Major Dundee Shooting And Movement Rules Part One

MOVEMENT

Cavalry 75cm
Horse artillery 75cm
Infantry 45cm
Mount/dismount, difficult terrain (unless otherwise stated), move and fire - 1/2 move

(If you are using a small playing area you could halve ranges but I think these distances look good with 54mm figures).

SHOOTING

Naturally, the Hollywood heroes and especially the American heroes have to be good at shooting. All those stupid European parade ground Toy Town soldiers just sit there like targets at a circus side show.  There is a smidgen of truth though, to the extent that European cavalry were, in the second half of the 19th century still, primarily trained to carry home the charge with sword and lance. The American Civil War cavalry were more likely to dismount and fire, especially from cover. If on horseback, they were as likely to use revolvers as swords. Confederate cavalry, especially favored multiple revolvers and sawed off shotguns. Also, there were those technical innovations of breech loading carbines and the wonderful Henry rifle, forerunner of the Winchester. It was available in limited numbers and often by private purchase. In 'Major Dundee' even officers use such weapons, notably Tyrene. Rather than distinguishing between every type of carbine I have just made the Americans more likely to hit their targets, and they need to as they are so outnumbered.


Cannon
Cannon fire before other shooting.
Roll a misfire dice on a D6. A 1 indicates misfire and no hit on target. Roll again and a second 1 indicates gun and crew are blown up. If there is a battery then keep rolling for further guns blown up.
Guess range ( make clear if guessing in inches or centimeters). Designate a figure as target and roll the scatter dice whichngives two chances of bull's eye (obtainable from GW) In our game it scatters inches two D6 with scatter only at long range. I am now inclined to make it three D6 at other ranges too. First games we had a 6 inch radius of potential damage, layer reduced to four. Now I am inclined to make it three or even two. Figures under the blast get a 5-6 save.

Alternative: roll a D6 for a hit with 6 at long range, 5-6 medium and 4-6 short range, then roll D6 for casualties on target unit. A 1 on a to hit dice designates misfire, Roll again and another 1 indicates explosion with loss of gun.

Alternative 2; Use a matchstick firing cannon or other actual projectile. Where the projectile lands use a circular template or measure the desirable distance from its head. You can also add a dice roll for misfire, particularly for earlier types of artillery, and dice rolls for saves, if desired. This is the Little Wars and Paul Wright's Funny Little Wars way. It is a little more erratic and unpredictable but great fun.

RANGES    Short                     Medium                        Long
(cm)
Cannon       0-70                          71-110                        111-220

Musket        0-50                        51-110                          111-150

Carbine        0-50                        51-100                          101-130

Revolver       0-10                       11-25                            26-40    (3 shots)

Sawed off     0-10                         11-20                           21-25     (2 shots )
shotgun

Bow             0-15                        16-30                            31-60

The above ranges give a medium range. You could have 4+ short, 5+ medium and 6+ long

However, in our Dundee game we did not worry about medium range but gave a higher save to targets at long range. We had a general save of 6 and 4-6 at long range except for cannon fire as more could be hit anyway so saves were always there 5-6. Cover saves (taken instead of general saves - soft cover 5+ and hard 4+). Characters have an additional 5+ save and multiple wounds. The only range modifiers we had were =1 for short range and a higher save at long range.

To hit  - Americans 4+, with pistols 5+ ( 3 shots). Others: 5+ pistol 6+, Firer Mounted  -1,   Character firing +1, Overall leader firing 2+


NOTE: I don't claim any scientific exactitude with ranges but aimed for some reasonable differences between weapons. Americans basically are better shots because they have faster shooting weapons , know how to use them and they are the 'good guys'.

VICTORY CONDITIONS

Americans 2 points each trooper gets off board on the American side or survives on the American side of the river. Tyrene saves flag 10 points

French 2 points each American killed and 3 points to knock out or capture the cannon french commander captures flag 10 points

SET UP

3 Regiments of between 12 and 15 lancers, each with an officer, one who is the commander on American side of river
Around 20 mounted Americans, armed with pistols, carbines or shotguns thirty cm from river on Mexican soil. One cannon and crew of four. Americans. Three or four characters and two leaders.
Mexican?french reserves 2 infantry regiments of 24 each with officer each, two regiments of lancers or other cavalry. Roll for their arrival from turn 3,  to give the Americans a better chance, move four. We rolled from move three and at least some of the reserves caught up to them each time.