Honours of War advance look

[gorillacrab]

I was one of the playtesters the forthcoming “Honours of War” rules for Seven Years War coming from Osprey in November. To whet the appetites for those of us with a taste for tricornes, here is an advanced look/review as you consider:

Another entry in Osprey’s affordable and rapidly expanding series of wargame rule books, Honours of War delivers the goods for playing tabletop battles set during the Seven Years War in Europe.

Author Keith Flint offers suggestions for mounting and basing armies but the game is fully playable for any two forces with comparable unit frontage sizes – you don’t need to rebase your collection to play. I think that is an important plus for gamers and needs to be emphasized
The game uses a modified IGOUGO system for movement and firing that provides nice tension and minimizes players down time. Each turn players dice for initiative, with the winner deciding who activates first. The first activator moves one full brigade, then his opponent moves one brigade, with players continuing to swap movement until all units are activated. Players dice for troop movement as in Black Powder or Fire and Fury but generally get one activation – never three as in BP.

After movement, both sides dice for firing initiative (both move and firing initiatives rolls are modified for National Characteristics). The winner selects which brigade shoots first – that’s a key decision as the enemy returns fire but may suffer enough losses to take firing penalties. Next, player 2 may fire any brigade of his choice. Players continue swapping fire until all brigades have shot.

Resolving fire and melee is resolved differently in these rules, to good effect. “Honours” uses a modified average dice roll for all attacks instead of today’s usual roll-to-hit and roll-to-save mechanic – eliminating the frustration of red-hot saving rolls stymying your plans.
In melees, units continue fighting until at least one side routs or retreats – and it is possible for both units to be eliminated, a nice twist. Realistically, you have to pick your spots for charging, attacking an already battered unit or attempting to charging on the flank or rear. Charging well-drilled infantry with good morale from the front ain't a good idea.

As playtesters, our club in Vancouver found Honours of War a very playable and enjoyable game system with shooting and melee mechanics which felt right and cut down on the hot-dice phenom that can be irritating in other rules – and stretch playing time for units that should be eliminated. The game offers national characteristics for most major European powers but does not contain stats for campaigns in India or North America (which, I expect may be addressed in a future supplement).

For the low price of Osprey rules, HoN is worth a look for anyone interested in the SYW.

[Stavka]

Thanks for that- I preordered these rules from Amazon and I'm really looking forward to seeing them.  The order activation system looks interesting.

A couple of us here have just got into 10mm WAS/ SYW gaming after having been wooed by the Pendraken range, and these rules seem well worth a try.

This will be the third incarnation of the period for me.  When I lived in Vancouver some of my first armies were Freikorps 15 Prussians and Austrians, using the original edition of Koenig Krieg.  Later in the late 80's and early 90's, our group had huge SYW games on a 5' by 16' table. And in 28mm.  Glory days.  

[Emir of Askaristan]

Thanks for the review of those. I'll keep my eye open for them, hopefully on the shelf of my local bookshop.

[gorillacrab]

I preorder a lot of the Osprey books on Amazon for a discount - and if I order books for around $25 - the shipping is free. But it is also good to support your local shop.
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