Napoleonic & ECW wargaming, with a load of old Hooptedoodle on this & that


Tuesday 4 September 2012

ECW - C&C Based Rules


Over on his lovely ECW blog, Lee has published the first working version of the ECW rules which we have developed, based on Commands & Colors: Napoleonics. These have still to be properly playtested, so are likely to change a bit over coming weeks. My ECW armies are not big enough to playtest anything at all yet, so such testing as I have done has been attempted with counters on the original C&CN board.

These are the rules which came from the sketches and preliminary posts I did while on holiday (here, here, here and here), and it is only correct to thank Ross, Martin, Ludovico, Pjotr, John C, Allen De Vries and - most of all - Lee himself for suggestions and discussion which helped to shape them and make sense of them. The biggest debt of all, of course, is to Richard Borg and the guys at GMT for the original C&CN game. The extra Chaunce Cards pack also shows the influence of Tony Bath, Doc Monaghan and The Perfect Captain among a host of others - if anyone detects some of their own intellectual property in there anywhere then thanks very much - you have always been a hero of mine...

Once again, bear in mind this game is just an amateur-produced freebie - I intend to use Victory without Quarter rules as well as these, but I strongly fancied the logical feel and quick cycle time of a Richard Borg-style game for the ECW, so am pleased to have been able to get a prototype game together. If and when Mr Borg produces his mooted 30YW period C&C game, I shall be happy to see our little effort blown without trace into the undergrowth.

The Command and Chaunce cards exist as pdf sheets which can be printed and cut out, and they are designed (when the playtesting suggests that they are pretty stable) to be laminated in 95mm x 65mm laminating pouches.

This is really only a fun game intended for Lee and myself, but if anyone would like pdfs for the extensions to the C&CN rule set and for the two packs of cards, please send me a comment with your email address (mention if you don't want it published) or email me through my Blogger profile. What you will get will be the latest version - there won't be any ongoing customer support (!), though naturally I'll be very pleased to get feedback or suggestions if anyone wishes to contribute them. Please, though, don't bother to take the trouble to tell me that it is not as good as Forlorn Hope, or that I am an idiot - I already know these things.

Late edit: I hope the following links to Google Docs work for you - if not, please let me know - you should be able to download the extension to the basic C&CN rules, the Command Cards and the Chaunce Cards - if you do not have the C&CN rules they are available for download from GMT Games' website.    

8 comments:

  1. Hi MSFoy,

    Absolutely old chap! I would love pdfs of whatever you have - who knows? I may even use the blocks for such 17th century antics!

    roguejedi@btinternet.com will do nicely!

    Many thanks in advance,

    DC

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi David - thanks for your interest - have sent them.

      Cheers - Tony

      Delete
  2. Hi MSFoy

    myself and a friend have been interested in this period and how it would work in the C&C system. I would be very grateful for a copy of the pdf. If don't mind I will spread you gosple sorry good work on my blog. Finally thanks a million for all the hard effort on this project. Three cheers for the Foy

    http://thediceiscast.blogspot.co.uk/

    declanbreen1@yahoo.com


    Declan

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hello,

    I would appreciate a copy of your draft CCA rules/cards for the ECW. Great idea! Please email them to bofoisme@yahoo.com

    Cheers,

    Neil

    ReplyDelete
  4. I'm really interested in seeing how this develops.

    I've only just discovered CCN, and I'm still working my way through the rules, but at the back of my wargaming mind I've always had a hankering to do an ECW campaign. It could well be an adaptation of CCN is the way to do it. The rules themselves are pretty straightforward but allow lots of room for period flavour via the cards, which allows scope for the added complexity of some sort of campaign element.

    Blog bookmarked!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hi MsFoy
    this looks like great work, would love a copy in pdf
    I'm on keithbrumpton@btinternet.com
    congrats on the project so far and many thanks

    ReplyDelete