Combat General: War of the Spanish Succession

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The initial offering of the Combat General series is a set of rules for recreating battles from the War of Spanish Succession (1701-1714). The age of linear warfare began just prior to this as the pike fell out of use and infantry battalions reduced the number of ranks in their formations thus extending their frontage and the frontage of the entire army into a long line. They did this to increase the amount of firepower from the constantly improving small arms in the form of matchlock muskets but increasingly firelock fusils. Thus, this era of the first decade or so of the 18th century is a good starting point to acquaint hobbyists with the unique concepts of the game system. Firstly, to design these rules, the slate was wiped clean. Following an examination of much of the recently digitized primary source material that augmented the existing body of sources, a new system was developed. Combat mechanisms that are clearly laid out in text as well as flow charts treating the historical details of specific methods of attack and defense according to various nations manuals of arms gleaned from primary accounts of the period. Many rules simply abstract these things into generic “+1 British” type modifiers either due to ignorance of their workings by the authors or lack of mechanisms to make them playable. A perspective-based wargame where you are acting in the role of a brigade general. Most activities above you are therefore not represented or abstracted, and your main task as a player is to move units of the brigade while keeping all fighting units in the chain of command that adheres to the strict baroque nature of linear warfare. This allows you to quit the field with your honor and the honor of your prince intact! As the brigade commander, you are not directly able to control the exact methods of fighting used by regimental or battalion commanders, thus despite the rules illustrating both superior and inferior methods of warfare, these may not always be adopted during the heat of battle once an attack is ordered which causes exciting tension as well as teaching the value and impact of the various tactical methods. Immersion is further enhanced by detailed vignettes that dramatically relate contemporary events that occur in the wake of a victorious attack.

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