MWWBK 2

[gorillacrab]

Hi,
I have heard reports that one of Osprey's upcoming projects is the 2nd edition of Men who Would Be Kings (a local gamer has been contacted about models to illustrate the book).
Two questions:
Has anyone else heard of what changes may come in this edition?
And - what rule tweaks or changes would you like to see?

[SteveBurt]

Stopping units moving at the double all the time. At the moment regulars may as well at the double; it is no harder than a normal move.

[Diablo Jon]

A category for native infantry armed with bows or javelins who skirmish. At the moment neither tribal infantry  which really represents people's like the Zulu or Ngoni, who liked to close with a sharp pointy object and stab you, or irregular infantry ,which represents anything from a Zulu with a musket to native Askari with a martini, really fill the gap satisfactorily imo. Especially if you are doing colonial Africa where many of the locals skirmished with bows in a very fluid style.

Rules for Gunboats  and river vessels which are a mainstay of many colonial actions.

A revisit to the mounted infantry rules especially the points cost. Mounted infantry just seem over priced and it especially annoys people who want to play Boers.

[Rochejaquelein]

Only thing I would want would be army lists for east/southeast Asia. Maybe mechanics for super late colonial conflicts like Rif War and Dervish War (armored cars, recon planes?).

[Nogbad]

I think it needs a fair few changes, especially if you want a fairly balanced game. The points system needs tweaking - Irregular troops, especially infantry, are very under-powered and, frankly, point for point don't have much chance against Regulars or even Tribals. Give Irregulars skirmishing as an automatic action for starters as at the moment they're just feeble Regulars who only cost two points less (One solution might be to limit Regular units to six figures).
Artillery should get firing as an automatic action, too. (I don't have them rules to hand so apologies if I am wrong on that).
Too much hangs on Leadership  - roll a few bad dice on the leadership table and, especially in a smaller game, you're crippled from the start. Ditto the initial rolls for Discipline - we found far too much depended on your discipline score in these rules. Including the pinning system which, as a million people have said, needs to be changed. 
I could go on.  They're rules that are more fun to read than play - fine for a fairly small, quick game where it doesn't matter that much that you suddenly find the opposing sides unbalanced. And they have the virtue of simplicity. But there are better colonial rules out there now. I really like Gringo40's new Tonkin rules for instance which, tho intended for the Black Flags war you can easily adapt to any  conflict.

[jon_1066]

We’ve had some great fun with these rules.

The leader traits are key and keeping them secret at the start.  This fog of war is enough to give a fun narrative to the game.

Artillery must not get auto shoot, it would dominate too much.

[SirRoystonPapworth]

Don’t allow regulars to shoot all around..

[WillieB]

Some changes about the pinning/rallying rule perhaps?