Hi, after doing a little bit of wargaming I have decided to start doing 6mm. I'm fairly interested in either Ancients, ECW or Napoleonics and I was wondering how hard are the Polemos rules to learn and play?

Generally I either play with a few friends or sometimes alone at my house and I want some rules that are quick to learn and easy to play, do the Polemos rules fit this? 

Thanks

Easy peasey lemon squizey. 

I have copies of ECW and SPQR.  I've tried to learn them on my own.  Overall, I believe they are very easy, but they are not (in my opinion) very traditional wargames rules. Sometimes I will read a section and think I know what it means, play the game by myself and realize it doesn't work that way, and then re-read the section.  I had to learn to take the rules quite literally.  

I think the Polemos ECW rules have some fascinating concepts,e.g. when conducting a charge cavalry and their opponents use ranged combat factors to determine whether the charge will get in and what state the cavalry will be in when they contact. The large base sizes allow troops to be set out in such a way that identical numbers of pike and shot on a base can be shown to represent pike heavy, shot heavy or a 50:50 mix. There are also some fabulous Total Battle Miniatures availanble for this period in 6mm, including a complete walled town for that ECW siege you've always wanted to do.

Thanks guys, I will definitely look to get into Polemos ECW and Ancients. Now to buy some models and paint them up!

Greetings,

      I'm new to the GNW Polemos rule set and have a couple of questions concerning the charts and modifiers.

1.  Ga Pa infantry show a [0 or charge] for long range combat so does this mean they have a 0 modifier with a +2 for charging?  and if so, what is the difference then from the 'charging infantry' line which also says 'charging'.  In the close combat modifiers it says: 'To defensive factors if raw or levy troops, or offensive factors if levy'.  Is this a typo as it would seem raw and levy class troops would be -1.  Or am I reading this wrong?

Thanks in advance,

David

Hi David,

Ok so in the rules charging is treated as a kind of firing/attack and use the same kind of procedure but with different factors. The charge factors are listed at the bottom of the chart I think you are looking at.

So Ga Pa infantry have a factor of 0 if firing at long range at something. But looking at the bottom of the table you will see 'normal' Ga Pa infantry have a factor of 4 if charging but only against infantry. In both cases they would take this factor add or subtract any of the firing/charging modifers that might apply and add a D6. The opposing unit uses it's long range defensive factor, usually 3, and does the same. Not surprisngly the Swedish players usually choose to charge rather than fire but.......

You then compare the totals on the charge test table if the Ga Pa are charging or the effects of firing table if they are firing. If the Ga Pa unit is still charging, it might stop, it is possible the defending unit, it might not be able to, will be able to fire effectively at the chargers. In which case you do a firing test using their close range defensive factors plus mods and a D6 with the results on the effects of firing. Assuming this has not stopped the charge there will then be a close combat in which the Ga Pa will get the +2 charging modifier, along with anything else that might apply.

For charging infantry they do not have a long range fire factor and only a small close range offensive fire factor, i.e. 1. The idea is that these guys only have a scattering of missle weapons and so are not really capable of putting out any significant fire. They do though have  reasonable charge factor, if you look to the bottom of the table you will see it is 3. So nearly always these will only charge as firing will be very ineffective. Also as the Ga Pa infantry are often better quality and Determined they are more likely to charge successfully compared to CI who tend to be low quality and have smaller factors.

On the firing/charging modifiers you might notice that their is a similar difference between Veteran and Elite troops but in this case with pluses. The idea behind this is that quality is more important when under threat than when threatening. So you have to be especially good/bad to get a plus/minus when attacking in 'distance' fighting.  While if you look at the close combat factors you will see quality counts for more & similar when defending against 'distance' fighting.

I hope that all makes sense but if not then please ask again.

Nick

Nick,

     Thanks for the response and yes you helped!  For some reason I wasn't 'seeing' the Testing to Charge numbers as the units values.  Always good to talk with more experienced players.  Thanks again.

David