Through the square window QRS

 I'm a big fan of a QRS, I suppose it goes back to those days of orange card WRG ancients QRS.  I find that once the core rules are well established all I really need is a set of the relevant charts and tables in one place.  So with TTSW not having an official QRS I set to and tried to make my own.  

This is the current version.  I can't post it as a link so I'm placing an image here and I will post a file on the Face Book 17th century wargaming page.  If you want a copy as a Word document, but don't do Face Book put a comment on this post with an email address I won't publish the email address or keep it on file.

Through the Square Window – QRS

Sequence of Play

1.     Test Army Command (both players) [s8 p5]

1.1.  Mark units which are out of command range (15cm 30cm for Cin C to subordinates)

2.     Test Army morale (both players) [s9 p5]

3.     Take tests to rally routers [s15 p12] and pursuers [s16 p13]

3.1.  If passed - mark as rallying for the rest of this turn

3.2.  Make any pursuit moves where routs continue (unless rallied from pursuit)

3.3.  Test for return of off table units

3.4.  N.b. Any resulting melee is worked out at step 7

4.     Test for initiative. 1D6 each. Winner chooses to act first or second

5.     First player moves and shoots

5.1.  Declare charges, chargers take reaction test.

5.2.  If permitted chargers may shoot before making charge.  N.b. Melees are fought at step 7

5.3.  Test target reaction to being charged.

5.4.  Player two makes any available emergency actions [s11-j p7]

5.5.  Make any resulting rout or retirement moves required of target of a charge.

5.6.  Make all Player one moves including charges and follow ups/pursuits if target routs, retires or evades.

5.7.  Player one shoots and targets take resulting reaction tests. N.b. Pursuers and chargers and may not shoot even if the charged failed.  Make any required pursuit or follow up moves.

6.     Second player acts as outlined at step 5 above.

7.     Melee combat.  Both players units fight with results applied simultaneously.

7.1.  Adjust strength points

7.2.  Make any rout, retirement pursuit or follow up moves.  Mark pursuers.

7.3.  Pursuers who have contacted a new enemy fight melee again

Actions (s11 p6-7)
1.     Move up to 10 cm (except Heavy Guns)	5. Shoot	9. Take emergency action if charged.  See below.
2.     Foot/cavalry retire up to 5cm maintaining facing	6. Limber/Unlimber light guns	10. Act in difficult terrain.  i.e. all actions cost a second action
3.     Change formation	7. Re-lay Heavy Guns (may not advance or retire more t)han 2.5cm
4.     Turn about	8. Dragoons mount/dismount

Emergency actions. Require an action to be available. Player one would have to have saved actions from their previous movement phase (charged after their movement phase), while player two would have to use actions from it’s coming movement phase (as they are charged before moving this turn).

Available Emergency Actions [s11- j p7]
Troop type	Available Action
Pike and shot units	Form a defensive ring
Cavalry (including those who have the evade option) and charging infantry (e.g.Highlanders)	Counter charge
Skirmishers, gunners, mounted arkebusiers or light cavalry	Evade

Morale tests

Trigger Morale Events - roll 1D6 for each [s18 p14]
1.     Attempting to charge, except non skirmishers into skirmishers	2.     Being charged
3.     For each hit from shooting this turn but see rules for units of initial strength 16 or more	4.     Under close range musketry fire (except from skirmishers)
5.     General KIA within 15cm or their corpse being removed from field passing within 15cm

 

Roll an additional D6 for any of the following which apply
1.     Fired on from behind flank		2.     Charged from behind flank
3.     Foot attempting to perform an emergency action (except skirmishers)		4.     Any Friends routing or destroyed within 10cm this turn or last
5.     At half strength or less		6.     Tercio pike block within 10cm advancing on testers
7.     Cavalry attempting to charge/charging the front of a unit with pikes		8.     Poor quality troops
Deduct 1D6 for any of the following which apply
1.     Cavalry with general attached		2.     Well trained troops
3.     Tester in cover or defending works		4.     Testers are stationary and uphill of all enemy with 20cm
5.     Tester is in a defensive ring (units with pike bases only)
Morale test result – use the lowest scoring dice.  Scores of one are cumulative [p14]
Score	Effect
3 to 6	No Effect
2	Well trained troops – No effect. All other troops.  Chargers fail to charge.  no advance this turn or next but may retire.  Otherwise, retire 10cm facing the enemy, no advance next turn but may retire
1	Chargers fail to charge as above.  Others if advanced at least 5cm last movement phase halt, no advance this turn or next, but may retire.  Otherwise rout.

Firing [s12 p 8]

See unit cards for number of D6 rolled per stand but note that poor quality infantry cannot salvo or counter march so only get 1D6 per stand.  Only the front rank stands of an infantry unit may fire. Caracoling cavalry may fire outermost stands of the second rank to the side.

Shooting dice modified as below
Well Trained musket only stands in either a linear battalion or a Spanish Tercio	Plus 1D6 per stand
Salvo Firing	Plus 1D6 per stand
Target is more than one stand deep	Roll one extra D6
Target in cover or skirmishers or deployed artillery	Roll half the total number of D6

 

Ranges and to hit values
Weapon	Close 5-6 to hit	Long 6 to hit
Muskets etc	10cm	20cm
Early Cuirassiers	10cm	N/A
Charging Cavalry /Late Cuirassiers		10cm
Other cavalry	10cm	20cm
Heavy Artillery	20cm	70cm
Light Artillery	10cm	40cm

Melee [s13 p10]

Only front rank stands fight except in Tercios where the first two ranks of the pike block fight but the musketeers don’t.  Roll 1D6 per strength point of the engaged stands.  Tercios only take off hits to the pike block.  A score of 6 on any D6 rolled is a hit.

Each stand adds or subtracts D6 as follows
Add 1D6	Lose 1D6
Won last round of same combat	Not rallied
Charging cavalry charging or counter charging (including during pursuit)	Attacking works/town/defended terrain/opposite bank of stream etc
Charging Cavalry’s first charge or counter charge of the game	Poor quality
Well trained cavalry not halted or retiring through morale	Halted or retiring through morale result
Add 2D6 for each of	Lose 2D6 for
Attacking flank or rear	Cavalry attacking a pike ring/Tercio pike block

 

Outcomes after melee [s13.2 p10-11]

The side scoring the highest number of hits wins.  If the outcome is a draw a cavalry attacker withdraws 10cm

Combat type	Looser	Winner
Cavalry vs Cavalry	Retire 10cm or 20cm if LC.  If retiring unit is blocked by a friendly unit halt and both units take a hit unless LC. Halt facing the winner. If beaten by Charging Cavalry or Later Cuirassiers who charged or counter charged: rout 20cm if doubled and received 1 hit per stand or more.	May follow up & melee again next turn.  If contact a second enemy unit while in pursuit
Infantry vs infantry	Retire 10cm unless defending an obstacle.  If outscored by three times rout 15cm.	Follow up if possible.
Cavalry vs Infantry (and vice versa but only if foot with pike stands))	Cavalry outscored or drawing retire 10cm.  If cavalry outscore foot by 2:1 (3:1 if pike bases present) infantry routs 15cm.  On lower margins Cavalry may retire 10cm or stay in contact and fight again next turn	Infantry do not follow up or pursue cavalry.
Artillery (special case)	Artillery crew will run up to 10cm to the nearest friends or cover on being contacted in melee unless the attackers are skirmishers.  They may choose to fight only if defending an obstacle where they are treated as skirmishers

Rout and pursuit [s14-17 p12-13]

All rout moves Initial pursuit moves Infantry 15cm Infantry & Cuirassiers 10cm plus 1D6cm Cavalry 20cm Charging Cav & Arkebussiers 15cm plus 1D6cm   Light Cavalry 20cm plus 1D6cm

Skirmishers, dragoons, Lt cavalry and all infantry except poor may halt pursuit at any time.  Otherwise test

Rally from Rout			Rally from Pursuit
Score 1D6	Result		Score 1D6	Result
1,2 or 3	Unit disperses		3 or more	Well trained cavalry halt
4	Rout continues, test again next turn		4 or more	Trained cavalry halt
5 or 6	Halt, spend rest of turn rallying.		6	All troops halt
Well trained add 1 to di roll.  Poor troops never rally			Charging cavalry deduct 1 from di roll

New from Helion

Helion have launched a section on their website for second hand books. including both their own and other's publications.  I have just acquired a copy of the second edition of the Bavarian Armies during the Thirty Years War for the princely sum of £7.50 including postage costs.  That is what I call a result especially as it is actually brand new with just some very very slight delamination on the back cover.  Normal list price £25 that's what I call a deep discount.  Off to start reading now a review will follow in due course.

Progress is costing me money!

My trusty magnifying lamp has finally died!  Well to be accurate the fluorescent tube has failed the rest of the lamp is fine.   No problem though, I changed the tube when the original one failed a few years ago.  This time though, problem!  The type of tube is no longer in production and I cant find a replacement on line as everyone has sold out.  I spoke to Shesto Ltd (the maker of my lamp) who once again were very helpful.  They explained that all manufacturers have gone over to LED daylight lamps as they are more energy efficient and last much longer, up to 30,000 hours in fact.  Which is great but means I have to buy an entire new lamp rather than just replace the tube.

It's a dead lamp, gone to join the choir invisible (and yes we are ready for Halloween)

The range of new magnifier lamps is vast.  Most offer all sort of options I don't really need such as changing between primary colours, dimmer switches and the adjusting the range of colour temperatures (which reflects different daylight tones from a more blue white to a more yellow white tone) well that last one might be useful.  If they were still available a replacement bulb would have cost me around £16 plus an hour of my time doing the change over.  A new lamp will be between £30 and £60 for a similar specification.  The difference isn't huge but it is the cost of quite a few 6mm figures!  It's not that I'm cheap (alright you know me....I'm cheap) it's just that I don't like having to throw out a perfectly good item because of technology updates.  For now I will have to use an ordinary desk lamp until I decide which of the various replacement options I will go with.  Recommendations will be gratefully accepted.

Product review - Brushes from Rosemary & Co

I'm late to the party with this business I suppose.  I have been aware of them for some time and I've seen a number of figure painters who swear by their brushes, but it was only this last week when I finally got around to buying some.  What delayed my doing so was my preference for actually seeing the brush to be sure it held a good point before spending my money.  However, the number of positive reviews from around our hobby community and the fact that they had brushes which suited my needs on special offer pushed me over the edge.

Ordering was simplicity itself.  The website made selecting the type and size of brush I wanted really straight forward.  I. of course, headed straight to the special offer section (well you know how I like a bargain) and to my joy the type of brush I was looking for was on offer!  Unlike proper artists as I paint figures I work on a tabletop rather than an easel or a slope.  That means I'm looking for a brush which won't roll away if I put it down and has a distinct 'shoulder' between the handle and the ferrule so that the brush doesn't touch the tabletop and pick up dust, flock or basing sand.  It took me a couple of minutes or less to find exactly that style.  Even better the price was really good at around £5.00 per brush for pure sable in size 0 and 1.  I would have paid double that at Hobbycraft.

The brushes arrived within a couple of days via Royal Mail, none of the trouble and strife of xxx who seem to delight in loosing or misdelivering parcels around here!  They were really well packed as well.  the brushes all have great points, so I needn't have been concerned about having to see them in the flesh.  

The proof of the pudding is of course how they behave in use.  The brushes have a nice balance and the triangular 7" handles sit well in my hand when painting. The brushes don’t allow paint to wick down into the ferrule unlike synthetic brushes I have used in the past.  Paint flows well off the point too.  Clean up was straight forward as well.  All that said these are brand spanking new brushes so let’s see how they stand up to my heavy handed usage over the next few weeks.