And Now The Rules

These are the rules I used for my most recent horse & musket experiment.

Preliminary Concepts

• I plan to use the rules for solo horse & musket battles using 6-unit armies (a la One Hour Wargames)
• I'll be using an 8 x 10 gridded battlefield. Each square of the grid is 1 inch. I'm using a Pathfinder flip-mat, which allows me to draw terrain on the board.
• The game is designed to be portable. I can fit the components into an A4 sized plastic box.

The Rules

• Initiative (first turn only) - roll D6 per side to determine who goes first each turn
• Side A (winner of initiative) phase
• Roll to activate units
• Choose 2 units and roll >= Quality to move
• If both fail, turn ends
• Move activated units
• Infantry can move 2 or move 1 and fight
• Skirmishers can move 2 and fight
• Cavalry can move 3 and fight
• Artillery can move 1 or fight
• Roll vs Quality to exit rough terrain
• Adjudicate combat
• Determine units in combat - includes units attacked by the active side and units of the active side that could receive return fire
• Make a morale check for each unit in combat
• Roll = D6 + mods
• +1 if advantaged, -1 if disadvantaged
• -1 for close combat (range = 1)
• -1 per morale marker
• Apply results
• 0 or less = Rout! Remove the unit from the field
• 1 - 2 = Shaken! Add a morale marker. Roll >= Quality or retreat 1 space. Units with 2-3 markers rout.
• 3 - 4 = Disordered! Subtract 1 from Quality roll next turn
• 5 or more = Steady! No effect
• Army Morale - once an army loses half its units, roll to determine if the army is demoralized. On a roll of 1 - 3, the army must retreat from the field. If it passes, it continues to fight but must recheck with each additional unit lost.
• Side B phase - same as side A

Design Notes

Activation

Recently I have been using the Song of Blades and Heroes method (roll 1-3 D6s vs. Quality; each success allows 1 action; 2 failures ends the turn) on a per unit basis. I felt that it slowed play. Furthermore, there were too many occasions where turns ended prematurely.

To speed play, I decided to roll 1D6 per unit, but roll for activation in pairs. This forces some thought in terms of activation order, still keeps the possibility of a quick end to the turn, but makes abject failure less prevalent. This new method seemed to work OK. More experimentation is needed.

Movement

Movement rules are pretty much derived from the Command & Colors series (especially Memoir '44). I added a Quality roll to exit rough terrain. This rule did not come into play during my first experiment.

Combat

Combat is inspired by Twilight of the Sun King. There is no firing or melee (these are assumed to be occurring throughout the turn). Instead, units simply roll morale if engaged in combat. 

I decided to have both sides test in a turn. I found that this speeds play considerably, and it feels right. The defenders are able to return fire rather than just standing around while the enemy attacks. This will affect scenario design (especially if I use OHW scenarios). Essentially, units experience double the amount of combat each turn, reducing the number of turns they can survive.

Looking over the TotSK rules, I was concerned about keeping track of all the modifiers to morale. I decided to simplify the rules a lot. I simply looked at the situation in an individual combat, decided which side had the advantage, and modified both sides' rolls as noted above. I found this quick and intuitive for solo play; I'm not sure how well it would work in a competitive game. I added a couple of additional modifiers for a bit more granularity. Nevertheless, the morale checks were a breeze. I usually rolled both sides at the same time (using different colored dice). It was quick and easy to adjudicate morale results.

Army Morale

I have not bothered with an army morale rule since I abandoned DBA. However, Bob Cordery's Portable Wargame and TotSK inspired me to implement a system. I may still need to tweak it, but I think it gave a realistic result.