En Garde! Swashbuckling Skirmish Wargames Rules - Review

[Kadzik]

Have the close combat rules changed at all from Ronin?

There are more options to spend Attack and Defence counters. Besides 3 from Ronin (to boost Initiative, Attack and Defence) there are some new one like Feint (you can disengage) and Counterattack (if you defended succesfully, you can wound your opponent).


I truly love elegance and colorful of Ronin mechanic, and En Garde! is truly improvement. No flashy add-ons, but simple improves for an even better game.

[Curst Eckie]

Hi All,

Really looked forward to these rules to play Border Reivers. I initially thought the shooting and combat mechanisms would be clunky but by playing out a few examples myself, I seem to have got the hang of it and it will suit the very small scale actions I will play so a good fit. I really like the combat pool idea and the attributes. This allows you to tailor a figure to a specific character in mind - in period Little Scot Elliot of the Park can be a duellist and fast. The Bold Buccleuch can be beguiling etc. Also you can mix and match the profiles from other lists so that I can build a militia force with bills, bows and war dogs as the Warden's men. One of the charactistic weapons was a latch, a small crossbow so I have given the same range as a pistol with no positive modifier on the hit. The scenarios look adaptable so I'm preparing a small one day campaign for 4 players at our club so a thumbs up from me.

Never played Ronin but understand the combat mechanism is similar.

[SteveBurt]

Would these rules work for Pirate games?

[Curst Eckie]

Hi Steve,

Yes they are suitable. There is a swashbucklers faction list.

John

[Curst Eckie]

I have play tested the rules for Border Reivers. Report plus photos are on the Steel Bonnets2 Yahoo group. Really enjoyed the period specific feel and characterisation I could put into the scenario. For me the rules work really well. I'm won over.

[Ghost]

Hello,

I have read the rules and i am wondering what is the advantage of the fantastical attribute "relentless". It is wrote : "the model may not use defence counters".
So why paying a cost of 3 points and not have the opportunity to use defence counters ? Is there something missing in the rules ?

Thank you !

[Cory]

We couldn't make out a reason for that either and came to the conclusion there was text missing.

[WitchfinderGeneral]

Just want to add my two cents:
I finally bought this book because it covers a lot of interesting topics (pirates, musketeers, conquistadors, border reivers). I can't say much about the rules as I haven't played them yet but I like what I read. Fights can last longer than a single combat round but fighting and shooting should be deadly enough for a quick game.

I was a bit disappointed by the pictures in the book. The paintings are really good (in the same style as the front cover painting) and I expected the photos of miniatures to be the same quality. Don't get me wrong, the minis and terrain are really good (a lot of Captain Bloods stuff you can see here on the forum). But there are too much variants of the same scene (the harbour scene that can be seen on the back cover). I found the pics in other Osprey titles much more inspiring than those seen here.

[Stéphane]

I have read the rules and i am wondering what is the advantage of the fantastical attribute "relentless".

I didn't find it in my rules. May be a change between two reprints ?

En Garde is not the most easier rules that I have read in my live. The Osprey's typographic rules don't help you very well. We could believe in a window's phone.