D3 French Indian War Rules
Introduction
- These rules began as a variant of One Hour Wargames Horse & Musket rules & for the most part reflect the straightforward nature of those rules. A movement activation mechanism has been added to reflect how difficult terrain impacted the linear nature of warfare at the time.
- The rules have been converted for play using a 6" square grid to regulate movement & shooting ranges. In the rules the term "bound" is used for movement & shooting where one bound is a square (or 6” for free movement if that is your preference).
- The facing of a unit in its square is free form & not dictated by the square. The direction a unit faces is important when it comes to combat.
- The game uses D6 for activations & D3 dice for combat. I like using D3 dice as combat results are treated as either below average, average, or above average.
Units
- The rules cater for the following unit types:
- Regular/Line Infantry
- Skirmisher/Irregulars/Light Infantry
- Native Warbands
- Militia
- Artillery
- Grenadiers
Sequence of Play
- The game is played in a series of turns. During a player’s turn they complete the following steps:
- Movement
- Combat
- Unit Elimination
- Army Resolve
Movement
- For units to move they must first be activated. To activate a unit roll 1D6 on a score of 2+ a unit can move.
- When in difficult terrain or woods, regular infantry, militia & grenadiers, are activated on 3+.
- If a unit fails activation, then the movement step of a player’s turn is over & no more units may be moved. The player then begins the combat step of their turn.
- Regular infantry, militia, grenadiers & artillery move one bound.
- Skirmishers, irregulars, warbands & light infantry move 2 bounds.
- Artillery must cease movement after shooting, but can still change facing.
- Units may turn facing as part of their movement.
- Turning a unit to change it's facing still counts as movement.
- Units may not move & shoot in the same activation.
- Units may pass through other units.
Terrain
Woods
- Artillery may never enter woods.
- Infantry, militia & grenadiers occupying woods subtract 1 when shooting.
- Units occupying woods are treated as being in cover.
Towns
- Artillery may never enter towns.
- Units occupying a town have a 360 degree field of fire & are treated as being in cover.
Marshland & Lakes
- No units may enter.
Rivers
- Can only be crossed at bridges & fords.
Difficult Terrain/Streams
- Artillery may never enter difficult terrain or cross streams.
- Infantry & grenadiers occupying difficult terrain/streams subtract 1 when shooting.
Entrenchments (eg Trenches/Gabions)
- Units occupying fortifications are treated as being in cover.
Fortifications
- Units occupying forts are treated as being in cover.
- Units occupying forts add 1 when shooting.
Combat
- Units may only shoot at units within 45 degrees of their frontal facing.
- Warbands & units in towns & forts have a field of fire of 360 degrees.
- Muskets have a range of two bounds.
- Artillery units have a range of 4 bounds.
- To determine casualties units roll a D3 & make the following adjustments:
- Grenadiers roll D3+1
- Regular/line infantry units roll D3
- Skirmishers/warband/irregulars roll D3-1
- Militia units roll D3-1
- Artillery units roll D3-1
- Subtract 1 from the score if a unit can claim cover.
- Units occupying forts add 1 to their shooting score.
- Infantry, militia & grenadiers occupying woods subtract 1 when shooting.
- When infantry, grenadiers & warbands are attacking a unit in an adjacent square. If the unit is eliminated, they automatically charge forward & occupy the vacated square.
Elimination
- Units are eliminated when they accumulated more hits than their resolve value.
- All units have a base resolve value which varies depending upon unit type (shown in brackets):
- Regular/Line Infantry (8)
- Skirmisher/Irregulars/Light Infantry (6)
- Warband/Natives (6)
- Militia (6)
- Artillery (6)
- Grenadiers (10)
- Note - the number of hits a unit can take can be increased by 2 depending upon a commander’s ability (see optional rule).
Commanders
- Commanders can re-roll the move activation dice rolls for any adjacent unit.
Commander Ability (Optional)
- At the beginning of a game decide upon the quality of a commander. All commenders have two quality factors, one for attack & one for defence.
- Only one factor can be used in a game depending if a commander is deemed as defending or attacking.
- The quality factor (between 1 & 4) determines how many regiments of a commander’s force can increase by 2 the number of hits before they are eliminated.
- If the game is not part of a campaign roll a D6-2 for each quality.
- Note - depending upon the size of game being played, a regiment may be represented by 1 to 3 units on the tabletop. So increasing a regiment’s hits will increase all units representing it.
Trusted Officers
- Each side can field one trusted officer. They are attached to a unit, normally one assigned to an important task.
- If the unit is eliminated the officer is removed as well.
- Units with trusted officers can re-roll shooting & move activation dice rolls, but must accept the re-rolled score.
Army Resolve
- At the beginning of the game determine an army's resolve which is equal to the number of units being fielded.
- When a unit is eliminated roll a D3 & accumulate these scores during the game. Once an army’s resolve is exceeded, the game ends & the army retires from the field of battle.
- If a commander is lost with their attached unit, then roll a D3+2.
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ReplyDeleteThe activation mechanism does mean a player prioritises the activations by likelihood first, often leaving artillery unit last. Also careful placement of commanders with their re-roll of failed activations can help.
ReplyDeleteOne optional idea to counter this unpredictablity is to allow a player two activation failures before control switches player. This could then be used to represent the quality of the force.
Thank you for your question and interest in the rules. I will be adding the activation option to the rules and also have a section on commanders as the re-roll option is rather hidden in the activation section.
Thanks for the reply and clarification, Peter. I think you have a great mechanism to encourage units to act on their particular strengths. I will be trying it out with 15mm AWI once I have enough figs painted. Will let you know how it goes. And looking forward to any further refinements or AAR s from you side.
ReplyDeleteThanks, there will be some AAR later. Good luck with finishing your painting.
DeleteWhat paint do you recomend?
ReplyDeleteI use Games Workshop paints mainly because there is a shop available nearby for me. So this is not a recommendation. However, one consideration with painting soft plastic miniatures is the paint needs to be flexible, which the Games Workshop acrylic paint is.
ReplyDelete