Warmaster ECW

Warmaster English Civil War is a system of rules based on the popular fantasy rule set by Games Workshop. The following rules represent deviations from the rules as they are in the book.

I have found that Warmaster works so well for the period that the only changes to the core rules I have made is a Min/Max adjustment on the stat line. The first min/max value is for Parliamentarian armies, while the second is for Royalist. Scots armies will be dealt with later. These numbers are only a suggestion for "balanced" games and players should feel free to field whatever was appropriate to the scenario being played. Powick Bridge is an example of a battle for which these values are useless.

1.) A unit represents a regiment. This is easy and I recommend this for the beginner as it allows you to get a pretty good battle set up pretty quickly.

2.) Units represent a set number of men. This is what I am working on now. First I broke units up into 500 man blocks and then 250 man blocks. This gives you 1 or 2 unit regiments for 500 men and 2-4 unit (5 in the case of Essex) unit blocks for the 250 man unit. As this messes up the brigading rules I am working on an uber-brigading system that will allow for more than four units to be brigaded together and for brigades to be commanded in some larger fashion with other brigades to form a super brigade. But that is in the future and I get ahead of myself.

There are other types of troops not included in the description below, note that they are included in the army list and additional info is there if required.

Two infantry lines face off against one another, while the cavalry meets on the flanks and dragoons attempt to disrupt the line before combat is joined.

The biggest difference between Warmaster and Warmaster English Civil War is the pikes. Pikes were used during this period mostly to ward horses away from infantry. They were not used offensively for the most part.

Regular infantry units are made up of two stands of musketeers with a stand of pikes in the middle. There are other types of infantry but they will be dealt with below.

While the unit may be made up of stands with different compositions all of the stands have the following profile:

Type	ATT	HITS	Save	Pts	Min/Max	Special
Infantry regiment	3/1	3	6+	100	2/- -/-	pikes*, guns
Ill-equipped infantry	3/1	3	-	90	2/- 4/-	pikes*, guns

* Pikes cause a unit to count as defended in hand to hand combat from the front only. This bonus does not stack with other situations and only counts in open ground. This bonus does not increase any other bonuses from being defended or fortified. So to a hit a unit of infantry in the woods would require a 5+ as they would not be able to use their pikes to defend themselves.

Please note that this means that cavalry will not be able to charge infantry regiments to the front.

This bonus applies in all close combat situations whether the unit is charging or being charged. If one infantry regiment charges another defensive shooting is resolved normally, but the hand to hand would require both sides to roll 5+ to hit.

This has a number of effects on the game. Units of regular infantry are less likely to charge each other because the charging unit actually gets less attacks. Since they are charging a unit that is defended they do not get any bonus attacks. Combine that with the defensive shooting and an attacking unit gets 9 attacks that hit on 5+. The defending unit gets three shots that hit on 4+ and penetrate armour (since they are gunpowder weapons) then 9 attacks that hit on a 5+.

There are three types of cavalry in Warmaster ECW: trotters, gallopers and cuirassiers. There are dragoons too, but the rules for them are so different they get their own section below.

1. Gallopers get an additional +1 charge bonus when they charge a unit in the open in the same way as chariots.

Except for the differences noted above all cavalry count as Empire pistoliers from the Warmaster rulebook, they all shoot 15cm, give a -1 to armour saves from shooting and can shoot in a 360 degree arc.

Dragoons are the most difficult unit to use in the game. They are hopeless from horseback and aren't brilliant in hand to hand. But that is all as it should be.

Dragoons have two different stat lines depending on whether they are mounted or not.

Dragoons can start the game mounted or dismounted. From there they may be given an order to mount or dismount. When mounted dragoons move at 30cm, when dismounted at 20cm. An order to dismount may be combined with an order to move as long as the move does not take them over 20cm. You man not combine an order to mount with an order to move.

This rule is to make sure that dragoons can, on occasion, take up their assigned position.

z.B. I want to issue orders to my dragoons to take up a position 50 cm away. They started mounted. I issue the first order for them to move 30cm forward. I then issue a second order for them to dismount and move up 20cm to take the position (or move and then dismount (it doesn't matter).)

If I wanted them to go 60cm I would have to issue three orders, move 30cm, move 30cm, dismount or move 30cm, move 20cm and dismount, move last 10cm or some combination thereof.

Dragoon unit are represented as cavalry models when mounted and as infantry when dismounted. I mounted mine 4 to a stand in both situations. So you will have to have 6 stands to represent 1 unit of dragoons.

Dragoons require a special knack to use properly. If they get into cover behind a hedge row or in some woods they can be pretty difficult to dislodge, as pikemen won't count as being defended when charging into defended ground. The trick to them is to get them into position to disrupt the enemy while you move your army up. Their 30 cm move and 30 cm range means they can easily do this, but if caught on horseback can be seriously hurt by even the most inept of enemy units. The two hits really hurts if they end up in hand to hand and represents the dragoons not having the training to fight from horseback.

There were all manner of guns used in the ECW. From tiny little frame guns to massive cannons that could batter down all but the thickest castle walls. We have taken all that diversity and for the sake of convenience and simplicity crammed it into three classes of artillery.

The field gun is the same as the cannon except it does not get the bounce special rules and is not effective against castle walls.

The frame gun (and anything else you deem to be light artillery) reduces armour saves by 1 and has a range of only 40cm.

The Scots army list is the one I have put the least amount of work into. Since these rules are evolving we have been doing most of our test playing with Edgehill. But I have come up with tenative rules for the Scots.

Highlanders are a fun feature of Scots armies. While they may not have been as effective as is romanticized they were still an important part of the civil war north of the border.

It wouldn't be an ECW game without rules for a Highland charge so when the Highlanders charge a unit in the open they get a +2 attack instead of the usual +1 in the same way as chariots.

A Highland unit contained a few men armed with different types of shooting weapons. These account for the .33 in the shooting stat. This means that they are able to shoot once for a full unit. When they have lost a stand they are no longer able to shoot, the number of them that have run away have taken a sufficient number of guns to cause their fire to be desultory at best.

The Highlanders form the front of this brigade to be unleashed upon the enemy, and with the pikes at their backs their commander will be sure they are going to go in that direction.

Lancers were used by the Scots in place of real cavalry when they didn't have the equipment. They could perform quite well in some cases. They have no special rules.

There are three types of characters in warmaster ECW (not including any of you playing it, eh.) The general, the officer and the preacher

The general obviously represents the general of the army and his staff. Officers represent any high ranking or particularly charismatic officers on the field. Perhaps a dashing cavalry officer or a stalwart infantry commander. Preachers usually are represented by a particularly stern looking man telling those around him that it is in God's name that they must defeat the enemy. Such things may be inspiring before the battle but become less so in the face of the enemy and at a good distance from the preacher.

A Scots list will be added in the future. I will probably also include rules for clubmen and other left out items in a future update.

These rules are in a rough state at the moment. They have been play tested quite a bit and have also been changed significantly from the original version. If you have any suggestions please send them to: pictors@pictorsstudio.com or call us at 724-238-4778.