Horse & Musket: Dawn of an Era

Art: Ilya Kudriashov
Hex Number: 12
Duration: 60 to 90 minutes
Players: 2
Solitaire Suitability: High
Theme: 17th Century, 18th Century
Series: Horse & Musket 
MSRP: $95.00

Sean Chick's Horse & Musket is a simple tactical game system covering musket warfare from Vienna in 1683 to Appomattox in 1865. This first volume in the series, Dawn of an Era, covers warfare in the west from 1683-1719, which saw matchlock muskets and pikes give way to flintlocks and bayonets. Ranks became thinner and battles more linear as firepower and infantry discipline became the deciding factors.

Double-sided terrain tiles and thirteen armies not only allow you to recreate the twenty historical engagements contained within the scenario book, but also any number of  battles both real and imagined. This is the era of Marlborough and Eugene, of Catinat and Luxembourg, of William III and Charles XII, of Peter the Great and Rob Roy Macgregor: loyalists and rebels, Georgians and Jacobites, the Grand Alliance and the defiant Bourbons - they're all here:

Vienna - September 12, 1683 – “We came, we saw, and God Conquered.”
Sedgemoor - July 6, 1685 – The Bloody Assizes
Killiecrankie - July 27, 1689 – Slaughter at Sundown
Fleurus - July 1, 1690 – The French Cannae
Aughrim - July 22, 1691 – Bloody Hollow
La Prairie - August 11, 1691 – Double Ambush
Neerwinden - July 29, 1693 – Le Tapissier de Nôtre Dame
Marsaglia - October 4, 1693 – The Massed Bayonet Charge is Born
Narva - November 30, 1700 – Charles XII Smashes the Russian Army
Chiari - September 1, 1701 – Catinat’s Last Battle
Klissow - July 19, 1702 – Charles XII Invades Poland
Blenheim - August 13, 1704 – “A Famous Victory”
Fraustadt - February 13, 1706 – The Swedish Cannae
Turin - September 7, 1706 – Eugene’s Greatest Victory
Almansa - April 25, 1707 – Battle of the Exiles
Poltava - July 8, 1709 – The Student Surpasses the Master
Malplaquet - September 11, 1709 – Mort et convoi de l'invincible Malbrough
Villaviciosa - December 10, 1710 – A Bourbon on the Spanish Throne
Sheriffmuir - November 13, 1715 – Confusion on the Moors
Glen Shiel - June 10, 1719 – Rob Roy’s Last Battle 

Designer Sean Chick has taken a simple core system and embellished it with nuanced special rules for differences in infantry doctrine and armaments without depriving the game of its elegant, primal simplicity. And for folks who want added depth and complexity, there are a number of optional rules for facing, formation, nationalities, and more that will allow you to tweak the game to suit your own playstyle and preferences. 

The result is a big, splendid game for a big, splendid era.

• (1) 22" x 34" map
• (352) 5/8" counters
• (54) 2" x 2.5" hex tiles
• (4) ten-sided dice
• (2) six-sided dice
• 20-page Rulebook
• 28-page Scenario Book
• Gatefold Player Aid
  
• 1 Turn Track

You can purchase the Print-and-Play version here.