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Index
The Anglo-Scottish border of the 16th century was not a quiet place. Apart from the wars between the two countries during the period, there was a huge amount of cross-border raiding, feuding and general mayhem. This is typical of a militarised border, and similar examples can be found elsewhere, such as the Uskoks of the Adriatic or the Cossacks of the Russian steppes.
Border forays varied in size from a few riders to 3000 lances. In the latter case raiding parties were sent out from the main force, so it was rare of all 3000 riders to be present and active at the same time. This rule set attempts to make a game out of the average sort of raid, or from say 40 riders up to a few hundred. Each family or riding name had its well-known leaders, each of whom had a style of raid that suited his personality. Thus the 'fyrebrand' rating for the leaders is developed. It should be noted that the Reivers only infrequently went out of their way to kill people, unless in feud. The plunder of civilians, rustling of cattle or sheep or the embarrassment of enemies were more in their line. Murder did indeed happen frequently, but much of it was unpremeditated.
The basic unit for these rules is the ‘riding name’. This is a group of around 20 riders, mounted or dismounted. A name or group of names is commanded by a ‘heidman’. He has a ‘fyrebrand’ rating which largely controls what he will do, or risk doing, to achieve his ends. His followers will, by and large, take his lead. A heidman also has a ‘craft’ rating, which indicates his leadership, local knowledge, awareness of potential ambush sites, concealment ability and so on. March Officers are treated as heidmen, except that their craft rating is generally lower, and their names would, in most circumstances be a mixture of garrison troops and employed riders.
A name may consist of mounted or foot figures, and in I have mine mounted on 40 mm by 20-mm bases for the cavalry, and 40 by 10 mm for the foot. Each name is of one of the following types:
The move is done alternately by the players. Each side starts with the heidman with the lowest fyrebrand rating.
This sequence is repeated for each side, and each heidman, so side 1 has his lowest fyrebrand heidman move, parts 1-4 above, then his next lowest fyrebrand heidman, and so on. Combat is then resolved, parts 5-7 above. Side 2 then undertakes the same procedure.
Fyrebrand is essentially a leadership and morale rating. It is harder to do, and persuade you men to do, more dangerous things than safe things. Dangerous things get negative modifiers, safer ones get positive modifiers. Most reivers and soldiers would have ratings of 3 or 4, most civilians 4.
Rating | Definition |
0 | Mad head or touched |
1 | Wild punk |
2 |
Veteran reiver |
3 | Brave peasant, average reiver or trained soldier |
4 | Normal peasant or burgher |
5 | Cowards, knaves and poltroons |
In order to attempt something more dangerous, to remain steady when surprised, or in other appropriate circumstances, a roll on a d10 is made. The fyrbrand is modified in accordance with the table
+1 | Under fire | +1 |
Fleeing or having lost combat |
+3 | Lost melee |
-2 |
Military under orders |
+/-2 | In cover |
+/-1 | Psychological edge |
-2 | Mounted against foot |
+3 | Foot against mounted |
-2 | Facing feuders |
+3 | Suprised |
If the resulting die score is greater than the modified fyrebrand rating, then the name may proceed as desired, be rallied if fleeing etc. Otherwise, a safer course of action must be taken, or flee if surprised.
A peasant name (4) is under fire (+1) and being charged by cavalry (+3), giving a total fyrbrand of 8. He wishes to stand firm, and rolls a 10, and therefore may.
Each heidman or March officer has a craft rating. This is a measure of the border craft of the name leader, and the trust his men have in him. This is thrown for at the start of each bound, and limits the number of actions a given leader can make in that bound. Heidmen and March officers are rated as poor, average or good, and roll for craft points accordingly, as the following table:
Poor | 1d4 |
Average | 1d6 |
Good | 1dAv+1 |
The cost in craft to perform various actions is given in the following table:
Action | Craft Cost |
Move name or group of names |
+1 |
Move name or group on road(applies once per bound only) |
-1 |
Conceal dismounted name |
+1 |
Conceal mounted name | +3 |
Detect ambush (per attempt) | +1 |
Using craft at over range | +1 |
Dismount or remount name | +2 |
Unused craft may not be carried over into the heidman’s next bound. The range of craft is 300 paces in normal conditions. This is reduced to 50 paces in the dark or in fog, and on a sliding scale in other weather conditions. Craft may not be used at over twice the current range.
The basic movement ranges are as given in the table. The terrain effects described below modify these. Troops may only move if they are assigned sufficient craft points so to do. One craft point is used to move a single name, or a group of name in base to base contact, with the caveats described in the terrain section below.
Name Type | Movement (paces) |
Foot |
100 |
Mounted |
200 |
Herds |
50 |
Wagons, guns etc | 50 |
Factors and tactical situation determine combat. The factors for the troop types are:
Name Type | Foot | Mounted |
Ranged | Range |
Rider | 2 | 2 | 2 | - |
Lowne | 2 | 2 | 2 | - |
Demi-Lance | 3 | 3 | 2 | - |
Musketeer | 2 | 2 | 4 | 100 |
Blade | 4 | 3 | 2 | - |
Bow | 2 | 3 | 3 | 100 |
Pike | 3 | 4 | 2 | - |
Only bows and musketeers may fire at range, the factor for the other name types are for resisting the effects of such fire.
Tactical factors are:
Situation | Factor |
|
Overlap or flank or rearcontact | -1 |
|
Heidman’s name in combat | +1 |
|
Mounted in poor ground | -2 |
|
Foot in high cover | +3 | |
Foot in medium cover | +2 |
|
Foot in low cover | +1 |
The effects of combat are as follows:
Losers Score as fraction of winners | Effect |
Equal | Continuing combat |
½-equal | Loser recoils, unless flanked in which case flee, winner may follow up |
Less than 1/2 | Loser flees unless flanked, in which case destroyed |
Continuing combat: both sides remain in melee if in close combat. If ranged combat, both may move normally.
Loser recoils: loser moved one base depth to rear, unless flanked in which case destroyed. The winners may chose to close up and engage in another bound of close combat, or break off and stand or move normally next bound.
Loser flees: the loser recoils, as above, and then moves one full move plus 50 paces to rear, avoiding any obstacles, finishing the move with rear to enemy. The name will require rallying before being able to move normally again. Any friends encountered will be swept along by the fleeing name, except pike or those in difficult ground or behind obstacles. The fyrbrand of the fleeing name is increased by one for the remainder of the game. If not rallied, the name will flee again in the sides next bound.
If involved in combat, each heidman must roll 2d6. If a 2 is rolled, an incident has taken place. If his name is fleeing, subtract 4 from the roll, if his name has recoiled this bound, subtract 2. If a 2 is rolled the heidman then rolls on the accompanying table:
Die Roll | Incident | Effect on heidman |
Effect on names |
1 |
| Death | Flee |
2 |
| Death | Recoil |
3 |
| Wounded | Fyrbrand +1 |
4 |
| Wounded | Test fyrbrand |
5 |
| Captured |
Test fyrbrand. Flee if failed, attack if passed |
6 |
| No effect |
Recoil |
Ambushes were a very frequent occurrence in the border skirmishing. They were often laid to deter pursuers of a successful foray. A heidman may attempt to lay an ambush in any place he considers fit. If there is natural cover, so much the better, but not every fold in the land can be represented on the wargame table. Each craft point paid to conceal a dismounted ambush, or each 3 paid for concealing a mounted ambush counts as 1 concealment point. This is doubled if in medium concealment terrain (e.g. marsh or fields for foot) and trebled if in high concealment terrain (e.g. woods for foot, in built up areas or behind hills for mounted or foot). Each craft point spent on detecting an ambush counts as 1 detection point. The two values are matched. If the detection points are greater than the concealment, the ambush is spotted, otherwise it is not.
Feuds were prevalent between the various riding families during the period. Some were comparatively minor and were settled either by counter raids or by pre-meditated murder. Some became major, and some of the larger reiver against reiver combats of the age were in pursuit of these. March wardens and their officers were not above these, whether ‘foreigners’ or officials of local origin. In order to reflect these feuds, an umpire, or in a campaign game, an injured party (whether the injury is real or imagined), may declare feud on another name. This may include names allied to the original target. In such cases, the fyrebrand rating of the declaring name is lowered by 2 when facing their feuding targets. Naturally, this may well lead to the targets declaring feud against those that attack them, and also others who are allied or simply in the wrong place getting involved in the feud. This is perfectly historical.
The marches were divided into six regions, three each side of the border. These were the Scottish East, Middle and West marches, and their English counterparts. Each March had its own warden, usually a local nobleman, although the tendency on the English side was to appoint ‘foreigners’ to the post. Under the warden were a variety of captains, deputies and holders of castles. The Wardens were charged with upholding the March law, and co-operating with their counterparts in suppressing banditry and reiveing. Naturally, this being the border, a good number of Wardens and their officials were reviers themselves. In game terms, the March Law gives some opportunities for scenario building and in a campaign game it serves to set a context of the whole campaign.
In general, the sufferer of a raid had two courses to take. He could either launch a ‘Hot Trod’, or wait until the next Day of Truce and apply for compensation.
The hot trod was a hot pursuit by the wronged party after a band of reivers. It was permitted to cross the border, and on doing so was supposed to enlist the aid of the first village or keep it passed on the other side as guide and guarantee of good faith. Naturally, hot trods frequently became either the start of a retaliatory raid, or the subject of ambushes, and scenarios can be made out of this sort of incident.
Days of truce were days when the wardens of two opposite marches met to discuss the damage which raids had done and to set compensation levels for it. By custom those attending truce days were protected from harm until sunrise of the day after. This was not always adhered to, as the Kinmont Willie affair showed. Both sides were also supposed to limit the number of followers who attended the truce. Again this was not always kept, and some members of the entourages came with murder in mind. As the Redeswire Raid shows, fighting could and did break out on these days.
Generally, the reivers knew their local area very well, but they could not know everything. The wardens were in general, less knowledgeable. On a wargames table, small lumps and bumps of terrain cannot be accurately represented, although they may well be significant to a person in the area. Therefore, upon entering a new terrain area, roll 1d6 and consult the following table. In specific scenarios, where one side has local knowledge and the other not, the side with the knowledge may roll for the terrain in secret before the start of the game. When the other side moves into a new terrain area, the terrain effect rolled is revealed.
Die | Woods |
Die | Built Up Areas |
1 | Impassable – high cover * |
1 | Foot ¼ speed – high cover * |
2-3 | Foot only, ½ speed – medium cover * |
2-3 | Foot only, ½ speed – high cover |
4-5 | ½ speed – medium cover |
4-5 | ½ speed – medium cover |
6 | No effect – low cover |
6 | No effect |
Die | Marsh or Beach |
Die | Cultivated Land |
|
1-2 | Impassable – low cover |
1-3 | No effect |
3-5 | ¼ speed – low cover |
4-6 | ¾ speed – low cover |
6 | ½ speed |
|
|
Die | Broken Ground |
Die | Streams |
1 | Foot only, ¼ speed - medium cover * |
1 | Mounted ¼ speed – low cover |
2-4 | Foot only, ½ speed – low cover |
2 | ¼ speed |
5-6 | Foot ½ speed, mounted ¼ speed,low cover |
3-6 | ½ speed |
Die | Walls and hedges |
|
|
1 | Impassable – high cover |
|
|
2-3 | Foot ¼ speed – high cover |
|
|
|
4-5 | Foot ½ speed – medium cover |
|
|
6 | Foot full speed, mounted ¼ speed – low cover |
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The * indicates that the terrain requires an extra craft point to move names in it.
Terrain marked as impassable may be manned at the edge, by foot.
The design of a set of wargames rules is always a matter of compromise. Matters of scale, interpretation of history, game play and balance all have to be considered. The compromises used in this particular set of rules will de discussed in this section.
The general effort in writing these rules has been to keep them fast, fun and with a flavour of the times. Therefore morale is referred to as ‘fyrebrand’ and command points as ‘craft’. The troop types are called ‘names’ rather than elements, and so on. The rules on ambushes and March Law are also included with regard to atmosphere.
The scale of a game is covers a multitude of questions. This rule set is designed for roughly one figure is a few men, say about 5. In my games that makes a name of six figures around 30 riders. Therefore a heidman with four names would command about 120 men, which seems to be about the right scale for the operations. The ground scale is a bit trickier. 1” to 50 paces looks about right, so that is what I have used. A time scale is harder still. Variable is the best I can give, depending on what is happening. Feel free to change these as you desire.
The characteristics of the leaders were important in warfare at all times, and are emphasised here. Reivers would only follow successful heidmen, and were less likely to follow inexperienced or unskilled men. Border warfare depended on ambushes and bushwhacking, and so the significance of craft in laying and detecting ambushes is made explicit.
The fyrebrand rating is essentially a morale check. It has been designed to ensure that toe-to-toe combat does not occur too frequently. The game should be one of manoeuvre, ambush, and thrust and flee rather then two lines of riders slugging it out. This also accounts for the combat results and the terrain rules.
