When several different things seem to come together ...

Archduke Piccolo's interest in and use of my HEXBLITZ rules has encouraged me take a fresh look at them and my later OPERATIONAL ART rules, and during my recent cruise I started putting a few idea design ideas down on paper. At the same time I was reading the first volume of Quintin Barry's THE FRANCO-PRUSSIAN WAR 1870-71 VOLUME 1. THE CAMPAIGN OF SEDAN. HELMUTH VON MOLTKE AND THE OVERTHROW OF THE SECOND EMPIRE (Published by in 2009 by Helion & Company Ltd) ...

... and just after Sue and I got back to the UK, it struck me that I really ought to give some thought to writing a set of operational-level rules for the mid to late nineteenth century.

At present the rules are very much a work-in-progress, but the design decisions I have made so far are:

• A base will represent a regiment-sized unit or a Commander
• Regiment-sized units will be organised into brigades, divisions, and possibly corps
• Units will have a basic Combat Power based upon its level of training and/or equipment:
• Poor quality Infantry & Cavalry = 1
• Conscript quality Infantry & Cavalry = 2
• Regular quality Infantry & Cavalry = 3
• Elite Infantry = 4
• Artillery = 3
• Command = Varying with quality of the Commander (Range of Combat Power from 1 [Poor] to 4 [Exceptional])
• A card activation system will be used
• Artillery will fire first every turn as per my PORTABLE WARGAME rules ... but possibly subject to ammunition supply rules
• Movement distances:
• Artillery that has fired = No movement
• Infantry that is going to fire = 1 hex
• Infantry & Artillery not firing = 2 hexes
• Cavalry & Commanders = 3 hexes
• Weapon ranges are:
• Infantry & Cavalry = Adjacent hex
• Field Artillery = 4 hexes
• Combat Resolution will be as per my OPERATIONAL ART rules (i.e. Both sides compare their D6 dice score + unit Combat Power + transient effects)
• If the attacking unit’s Combat Power is lower than the defending unit’s Combat Power, the combat has been ineffective.
• If the attacking unit’s and defending unit’s Combat Powers are equal, each unit throws a D6 and the unit with the lowest score stays in its current position and reduces its Combat Power by one.
• If the defending unit’s Combat Power is less than the attacking unit’s Combat Power but more than half of the attacking unit’s Combat Power, the defending unit stays in its current position and reduces its Combat Power by one.
• If the defending unit’s Combat Power is less than half of the attacking unit’s Combat Power, but more than a quarter of the attacking unit's Combat Power, the defending unit reduces its Combat Power by two.
• If the defending unit’s Combat Power is less than a quarter of the attacking unit’s Combat Power, the defending unit reduces its Combat Power by two and withdraws until it is at least one hex away from an enemy unit.
• Transient effects are:
• The unit's Commander is in the same or an adjacent hex = Add the Commander's Combat Power
• If the attacking unit is Artillery firing at an enemy unit in an adjacent hex = Add one
• If the attacking unit is attacking an enemy unit in the flank or rear = Add three
• If the attacking unit is attacking an enemy unit that is in defence works, inside a wood, or inside a built-up are = Subtract two

I hope to give these outline rules a try-out sometime soon, possible using figures from my 15mm-scale Peter Laing Austro-Prussian War collection. (I don't have any Franco-Prussian War figures, so I will have to make do with what I have available.)

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Some of my 15mm-scale Peter Laing Austro-Prussian figures in action ...

... back in January 2009 when they stood in for the forces of Laurania and Maldacia!