French Indian War Rules

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:
  1. Movement
  2. Combat
  3. Unit Elimination
  4. 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.

6 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  2. The 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.
    One 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.

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  3. 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.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks, there will be some AAR later. Good luck with finishing your painting.

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  4. I 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.

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