Thinking about FPW Hex Rules

The Franco-Prussian War is the last of my collections that require rules for remote games.  So, time to get on with it!

In putting these ideas together I had the following principles I wanted the rules to reflect.

1. Ranged fire, whether small arms or artillery, was very significant on soldier behaviour, formation and impact.

2. I wanted units to degrade but not have to do any paperwork.

3. Units supporting others matter.

4. The morale impact of situations is baked in rather than on dice rolls.

At first, I was looking to adapt mechanisms from a board game where different units were reflected on a table.  Then according to the situation there was a column shift left or right which led to changing dice roll requirements.  What I have currently moved on to is a little different.  I have "Results Ladders" for shooting, melee and rallying based on advantages and disadvantages to the active unit.

For example, with the shooting results ladder below, all units firing start at zero then work up when applying relevant advantages and down with the disadvantages.  A "DP" is a disruption point. Units are removed on receipt of a third DP.

With a lot of lead flying around at greater volume, one impact is infantry being forced to go prone.  Or, in their movement, they can choose to go prone to shoot with their breech loading rifles.

An example using the shooting results ladder above:  A single French unit targets a Prussian skirmish unit at long range.  Neither unit have suffered any disruption.  The French are grade 2 and roll 3 on 1d3 and rise to five on the ladder. There are no additional advantages.  The target now rolls a 1 on 1d3 which puts it at four on the ladder. Further disadvantages are the target being skirmishers and at long range bringing the result down to two.  So, the Prussian infantry takes a disruption point and is forced to go prone.

The same process is used for melee but with different outcomes on the ladder... obviously.

The opposed 1d3 rolls represents the element of luck/chance. In the above example, the firing unit enjoyed a lot of luck. Whereas, the target did not enjoy equal fortune.  This gives a range of +2 to -2.

Hopefully, it will be apparent that other units supporting the shooter would have made the result more devastating.

This is very much a work in progress, done in the full knowledge that I bring nothing new to the discussion.

Next, a first solo test game.