The Kingdom Is Ours Rules for the English Civil Wars

[flags_of_war]

Im going to check these out at salute. The scale of the games is something the really appeals to me and known Charles Singleton, he will have helped a lot to get the feel for the game right.

Paperback
248mmx180mm
72 pages
Color ills t/out

The rules are a joint venture between Helion and Company publishing and Bicorne Miniatures, and will be launched at Salute on April 16th.

The Kingdom Is Ours
James Daniels, head honcho at Bicorne and writer of the rules, has put together a few notes to tell us a little more about the rules system. Designed for 28mm models on a 6ft by 4ft table, although works well on a larger table and should work with other scales such as 15mm – although we did not playtest at this scale.

Length of game
Average game of one tertio per side should take approximately two to three hours. Larger games will take longer.
A typical Tertio could consist of:

1 Mounted Tertio Commander
2 Horse Regiments
3 Foot Regiments
1 Saker
Units are made up of stands:

Horse Regiment 4 Stands of Horse
Foot Regiment 1 Block of Pike 2 Blocks of Shot
Pike Block 4 Stands of Pike
Shot Block 2 Stands of Musket
Saker Medium Gun
Basing
Infantry and cavalry Stand (4 figures), 2 wide by 2 deep
Foot stand is 40mm width by 40mm depth minimum
Mounted stand is 40mm width by 80mm minimum
Artillery stand is 60mm wide by 80mm minimum
Commander stand is 60mm diameter minimum
How units are formed
a pike and shot unit is formed based on the ratio of pike to shot you wish to portray – i.e. early or late war. For example an early war unit that consists of 50/50 pike/shot would consist of 4 stands of pike and 4 stands of shot. Each stand contains 4 figures. Therefore the unit would consist of 32 figures as standard.
A cavalry unit consists of 4 stands
Each stand again consists of 4 figures, therefore 16 figures in a unit
Turn system
The turn system is designed to give a more random approach to the game.
The Kingdom Is Ours
Each army has a number of order dice and these are placed into a cup and drawn at random. There is also an additional dice added – the "purple dice of dooooom" that brings the turn to an end if drawn. This gets away from players counting how many dice they have left and which units can move/shoot unopposed later on in the turn – although they might still take this chance…

Random events
At the end of every turn there is the chance of random events per unit and commander. These can range from gaining reinforcements to the commanders dying. They bring an element of randomness to even the best general's attacks – so be prepared for no two games to be the same again…
The rules will be available for sale at the Helion/Bicorne stand at Salute TG12.

Don't forget to use the phrase that pays paperboys for a 10% discount.

Or buy them now from our website or from Amazon.

[Atheling]

Looks interesting.....

Are you and David still using VCA (Perfect Captain) rules for your demo's Iain?

If so do let us know how they compare 

Darrell.

[flags_of_war]

We have been using Pike and Shotte mate. Ive yet to try Perfect captain.

[Atheling]

We have been using Pike and Shotte mate. Ive yet to try Perfect captain.

Ah, I just assumed that would be VCW would be te set as that's what we used at the Edinburgh club.....

From what I remember, they're quite a good set.

Look forward to seeing more of both yours and David's games 

Darrell.

[Eric the Shed]

excellent...thanks for the heads up...

we are going to be playing lots of ECW this year so more rules the better

[fastolfrus]

Which phrase pays paperboys?

[Corso]

Sounds intriguing, with the added bonus of being playable on a 6x4 table. Thanks for sharing!

[mikeland]

They sound very interesting. Will be interesting how regiment movement works within the order dice system.

Will look forward to hearing your thoughts on them when you have played them.

[itchy]

Just put a quick "at first glance "review of these on my blog .http://wargamesandwalking.blogspot.co.uk

[charla51]

Useful intro Itchy; but let's know what you think after you've played a game or two.

[itchy]

will do

[martinthorold]

I've played four games using these rules now and, whilst simple, are fun and because of the uncertain nature of the "die selection" mechanism (I use coloured counters which work better if you ask me!) and the purple "die" of death, has the feel of a battle where the action intensifies when the units are near each other (because the general will give them orders in preference to the more remote units) whilst the reserves / further troops stand around doing nothing!  The random events are perhaps just a tad too random and I've been toying with using modifiers depending on situational standing (the lower values tending towards negative results - including running away! whilst the higher values are beneficial). they do give the feel of an ECW set of battles where the units are pretty raw and I had one battle where almost the entire reserve of royalist troops ran off without even seeing the enemy let alone being shot at by them! This is rare though....it's just how the dice gods decreed! Also note that this "random" order of selection of units does also mean that it's very easy to solo.

Also note that after just a few turns you can play these rules without the book and almost even without the reference sheets! (See http://www.helion.co.uk/playsheet.pdf for these).

Itchy - did you get to give these a go? What was your impression of them?

[fred]

Read the review of these in WSS this month, and they sound interesting.

Would be good to hear more from those of you who have a copy and have played them.