Irregular Wars: Conflict at the World's End 2nd ed. progress report

I realise that I have been unusually quiet for the past month. In part, that is because I've been busy with work and have had a number of nights working late, meaning that I have less time in my weekends to sneak off and paint/play games. In part, it is because June is now a pretty sad month in our family and everything grinds to a bit of a halt.

Having said that, over the last while I have managed to make a little progress on the 2nd edition of my Irregular Wars rules. However, I've not really discussed any of the changes or progress. To give a bit of a taste of where we are at, I have included a contents list giving a rundown of everything as it stands below. The old phase system has been streamlined to make the basic rules easier and faster, impetuous companies now have a more realistic random movement system, there are now more optional actions for units within their lord's command radius, and every rule is more fully explained than before. To date there are also now 45 different army lists (those in red have not yet been written).

The rules are written, most of the army lists are done, Doc Phalanx is working on diagrams and it's really just the scenario variants Any comments or queries are certainly welcome!

1. Introduction                                            

1.1 Design concepts                                    

1.2 Game scale                                             

1.3 Basing conventions                               

1.4 Table size                                                           

1.5 Playing equipment                               

1.6 Company rosters                                   

1.7 The commanding lord                         

1.8 Resolve                                                   

Ø  Wavering companies

Ø  Scattering

2. Setting up                                                

2.1 Determining armies                              

Ø  Small actions or big battles?

2.2 Determine attacker and defender       

2.3 Terrain and visibility                           

2.4 Chance cards                                          

2.5 Army recruitment                                 

Example recruitment

2.6 Standard deployment                          

2.7 Scenarios                                                

Ø  Punitive raid

Ø  Ambush

Ø  Reive and retrieve

Ø  Breakthrough

Ø  Assaulting the walls

2.8 Disease and mishaps                            

3. Playing the game                                    

3.1 Turn sequence                                       

3.2 Shot phase                                              

Ø  Shooting ranges

Ø  Shooting

Ø  Effects of terrain on line of sight

Ø  Risks to the lord

Ø  Smoke markers

3.3 Action phase                                          

Ø  Rolling for initiative

Ø  Command range

Ø  Impetuous actions

Ø  Controlled actions

Ø  Moving into melee

Ø  Movement modifiers

Ø  Hidden units and ambushes

Ø  Interpenetration

Ø  Disengaging from melee

Ø  Reloading

Ø  Rallying

Ø  Cursing

3.4 Melee phase                                           

Ø  Melee mechanism

Ø  Winning a melee

Ø  Risks to the lord

Ø  Pursuing scattered, wavering or disengaging foes

4. Special rules                                            

Ø  Archaic missiles, Bolas, Caracole, Charge +1, Charge +2, Charge +3, Charge +4, Dragoons, Elusive, Exotic mounts, Grenades, Heavy ordinance, Light ordinance, Long spears, loose, Natives, Pikes, Pious, Pole-arms, Reivers, Reliable, Savage, Targeteers, Unreliable, Wagon, Wild

5. Army lists                                                 

Ø  Royal English, Northern English, English adventurers, Lowland Scots, Highland Scots, Mere Irish, Spanish expeditionary force, Conquistadors, Colonial Spanish, Colonial Portuguese, French adventurers, Coureurs de bois, Hollanders, Swedish, Imperialist, Polish-Lithuanian Union, Muscovites, Cossacks, Ottoman, Steppe Khanate, Arabian, Safavids, Moghul, East Indies sultanate, Eastern pirates, Ming Chinese, Manchurian, Joseon Korean, Japanese shogunate, Ikkō Ikki, North African, East African, Songhai, Tribal African, Caribbean Indians, Amazonia Indians, Mesoamerican, Chinantecs, Inca, Mapuche, Desert Indians, Mississippians, Woodland Indians, Pacific Islanders

Quick reference sheets