Another rule set - intially bought just for reading and collecting purposes, because I had seen many other tabletop bloggers mention it, but now that I'm reading it I find it looking a lot more playable and deep than I thought: A Gentleman's War by Howard Whitehouse.
I'm thinking of using it with my 30mm flats - not exactly the old school toy soldiers used by most of the community around that game, but very much in spirit of the game regarding the origin of the minis, and, in my case, also the paint job (examples here).
The rules are written with late 19th century armies in mind (pre-WWI uniforms for color, meaningful battlefield roles for rank-and-file infantry and cavalry, but also first appearances of modern trappings like machine guns). However, they include a variant for 1700-1850 with adjusted shooting values for firearms etc.
I intend to try this 18th century version of the rules with my Seven Years War armies (Empire vs Prussians) from my Zinna project. In this post I want to outline my first ideas for adjusting rules and OOBs to fit my armies.
1. Unit and army sizes
The number of units in my current OOB is pretty much in range of the medium-to-large scenario size from the Gentleman's Rules.
There are two major differences regarding unit size, though:
A factor of two
My units have 24 infantry, 16 cavalry and two guns per battery. This happens to be twice the number of minis as assumed in the Gentleman's rules (12 man infantry and 6 man cavalry and skirmisher units).
I see a few ways to deal with this:
1) run the units as they are and apply the rules as written, i.e. usually roll about twice the number of dice for each shooting or combat phase.
2) run the units as they are but treat each pair of minis as one figure in the sense of the rules. In other words, count only the front rank for game purposes and set up the second rank for visual effect only.
3) run rules and units as written, i.e. just keep the minis I normally use in the second rank off the table.
Option 3 is not so attractive, because I have my minis grouped with four models per base, and a 12 man unit with three bases will not look nice in the two-ranks setup assumed in the rules. I could go to with single rank units (as in some other games, Fields of Glory and Blucher (?) come to mind), but I have to admit that the visual appeal of two rank units is much, much higher in my eyes so I would always vote for option 2 over 3.
I think I will try both options 1 and 2 and then see what feels better.
I expect that option 1 would push combat results towards the average, i.e. closer melee outcomes and less frequent "doubled" results. It would make combat more attritional, which is not really historical for SYW melees (although it might be ok for firing). Plus the larger amount of dice thrown will make it feel even more like the "buckets of dice" approach taken by the Games Workshop universe of tabletop games, and that's not a plus for me, to put it mildly.
On the other hand, marking and removing casualties will not get any easier in option 2, given my multi-man bases.
Individual unit sizes
The other detail is that most of my cavalry units are based with 4 minis per base (and 4 bases per unit), so no matter what option I choose from the above list I will not get to a clean representation of 6-man units.
I don't want to mess about with any complicated calculation rules to make my 8 (or 16) man units behave like 6, instead I think I will just run them as 16 man units (option 1 from the above), and add a points value relevant Distinction of "Large Unit" and +1 point to reflect the larger size.
The other related detail is that I have different numbers of minis on the bases for the light infantry (Austrian Grenzers, Prussian Freikorps).
In option 1, that would mean light infantry units are a little smaller than normal line units (not sure whether this is worth some compensation points-wise - 12.5% less sounds less critical that 33% more as for the cavalry).
In option 2, it would be a bit tricky - maybe the unit could be considered a 10 man unit, but I don't like it. Another strike against option 2.
In option 3, this one would again be easy: Freikorps and Grenzers would have 12 man and 9 man units. In this case, the 9 man units might deserve a discount vs line (or a points increase vs 6 man skirmishers). Or I just use my 6 bases per battalion as 3 small 6-man skirmishing units.
Oh, and option 2 and 3 would be really nice opportunities to use my 6 man Wunsch Jäger Frei-Company. In option 1 this would be a bit more strange as it would correspond to a tiny 3-man unit in the normal rules.
2. Unit characteristics
The thing that got me thinking that Gentleman's War might work with my SYW armies was that the concept of unit specific distinctions and deficiencies seems perfectly suited to the asymmetric nature of my Zinna armies - the small, highly professional and efficient Prussian army vs. the more sluggish, less eager and very mixed bunch of Empire units, with their huge variations of performance between units and over time.
Here's a first shot at my unit characterizations, based on solid half-knowledge of a non-academic armchair historian:
1. Prussians
| Category | Specials | Pts | Notes | Current OOB |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grenadiers | Brave, Gallant, Well Drilled, Marksmen | 10 | 2 battalions | |
| 1st line infantry | Gallant, Well Drilled | 8 | 1) | 4 battalions |
| Freikorps infantry | Light infantry, Swift | 6 | 2) | 2 battalions |
| Freikorps Jägers | Sharpshooters, Marksmen, Tiny Unit | 2 | 3) | 1 company |
| Cuirassiers | Large Unit | 6 | 4) | none yet |
| Dragoons | Large Unit | 6 | 4, 5) | 1 regiment |
| Hussars | Large Unit | 5 | 4) | 1 regiment |
| Field artillery | none | 4 | 4) | 1 battery |
Total points value for my current OOB (incl. the last Zinna units currently on the workbench): 20+32+12+2+6+5+4=81
1) I won't distinguish Fusilier vs Musketeer units. I think that's more about hats than about performance - worn out units need different treatment, see Empire below.
2) Use minor benefit "swift" to balance the minor drawback of "small" unit size
3) Use good firing ability as partial counter to the "half" unit size in options 1 and 2
4) Nothing special about Prussian cavalry
5) Treat Dragoons as heavy cavalry (they are not the kind of mounted infantry shown as Dragoons in Gentleman's War - their SYW role was shock cavalry, just without metal breastplates)
2. Empire (incl. some Austrians)
| Category | Specials | Pts | Notes | Current OOB |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Elites | Gallant | 7 | Grenadiers | 2 converged battalions |
| 1st line infantry | none | 6 | High quality | Hessen-Darmstadt; Kurpfalz Guard |
| 2nd line infantry | Poor Drill | 5 | Default "average" | I/Kurmainz, Württemberg, I&II/Baden-Baden |
| Battle weary / worn out | Brittle, Nervous | 4 | As per previous battle(s) | II-IV/Kurmainz (badly mauled in the last Piquet game) |
| Green / mixed | Poor Drill, Timid | 4 | Mixed units w/high fluctuation | Ernestinisch-Sachsen, Ferntheil |
| Habsburg Grenzers | Light infantry, Stalwart, Swift | 7 | "swift" balances "small" | 2 bat. Karlstädter-Oguliner (21 minis each) |
| Empire Heavy Cav | Large Unit, Nervous | 5 | tbc | Hohenzollern Kürassiere, Ansbach Dragoons |
| Austrian Hussars | Large Unit, Swift | 6 | tbc | Nadasdy |
| Empire Field artillery | none | 4 | 1 Franconian battery |
Total points value for my current OOB (incl. the last Zinna units currently on the workbench): 14+12+20+12+8+14+5+5+6+4=100
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