Tuesday 24 August 2010

T.T.F.M


Oh no not another one I hear you cry- wrg,wab,dbm,dba,dbmm,fog etc etc etc! Well this one is my invention for a little project for me. It stands for Tiny Tabletop Field of Mars...

This is my self imposed quest - to write a very simple,brief,old school vibe, mid 18th century rules for a 6 foot by 3 foot dining table (hence tiny table) like the one here at home.

I intend to use small units and have the rules on one side of A4 paper if possible . Such a project is great for mulling over during odd moments of the day.I hope to commit thoughts to paper asap.

TTFN

Alan

p.s if anyone would like to join in with their thoughts or even A4 contribution that would be great!I loook forward to your ideas

16 comments:

  1. It sounds like an interesting project.

    As someone who has written his own SYW rules (which are much too long and need reorganization), I will certainly salute you when you achieve your goal.

    Good luck, sir!


    -- Jeff

    ReplyDelete
  2. Garden Gnomes - a History, eh? Interesting...

    Brief rules for smallish tables is a worthy goal!

    ReplyDelete
  3. As my table isn't a whole lot bigger - and little prospect of is increasing in size anytine soon, I'm very interested in your project.
    Unfortunately, I tend to be one of the middle sized (20-30) and larger (30+) unit size school.
    However, I do have a 19th Century Imagi=Nation idea in the pipeline that for the moment is looking in the ...erm... HFG (Horse, foot, guns) direction. I'm not sure, though, whether that's a direction I really want to go.
    Cheers -

    ReplyDelete
  4. I have some simple rules for Dark Ages (saxons V Vikings) - you could use them as a starter.

    Also a good rule to add in. 'If in doubt about a result or action - throw a d6 to answer 4,5,6 yes, 1,2,3 no (or variations thereof)

    -- Allan

    ReplyDelete
  5. You can look at PDFs of the rules I use - see latest post Wargames Rules in the Wittenberg blog, you may find the following useful
    - Skirmish Rules (Lite)
    - Saxons versus Vikings

    -- Allan

    ReplyDelete
  6. Allan
    The dark age rules link on your blog isn't working...
    alan

    ReplyDelete
  7. There you go Alan ;-) I'll email a PDF as I couldn't fit it all in.
    Steve

    Unit Sizes: Infantry = 10 Men, 1 Officer, 1 Musician, 1 Standard Bearer
    Cavalry = 6 Men, 1 Officer, 1 Musician
    Artillery = 1 Gun, 2 to 4 Men, 1 Officer (2 Light gun, 3 Medium gun, 4 Heavy gun)
    Unit Class: Elite = +1 die per 3 when firing, -1 die for morale, -1 die for disorder
    Trained = no modifiers
    Raw = -1 die per 3 when firing, +1 die for morale, +1 die for disorder
    Turn Sequence: Make up a deck of cards using one colour for each side and one card per unit, add a Joker to the deck. A turn consists of turning over each card in turn, the player who owns the card may activate one unit. When the Joker is turned the turn ends and the cards are shuffled and the next turn starts. Each unit may only be activated once per turn, a General may be activated at the same time as any one of your units, only one activation per turn, may be activated with a different unit each turn.
    Activation: When activated an Infantry unit may Move; Move and Fire; Fire and Move; Fire and Fire; Prepare
    When activated a Cavalry unit may Move; Move and Move; Prepare
    When activated an Artillery unit may Move (Light); Move ½ (Medium); Fire; Prepare
    When activated any Routing unit must Rally as it's full activation
    When activated any disordered unit may Reform as it's full activation
    When activated a General may perform upto 3 actions from Move, Attach, Dis Attach
    Move: 6” for each action. ½ through terrain. Area terrain disorders. Linear terrain check for disorder.
    Fire: Roll 1d6 per Man firing, +/-d6 for class, -1d6 per 2 if disordered, -1d6 per foot range for Artillery. Infantry maximum range 6”. Each 6 or pair of 5s is a hit (eg 6,5,5,4=2 hits). Roll 1d6 and count along unit for which figures hit, left to right, men then Officer, Musician, Standard bearer (if with unit). Roll 1d6 to save on a 6.
    Prepare: Mark the unit in some way (e.g. cotton wool ball). If Infantry or Artillery may fire at any later point during any other unit's activation before the Joker turned over.
    Rally: Roll 3d6, +/-d6 for for class, -1d6 for Cavalry, -1 Officer with unit, -1 Standard Bearer with unit, -1 General with unit. If total is equal or less than figures remaining then become Disordered, if not Move (x2 for Cavalry) towards base line.
    Reform: Remove disorder from the unit. Raw take 2 turns to remove.
    Morale: Check morale after Firing if a unit has received a casualty and each round of Melee. Method is the same as to Rally. If total is equal or less than the figures remaining then continue, if upto 2 higher retire from threat by Move and become Disordered, if higher by 3 or more then Rout away from threat by Move (x2 for Cavalry)
    Melee: After completing it's activation a unit of Infantry or Cavalry which did not fire as it's last action, is not Disordered or Routing and is not in and will not enter or cross terrain may charge. The target unit must be the one nearest and most directly to the front. Infantry move 1d6 and Cavalry move 2d6, they may not move to their flank or rear. Move each figure that can reach into contact with an enemy figure. Figures can only double up against an enemy if they cannot reach an enengaged figure. Generally move so that the maximum number of figures get contacted!

    ReplyDelete
  8. There you go Alan ;-) I'll email a PDF as I couldn't fit it all in.
    Steve

    Unit Sizes: Infantry = 10 Men, 1 Officer, 1 Musician, 1 Standard Bearer
    Cavalry = 6 Men, 1 Officer, 1 Musician
    Artillery = 1 Gun, 2 to 4 Men, 1 Officer (2 Light gun, 3 Medium gun, 4 Heavy gun)
    Unit Class: Elite = +1 die per 3 when firing, -1 die for morale, -1 die for disorder
    Trained = no modifiers
    Raw = -1 die per 3 when firing, +1 die for morale, +1 die for disorder
    Turn Sequence: Make up a deck of cards using one colour for each side and one card per unit, add a Joker to the deck. A turn consists of turning over each card in turn, the player who owns the card may activate one unit. When the Joker is turned the turn ends and the cards are shuffled and the next turn starts. Each unit may only be activated once per turn, a General may be activated at the same time as any one of your units, only one activation per turn, may be activated with a different unit each turn.
    Activation: When activated an Infantry unit may Move; Move and Fire; Fire and Move; Fire and Fire; Prepare
    When activated a Cavalry unit may Move; Move and Move; Prepare
    When activated an Artillery unit may Move (Light); Move ½ (Medium); Fire; Prepare
    When activated any Routing unit must Rally as it's full activation
    When activated any disordered unit may Reform as it's full activation
    When activated a General may perform upto 3 actions from Move, Attach, Dis Attach
    Move: 6” for each action. ½ through terrain. Area terrain disorders. Linear terrain check for disorder.
    Fire: Roll 1d6 per Man firing, +/-d6 for class, -1d6 per 2 if disordered, -1d6 per foot range for Artillery. Infantry maximum range 6”. Each 6 or pair of 5s is a hit (eg 6,5,5,4=2 hits). Roll 1d6 and count along unit for which figures hit, left to right, men then Officer, Musician, Standard bearer (if with unit). Roll 1d6 to save on a 6.
    Prepare: Mark the unit in some way (e.g. cotton wool ball). If Infantry or Artillery may fire at any later point during any other unit's activation before the Joker turned over.
    Rally: Roll 3d6, +/-d6 for for class, -1d6 for Cavalry, -1 Officer with unit, -1 Standard Bearer with unit, -1 General with unit. If total is equal or less than figures remaining then become Disordered, if not Move (x2 for Cavalry) towards base line.
    Reform: Remove disorder from the unit. Raw take 2 turns to remove.
    Morale: Check morale after Firing if a unit has received a casualty and each round of Melee. Method is the same as to Rally. If total is equal or less than the figures remaining then continue, if upto 2 higher retire from threat by Move and become Disordered, if higher by 3 or more then Rout away from threat by Move (x2 for Cavalry)
    Melee: After completing it's activation a unit of Infantry or Cavalry which did not fire as it's last action, is not Disordered or Routing and is not in and will not enter or cross terrain may charge. The target unit must be the one nearest and most directly to the front. Infantry move 1d6 and Cavalry move 2d6, they may not move to their flank or rear. Move each figure that can reach into contact with an enemy figure. Figures can only double up against an enemy if they cannot reach an enengaged figure. Generally move so that the maximum number of figures get contacted!

    ReplyDelete
  9. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Can't get them on as a comment, I'll email you the file.
    Steve

    ReplyDelete
  11. Alan

    the dark age rules link should now be working

    Allan

    ReplyDelete
  12. One page rules ... I've always wondered how one could get them to work, I've always wound up with four pages ...
    :(
    Arthur

    ReplyDelete
  13. In the early days of OSW (2005) we had a one-page rules contest (never concluded) and I see that many of the entries are still there in a folder in the Files section, which may be worth a look. IIRC most of them had an 18thC bent.

    ReplyDelete