Thursday 13 June 2013

Rule Amendments to Featherstone's Horse & Musket Rules

Been fiddling about using Featherstone's H & M rules and have come up with some slight changes to them to fit my armies and table. I allow Infantry to fire in 2 ranks but half the casualties caused - he only fires one rank - but as his figures are unbased they do not take up as much room as mine do .  It is harder to hit with Artillery - I have deducted 1 from the score to hit so a 6 is needed at long range (3' to 4') not the 5or6 he uses etc. The Artillery when it has hit throws 2 dice for casualties, at over 2' I have halved the score. He allows guns to fire a second time if they miss the first shot - I allow them to dice a third time if they miss the first 2 shots (the guns have 10 ammo counters one of which is used up each time it shoots- when all gone need to leave the table to resupply)  . Troops in open order get an extra 1 to their saving throw . I use a 'First Contact' Morale roll to reflect the brittle quality of the troops in the early months of the ACW ,  when a unit receives its first casualty of the game throw a D6 = 4-5-6 OK, 3-2 retire one move (6") facing the enemy , 1 Routs (12") facing away from the enemy and needs to be rallied. You can add +1 to dice for General present or Elites or deduct -1 for raw troops. Moral is tested when a unit receives 20% and each 10% there after when it has received 50% it will not advance - throw a D6 pluses/minuses as above 5-6 OK ,3-4 retire 1 move (6") 2-1 routs (12")  . All the other rules same as in the book , these rules are still in the testing stage and my next game will be played using them.

 
Union gun fires on Rebel infantry crossing a bridge .
 
 
Move counter and 'Chance' cards.
 
 

3 comments:

  1. Very interesting, thanks for posting your amends, I look forward to your next battle.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Very much a work in progress at the moment

      Delete
  2. Late to the party but I too love these rules. I like your changes. One thing in the original rules I never understood was when he says troops moving thru woods make a single move is this to mean half the normal move rate? Or does it mean they cannot double move? I like your changes to Morale as he states in his rules morale is important but unless I add the ancient morale rules to his I do not see very much in the way of morale to his horse and musket rules. I play ACW but am interested in using them with 1/72 scale figures to fight the SYW. I wonder what changes would be needed for this? Great blog! Glad I found it.

    ReplyDelete