SEVEN YEARS - Rules for gaming the Seven Years War in the European theatre

Cover of the rule booklet

These are the 4th rendition of my Seven Years War rules set, which has worked fine for my personal needs and my collection in my club. I will also continue to test these rules and after some time to update them again here. But bear in mind that these rules are work in progress and although I am thankful for every comment and advice, I cannot promise I will answer everybody here (and only here please see below), but I'll try my best - I still have a life.

I wanted to design a game that was simple to explain and play but still has some era flair and some friction. Note, this is NOT the historical be-all-of-end-all or perfect game, as it is just my definition of a playable set of rules. Playability and historical accuracy are two opposing factors, the point of compromise (which must be somewhere in between these two) is entirely up to the game design(er), in this case, me. It is just my idea of a visual pleasing table top portrayal of the slow decline of the army cohesion of two sides fighting each other in these times and what crucial decisions that might have sprung out of this situations AND that might at the same time, be fun to game for us now today. Anything else I leave for the dusters...

Whats new?

The sequence of play has changed in so far that it's going to be more intermingled with initiative. Before it was straight I-go-You-go, as for now it is a simultaneous command phase that then is followed by an I-go-You-go PER brigade alternating (with other factors). Also I slightly amended the interprenetration rule to make it impossible for interpenetrations in the proximity of an enemy. The Elite and Veteran and Heavy cavalry boni are now one item, preventing an elite cuirassier regiment to charge in with an overwhelming +3 bonus every time - this would have been too much for the game engine.

Excerpt of intro page

Sequence of Play

This game has only two phases in each turn! It all opens with the ‘Command Phase’, where the number of available Staff Officers (‘SOs’) are established and allocated to their respective brigades if reachable by a command path, as explained in the chapter ‘Command’ on page 7. 

This happens at the same time. Then the players roll initiative on a 1d6 plus the actual SOs they successfully rolled for, and the player with the higher result gets the initiative.

The ‘phasing’ player with the highest initiative can then choose which brigade he can first let its units perform their actions. This could be moving or firing or reloading or charging, for example, or any of the actions decribed under the chapter ‘Command’ on page 8 and 9.

Each units can normally perform two actions, skirmisher can do three, troops that are disordered or worse have only one action! Some actions are free and the unit or regiment can do them on their own accord, others need a SO or two and a command path according to the example of an army command path graphic on page 7.

The opposing player has under certain circumstances (shooting distance and visibility and loaded firearms etc.) the opportunity to intervene, with firing of artillery or infantry (explained in chapter ‘Fire’ on page 18) and with cavalry charges (explained in chapter ‘Movement’, on page 11). This is the only time the opposing player can do that in the phase of the acting player, and after the actions of his firing/charging units are resolved, the rest of the actions of the phasing player are can continue to be resolved too. Until no unit has any actions left to doin that brigade. Of course the player can also choose NOT to let them do any actions and just give theinitiative back to the opponent.

Then the opposing player can choose a brigade of his choice and the “phase” starts again, until each player is running out of brigades that have no actions to do. This means that the players alternate with resolving all the actions of their brigades. Once the last unit and brigade has resolved all its possible and wanted actions, all commanders are moving and a new turn starts.

The game ends after a certain agreed number of turns...

Screenshots of the booklet and playsheet:

Map of the WAS and SYW battles in central europe

Sequence of Play and Unit status

Measurements, quality of troop types and arms and national differentiators

Command structure and phase

Orders explanation and short list

Movement and charge capability

Formation and their possible display on the table

Fire and modifiers

Fire arc, artillery and special fire

Melee

Melee example and example scenario intro

Scenario battle map and battle stats

Designer notes and index

Playsheet command and actions

Playsheet fire and melee and cohesion

As I'm aware that these pages are just screenshots, so if you are interested into these rule set:

Please contact me on my email address designpapst@mail.com and I could possibly send you the PDF of the booklet as well as the playsheet via we transfer to the email address provided. A sign of your appreciation could possibly be a donation (£) to my address at Paypal for my efforts.