FPW playtesting?

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

I would agree with all of that, especially when you look at The Prussian accounts of advancing in the lead storm.

[Luddite]

Ok chaps, next on my painting schedule is finishing my FPW French so I’m casting about looking for FPW rules.  Those sets I’ve got don’t really ‘float my boat’ so it’ll either be Black Powder or a conversion of Fire & Fury.  However I thought I’d give your rules a run through to see how they work out.

It became quickly evident though that I have a few issues in trying to understand how they work so I’ll simply go through them here as feedback / questions.

Caveat: I realise these aren’t the finished article so the formatting/layout issues are disregarded.

Disclaimer:  There’s probably going to be a lot of ‘negative’ things in the following post so I’ll state up front, beneath the ‘issues’, I really quite like these rules.  There are some neat little ideas in there and enough promise to make me think its worth the effort of rewriting them for my own use (which I have done â€" copy available if you’d like it)…

I really like the total limit of what can move each turn â€" an interesting approach to impetus limitation without the need for endless command dice rolls.  And the German propensity to ‘march to the guns’ is rather fun.

If I’ve interpreted the task resolution mechanic right, its interesting, although it does seem that elite units are less predictable and can fail bigger than raw units, which seems odd.

Anyway…here we go.  Feedback.


Deployment
Rules needed for non-scenario terrain set up.

Initiative.  I really can’t figure out what you’re saying with this text.  Who gets initiative, how, and what does it mean?

Orders.  These are written orders I take it?  No worries.  However, how are they transmitted?  How are they changed?  There’s no real reference to commanders throughout , so I’m puzzled how orders affect play or are affected by a command structure.

Turn sequence

Once deployment has taken place the following game sequence is followed for both sides simultaneously.

Both sides simultaneously?
How does that work? 
How does that relate to the ‘offensive player/highest goes first’ thing in Intitiative?

‘Other actions (like hiding)’ are mentioned.  What other actions?  How do they (and hiding) work?

Creating and splitting units
When can this be done?  How?
How many stands can be split off?
How far from the parent unit can they go?  What formation are they?

Movement
There’s no mention of how units move about; things like wheeling, turns, oblique, etc.
Can a unit just move in any direction?  Change facing at will?  Etc.

Movement rates are very short.  A unit in standard fighting line moves 5cm in open ground.  Given a standard 6x4’ table setup is 120cm on the short side, it will take a unit moving 24 turns to reach the opponent’s baseline.  Most 3hr games I’ve played typically get through 8-16 turns.  Is this intended?

Some ranges seem really short â€" close order troops moving 3cm in rough ground!     I’m not sure its even possible to measure such small distances in the swirling melee of a wargame!  Hehe…

Charging
When do units charge?  During movement? 
What is required to ‘make contact’?
A charging unit can fire, but when?  When is the resulting melee resolved?
When is the morale test taken?  Before moving?  After moving?
How does a unit ‘stand and fire’ at a charging unit?  There doesn’t appear to be an option.

Disorder
What’s this about?  What effect does it have?

Stand strength
Cavalry = 4
Infantry = 8
Artillery = 10
Why are artillery more resilient than other troops?
How are hits against this strength recorded?  Per stand?  Per unit? 
What happens if a unit with outstanding hits detaches a stand?  Where do the hits go? 
What happens in detached stand with hits on it rejoins the parent unit?  Where do the hits go? 
Are hits carried over from turn to turn?

Weapon ranges
Note: I mentioned elsewhere that I think the French rifles need to be far greater range than the Germans to reflect the key ‘rifle duel’ friction of the war.

Weapon factor
What does this mean?
How does the weapon factor work? 
Is it the number of dice rolled?  Per unit?  Per stand?
Is it a set number that together with the modifiers makes up the firing effects total?

What does this do?

Target/firer status
Dice modifier
1 x D6

Does each unit fire separately or do you total up everything shooting at one unit and roll once?
If you total everything, shooting is pretty ineffective.  If units fire individually, I makes sense to detach as much as possible as this multiples the value of modifiers and the damage that can be done.  Lots of small units do much more damage than a few large units that way.

Since the effect of shooting gives a maximum 3 hits, won’t it take forever to whittle down units?  A single artillery base can survive 3 rounds of devastating fire (max 3 hits per shot) and still be hanging on with 1 Hit.

How are bases removed?  Closest to the shooting? 

Melee
What does this mean?

Only stands in base to base contact can fight and units who have survived the morale test.

How is ‘base to base contact’ defined? 
‘Survived the morale test’?

How far does artillery run when charged and ‘running to nearest friend/cover’?  Why isn’t it just overrun and captured?  Why doesn’t it stand and fight?

Melee ratings

What does this mean?
How does the melee rating work? 
Is it the number of dice rolled?  Per unit?  Per stand?
Is it a set number that together with the modifiers makes up the firing effects total?

What does this do?

Melee modifiers
Dice modifier
1 x D6

Modifiers:
When is a unit ‘close packed’?
When is a stand ‘overlapping’?
How is ‘difference in troop quality’ assessed?
When is a unit ‘following up’?
‘Every 25% more men’ â€" what does this mean?  25% of what?  Stand?  Unit? 

Melee effects table
The results expressed here determine the outcome of the combat â€" whether the attack or defender stand takes casualties, is pushed back, killed outright etc.

Who resolves this attack?  Just the attacker?  When does the defender get to fight?  What about if the defender has counter attacked?  How does that affect things?

What happens if a stand is pushed back but the other stands in the unit aren’t?

Morale

How is morale resolved?
Dice are rolled, but how many?
Each stand in a unit gives +1 to the Morale score â€" what is the Morale score?
When are morale tests taken?  The last ‘phase’ in the turn (‘all other morale’)?
What happens if a unit has more than one reason to test morale?

Why are the reasons to test morale identical to the morale modifiers?  Doesn’t this mean that every morale test is inherently modified?

Morale response
Has a range of +10 to -6.  How does any unit ever achieve +10 since almost all the modifiers are minuses and the highest plus is +2?

There are lots of blank spaces in the morale response table â€" what do they mean?

For ‘Advance/obey orders’ what is ‘favourable terrain’?

What does this mean?

Charge: Move to close combat no matter what the risks.[/b]
When does the unit charge?
What if it can’t charge to close combat because there’s no enemy nearby?
What about French units that can’t advance/leave defended cover?

What does this mean?

Rout: Run off until rallied by general
The presence of the General in base contact and the unit away from being fired at and charged can stop the above actions by a morale throw; this can be attempted only after 3 periods of rout. [/b]

Run off?  How?  Where?
A morale throw?
This is the only mention of a General â€" is this all they do?

General questions

When does an army’s morale collapse (losing the game)?

Are there commanders?  What do they do?

There is no points system for creating balanced forces (as well as unbalanced scenarios) â€" is this intentional?

Um, yeah, that should do for now.

Hope that’s helpful feedback for you.   

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

 
Do you want my FPW modifications for BP then? 

[Leon]

Thanks for all the feedback there, I'll get Dave to have a read through and come back with some answers.

[Luddite]

Thanks for all the feedback there, I'll get Dave to have a read through and come back with some answers.

No worries Leon.

I reckon there's a potentially workable set here so i'll be interested to see a revised version.

[Leman]

Hi Lemmy, I'd be very interested in your FPW modifications for Black Powder, which I have now bought.
DP

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Cool, PM sent

[Leman]

Cheers Mad Lemmy, DP

[nikharwood]

Mad Lemmey - mate, I'd like sight of those as well if that's ok...

nikharwood AT gmail.com 

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Okay, will send notes I sent DP...

[nikharwood]

Okay, will send notes I sent DP...

Mucho appreciatedo 

[Luddite]

I'll join the chorus if you don't mind sending me a copy Lemmy?   

Email's under my picture...

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Sorry Luddite - says your email is private...  
Send me one, I'll bounce my thoughts back madlemmey at hotmail dot com

Otherwise, it's sent 

[Luddite]

Damned Article 8...see its made me privacy-savvy.  That and my job in data privacy of course.   

Email sent.  Much appreciated in advance old chap.

[Dragoon]

Hi Nik,
Bill Gray has written an excellent set of rules covering the period.
Based on Fire and fury.

http://ageofeagles.grouply.com/

http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/NapoleonicFireandFury/

A cross between F&F and Naps Battles

Also SYW and WAS

Has a pdf in the files section to convert the basic ruls to FPW.

Bases are 20mm wide by 25mm deep for 15mm figures. Betwen 5 and 15 bases to a brigade.
one base of 4 infantry = 360 men or 2 cavalry = 180 men.
14 inches = 1 mile
one move = 30 minutes

The Brits look good in 10mm. 8 infantry in 2 ranks.

The scenario controls how things work so you don't have to alter rules.

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