Osprey Publishing Sets A Date For Honours of War
May 26, 2015 by stvitusdancern
Osprey Publishing has made it known that their new rule set for the Seven Years War called Honours of War will be released in November of this year.
This period before the more well played Napoleonic Wars shows how the smaller and yet arguably more professional armies fought. This book covers the tactics and formations used in this time period and is formatted for smaller skirmish games on up to bigger battles and does have an emphasis on re-enacting the historical battles.
If you collect rulebooks like I do, this should be on your list.
Are you interested in this time period?
"This period before the more well played Napoleonic Wars shows how the smaller and yet arguably more professional armies fought"
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Most definitely interested!
The only thing missing are plastic troops for Prussians, Austrians, French and British.
The latter two could of course be used for fighting in the colonies as well (FIW).
Maybe one day..
My first instinct depending on the scale of the game is Adler or Baccus, though without any knowledge of it I can see it being aimed at the same size of game as Black Powder
A most interesting period and maybe should be called the First World War stretching from Europe to North America and India. Back in the dawn of time in wargaming terms the period was. more popular than Napoleonics, and the the basis for nearly all imagi-nations campaigns for decades
Be interesting to see what scale its aimed at for it to compete with the likes of Might and Reason etc
OK… I have had a look at a few blogs and playtests of it and looks interesting, It actually uses Av dice ( well in the playtests) which I havent used for years. Be nice to see them used if nothing more for old times sake
This was from a blog I found:
hey are a fast play style set and in that regard do exactly what they say ‘on the tin’.
Systems are slick and easy to pick up with shooting & melee resolved with Average dice (not used these types in ages) and very few factors.
Units are rated as Superior (Grenadiers, good Cuirassiers and Guard) Standard (most ‘average’ types) and Inferior (ummm…..inferior types).
There are no army lists (at least not in the draft) but units point costs are included and there are National Characteristics.
Examples are Prussians moving more efficiently when moving obliquely and Austrian having access to Superior rated Artillery.
Units are organized into Brigades with a maximum of three Independent units per side.
Brigadiers can be ‘bought’ or rolled for randomly (with only Prussians then paying a small premium) to generate Dithering, Dependable or Dashing type.
These types roll each movement phase with chance to have a Steady result wherein units move normally, Poor wherein they halt with no forward moves or can be Admirable with double moves allowed (there are Feeble and Inspirational as well).
Movement and Firing is by alternating per Brigade/Independent unit after a ‘dice off’ to decide which side has option to go first (with Early Prussians getting a +1 modifier to a D6 roll, Austrians no change and other nations differing somewhat).
Hits equate to casualties and morale hits and units are ok with 1-2 hits, suffer combat penalties with 3 hits, Retreat (and must Reform) with 4 hits and are ‘Done For’ when 5 hits.
Hits can be Rallied off automatically at rate of 1 or 2 depending on enemy proximity (except last hit).
There is no casualty removal with hits being recorded/marked, which suited our unit basing as Keith recommends units of 5 (20 figs) bases whereas ours are 3 (12 figs) bases for Infantry with Cavalry in units of 6 on 3 bases.
As long as both armies are based the same basing size is not important as far as we could discern.
This all makes for a fast flowing and decisive game and we had a very enjoyable game with these rules which we feel have great potential.
Only gripe we had was that Infantry Musket fire as written was way too powerful and we amended this to a more plausible level which was virtually identical to a 3rd draft version we found on hand.
As written we felt it was nigh impossible to get to close range never mind melee contact as musket firing (especially by Superior Grenadiers) felt more like Machine Gun fire on First day of The Somme !
Gianna, I collect rules just for collecting sake, I have rules sets dating back some time, I do not have to have a massive interest in the periods being played. Rules are an excellent source for a massive knowledge of games mechanics, which in turn mean that house rules for gaming is made easier. I have taken many odds and sods from old to the latest and we end up with the best of all.
I believe I have a couple of double ups, if I haven’t gotten shot or given them away I will send them over to BoW and they can forwards them on to you.
As for scale, I cant see it in any other than 6mm really panoramic large games in tiny scale at all.
Chris G