Still meddling with English Civil War rules

My English Civil War themed posts continue, hopefully I am not boring with these posts as I gradually muddle and stumble my way through the large battle ECW rules one bit at a time. This weekend, my focus has shifted to the game’s combat mechanics, and I've also begun looking at including victory points to determine the game’s winner. Part of this idea behind victory points is to encourage cavalry units to charge off the enemy’s side of the tabletop after they have defeated their opposition, which they had a tendency to do so until later in the war.

A game in progress testing the rules.

So where did I end up with the combat mechanisms? Firstly, I pulled out artillery bombardment into a separate section from all other combat as it uses a different mechanism. 

Draft - Artillery rules

Artillery are not very effective but can be a nuisance and prompt an enemy to act.

Secondly, I went with an opposing dice mechanism for all other combat. There were a a few of reasons behind this approach. These were to avoid the first strike situation particularly with the IGOUGO sequence of play I am using and to simplify combat by combining both musketry and melee. Given this game is geared towards the larger battle and the effective distance for musketry was between 80 to 100 yards a combat distance of 3” seemed suitable. With charge of pike, units would charge and once exhausted retire a short distance still within musket range. They did not remain continuously locked in combat.

Draft - Combat Rules.

A couple of combat examples…

Infantry attack. The primary unit does not benefit from an attached commander as they only help with defence. However, they will add to their red D6 roll, 1 for muskets (they still have ammunition) and 1 for a supporting unit. The attackers (red) have a score of 4 vs. 2 for the defenders (black) who will now take 1 hit.

Cavalry Attack. The primary cavalry unit will add 3 to their score. 1 for being cavalry, 1 for an attached commander in an attack, and 1 for support from dragoons. Dragoons are very useful for providing support on the flanks.

Initially, I used a rule from Neil Thomas’s Introduction to Wargaming, where a unit exiting over the enemy tabletop edge would be eliminated and also two enemy units would be eliminated. This penalty can be quite severe. So I have opted to try a victory points approach instead. I still want to encourage, and reward, advancing cavalry units off the tabletop once their foe’s have been routed. The battle ends, when one side has been reduced to less than half of their starting units. Then each player calculates their victory points. Point are awarded as follows:

• 1 point for each routed enemy unit.
• 2 points for each cavalry unit exiting the enemy’s side of the tabletop.
• 2 points for each enemy commander lost in action.
• 5 points if the enemy units are reduced by half, including any enemy cavalry exiting the tabletop.

I am still working through what the points value as I play a few more games. I am hopeful to finalise other areas of the rules soon.