Finally, I have some direction!

Since I’ve managed to get a 1-Hour Wargames set of rules I am happy with, I thought I’d get back to printing out some pike and shot figures on my trusty 3D printer.  I am using 12cm bases.  This fits exactly with the rules set Twilight of the Divine Right.  As these use a good many more bases I am going to start by finishing up bases for 1 hour wargames 10 per side.  Then, while painting and playing, I’ll keep the printer running for more miniatures for other battles, including Breitenfeld and Lutzen.

Top to bottom: Swedish brigade, 1500 man Imperial tercio, 2000 man Imperial or Spanish tercio. Also, some 2 sided hit counters reading 1 or 2.

Here we go again….again.

I finally managed to modify Neil Thomas’ One Hour Wargame rules down to a level that keeps with the vibe of the game.  The only departure to the rules is that I added a simple morale system.

I decided on each unit being eliminated upon taking its third hit.  It is easy enough to mark one or two hits with either a numeric marker or a two sided counter.  The third hit eliminates the unit so there is no need to mark that.

Determining the staying power of a unit on the average is also important.  I did what I usually do and assumed a chance to hit as partial damage.  So for instance, in normal conditions, a unit will be eliminated after the fifth turn of combat on the average.  I decided that if a unit took .67 hits per turn, it would acquire its third hit after 5 turns.  A simple table was developed so that a single die roll of 3+ would cause 1 hit.  A unit being attacked by a poor unit (D6-2) is eliminated after 9 turns.  So assuming .33 hits per turn would accomplish this.  So a roll of 5+ would cause a hit.  The final is a unit attacked by a superior unit (D6+2) would be eliminated after only 3 turns.  So this really is 1 hit per turn which would normally not require a die roll.  I decided to add some uncertainty.  So a 1 is a miss.  2 through 5 causes 1 hit.  A 6 causes 2 hits.  This fits neatly with the the rules since superior units can eliminate an adversary in 2 turns.  For half damage situations, 6 for poor, 5+ for average and 4+ for superior causes 1 hit.

Morale should not be overthought for this game.  When a unit takes a hit in melee, roll a die.  On a 5+ it must retreat 1 move.  This counts as that unit’s move for next turn.

This is the full play sheet.  Observe all of the rules and period specific rules from the book.  These modifications can be downloaded as a PDF here.

Turn Sequence

Move

Shoot if allowed

Melee if in contact

Morale for target if it took damage this turn

Move rates and Shooting Ranges

Infantry Move 6” Shoot 12”

Artillery Move 6” Shoot 36”

Cavalry Move 12” Shoot 6”

Combat

Die Roll	-2	0	+2
1	0/0	0/0	0/0
2	0/0	0/0	1/0
3	0/0	1/0	1/0
4	0/0	1/0	1/1
5	1/0	1/1	1/1
6	1/1	1/1	2/1

-2 column is for D6-2 combat. 0 column is for D6 combat. +2 column is for D6+2 combat.

The first number is damage for no cover/armor. The second number is damage for cover/armor/hill.

For double damage, simply roll twice and add the combat results together.

Units are eliminated after 3 hits.

Morale

Target unit retreats on a 5+ if it took damage in combat.

Cavalry will fall back if in contact with infantry at the end of combat.