The Dangers of Idleness and Pain (amended 30Mar)

The plan for this weekend was to test the Macduff scenario I'm taking to Huzzah. Its all set up on the upstairs table but for 2 days an abscessed tooth had me huddled on the couch unable to concentrate on much of anything. (I see Bluebear Jeff also has a toothache, I wonder if you can get these things over the internet....) Anyway, yesterday I discovered Hot Teabags as Poultices and they worked marvels to reduce the swelling and hence the pain.  This left me today, stuffed full of pain killers but functioning, more or less, just not really up to wandering around the table by myself. Instead I decided to sit with my  friends  downstairs and play a Square  Brigadier game that I had pulled troops for a few weeks ago.  This is where I started to get myself into trouble.

I've been increasingly aware that I seem to be mostly painting and playing everything except what is supposed to be my main thing, my 40mm Toy Soldiers. I've also noted that I enjoy converting and painting a variety of uniforms but I enjoy it more when there are only a few of each type. This meshes well with playing card table games and with reducing the size of my collection but it clashes with my long held expectations of  20+ man units on the big table I don't have anymore.  To fit a game with some depth onto my medium table, I've actually been playing with the idea of a 1/2 scale game, smaller units and shorter movement and ranges. At the same time, since I've enjoyed Ron's Battlecry games with 4 man 25mm units I questioned whether or not I could use my Toy Soldiers for card table games.

The short answer is "yes" I can but the feel of the current rules isn't quite right. I've already been questioning the current good/disordered/dead system even though it works and again it is a question of feel not result but the with the singly based toy soldiers, I really felt the urge to give the individuals a role. Oddly enough the whole "toy soldier game" vs "conventional wargame" thing has also been stuck in my brain for a while without any useful ideas to try out.  Might have been the pain killers or the square grid but something clicked and in a few minutes I had a first draft and a better (as in more fun) game. So I polished a bit and tried again. Technically this would probably work just as well using elements with an arbitrary strength point value and markers so it might end up as a new version of Square Brigadier but I need to play with it more before I do anything rash.

 Some of my Italian Greyhound friends, (siblings Zoe, Si and Lila) hanging out while Dad plays. Apparently 40mm metal figures are less tempting as chew toys than 1/72 plastic ones. 

Here's the final quick draft.
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A Game of Toy Soldiers

Game Units:

General, Infantry: 4  figures, Irregular, Militia: 3 figures, Skirmishers, Cavalry: 2 figures

Artillery: 3 figures, Machine Guns: 2 figures

Measuring. Diagonal counts as 1.5.2 Front is an arc 45 degrees either side. (60 if hexes)

Sequence

Toss for initiative each turn. Winner chooses to move first or second. Ties repeat.

1st player moves or shoots or rallies any and all of his units. If not within 6 squares of general roll to move: 1,2, no move 3-6 obey orders.

Make melee rolls for all units on both sides. Defensive fire first o/w simultaneous.

Repeat reversing roles.

Moves.

Infantry/Militia/Artillery 2, Light Infantry Irregular/Skirmisher 3, Cavalry 4

+1 in column on road but no attack or shooting or defensive fire. Inf in square move 1. 

Artillery may not enter woods or town except on road. Cavalry, Infantry and Militia may only move 1 square into or out of woods. Lose 1 square to cross stream. Turns are free when moving.or rallying.
Passage of lines: to move through a friendly unit, the moving unit must begin adjacent and must stop adjacent to the other unit. 

Attack is a move adjacent to enemy (8 squares) Enemy must be in front before attack. If in front of enemy must attack front. Must stop when moving adjacent and may not move from adjacent to adjacent.

Shooting: Target must be in front and not adjacent.
Skirmisher, artillery, cavalry or in cover suffer 1/2 casualties, round down

Fortified 1/4 casualties, round down.
Small Arms. 1 die/ 2 infantry, 1 die per skirmisher,  Musket Range  3   2 /hit on 6, Rifle Range 4 hit on 5+, Artillery 2 dice per gun hit on 4+. Smoothbore: Range 8 +1 die at range 4.  Rifled: Range 12.

MG 2 dice, Range 4, hit on 4+ 

General may try to cancel 1 hit 1=General hit, 4,5,6 = cancel 1 hit.

Melee: If adjacent to enemy. 1 die/figure, 2/gun if enemy is to their front.  All troops hit on 4,5,6. Artillery and Infantry with firearms may roll first and apply hits on the first round only if attacked. All other melee rolls are simultaneous.  The player being attacked rolls first and casualties are removed then the attacker rolls. 

Cavalry charge bonus +1 die per unit if attacking or attacked in open

Elite + 1 die per unit.

Cavalry or in cover suffer 1/2 casualties, sq vs cavalry or in fortification suffer 1/4 casualties.

General must roll. 1=General hit, 4,5,6 = 1 hit inflicted.

After a round of melee the attacker may retreat up to full or stand, if they stand the defender may retreat up to full move or stand.  Cavalry/Irregular spearmen may pursue up to 1 square less than a full move if enemy retreats. If still adjacent fight again immediately. (Clarification: there is no limit to the number of melee rounds in a turn. The combat must continue until one side retreats or is destroyed) 

Rally. If at least 1 figure left  Roll 1 die 4,5,6 recovers 1 figure.
+1 Elite or joined by general, -1 Militia/irregular.

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