Napoleonic Spectre

I have provided additions or amendments as appropriate and havent specified what cannot be used
as the list is far to exhaustive. I leave it to common sense as to what cannot be done due to
technology of the era (red dot, scoped and silenced brown bess musket anyone?). In general if I
havent suggested an amendment then rules as written should work fine.

Types
in addition to a Tier, models must also have a type – Line, Light or Irregular

Line – should not be higher than trained tier

cannot breakdown, gain no bonus for aiming, cannot use tactical movement

Force commander – will be the highest ranked officer (as opposed to highest CD. Money not skill
talks in this era). If the force commander is killed he will be replaced by the next highest ranked
officer. If no officers remain (only NCO's or unit leaders) then there is no Force commander.

Command Actions
Fire control Order – remove this command action. It doesnt apply to this era.

Call for reinforcements – by prior agreement players can agree reserves are held close by off table.
Treat either an officers whistle or a Bugler/drummer/piper accompany him as long rang comms

Tactical Actions
new action – Reload – the model cannot move this turn but reloads an empty weapon. May require
multiple actions over multiple turns.

Shooting
prone/supported fire – Line type troops do not gain this benefit (they aren't sufficiently trained to
pick targets or aim correctly).

Lethality
simplify/modify the casualty table – 3+ takes the model out of action. Napoleonic medicine is
insufficient to prevent bleedout. If playing campaign games treat models removed by a non lethal
hit differently to lethal hits. Roll after the game to see if the model is injured or has survived. (TBC)
as an exception for a particularly important or valuable model, a player can choose to use bleedout
and apply first aid to pause it as normal.

Tiers

Elite – reserved for the very finest (or heroic) individuals and/or Literary grade units (sharpes rifles
for instance) not applicable to any specific historic unit. To be used with discretion

Professional – highly trained or experienced Light infantry. British rifleman and light infantry,
experienced Voltigeurs

Trained – the majority of regular infantry with decent training or experience. British line infantry,
Experienced french line Infantry or Grenadiers. Would also cover experienced Guerrilas or
irregulars. This would also cover lower quality light infantry such as green Voltiguers or Green
british light company. Line should not be more experienced than this.

Militia – poor quality troops, guerillas etc. Green french line infantry, spanish infantry, less skilled
guerillas.

Untrained – no formal experience or training. Civilians bearing arms or not.

Weapon special rules

Reload (x) – weapon must be reloaded before it can be fired again. X = number of reload actions
required in succession. Place suitable token(s) next to the model to track this.

Specialist ammunition – Patched ball and powder (rifle equipped models only). By default the
model uses prepatched ball in a cartridge however it can elect to load a loose ball and patch with
finer powder from a horn or flask. This has an improved profile but takes longer to load. Models
can start the game with this loaded.

Close combat weapons

Bayonets, "light" swords, spontoons – treated as close combat weapons

"heavy" swords, Sappers axes, halberds, lances – specialist close combat weapons.

Cuirass – will avoid death in combat on a roll of 6 on a D6.

Comms equipment

Bugles, Officers Whistle, Drum, Pipe. - can be used as long range comms to summon
reinforcements.

The force commander has a verbal comms range of 12" to models in line of sight which can use his
CD value in a similar manner to radio comms.

Should it be required for any specific reasons, officers can give orders to all models in 24" using a
musician or whistle however these are very specific – advance, withdraw, fire, cease fire, form up.
form skirmish order. No specific ingame use however feel free to improvise where appropriate.

Mines IED's etc

these can only be Timer operated (using fuse wire).

Weapon profiles

Class RI LTY Special rules

Pistol 4" 5 Reload (1), compact, sidearm in close combat.
Blunderbuss 6" 4 Buckshot
Carbine 8" 4 Reload (1)
Musket 10" 4 Reload (1)
Rifle (cartridge) 16" 4 Reload (2)
Rifle (loose Ball) 20" 4 Reload (3)
Notes on Skirmishing tactics

During this period skirmishers normally operated in pairs. One would fire. He would then reload
while his partner covered him with a loaded weapon (but held his fire unless a lethal threat
presented itself). Once the first man had reloaded the second man would then fire, or move and fire
as required and the cycle would repeat itself. In this way fire was applied carefully and consistently
and allowed men to cover each other against potential threats.

Within spectre these tactics work well as spacing fire out will allow you to maintain suppression
over a number of turns rather than emptying everything and then having nothing to keep the
enemies heads down.

A typical action could be: turn 1 half the unit fire, the other half enter overwatch. Turn 2 the empty
half reload and the loaded half fire or advance as required. Turn 3: the now loaded half enter
overwatch, the empty half reload and so on. In this way a unit can maintain fire while advancing.

Line troops tended not to skirmish however if in terrain or circumstances where formations werent
practical, they could fight in loose order however they are penalised in these rules as they dont have
the additional discipline/training/skill to fight independently on their initiative.

Thoughts on Elite Tier

I have specified this should be used with discretion. I feel it is somewhat overpowered for the
period where only a certain level of skill or discipline (and especially marskmanship) would be
achieived. I feel this teir is best reserved for a limited number of men, mainly of a heroic or literary
nature who have a bit of plot armour and unrealistically high skills. Sharpe and his chosen men
spring to mind, however should you wish to have a dashing hero lead his men, maybe with a couple
of crack men, then feel free to use this tier to drive a strong literary narrative.

Thoughts on artillery and cavalry

I have aimed this at small scale actions (typical of the sharpe movies) as opposed to company level
mass skirmish. Sneaking into a spanish village guarded by french pickets to steal a pay chest, a
rushed attack on a lightly defended bridge to capture it before it is destroyed, an ambush on a small
convoy carrying vital supplies etc. I therefore dont feel cavalry or artillery are appropriate to the
game at present as they are simply too heavy duty for the level of game.

As an exception there may be the odd mounted courier or officer. I would suggest treating the horse
and rider as one model. The model has a 12" movement and gains and additional +1 modifier in
close combat against infantry. Infantry must pass a CD check to charge a mounted figure. For
simplicity hits are allocated to the rider on his stats as normal and if killed the whole model is
removed. A mounted figure cannot perform tactical movement and shooting is conducted with a -1
modifier for the difficulty of firing from an unstable (pardon the pun) platform. At any point the
model can dismount and be replaced with an infantry figure but cannot remount (for simplicity). If
hit by shooting and stunned or if knocked out or captured in close combat the model also looses its
horse.

Should someone wish to use artillery I would suggest it is best represented as an OTA.