Portable ECW Changes

I promised in a comment earlier in the week that I'd post the changes I'd made to my ECW Portable Wargame over the past year or so. All of this stuff has been written up in individual posts; all I'm doing here is putting it into one place.

They are written for use with my own Portable ECW Wargame, but can be easily adapted to other iterations of the rules.

Activation

At the start of the turn, roll one activation dice per active unit (including the commander). Each D6 which score 3+ gives an activation.

If desired, spend an activation to relocate the commander.

Assign remaining activations to units. This is done before any of them act. If you wish to replace a lost commander, keep an activation to one side.

Activate units, one at a time, either from the left to the right or the right to the left. If more than one unit is in a file, activate those furthest from the baseline first.

If you kept an activation to one side, replace a lost commander.

(The rationale behind this is that it is a method of activation which means that the proportion of units activated stays the same regardless of losses or reinforcement. In addition it doesn't restrict the activations to roughly half of your force; you might get to move everything, or you might get do move virtually nothing. The pre-allocation of activations and the sequence of activations stops the system from becoming too flexible; sometimes you have to commit to a course of action before knowing how something else pans out elsewhere. Loss of a commander becomes a little nastier since you not only lose his activation for a turn but you also have to spend one in order to bring him back. As a system it does stray from the elegance of the Portable Wargame basic design by requiring you to roll a bucket of dice rather than one or two.)

Effects of  Hit

When rolling for the effects of a hit, an unmodified die roll of 1 means that the unit loses 1SP and must then roll for the effects of a hit again applying the second result as well. This may be an unmodified 1, in which case keep rolling.

When rolling for the effects of a hit, an unmodified die roll of 6 means that the unit must retreat if it is able. You cannot lose an SP instead, unless no retreat is possible.

(The automatic retreat on a '6' makes defending a position just a little riskier, since you may be required to vacate it without a choice. And the extra roll on a '1' gives the possibility of a unit suffering a catastrophic crash in morale and running away earlier than expected; one of the issues with the attritional combat in the Portable Wargame is that it's sometimes hard to shift units with a single devastating attack.)

Other Combat Results

Foot never pursue Horse.

(This seems pretty straightforward. Horse and pike-armed foot are the only things that pursue; horse will pursue anything, whilst foot will now only pursue other foot.)

Random Events

I used to link Random Events to a dice-based activation system. However when I gave up on the system I didn't want to lose the events. So I use this method instead.

Before rolling for activations, roll 2D6. If a double is scored, there is a random event. Use the number rolled as First D6. Roll a Second D6 to determine the specific event.

First D6 - 1-3

Second D6
1-3 - Inspired Command - You get activations on a roll of 2+ this turn
4-6 - Poor Command - You only get activations on a roll of 4+ this turn.

First D6 - 4-6

Second D6
1 - Confusion - The enemy player picks one of your units and resolves an activation for it. If it fights in close combat it does so at -1. The unit does not give this side a D6 for activations and can't be activated again this player turn.

2 - Commander Indisposed - The army's commander does not give the side a D6 this turn, and neither may he be redeployed or replaced if currently lost. He may move if the unit he is attached to moves, but doesn't offer any combat bonuses this player turn.

3 - Panic - The enemy player picks one of your units, which immediately takes a 1SP hit. This cannot cause it to be destroyed, however.

4 - Brilliant Colonel - Pick a unit. That unit may immediately make a free activation. It still generates and activation dice and can activate again in this player turn.

5 - Rally - Pick a unit that has taken one or more hits, and roll 2D6. For each that score 4+, remove one hit.

6 - Inspiring Speech - EITHER Pick a unit which gets a +1 the next time it either shoots or engages in close combat OR if you have to take an army morale test this turn, you get a +1.