- War is our Homeland is designed to allow gamers to play the largest battles of the Pike & Shot period such as Breitenfeld or Marston Moor.
- It focuses on putting you in the shoes of historical commanders like Tilly, Cromwell, or Mustafa.
- Easy to learn and fast playing mechanics that allow players to finish a game within 2-3 hours.
- The rules capture the flow of a Pike & Shot battle, without forcing players to focus on details that should not concern an army commander.
Scenario Books
A Brief Overview
I wrote War is our Homeland because I wanted to play a the largest battle of the pike and shot period in an evening, while keeping the ‘feel’ of the period. I wanted to write a set of rules that put me in the shoes of an army commander, captured the way armies of the period moved, and highlighted the different unit types. When figuring out how I wanted to represent the command and control element, my priority was to give players agency over their units, but also to capture the limited communication and control of the period by not allowing players to do everything they want with every unit every turn. I ended up modeling this by giving players a small bubble of control around their leader figures, with more limited control over units that are farther away, governed by a hand of cards that is drawn every turn.
In War is our Homeland every unit may always move in its front arc, fire, and defend itself. If a unit wants to do something beyond that there are 4 Postures a unit may be put in for a turn. Offensive Posture allows a unit to charge, Defensive Posture gives units a bonus in combat if they are charged, Mobile Posture allows units to double their movement distance or move to the side or rear, and Firing Posture allows units to double their shooting capability. Each unit has a profile with numbers attached to each of the postures, I.E. Offensive posture 9+, and this is the number on the card that must be played from your hand to give a unit that posture for the turn. An exception to this is that leaders will give a number of free Posture changes each turn.
Each turn of War is our Homeland begins by drawing a hand of cards equal to half the number of units under your control, and the cards represent the limited attention and influence you as a commander have. In addition for being used to order your troops as mentioned above, the cards are also used to decide initiative, and to rally your troops. As your army gets engaged, you will find more and more needs for cards from your hand, and you will have to make tough decisions on where to allocate your resources. This was my way of trying to capture the judgement calls a commander in the field would have to make.
Combat is simple and decisive, with an opposed roll made by each side with just a few modifiers to the dice pool. Shooting is equally simple, and for both shooting and combat 4+ is always a hit. The book keeping of casualties is also kept to a minimum, as units have just 3 casualty statuses, Fatigued, Shaken, and Fatigued and Shaken. Units are may only ever have 1 Fatigue token at a time and any further times a unit is Fatigued it is ignored, but if a unit were ever to be Shaken while it already has a Shaken token it is removed from the game.
Finally, a few practical considerations. This game is base size agnostic, but like every game it does have an ‘intended’ base size, which for War is our Homeland is 60x30mm. If your bases are much different from that you may want to adjust some movement rates and ranges. Most games are playable on a 6’x4′ table, with some smaller scenarios able to be played on a 4’x4′ table. Only the largest scenarios will require more space. If you have other questions feel free to contact me at Brushes & Bayonets on Facebook, or .napoleonofthewest on Discord.
