[Ivan Sorensen]

You guys did all notice I put a definition in the original post right? 🙂

[Ivan Sorensen]

I guess people are used to a different term?
I always understood it as a game that is solid, but unremarkable, probably (but not always) on the simpler side and without a lot of chrome or flair.

[Ivan Sorensen]

Sometimes I enjoy a game where its more about seeing the process unfold, though it is obviously not as exciting and I don’t want that every time.

[Ivan Sorensen]

A lot of the games that get big are pretty conventional, but with like one clever idea in there and then the rest is fairly straight forward.

There’s a reason I suspect that f.x. Chain of Command has a really clever activation system but then shooting is the standard “roll to hit roll to kill”.

Of course clever ideas also become conventional. In skirmish games alternating activations are common now, but at one point they were something you only saw in cutting edge scifi games.

[Ivan Sorensen]

Not Connard Sage wrote:

Only 25,286 to go’.

Oh you must be playing the quickplay version.

[Ivan Sorensen]

Ive seen WW1 and scifi games so that’s a pretty good indication!

Many years ago there was a blog (now long gone) with a guy who decided to prove that the scenario and GM mattered more than the rules and ran a bunch of Napoleonic games using Rogue Trader 🙂

[Ivan Sorensen]

To clarify, I intended the term to be pretty broad so if it’s “workhorse” to you then that’s all that counts.

I feel like DBA probably fits but again thats all personal.

[Ivan Sorensen]

Thank you so much. In return, whenever someone tells the story of what you did that one night at Gencon, I’ll say it was me 🙂

Do you have anything on the purpose of the delay fuze? I assume if you have a set delay, you can get it to go off at a fixed range, but was this something that was actually used?

[Ivan Sorensen]

You can get away with ACW Union lads for the Danes for 1864. Most period drawings and paintings show them in great coats. You might even be able to use FPW French if you aren’t too fussy.

For 1864, the battalions were expanded to regiments of 8 companies, all armed and equipped uniformly.

I absolutely cannot find my copy of Svendsens book right now. I recall the maps being okay but not too special.

[Ivan Sorensen]

Thats because I am a dork and can’t type. The company is 200 men (though some other sources give 250), not the battalion.

[Ivan Sorensen]

(this is copied from something I was writing up for later use, so its a little rough on formatting)

The standard Danish infantry weapon was the M1828 musket. This is a smoothbore musket using percussion caps. It was assumed to be effective to about 200 alen (an old danish measurement roughly equal to 2 feet so 100 alen is about 60 meters), of moderate accuracy and like all muzzle loaders it was prone to slower reloading as the weapon became more fouled up by repeated firing. In rapid fire tests, the weapon could deliver 30 shots in about 17 minutes.

In accuracy tests the weapon was expected to score 80% hits at 100 alen, 30% at 300 and 5% at 400 alen.

Rendekugler (buck shot) were available though it is uncertain how widely they were issued. They were assumed effective at 100 alen versus single targets and 200 alen against a chain or line. They are only usable with smoothbore weapons.

Jæger infantry would primarily be armed with the M1831 “rifle musket”. This is a Napoleonic-era type rifle with the ball fitting fairly tightly into the barrel.
It was somewhat more accurate than the smoothbore weapon but the effectiveness still drops off at range. It was expected to be effective out to 250 alen.
Of note, these rifles are slow to reload but sustained fire tests of 20 repeated shots showed that their effective rate of fire was equal to the smoothbore, possibly due to the rifle grooves absorbing some of the fouling and slag.

The tapriffel was a newly introduced weapon, using a rod or pillar at the bottom of the breech to expand the bullet when it was rammed down. This allows faster loading as the bullet can be smaller than the barrel width though the sustained fire rate was slightly slower than the other weapons (30 shots in 18 and a half minutes). 
This weapon was found in testing to be extremely accurate, achieving hit rates of 80% out to 400 alen and still exceeding 50% at 600 alen. Effective range was set to 300 alen however.
Tests also showed that the weapon showed little slowdown from fouling during sustained fire.

The intended issue was 200 tap rifles and 840 smooth bores for infantry battalions, while Jæger should have 200 tap rifles, 600 rifles and 240 smoothbores. 
It is unlikely all units had received their compliments of the new weapons when the war broke out.

[Ivan Sorensen]

The “triangular” formations must be rather more vulnerable to attrition so after a bit in the field, you end up with a very thin unit.
The 4 unit formation means you have some give. If a mortar shell lands on your platoon and 2nd section is toast, you have 3 left which is still a decent fighting force.

[Ivan Sorensen]

Cheers folks. Danes get around. I think the big waves of people leaving was prior to your people but we’ve always wanted to travel and explore. Part of being a tiny country I suspect.

@Travlos – I do own that and its a great little read. His background is in geology I believe which really tells in the opening sections where it talks about the soil and how it must have affected campaigning.
Unfortunately there’s not much available in English but Im hoping to be able to shed a bit more light on things.

[Ivan Sorensen]

Now that I am back, you have to give it back 🙂

[Ivan Sorensen]

And to answer two questions in advance:

“Why Slesvig and not Schleswig?”
I’m Danish, that’s how we spell it 🙂

“What rules are good for the three years war?”
Anything that gives you a good game with relatively low level units. The fighting has a heavy light infantry aspect and often you are only looking at a couple of battalions. Rich environment for skirmish actions as well. I am kicking around doing a bespoke rules set for the conflict but I am not sure of the details yet.

[Ivan Sorensen]

Appreciate the added details and info on the Bofors.
It is worth noting that the info I have is based on the 1932 army laws. It is possible changes were made between then and 1940, or that there was some discretion as to actual deployment. Of course as April 9 was a rather desperate affair its also possible some units ended up fighting with what happened to be available rather than as their textbook formations.

The Madsen is an interesting gun. I guess its an open question how effective it was as a long range sustained fire weapon but it can’t have been that far behind the Hotchkiss and certainly a very mobile option. Even with the tripod mount its not especially heavy.

The book also shows some cavalry units toting around their Madsen guns and the film 9th of April shows bicyclists using them. They definitely emphasized the ability to get them anywhere they needed to go.

[Ivan Sorensen]

Yeah, things are good. Great in fact. Thanks!

[Ivan Sorensen]

Mike Headden wrote:

Welcome back!

So I have you to blame thank for my addiction to all things 5 Parsecs, eh?

We only put a tiny bit of cocaine in the page ink.

[Ivan Sorensen]

Sorry I missed this. If you want, email me at [email protected] and I’ll hook you up with an updated copy 🙂

[Ivan Sorensen]

Cheers friend. I had pulled in someone to do an update but he ran into family and health issues, so it didn’t pan out. I’d love to update it but I cannot give a time frame, since I have so much on my plate these days.

[Ivan Sorensen]

As far as I know, the book is at the printers now, after we incorporated as much feedback from the pre-orders as we could.
It takes a while for things to go through that whole process, given that everything has to be shipped around in a pandemic and with brexit shipping woes playing up.

There hasn’t been any announcements from Modiphius since there’s nothing to say yet, but the book is definitely on the website under wargaming.

I’ve been busy both sorting through old files for a retro-bundle and creating cool new stuff.

[Ivan Sorensen]

You’ve been very patient. All I can say is “When it’s done” which I know sucks 🙁
I have been doing some work for a company in an adjacent industry which has eaten into a lot of my time. That’s not all of it, but it’s part.

SH peoples edition did get a step in the right direction by getting an updated (and improved I think) version of the mission rules from the original booklet, so hopefully that can tide over for a little.

[Ivan Sorensen]

I am often bad at the internet 🙂
I’ll fix that, thanks.

[Ivan Sorensen]

Cheers, yes.
http://fivemennormandy.blogspot.com/2020/07/renegade-scout-20-changes.html

This should cover most of it.

[Ivan Sorensen]

Cheers friend and answers below!

You are right, it’s a fairly sprawling game and it’s meant to take a while to get on top of ALL of it. Remember, much of the material was released monthly, so the idea is you try a new thing here and there when you feel the need.

I can recommend picking up https://www.wargamevault.com/product/323590/Every-journey-begins-on-a-road-A-Five-Leagues-expansion which adds both “neutral” encounters and also has a step by step introduction to the campaign game.

Make sure you have downloaded the most up to date version as well. 1.03 made some big changes to the presentation that should make it a little easier to see what rules go where.

To your questions:
1: It probably would be yes. I know quite a few players do use base contact and it’s very likely I’ll change it to match.
The original idea was to represent characters “lunging” forward and so on.

2: Stay in place.

3: You can finish the move.

I hope that helps!

[Ivan Sorensen]

You kids should go download your game file again and let me know what you think 🙂
A major update just went up.

[Ivan Sorensen]

Two people bought copies yesterday, possibly off reading this review 🙂

I should add I am doing a few tweaks to the layout and look, which hopefully will make it a bit more accessible.

[Ivan Sorensen]

I appreciate the review!
Im glad you had a great time but ill definitely see about reorganizing things a bit, as well as add more examples and some flavor text 🙂

I wanted to try and keep the page count down but i think it probably got a bit carried away!

[Ivan Sorensen]

Aye, not exclusively but I am working on it yes 🙂

This has changed many many times over the months but the structure nailed down now, so I think I can talk about it a bit more:

The format will be a step-by-step list of selecting unit class, mobility type, then assigning offensive and defensive factors. Basically, all the player has to do is move down the list and make a pick at each step.

For offensive factors, a unit card will have 1-3 lines for each attack form it has. F.x. an infantry squad might have two attack forms (rifles and RPG). The player builds each of those and in battle, you can fire either at any given time.
Defensive factors will include units being classified by hard/soft armor types (which weapons can be tagged against) and “HP” capability.

I’d have to go check but I believe 6 movement types are included and you’ll be able to create things like gun-emplacements as well.

10-15 Traits are included. These are permanent upgrades or abilities that always are in effect.

10-15 Powers are included. These can be fuelled with energy (tracked with a die by the unit), require a roll or both. When you build the unit, you’ll select a limitation (roll, energy cost or single-use).

(The current number is 12 traits and 11 powers, but another few might sneak in)

The whole system is aimed at Core/Peoples first and foremost, and made to be expandable later on. It will also include licensing so you can create units and publish them.

[Ivan Sorensen]

Though a title like Burning Sands would certainly get me to consider adding some desert’y stuff or at least a cactus!

[Ivan Sorensen]

Cheers

Laserstorm is progressing. Updated unit construction that should be a bit less awkward and integration of aerial options. The guy is working on it part time, so it’s going in the pace it’s going, but I’ve seen the updated version.
I might see if I can snip out the air rules for sharing, while work is progressing. I dont think they should be too interdependent on other mechanics.

The gentleman that the Squadhammer unit builder was farmed out to ran into difficulties with it, so I’ll be trying to finish it up myself once Renegade Scout 2 is done here in a couple of days.

I hope that helps. I realize its been a long wait, but being a one-man show only has so many hours in the day and expanding out has its challenges as well 🙂

[Ivan Sorensen]

I dig some Hollywood medievals and your army looks gorgeous.

[Ivan Sorensen]

If you can find saxons in mail shirts, they might be able to stand in.
The Khurasan Saxons are quite nice and could do double duty for a lot of dark age troops i think.

[Ivan Sorensen]

Could you repurpose crusade-era muslim armies for it? Those are a lot easier to find I should think.

[Ivan Sorensen]

Awesome. Wearing a mask will prevent you from turning Saxon 🙂

[Ivan Sorensen]

Definitely had a lucky run but after the fight with the wolves, you 100% deserved it.

I hope you enjoyed the adventure.

[Ivan Sorensen]

Cheers mate.

Its intended you replace main characters up to 3, if you want an on-going campaign. If youprefer to see how long the “tv season lasts”, once they go they are gone.

For the game turn, it’s not official, but I absolutely allow a character to delay if desired. I do say it must be chosen at the time you place the die.

The spotting rules assume you are playing in a cramped cargo bay, starship and that its dramatically dark, the critters are sneaking etc.
You can double it if you want to fight in an open space.

[Ivan Sorensen]

Agreed, use the rules as written. The army building process has options to mess with it for that reason 🙂

[Ivan Sorensen]

Cheers.
As the command roll for regulars is 2D6, pick high, you will generally have a decent number of activations.
One of the factors that is “hidden” a bit in the mechanics is getting troops pushed forward into positions quickly. As units shoot back in a fire fight, you want to get close enough where that will happen.
Likewise, you want to “offload” a lot of your heavy weapons to the Support points if possible.

If you wanted to simulate a planned BIG PUSH, give each player 1-2 tokens they can use, which automatically gives you a 6 for the command roll.

Self-ordering means the unit can order itself, without using a command point. Some upgrades grant this either conditionally or freely.
The general upgrade is “Leader” (representing a squad with a particularly motivated and talented squad leader) which lets the unit always activate.
Others are conditional. F.x. Commandos can always take the Move Out action without needing a command point.

There is a game reference sheet in the back, though it looks pretty rough. I’ve been meaning to get a new one done by someone with better talent for that sort of thing than I 🙂

You should be fine with micro-armor.

[Ivan Sorensen]

Nice and simple!

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