitrailleuse machine-gun, which would have been a battle-winner if it had been used correctly, (ie) distributed among the infantry (instead of) treated as artillery."
3. "(French) regiments were known for their élan in attack which the Prussians never equalled."
4. "The Prussians were able to rely upon superior staff work, which meant that their troops had ammunition for their guns when required, that their railway timetables reduced delay of troop movements to a minimum - they were thus able to carry out an attacking type of war."
5. "(Prussian) artillery was far superior to the French in numbers, accuracy and range."
6. "(Prussian) individual troops were heavier than the French, giving them an advantage in the melee."
Here is how he deals with these factors.
1. French infantry throw a die per three points; Prussian infantry a die per four points. Since an ordinary infantryman is worth 1pt, a typical French infantry battalion of 16 figures would throw five dice, in each case needing a 3 or more for a kill. A typical Prussian infantry battalion of 20 figures would also throw five dice, again needing a 3 or more for a kill. In other respects the French Chassepot rifle and the Prussian Dreyse needle gun are treated as being the same, including having a maximum range of 12in.
2. French machineguns are given a range of 24in - half that of Prussian field artillery - but are otherwise "used exactly like artillery." However, it is not explained how they score hits. Is a 3 or more sufficient, as for Prussian guns firing shell (against targets in the open); a 4 or more, as for Prussian guns firing shot; or a 5 or more, as for French guns firing shot?
3. Morale rules are the same as for Wesencraft's Napoleonic rules (ignoring squares), except French troops never have to test for morale before a melee. Generally before a melee, Prussians ordered to charge the enemy or receiving such a charge have to test (the one exception is, as in the Napoleonic rules, when charging an enemy in the flank or rear).
4. The superior Prussian staff work has no effect on the rules. Perhaps it was supposed to be at least partly represented by the Prussians having larger forces on the table.
5. Prussian field artillery has a maximum range of 48in compared with 44in for French field artillery. As noted under point 2 above, Prussian guns have a much greater chance of scoring hits.
6. Prussians in a melee roll a die for every 3pts; French for every 4pts (the reverse of the infantry-firing rules).
There is much food for thought here, including two points I regard as rather controversial.
The first is the Chassepot and Dreyse having the same range. Depending on which authority you consult, the Chassepot's maximum sighted range was at least twice that of the Dreyse and probably closer to three times as far. It became something of a norm in battles for French rife-fire to keep Prussian infantry at bay until the Prussians brought up their artillery, which outranged French rifles.
The other controversial point is making Prussian infantry 25% more effective in a melee (this can also be expressed as making the French infantry 33.3% less effective than the Prussians - that's statistics for you; it depends on whether you are comparing three with four or four with three). Were Prussians really "heavier" than Frenchmen? I have not read of this elsewhere, although any reader of the Latin classic histories will know how Roman legionaries were fearful of the greater height of Germans and of Gauls.

Review: Table Top Battles - Grid Wargaming With Miniatures

THIS is officially the second edition of a set of rules that first came out in 2004 as Table Top Armies, but was republished with amendments as Table Top Battles in 2007.
Although it has only 58 pages of A4 paper within flexi covers, the booklet, which I got for £15-plus-postage from Caliver Books, has much in it despite using fairly large print.
Photos accompanying the text are excellent, showing just how attractive miniatures can look on a surface of gridded squares.
Quite a bit of thought seems to have gone into designing the cover and, naturally, the rules, which generically cover ancients through horse-and-musket with many supplements, including ones for naval warfare, air combat, fantasy and solo gaming.

Well-designed cover

Unfortunately the same cannot be said for the wording of the rules, which contains some really appalling and baffling English.
It starts with the Forward (sic): "Table Top Battles has sold around the world albeit in small numbers and has had a good reaction from the Public when staging Participation games. Admission granted by the Newbury And Reading Wargames Association at their annual warfare event named Warfare."
Again: "After Table Top Battles appeared, other rule sets based on the square grid have been published. Written by some big names in the war game hobby industry."
This carelessness with basic English is perhaps not of great importance in a foreword, but it creates doubt in the rules themselves.
For example, page 18 covers "Hand to Hand Combat (Using a 12 sided die)".
Before getting to the combat mechanics, we are told: "(b) Some types of stands have a chance to avoid combat."
The stands are listed, and then comes: "(c) Throw a die for the stand trying to avoid combat. The score must be a '4' or more. If this is attained the stand can be moved back 1 square minimum, 4 square maximum, facing the enemy."
Apart from the poor grammar, the question arises: do the authors, Michael and Joyce Smith, mean a 4 on a 12-sided or six-sided die? The former gives a 75% chance of success, the latter a 50% chance. Perhaps the answer is obvious to you; it isn't to me.
Issues like this might have been cleared up by including what every set of rules should have, in my opinion: a detailed play-through of a battle.
Enough criticism; what do I like about Table Top Battles?
As I have already stated, the booklet is generally well-presented and a lot of eventualities are covered in the rules.
These are not, and do not pretend to be, suitable for tournaments at wargame conventions - there are too many possible bones of contention and the rules are not period-specific enough for most tastes.
What they are very much suitable for, as I hoped when buying, is simple battles that emphasise the toy-soldier aspect of the hobby rather than model-soldier realism.
The rules could certainly be used for refighting famous battles from history. Indeed it is quite possible I will be using some of the Smiths' ideas in an upcoming project I have for refighting the Franco-Prussian War in 54mm-scale.
The great advantage of using a gridded table-top is it almost completely eliminates one of the biggest time consumers in wargaming - measuring movement and firing distances.
The Smiths recommend using a grid of 16x12 2in squares. That is a total of 192 squares, which may sound a lot but only requires a table 3ft by 2ft 6in.
You would not need to rebase figures, provided they are on bases which fit inside the squares, eg the popular base-width of 40mm would be more-or-less ideal.
To sum up: despite its easily avoidable faults, I regard Table Top Battles as a pleasing addition to my wargaming library.

GAME OF KINGS - wargaming rules for battles in mid-18th century central Europe (part four)

MORALE
Test any unit which, during a half-turn (a turn consist of Player A's actions and then Player B's), has lost effectiveness to firing or has lost a melee.
Roll a die, needing the following minimum score to avoid losing a further 25 percent effectiveness: elite, 3; regular, 4; poor, 5.
+1 if a general is attached to the unit (he is eliminated if the unit is eliminated).
+1 if a friendly unit (not light infantry or a gun) is to the rear and could reach the testing unit in two normal moves (a friendly unit can only add support in this way to one unit per half-turn).
A unit that fails its morale, and a unit that loses more hits in a melee regardless of whether it fails a morale test, immediately retreats one move (with the normal possible Variation), ending with its back to the enemy.
On subsequent turns, action points must first be used to try to rally retreating units. A 5 or better is required to halt the unit so that it can return to normal action on the following turn. A general with the unit gives +1 to the rallying throw.
A retreating unit is eliminated of the first move of a retreat is obstructed by horse or foot (except light infantry). If the blocking unit is friendly, it must take a morale test, unless it is horse retreated into by foot.
Formed foot lose their firing order when retreating and so have an 8cm move.

Looking from behind the French lines at my refight of the Battle of Sahay

WEATHER
This, with minor amendments, comes from Charlie Wesencraft's With Pike And Musket.
At the start of the game, roll dice to determine the weather according to the weather gauge below.

A simple weather gauge

2 = fog
3 = light rain
4-10 = fair
11 = light rain
12 = heavy rain
At the start of each subsequent turn, roll one die to determine if the weather has moved down one notch (a throw of 1 or 2), stayed the same (3 or 4) or moved up one notch (5 or 6).
Weather affects units as follows:
Fog = visibility reduced to 6cm (unseen foes cannot be fired at); movement reduced by 50 percent.
Light rain = all musket and carbine firing suffers -1 per die.
Heavy rain = movement reduced by 25 percent, all musket and carbine firing suffers -2 per die.
Fair = no effect, unless the gauge stays on the same fair number for a third turn, in which case extreme heat reduces movement by 25 percent for as long as gauge does not move.

RANDOM TERRAIN GENERATOR
For non-historic battles, a random terrain generator can be used.
Because my figures are 10mm scale, and the move distances and firing ranges are suitably small, my 6ft by 2ft 6in table might seem overkill.
In fact I deliberately went for an oversize table to prevent the flanking edge-of-the-world effect that in my opinion spoils too many wargame set-ups.
Anyway, here is how the random terrain generator works.
1. Mentally divide the board into 12 sectors (two rows of six) each 1ft by 1ft 3in.
2. Roll a die for each sector, a 4-6 indicating a terrain piece.
3. If a terrain piece is indicated, roll again: 1-hill, 2-water (stream, river, lake or marsh, etc), 3-wood, 4-built-up area (anything from a farmstead to a walled town), 5-Player A's choice, 6-Player B's choice.
If the exact nature and size of the feature cannot be agreed by the players, more dicing will be necessary. This is also a good way to decide the route a river takes across the board.
Note that on average a battlefield generated under this system will have six terrain features, but a stream or river might well run through several sectors while still counting as a single feature.

NATIONAL/ARMY CHARACTERISTICS
Decide these on a battle-by-battle basis.
For example, Prussian foot at my Mollwitz refight added 1 to musketry throws and suffered no penalty for wheeling. Prussian horse in melees inflicted a hit on a throw of 5-6 instead of 4-6, and all wheeling cost half a turn.
At Dettingen, British and Hanoverian infantry battalions firing muskets will have a 50:50 chance of adding 1 to each die thrown that half-turn.

VICTORY
Unless specific objectives have been agreed, an army has lost when its army points total falls below half the starting total.
A general is worth 3pts, an infantry battalion 2pts and all other units 1pt each.

GAME OF KINGS - wargaming rules for battles in mid-18th century central Europe (part three)

MUSKETRY
A unit can fire within a 45-degree arc of its front.
Musket range: 8cm
Carbine range: 6cm
Roll a die for each 25 percent of effectiveness remaining and in a single line of bases.
Minimum score for a hit: regular foot in firing order, 4; light foot, 5; regular foot not in firing order, and dismounted horse, 6.
-1 if unit moved this turn.
ARTILLERY
A gun can fire within a 45-degree arc of its front.
Canister: 0-6cm. Roll a die and halve the score to get the potential number of hits.
Roundshot: up to 24cm. Roll a die and quarter the score to get the potential number of hits.
Halve the number of potential hits if the gun's effectiveness is 50 percent or less.
If the final result is a fraction, round the number of potential hits to the nearest whole number, but if the fraction is exactly a half, roll a die with a 50:50 chance of becoming a potential hit.
For each potential hit, roll a die. A 4 or more means a hit on foot or horse, but a 6 is needed if the target is a gun.

Artillery was often sited on a hill

MELEES
A melee occurs when bases of rival units come in contact.
Foot cannot initiate contact against horse.
Guns and light infantry never initiate contact and never inflict melee casualties (exception: light foot in a wood or built-up area can melee as regular foot).
A gun can only be contacted if it has no friendly regular foot within 4cm. Guns so contacted are automatically eliminated.
When a melee occurs, roll the following numbers of dice for each 25 percent of a unit's effectiveness (casualties are inflicted simultaneously by each meleeing unit):
Enemy unit:...……..H/MCav...Lan...LCav...Inf (ff)...Inf (oth)...LInf
Own Unit
H/MCav...…………….1...…….2...…..2...…..1...……..3...…….….2
Lan...………………….1...…….1...…..1...…..1½...…...4........…….4
LCav………………….1...…….2...…...1...….1...……..2...…….…..3
Inf...…………………..1...……..1...…..1...…..1...……..1...………..1
H/MCav = Heavy or medium cavalry
Lan = Lancers
LCav = Light cavalry
Inf (ff) = Infantry in firing order and attacked frontally
Inf (oth) = Close-order infantry at other times
LInf = Light infantry
Inf = Close-order infantry (remember, light infantry cannot inflict melee casualties except when in a wood or built-up area)
Add one die per 25 percent when attacking in flank or rear, on higher ground, defending a river bank or defending a built-up area from troops outside the built-up area. Bonuses are cumulative. A half die has a 50:50 chance of becoming a full die.
A unit meleed from the rear only rolls half its normal entitlement of dice.
For each die rolled, a 4 or more is a hit.

SAVING THROWS (for hits from firing and in melees)
Cuirassiers suffering a hit roll a die, needing a 6 to cancel it.
Troops suffering a hit when behind cover roll a die, needing a 4 or more to cancel it.

A large cavalry melee during my 275th anniversary refight of the Battle of Chotusitz

GAME OF KINGS - wargaming rules for battles in mid-18th century central Europe (part two)

COMMAND & CONTROL
I HAVE tried everything, from going without command and control altogether (Neil Thomas's preference), to Bob Cordery's card-based system from The Portable Wargame, which is essentially a stripped-down version of Brent Oman's Piquet set-up.
But in the end I found that what works best is Phil Barker and the Wargames Research Group's Pips, or action points as I like to call them.
How it works in Game Of Kings is that an army is divided into three sectors - typically a centre composed of foot, the general and probably guns, and two flanks, each composed of horse and possibly light infantry (but the exact composition of each sector will partly depend on the particulars of the battlefield).
Players move alternately. When on turn, a player rolls a 10-sided die - this is the only time a die other than a six-sided one is used - to see how many action points the centre gets, and two distinguishable, eg differently coloured, ordinary dice to see how many action points each flank receives.
For each sector, use action points in the following order, the player choosing which sector goes first.
1. Try to rally retreating units (this is the only compulsory use of action points).
2. Fire guns.
3. Move units (a gun that has been fired cannot also be pivoted, limbered or otherwise moved).
4. Fire muskets, carbines and any other missile weapons.
5. Resolve melees.

Two battalions of Bavarian Kurprinz Foot flank a 9pdr gun. Behind them a half-battalion of Kurprinz Grenadiers are beside a horse-and-limber team, illustrating why I no longer use limbers (the space they take up is disproportionate) 

MOVEMENT
Foot in firing order and so able to fire volleys: 6cm
Other foot: 8cm
Limbered guns: 6cm
Heavy and medium horse: 10cm
Light horse and generals: 12cm
But see The Variation below
As mentioned in the caption to the picture above, I no longer use limbers for my guns as I think they look out of proportion to other troops, but a marker can be used to show if a gun is limbered.
It takes a Pip for a foot battalion to adopt firing order, and it may not otherwise move or fire that turn. However, a battalion can fire even when not in firing order, but, as will be seen under Musketry, the chances of it being effective are much reduced.
Heavy-cavalry troopers carried more equipment than their medium-cavalry brethren, but had better mounts, hence their movement rates are identical.
A gun needs an action point to limber or unlimber, but the gun may be pivoted as part of unlimbering.
Foot and horse can make a 180-degree about-face without loss of movement, although it does cost an action point, but a second about-face in the same turn reduces movement by half, as well as costing a second action point.
All troops can pass through friendly light foot without penalty to either group, provided they have enough movement to take them beyond the light foot. Similarly, light infantry can pass through any friendly troops.
There is no bonus for charging, either in terms of movement or melee effectiveness - such matters are deemed to be at a tactical level far below the immediate concern of the general.
When a unit wheels, measure the distance covered from the front-centre of the unit.
The Variation
Dice are generally used to help decide the effectiveness of musketry, artillery fire, hand-to-hand fighting and morale, but in most rules movement distances are fixed.
I believe this is unrealistic - a general can order a squadron of dragoons to try to seize a hill, but he cannot know exactly how long they will take to reach the hill. Perhaps an unsuspected feature of the terrain will hold them up, or maybe they will be inspired to gallop faster than an enemy squadron trying to take the same hill.
Accordingly, uncertainty is added by rolling a die if a unit is moving three-quarters or more of its maximum move distance. If 6 is thrown, add 25 percent to the distance covered; if 1 is thrown, subtract 25 percent.
Exception: if a unit has been ordered, say, to line a river bank, it would be absurd to make it overshoot and enter the water thanks to The Variation rule.

My regular wargaming opponent is a huge Francophile, and his hero is Maurice de Saxe, shown here with the Picardie Foot and Gendarmes de la Garde

GAME OF KINGS - wargaming rules for battles in mid-18th century central Europe (part one)

INTRODUCTION
I HAVE decided this is a good time to publish the latest version of my rules, and some of my thinking behind the rules, ahead of our delayed 275th anniversary refight of the Battle of Dettingen.
The rules are, to a large extent, old school in their deliberate simplicity. I always want victory to go to the player with a better understanding of generalship, rather than a better understanding of the rules.
They are adapted, heavily at times, from Neil Thomas's inspiring books, specifically Wargaming: An Introduction and Napoleonic Wargaming.
To fully comprehend the thinking behind the rules, you will need to read his books; most of my explanations here will be about those instances where I have drastically changed his concepts.

Neil Thomas's books are old school, but slot into the more recent section of my chronologically arranged shelf of wargaming books 

Game Of Kings is designed to put you in the position of a mid-18th century European general.
He would not have known exactly how many men he had under his command. Instead, he would have known his army consisted of so many battalions of foot, squadrons of horse and guns of artillery.
European armies of this period tended to resemble each other in terms of arms, formations and tactics, eg battalions fought in lines rather than columns, and squadrons, including so-called dragoons, charged home rather than engaging in caracoling firefights.
Unit strengths varied between armies, but they varied much more within an army. Sickness, desertion and unreplaced casualties meant the fact that nation X's squadrons had a paper strength of 15 troopers more than nation Y's squadrons was of little relevance to what turned up on the battlefield.
That is why battalions, squadrons and guns in Game Of Kings are represented by the same number of figures in each army. However, that does not mean their fighting abilities will be the same.
One of the main features of Neil Thomas's rules is that his armies have a set number of units. I think this can work well with ancient armies, where the reported numbers for the contending sides are often pretty fanciful and hard to reconstruct accurately with any confidence.
This is much less so with the 18th century, especially when most battles have multiple contemporary accounts rather than a single author writing possibly centuries after the event.
So, in Game Of Kings, when refighting a historic battle, the number of units in each army will reflect the original strengths.
There will certainly not be a 1:1 ratio in terms of battalions, squadrons and guns, but there will typically be many more units than in Neil Thomas's armies.
This is turn required me to speed up combat mechanisms in order to prevent battles dragging on to the point where players might start looking at their watches.
Another difference between Game Of Kings and the books is that I have introduced simple command & control and morale rules.
Even so the rules, stripped of their explanations, comfortably fit on two sides of a sheet of A4 paper.

ORGANISATION
An army consists of a general on a base 20x20mm, and units of foot, horse and guns on bases 40x20mm.
A foot battalion has two bases in a line, each containing eight musketmen arranged in two ranks, and an 'officer' - it could be a drummer - to indicate the unit's state of effectiveness.
The officer is placed centrally behind the bases when the unit is at 100 percent effectiveness. After it suffers a "hit," which reduces the unit's effectiveness to 75 percent, the officer is moved to behind the righthand base.
After a further hit, reducing effectiveness to 50 percent, one of the bases is removed and the officer is placed centrally behind the remaining one. A third hit, reducing effectiveness to 25 percent, sees the officer removed, and a fourth hit means the remaining base is removed.
Note that this does not mean the unit has been wiped out, nor does losing 25 percent effectiveness mean the unit has suffered 25 percent casualties. Instead it represents a loss of effectiveness, which may be a combination of casualties, faltering spirit and disorganisation.
Light infantry is organised similarly, except that each base has three figures.

George II overlooks four battalions of British and Hanoverian infantry (left to right): Klinkowström at 100% effectiveness, Royal Foot at 75%,  The Buffs at 50% and 5th Marines at 25%

Cavalry can be heavy, medium or light, but each squadron consists of two bases, each with three troopers, and an 'officer'.
Heavy and medium horse can be distinguished by their equipment, eg a heavy cavalryman often wears a cuirass, while light horse should be placed on their base in ragged formation.
Cavalry bases are positioned one behind the other. Neil Thomas, who uses a similar system, explains this is to reflect the way cavalry kept a reserve when going into combat (and remember that a tabletop squadron represents several real-life ones). The exception is that light cavalry in a screening role may operate with bases in a line.

Prussian horse parade past an isolated farmhouse led by Brandenburg-Schwedt Cuirassiers at 100% effectiveness, followed by Posadowski Dragoons at 75%, Prinz von Preussen Cuirassiers at 50% and Bayreuth Dragoons at 25%

A gun and four gunners are arranged lengthways on a single 40x20mm base. Loss of effectiveness can be shown with a marker, eg a miniature boulder.

An Austrian 12pdr gun alongside Grenzer light infantry. There is no marker beside the gun, and the Grenzer officer is centrally placed, so both units are at 100 percent effectiveness
 

A Knight To Remember - the aftermath

A toy-soldier pack well worth looking out for

ONCE again, playing with toy soldiers produced a fun scenario that neither of us took too seriously.
My opponent said, given the same circumstances, he would choose to defend the river crossing rather than picking the Black army.
He had correctly realised the rules make mounted knights very powerful - more powerful than I expected - but that was not enough to overcome the disadvantage of having to cross a river to get to grips with the enemy.
Of course there was a lot of luck involved, as exampled by the eventually wonderful dice-throwing of my crossbowman compared with the worse-than-mediocre results of his opposite number.
The one thing that surprised both of us was the relatively poor shooting of the engines. We were expecting them to dominate the battlefield, but instead they turned out to perform much more like their real-life counterparts. I guess it is a case where pre-battle practice would have made a big difference.
All in all, excellent value for money since the only new things I bought for the scenario were the playset itself, which cost well under £5, and the £1 pack of willow edging from Poundland.

A Knight To Remember - part two of a medieval WINTER skirmish scenario

Lord Hall won the dice-off and chose to command the Black army. That left me with the slightly outnumbered Grey forces, but having only to hold the footbridge until the end of turn 15.
As the defender, I had to set out my forces first, and we soon discovered an unexpected problem - stability, or rather the lack thereof.
The figures had stood up perfectly well on the table in my hotel room in Olomouc, but they showed no such desire to do the same on a green cloth, no matter how flat it appeared to the naked eye.
We tried using small blobs of Blu-Tack under each figure's base, but this did not make much difference.
In the end we agreed to dispense with the green cloth, which is why this has become a medieval winter scenario.
The battlefield is much the same as in my previous post, but the ground is now considered to be covered with snow - enough to hide any signs of grass, but not enough to affect movement or combat. Also, there is no high ground to the north.

The Grey forces, with the figure of Baron Spital, holding a pennant, in the right-foreground

I placed the bombard west of the ruined building, so its crew would have a largely uninterrupted view of the Black forces' advance. An engine needs a minimum crew of two to fire, but I have given it three so it can continue in action even if one man falls.
I put the crossbowman in position to cover the footbridge, and spread out the rest of the men to try to minimise casualties from the Black catapult.
Then it was Lord Hall's go to lay out his troops - anywhere north of the larger pile of logged trees.

Looking from behind the Black forces, with Lord Hall of Vaux holding a pennant bottom-left

He put the catapult on the eastern side of the battlefield, with the figure of himself well to the rear. His cavalry were placed directly opposite my bombard.
The Rules
Movement
Knights on foot: 6"
Knights mounted: 12"
Engine: 3" (minimum crew of two)
Crossing the river slows movement by half
Engine Shooting
An engine can fire one shot in any turn in which it has not moved and its crew are not involved in a melee. It can be pivoted 45 degrees right or left before firing.
Crossbow Shooting
A crossbowman can fire in any turn in which he has not moved and is not meleeing. He can pivot 45 degrees right or left before firing.
Range............Score needed for a hit
Under 12".....4 or more
12-24"...........5 or more
Target behind cover: -1
If a hit is scored, roll a second die, needing a 4 or more for a kill.
Target 0-6" away: +1
Target 18-24" away: -1
Target has no shield: +1
If a mounted knight suffers a kill, roll a die to decide if the horse or the man is out of action. A riderless horse can be mounted by another knight, taking half a turn to do so. A mounted knight can continue on foot if his horse is killed.
Hand-to-Hand Fighting
When enemy figures come into contact, each rolls a die. A difference of two or more is needed for a kill. A difference of one means the loser falls back 3". An equal score means the melee continues next turn.
Modifiers
Two-handed weapon on the first turn of a melee: +2
No shield: -1
Behind cover on the first turn of a melee: +1
Meleeing while in the river: -1
Meleeing within 3" of own flag or banner: +1 (this takes the place of any other morale rule)
A mounted knight rolls two dice if fighting a dismounted knight. Similarly, two dismounted knights roll two dice if fighting one enemy (larger odds are not possible). Two dismounted knights versus one mounted fight on equal terms.
To be continued

Mid-18th Century Wargaming Rules - Updated Summary

Action from our refight of the Battle of Chotusitz

New bits, including bits accidentally omitted from previous summaries, are in italics

COMMAND & CONTROL
Players move alternately. When it is his turn, a player should use the following sequence.
1. Roll a 10-sided die and two ordinary, but distinguishable, six-sided dice to determine how many Pips, also known as activation points, the centre and each flank get. Then, for each sector in turn, use the pips in the following sequence.
2. Try to rally retreating units.
3. Fire guns (a gun that is fired cannot pivot, limber or otherwise move in the same turn).
4. Move units.
5. Calculate the effects of musketry (and carbines and any other missile weapon).
5. Resolve melees.

MOVEMENT
Foot in firing order and so able to fire volleys: 6cm
Other foot: 8cm
Limbered guns: 6cm
Heavy horse: 10cm
Light horse and generals: 12cm
It takes an activation point to adopt firing order, and the unit may not otherwise move or fire.
Horse take an activation point to mount or dismount and may not otherwise move or fire.
Guns take an activation point to limber or unlimber, but the gun may be pivoted as part of unlimbering.
One about-face of 180 degrees is free, but a second in the same phase reduces movement by half.
All troops can pass through light infantry without penalty, provided they have enough movement to take them beyond the light infantry. Similarly, light infantry can interpenetrate any friendly troops.
The Variation
Roll a die if a unit is moving three-quarters or more of its maximum move distance. 6, add 25%; 1, subtract 25%.

MUSKETRY
45-degree arc.
Muskets: 8cm. Carbines 6cm.
Roll one die for each 25% of effectiveness remaining and in a single line of bases.
Minimum score for a hit: Regular foot in firing order, 4; Light foot, 5; Dismounted horse and regular foot not in firing order, 6.
-1 if unit moved that phase.

ARTILLERY
45-degree arc.
Canister: 0-6cm. Roll a die and halve the score to get the number of potential hits.
Roundshot: up to 24cm. Roll a die and quarter the score.
Halve the number of potential hits if unit effectiveness 50% or under. Round to nearest fraction, but an exact half has a 50:50 chance of becoming a potential hit.
Dice for each potential hit. 4 or more becomes a hit on infantry and cavalry, but 6 is needed if the target is a gun.

MELEES
A melee happens when the bases of rival units come in contact. The second half of the attacker's move to make contact must be in a straight line, ie it cannot include wheeling.
Foot may not initiate contact against horse.
Guns and light foot never initiate contact and never inflict melee casualties (exception: light foot in a wood or built-up area melee as regular foot).
Guns can only be contacted if they have no friendly close-order foot within 4cm. Guns so contacted are automatically eliminated.
Infantry frontally contacted by troops whose move began outside of musket range may fire before the melee is calculated. Casualties inflicted by the firing are included when calculating who won the melee. Troops armed with carbines have a similar rule but must roll a die score of 3 or better to fire.
Roll the following numbers of dice per 25% of a unit's remaining effectiveness.
Enemy unit...........Hvy Cav...Lance...Lt Cav...Inf fir ord*...Other Inf...Lt Inf
Own unit
Heavy Cavalry.........1................2..........2...............1.................3................2
Lancers.....................1................1..........1...............1.5..............4................4
Light Cavalry...........1................2..........1...............1.................2................3
Inf (not Lt)................1................1.........1................1.................1................1
*Infantry in firing order and attacked frontally
+1 die per 25% when attacking in flank or rear, on higher ground, defending a river bank or defending a built-up area from troops outside the BUA. Bonuses are cumulative. An exact half has a 50:50 chance of becoming a potential hit.
A unit meleed from the rear loses half its number of dice in the initial round of combat.
For each die rolled, a 4 or more is a hit.

SAVING THROWS
Behind cover: 4 or more cancels a hit.
Cuirassiers: 6 cancels a hit.

MORALE
Test at the end of any half-turn in which a unit has lost effectiveness to firing or has lost a melee.
Roll a die, needing the following minimum score not to lose a further 25% effectiveness: Elite, 3; Regular, 4; Poor, 5.
+1 if a general is attached to the unit. He is eliminated if the unit is eliminated.
+1 if a friendly unit (not light infantry or guns) is to the rear and could reach the unit in two moves. Such a supporting unit can only influence the morale of one unit per half-turn.
A unit that fails its morale, and a unit that loses more hits in a melee regardless of whether it fails its morale, retreats one move (with the normal possible variation), ending with its back to the enemy.
A retreating unit is eliminated if the first move of a retreat is obstructed by regular foot (not light infantry) or horse. If the blocking unit is friendly, it must take a morale test unless it is horse retreated into by foot.
On subsequent turns in which a retreating unit's army has activation points, it will be rallied for at the start of the army's turn, requiring a 5 or better to halt and being able to subsequently return to normal action. A general with a unit adds one to the rallying throw.
Note that regular foot lose firing order when retreating and so have an 8cm move.

VICTORY
General, 3pts; Infantry battalion, 2pts, Other unit, 1pt.
Army is defeated when points fall below half the starting total.

Mid-18th Century Rules - Update

I have decided to replace my Command & Control rules with new ones adapted from the pips (Player Initiative Points) system pioneered by Phil Barker and the Wargames Research Group.

No mention of pips in this classic from 1975

The new bits in my rules below are in italics.

COMMAND & CONTROL
Mid-18th century armies usually formed up with a centre and two flanks. The centre typically consisted of foot battalions, guns and the general. Each flank typically had cuirassiers, dragoons and possibly hussars. There were variations on this, and light infantry, when available, could turn up in any sector, but generally there was a centre and a right and a left flank.
Players move alternately. When it is his turn, a player should use the following sequence.
1. Roll a 10-sided die and two ordinary, but distinguishable, dice (green for the right flank and red for the left is easy to remember) to determine how many initiative points the centre and each flank get. Then for each sector in turn, use the pips in the following sequence.
2. Try to rally retreating units.
3. Fire guns (a gun that is fired cannot pivot, limber or otherwise move in the same turn).
4. Move units.
5. Calculate the effects of musketry (and carbines and any other missile weapon).
5. Resolve melees.

MOVEMENT
Foot in firing order and so able to fire volleys: 6cm
Other foot: 8cm
Limbered guns: 6cm
Heavy horse: 10cm
Light horse and generals: 12cm
It takes an activation point to adopt firing order, and the unit may not otherwise move or fire that phase.
Horse take an activation point to mount or dismount and may not otherwise move or fire that phase.
Guns take an activation point to limber or unlimber, but the gun may be pivoted as part of unlimbering.
One about-face of 180 degrees is free, but a second in the same phase reduces movement by half.
All troops can pass through light infantry without penalty, provided they have enough movement to take them beyond the light infantry. Similarly, light infantry can interpenetrate any friendly troops.
The Variation
Roll a die if a unit is moving three-quarters or more of its maximum move distance. 6, add 25%; 1, subtract 25%.

MUSKETRY
45-degree arc.
Muskets: 8cm. Carbines 6cm.
Roll one die for each 25% of effectiveness remaining and in a single line of bases.
Minimum score for a hit: Regular foot in firing order, 4; Light foot, 5; Dismounted horse and regular foot not in firing order, 6.
-1 if unit moved that phase.

ARTILLERY
45-degree arc.
Canister: 0-6cm. Roll a die and halve the score to get the number of potential hits.
Roundshot: up to 24cm. Roll a die and quarter the score.
Halve the number of potential hits if unit effectiveness 50% or under. Round to nearest fraction, but an exact half has a 50:50 chance of becoming a potential hit.
Dice for each potential hit. 4 or more becomes a hit on infantry and cavalry, but 6 is needed if the target is a gun.

MELEES
A melee happens when the bases of rival units come in contact.
Foot may not initiate contact against horse.
Guns and light foot never initiate contact and never inflict melee casualties (exception: light foot in a wood or built-up area melee as regular foot).
Guns can only be contacted if they have no friendly close-order foot within 4cm. Guns so contacted are automatically eliminated.
Roll the following numbers of dice per 25% of a unit's remaining effectiveness.
Enemy unit...........Hvy Cav...Lance...Lt Cav...Inf fir ord*...Other Inf...Lt Inf
Own unit
Heavy Cavalry.........1................2..........2...............1.................3................2
Lancers.....................1................1..........1...............1.5..............4................4
Light Cavalry...........1................2..........1...............1.................2................3
Inf (not Lt)................1................1.........1................1.................1................1
*Infantry in firing order and attacked frontally
+1 die per 25% when attacking in flank or rear, on higher ground, defending a river bank or defending a built-up area from troops outside the BUA. Bonuses are cumulative. An exact half has a 50:50 chance of becoming a potential hit.
For each die rolled, a 4 or more is a hit.

SAVING THROWS
Behind cover: 4 or more cancels a hit.
Cuirassiers: 6 cancels a hit.

MORALE
Test at the end of any phase in which a unit has lost effectiveness to firing or has lost a melee.
Roll a die, needing the following minimum score not to lose a further 25% effectiveness.
Elite, 3; Regular, 4; Poor, 5.
+1 if a general is attached to the unit. He is eliminated if the unit is eliminated.
+1 if a friendly unit (not light infantry or guns) is to the rear and could reach the unit in two moves.
A unit that fails its morale, and a unit that loses more hits in a melee regardless of whether it fails its morale, retreats one move (with the normal possible variation), ending with its back to the enemy.
A retreating unit is eliminated if the first move of a retreat is obstructed by regular foot (not light infantry) or horse. If the blocking unit is friendly, it must take a morale test unless its horse retreated into by foot.
On subsequent phases in which a retreating unit's army has activation points, it will be rallied for at the start of the phase, requiring a 5 or better to halt and being able to subsequently return to normal action. A general with a unit adds one to the rallying throw.
Note that regular foot lose firing order when retreating and so have an 8cm move.

VICTORY
General, 3pts; Infantry battalion, 2pts, Other unit, 1pt.
Army is defeated when points fall below half the starting total.

Sahay & Mid-18th Century Rules Update

IT will not be possible for us to refight Sahay on the exact 275th anniversary of the battle, which took place in what is now the Czech Republic on May 25 (Wikipedia's May 24 is wrong), 1742.
And the reason has nothing to do with the paucity of English-language material on the encounter, which saw some 10,000 Frenchmen under the command of the future Duke of Broglie - he received his peerage after the battle - defeat a smaller Austrian force just eight days after Frederick the Great beat the Austrians at Chotusitz.

Broglie, in understandable high spirits

As might be expected, French-language sources cover the clash rather more adequately. In particular there is a series of contemporary maps showing how the battle unfolded, and I will be following these for our refight.

Here is the latest summary of my rules, as they will apply at Sahay.

COMMAND & CONTROL
Number of units, divided by 2 (a half is rounded up), gives an army's median card activation value.

MOVEMENT
Foot in firing order and so able to fire volleys: 6cm
Other foot: 8cm
Limbered guns: 6cm
Heavy horse: 10cm
Light horse and generals: 12cm
It takes an activation point to adopt firing order, and the unit may not otherwise move or fire that phase.
Horse take half a phase to mount or dismount.
Guns take an activation point to limber or unlimber, but the gun may be pivoted as part of unlimbering. Guns must be stationary to fire, so may not pivot and fire in the same phase.
One about-face of 180 degrees is free, but a second in the same phase reduces movement by half.
All troops can pass through light infantry without penalty, provided they have enough movement to take them beyond the light infantry. Similarly, light infantry can interpenetrate any friendly troops.
The Variation
Roll a die if a unit is moving three-quarters or more of its maximum move distance. 6, add 25%; 1, subtract 25%.

MUSKETRY
45-degree arc.
Muskets: 8cm. Carbines 6cm.
Roll one die for each 25% of effectiveness remaining and in a single line of bases.
Minimum score for a hit: Regular foot in firing order, 4; Light foot, 5; Dismounted horse and regular foot not in firing order, 6.
-1 if unit moved that phase.

ARTILLERY
45-degree arc.
Canister: 0-6cm. Roll a die and halve the score to get the number of potential hits.
Roundshot: up to 24cm. Roll a die and quarter the score.
Halve the number of potential hits if unit effectiveness 50% or under. Round to nearest fraction, but an exact half has a 50:50 chance of becoming a potential hit.
Dice for each potential hit. 4 or more becomes a hit on infantry and cavalry, but 6 is needed if the target is a gun.

MELEES
A melee happens when the bases of rival units come in contact.
Foot may not initiate contact against horse.
Guns and light foot never initiate contact and never inflict melee casualties (exception: light foot in a wood or built-up area melee as regular foot).
Guns can only be contacted if they have no friendly close-order foot within 4cm. Guns so contacted are automatically eliminated.
Roll the following numbers of dice per 25% of a unit's remaining effectiveness.
Enemy unit...........Hvy Cav...Lance...Lt Cav...Inf fir ord*...Other Inf...Lt Inf
Own unit
Heavy Cavalry.........1................2..........2...............1.................3................2
Lancers.....................1................1..........1...............1.5..............4................4
Light Cavalry...........1................2..........1...............1.................2................3
Inf (not Lt)................1................1.........1................1.................1................1
*Infantry in firing order and attacked frontally
+1 die per 25% when attacking in flank or rear, on higher ground, defending a river bank or defending a built-up area from troops outside the BUA. Bonuses are cumulative. An exact half has a 50:50 chance of becoming a potential hit.
For each die rolled, a 4 or more is a hit.

SAVING THROWS
Behind cover: 4 or more cancels a hit.
Cuirassiers: 6 cancels a hit.

MORALE
Test at the end of any phase in which a unit has lost effectiveness to firing or has lost a melee.
Roll a die, needing the following minimum score not to lose a further 25% effectiveness.
Elite, 3; Regular, 4; Poor, 5.
+1 if a general is attached to the unit. He is eliminated if the unit is eliminated.
+1 if a friendly unit (not light infantry or guns) is to the rear and could reach the unit in two moves.
A unit that fails its morale, and a unit that loses more hits in a melee regardless of whether it fails its morale, retreats one move (with the normal possible variation), ending with its back to the enemy.
A retreating unit is eliminated if the first move of a retreat is obstructed by regular foot (not light infantry) or horse. If the blocking unit is friendly, it must take a morale test unless its horse retreated into by foot.
On subsequent phases in which a retreating unit's army has activation points, it will be rallied for at the start of the phase, requiring a 5 or better to halt and being able to subsequently return to normal action. A general with a unit adds one to the rallying throw.
Note that regular foot lose firing order when retreating and so have an 8cm move.

VICTORY
General, 3pts; Infantry battalion, 2pts, Other unit, 1pt.
Army is defeated when points fall below half the starting total.

Battle of Chotusitz - afterthoughts

MY opponent felt his biggest mistake was allowing himself to get bogged down in cavalry melees, in which he was always second-favourite, instead of pressing home his advantage in infantry.
By the time the Prussian foot advanced in numbers, instead of just reacting to the Austrian assault on Chotusitz, the battle was effectively over.

Prince Charles of Lorraine, escorted by the Nagy-Károly Hussars, inspects Chotusitz after the battle

He also felt he was rather unlucky with the card activation system, and a quick calculation shows he was right - I received 109 activation points to Frederick's 78. Nevertheless, we agreed the system worked in that it made the battle much less predictable and so more exciting. We will definitely continue using it.
However, pleased as I was with my victory, it left a rather hollow feeling as it seemed to me that a real-life battle would have continued past the point at which my rules declared it over. After all, the Prussians fought on successfully at Mollwitz after their cavalry were driven from the field. Accordingly, I am adjusting the victory conditions for future battles.

The old rule reads:
An army has lost when its number of units, including the general, falls below half the starting number. Please note that this would not mean half the army had been destroyed - rather that half the units had lost any practical fighting effectiveness.

This is being replaced by:
For the sake of determining victory, count the general as 3pts, each infantry battalion as 2pts and each other unit, including light infantry, as 1pt. An army has lost when its points total falls below half the starting total.

That's for the future. Right now it's time for me to, perhaps immodestly, publish the campaign standings.
War of the Austrian Succession - campaign standings
2pts for a win, plus a bonus point if the win reverses a battle's historical outcome
PLAYERS
.......................Battles....Wins....Losses....Bonus Points....Total Points...Score*
Me......................2.............2...........0...............2.........................6............150%
Opponent............2.............0...........2...............0.........................0................0%
NATIONS
.......................Battles....Wins....Losses....Bonus Points....Total Points...Score*
Austria................2.............2...........0...............2.........................6............150%
Prussia................2.............0...........2...............0.........................0................0%
Britain+..........Yet to fight
France............Yet to fight
*Score is calculated on the basis that two points a battle counts as 100 percent, so it is possible with bonus points to score up to 150 percent.
+This is the Pragmatic Army. It was a thoroughly international affair, but Britain made major contributions in terms of finance and manpower as well as having overall command.

Wargames Rules For Mid-18th Century Battles In Central Europe (Abbreviated & Updated)

I AM updating the rules ahead of our refight this month of the Battle of Chotusitz. Alterations have been made to Movement, Characteristics and Command & Control (which is being used instead of the normal Turn Sequence). Below is an abbreviated summary of the rules with the updated bits italicised.

COMMAND & CONTROL
Bob Cordery, in his recently published The Portable Wargame, has devised a system baring similarities to Bob Jones' Piquet rules but using ordinary playing cards.

Bob Cordery's The Portable Wargame is the latest addition to my wargaming library

He uses it for solo battles but I think it could work just as well for normal games, and I intend to try it with the help of my regular wargaming opponent.
Here is the system, which I have slightly adapted to suit my circumstances.
Begin by allocating one player's army the red cards and the other the black ones.
1. Take the number of units, including the general, that the red army has, and divide by two, rounding up if not a whole number. The result is the army's median playing-card value.
2. Remove from two packs of ordinary playing cards the red median cards and the ones immediately higher and lower (you could also use one pack but designating, say, the aces, 2s and 3s as wild cards).
For example, if the red army has eight battalions of regular foot, six squadrons of horse, three guns, a light infantry unit and a general, it has 19 units, giving a median value of 10 (9.5 rounded up). Accordingly, remove the red 10s, 9s and jacks, giving 12 cards in all (remember, we are using two packs).
3. Repeat the process for the black army, giving a further 12 cards. Add two jokers, and shuffle well.
4. At the start of each turn, reveal the top card. The colour and number indicate who gets to activate how many units in that phase of the turn. For example, a red jack would mean the red player could activate 11 units.
The player must spend activation points in the following order: 1) units retreating, 2) guns firing, 3) other movement, 4) musketry. Once he has used his activation points, or runs out of useful moves, any melees are resolved.
5. Turn over the next card for the next phase, repeating until a joker is revealed. A joker ends the turn, after which all the cards are shuffled and the next turn starts.

MOVEMENT
Regular foot in firing order, ie in line in good order and so able to fire volleys: 6cm
All other foot: 8cm
Limbered guns: 6cm
Heavy horse: 10cm
Light horse and generals: 12cm
It takes a complete phase for foot to adopt firing order, and they may not fire that phase. Cavalry require half a phase to mount or dismount.
Guns take a phase to limber or unlimber. Pivoting a gun counts as movement (artillery may not move and fire in the same phase), but can be done as part of unlimbering.
Infantry can shuffle sideways at half-speed.
There is no penalty for wheeling or for an about-face of 180 degrees, but a second about-face costs half a phase (I previously penalised wheeling of more than 45 degrees but have decided this is a case of double-jeopardy as wheeling is slow enough anyway thanks to the ground that has to be covered by troops on the outside of a pivot. I have also removed the ban on wheeling during the second half a move aimed at making melee contact.),
All troops can pass through friendly light infantry without penalty providing they have enough movement to take them beyond the light infantry. Similarly, light infantry can interpenetrate any friendly troops.
Only one unit can contact each face of an enemy unit.
The Variation
Roll a die every time a unit is moving 75 percent or more of its movement distance for that phase.
6: add 25% to the distance covered
2-5: no change
1: subtract 25% from the distance covered
Terrain
Players should decide before a game how hills, woods, rivers, etc affect movement. Alternatively, the effect of, say, a river can be determined by dicing when a unit reaches the river's banks.

MUSKETRY
Troops can fire within a 45-degree arc of the front of their base.
Musket range: 8cm
Carbine range: 6cm
Roll one die for each 25 percent of a unit's effectiveness remaining and in a single line of bases,.
Minimum score needed for a hit:
Regular foot in firing order: 4
Light foot: 5
Dismounted light horse (except for lancers), and regular foot not in firing order: 6
Subtract 1 from the score if the unit moved during that phase.
I have removed the ability of horse to fire while mounted. Such an action would be fine in a skirmish game but is not appropriate for a squadron en masse in a large mid-18th century battle.

ARTILLERY
Canister range: 0-6cm. Roll one die (halve the score if the unit's effectiveness has been reduced to 50% or  lower).
Roundshot range: up to 24cm. Roll one die and halve the score (halve again if unit effectiveness is 50% or lower).
Halve the final score to get the potential number of hits. Fractions are rounded to the nearest whole number, but an exact half is diced for with a 50-50 chance of being a hit.
Dice for each potential hit, needing a 4 or more to score a hit on foot or horse, a 6 if the target is a gun.
A gun on a hill can fire roundshot over the heads of friendly troops who are at least two contours lower and are nearer the gun than the gun's target.

MELEES
A melee happens when the bases of enemy units come in contact.
There is no bonus for charging (the precise details of how units came to clash is considered a tactical detail below the control of an army's commanding general) but there are restrictions on who can charge whom.
Foot may not charge horse.
Artillery and light infantry never charge and never inflict casualties in a melee. The one exception to this rule is that light infantry in a wood or built-up area melee as regular foot.
Artillery may only be charged if it has no friendly close-order foot within 4cm. Artillery is automatically eliminated in a melee.
To resolve a melee, roll the following number of dice per 25 percent of a unit's effectiveness remaining.
                            Enemy unit
                            Hvy Cav...Lance...Other Lt Cav...Cl Ord Inf*...Cl Ord Inf#...Lt Inf
Own unit
Heavy Cav                1              2                 2                     1                    3             2
Lancers                      1              1                 1                     1.5                 4             4
Other Lt Cav             1              2                 1                     1                    2             3
Close Order Inf          1              1                 1                     1                    1             1
*in firing order and attacked frontally.
#all other close-order infantry.
Throw an extra die per 25 percent effectiveness when attacking in flank or rear (for first round of meleeing only), on higher ground, defending a river bank or defending a built-up area from troops outside the built-up area. These bonuses are cumulative. Round up or down as for artillery fire.
Each potential hit becomes an actual hit on a throw of 4 or more.
After a round of meleeing, the side suffering more hits that phase, including any inflicted by firing, retreats a full move, with the usual possible distance-variation adjustment, and ends with its back to the enemy.
If the number of hits is equal, there will be another round of meleeing at the end of the next phase.
A retreating unit is eliminated if its retreat is obstructed by another unit that is not light infantry or artillery. If the obstructing unit is of the same side, it must take a morale test unless it is a mounted unit retreated into a by a foot unit.

SAVING THROWS
A hit suffered from firing or meleeing usually reduces a unit's effectiveness by 25 percent, but some troops get a saving throw.
Roll a die for troops behind cover, cancelling a hit on 4 or more.
Cuirassiers get an extra saving throw thanks to their armour, cancelling a hit on a 6.

MORALE
Test when a unit loses 25 percent effectiveness or more from firing, or loses a melee.
Roll a die. If the following score is not made, remove a further 25 per cent effectiveness.
Elite: 3.
Regular: 4.
Poor, militia: 5.
A general may be attached to any unit. Such a unit adds 1 to a morale throw. The general may switch units but is eliminated if the unit he is with is eliminated.
A unit adds 1 to its morale throw if it has a friendly unit directly behind and able to reach it in two phases by normal movement (such a friendly unit can only give support to one unit). Exception: light infantry and artillery units cannot give support in this way.
A unit that loses 25 percent or more effectiveness from firing, and fails the resulting morale test, retreats a full move - with the usual possible distance-variation adjustment - and ends with its back to the enemy.
A retreating unit is eliminated if the first move of its retreat is obstructed by another unit that is not light infantry or artillery.
If the blocking unit is friendly, it must take a morale test, unless it is cavalry retreated into by infantry.

RETREATING UNITS
A retreating unit will be diced for at the start of that player's each subsequent phase, needing a 5 or better to return to normal action. A general present with the unit adds 1 to the die throw.
Note that elite units are treated the same as other units - if they broke in the first place, something very serious must have happened to them.

ARMY CHARACTERISTICS
For Chotusitz:
Austrian foot and Prussian horse had improved since Mollwitz.
Accordingly, Prussian foot have only a 50:50 chance of adding 1 to each musketry throw.
Prussian horse, although now much more of a match for their Austrian counterparts, are not allowed any elite units.
Frederick the Great adds 1 to Prussia's median card value (see Command & Control). But this is cancelled because many of the Prussian troops had to be force-marched to get into position and so were fatigued.