Monday, October 13, 2014

"Land of the Free" rules for FIW to 1812; First look

"Land of the Free" is a new ruleset from Osprey (coming out in November) covering the French and Indian War, American War of Independence, the late 1700 Indian Wars and the War of 1812.
It is a hardbound book with color pages on fairly heavy paper.  The height and width are similar to the typical Osprey softcover books (as seen below), and the thickness is about the same as Force on Force.

Inside, the rules are presented in an organized way with examples, charts and diagrams and numerous color photographs showing 15mm and 28mm miniatures.  It contains force lists, a point system, basing recommendations, and several scenarios from each period mentioned (fictional setups and historical refights).  There is no index.

Game features:
Dice used: 6 sided (d6)
Game scale:  unspecified, although the ranges make me think it about 1:10 to 1:20
Time scale per turn: unspecified
Base requirements:  flexible.  You decide on how many figures make each size unit and then just stay consistent.  An average unit looks right with 10 to 15 figures.
Game sequence:  alternating unit activation (I go U go)
Counters:  Seem to be required.   Looks like some game specific after market are in production. 
Book keeping:  Some to none depending on how much you rely on counters and vice versa.
Casualty removal:  No.  Units degrade through several levels of fitness until they are removed from play.
Command and control:  100%.  No rolling to activate units.  No random end of turn before all units have acted.  (exception:  see command points below).  Units have several "maneuver" and "combat" actions they can choose from per turn.
So what's the twist in these rules?  Although the player has 100% command control, each turn his leaders get a random number of "command points" to issue extra orders to his units.  A morale check must be passed to accept and use these orders so there is no guarantee they will work.
 
I will have an example of how they play up shortly.

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