"Flintloques & Muskets"

A Flintloque/Reaction System Rules Supplement by Bob Minadeo

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Combining Alternative Armies' Flintloque with THW's Chain Reaction 3.0.

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As some of you may know, I’ve spent a good part of the past couple of years working on Muskets and Mohawks, the new French and Indian War skirmish rules published by Two Hour Wargames.

As others of you may know, I am a great fan of Alternative Armies’ Flintloque and Slaughterloo black powder fantasy rules.

Finally as a subset of the above groups some of you may have noticed that the majority of my play test games for Muskets and Mohawks took place in the fantasy world of Valon.

For those of you unfamiliar with the wonder that is Valon, it is a fantasy world populated by the usual suspects; Orcs, Elves, Dwarves. It also contains a few less usual; dogmen, bipedal toads and rabbits, to name but a few. Valon was once your typical fantasy world until, that is, the advent of black powder. Having harnessed this destructive new power the fantasy races destroyed the remaining humans and fell to fighting amongst themselves in a manner strangely analogous to our own Napoleonic Wars. Those wishing more information on Valon, its wars, and its people can find more information here ~#~ on Orcs in the Webbe.

As it happens, Muskets and Mohawks has undergone considerable revision, and will be released as larger scale, small unit game. The skirmish game bits are being reworked into a supplement for Two Hour Wargames’ Six Gun Sound: Blaze of Glory western skirmish rules.

However, as a taster, here is a way to skirmish in Valon using Two Hour Wargames’ free rule set, Chain Reaction 3.0. First we will take a look at how Flintloque’s experience levels and troop types translate to Chain Reaction 3.0. Next racial statistics will be provided for all of the races and mounts currently available in the free Flintloque Lite version of the rules. Finally we close with a few thoughts on conversion methods and how players might wish to covert some aspects of the game on their own.

Experience Levels

The first step in converting a character from Flintloque to Muskets and Mowhawks is to determine the character’s Rep. The table below lists each Flintloque experience level matched to a figure Rep in uskets and Mohawks.

Of course if you wish to randomly generate a section and start playing straight away you can always use the section generation rules in Chain Reaction 3.0 and have at it.

Some of you who may already be familiar with Two Hour Wargames’ rules may be taken aback by the possibility of there being Rep 6 and 7 characters on the table. Fear not. While such figures are indeed mighty fighters even they may succumb to the dreaded Obviously Dead result and drop from a single wound.

Troop Type

While both games feature the same the troop types as befits any black powder period game, there are some differences in how these types affect play.

You may simply use the troop descriptions in Chain Reaction 3.0 or add the rules listed in the following table to your Valonian troops of each given type.

The Worthy and the Chosen

The Forlorn and the Desperate (None may be Elite)

Racial Statistics

We use four stats to define figures in Flintloques and Muskets, Move, Tough, Save, Melee.

Move – is the figure’s normal move distance in inches.

Tough – is a modifier subtracted from a weapon’s impact when testing on the Ranged Combat Damage Table. Note that a negative number here would actually serve to increase the weapon’s impact.

Save – When a figure has suffered damage, it may roll 1d6 versus its save value, to try and lessen the effect of that hit. A success will reduce an OD to OoF, OoF to Knock Down, and a Knock Down to no effect.

Melee – is the number of dice the figures adds to its Rep when conducting hand to hand combat. Note a negative number here will reduce the number of dice the figure will roll.

Racial Statistics Table

Mount Statistics

When fighting a mounted figure the first hit will always affect the mount. Use the mount’s Tough to modify the weapon’s impact when determining ranged damage.

Mounts ignore Knock Down and are removed from play on an OD or OoF. When a figure’s mount is removed from play, place the dismounted figure in the spot where the mount was and treat the figure as Stunned.

A mount’s Melee value is the number of dice added to the rider’s Rep when conducting hand to hand combat.

Mount Statistics Table

Weapons

Chain Reaction 3.0 covers modern firefights and lacks suitable weapons for black powder skirmishing. No worries. Just use this handy table of weapons for your Flintloque games:

Note that muzzle loaders need to reload after each shot. A figure must spend two activations to reload a rifle. Other firearms take one activation to reload. Reloading can only be done as an action, not a reaction.

Additional Conversions

As you may have noticed a lot of elements unique to Flintloque have been left out. This has been done primarily for speed of play, allowing players of Flintloques and Muskets to field more figures than are typically comfortable to field in a straight up game of Flintloque.

Strictly for ease of use, centimeters are converted to inches on a two for one basis and vice versa. I actually prefer inches, as they are a bit less fiddly to work with. The downside of such conversion is some loss of granularity as half inches are rounded up to whole in order to easily determine Fast Moves.

Finally, appended below you will find a handy percentage/d10/d6 table that will allow players to convert other factors such as skills and racial traits, into Chain Reaction 3.0 terms. This is included so that players may add in as much extra detail from Flintloque as they wish.

Example – In Flintloque, Ferach Elves automatically add 5% to their chance to hit a target. Checking the row of the Dice Conversion table below we see that 5% yields no change in terms of a six sided die. However were that 5% to be combined with some other factor that brings the bonus up to 10%, players could rule that the Elf in question may add one to his Rep when firing.

The table could also be used to convert the entirety of Chain Reaction 3.0 to a game using ten sided dice rather than six sided dice. I have actually done this and then discarded the change as too fiddly. However that doesn’t mean that your players will agree. So give it a go if you have a mind to.

Conversion Factors

Final Thoughts

I trust you have found the preceding thought provoking, or at least somewhat less than banal, as you have continued to read this far.

In closing remember that there are as many styles of game as there are players to play them. By expanding the styles of game for which Alternative Armies figures may be employed it is my hope that the ranks of Valonian gamers will expand a bit, and that is no bad thing.

Should you discover some point on which no agreement can be made between your players, simply roll a dice. Odds one side wins the argument, and tails the other side does. Note down the conflict and play on! Nothing should be allowed to hold up the game and any differences of opinion may be expanded upon infinitum post game should a protagonist and antagonist be sufficiently interested in the discussion!

Should you wish to discuss any of the foregoing I may be reached through the Two Hour Wargames Yahoo group or the Alternative Armies Notables Yahoo group.

Bob Minadeo
Evesham, 2011

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Webmaster's Notes

An Orcs in the Webbe Exclusive! "Flintloques & Muskets" was first published on Orcs in the Webbe on the 5th December 2011.

THW's Chain Reaction 3.0 is available as a free download here.

Alternative Armies' 28mm Napoleonique Skirmish Ruleset, Flintloque, and the large range of miniatures that go with it can be found here.

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