1644: Rules for Battles of the English Civil War [Paperback]

I bought this new release of 1644 and while I am glad to have it, it was also just a little disappointing. It is very pretty but the rules are IDENTICAL to the original publication. Eighteen years later, there is not a single thing in the rules at all different EXCEPT that they superimposed line drawings over the various rules sections making the rules difficult to read now. And they put a buff background on all the game charts making them rather difficult to read as well. The rules for the Scrottuckshire Campaign game are also exactly the same. But mind you, that is OK...for my view 1644 is really a good set of rules and my favorite of the many other rules sets that have come out over the years.

1644 are easy to use once you become familiar with their emphasis on "Command State" and its influence on the game. They have a enough detail to be fun but are not so detailed that you get bogged down in the rulebook. Games move along very quickly and for all intents and purposes a gamemaster need only put out the charts for player reference if he or she knows the rules well enough to guide play and adjudicate the occasional eccentric situation that may arise, particularly in the melee rules.

As a testament to how much I like the rules, I have four copies of the original 1644 edition, and I use those in my games. They are easy to read as are the charts, unemcumbered as they are by any background color or overlay illustrations. I bought my first set of 1644 for $18 or so when it first came out in 1990 and the other three copies at various convention fleamarkets for a matter of a few dollars each. The original is now getting very hard to find.

What is DIFFERENT about this "book" aside from the overlay of illustrations and color over the charts, are a wonderful collection of close-up color photographs of various vingettes of Foundry miniatures which provides, aside from an advertisement of their wares, really nice painting examples and a quick and imperical guide to colors, uniforms and details. They have added a section of painting tips for soldiers, a nice painting guide to just about every variety of horse there is, more information on painting and making flags than in the first edition, and of course the order of battles as advertised, for a number of other European armies of the 17th century for those who want to use the very same rules for the Thirty Years War and Marlburian battles. There is a little, very little I might add, additional historical background in this edition.

My biggest disappointment was finding out that they offer NO historical scenarios, not a single one. A feature that would have been truly, worth in itself, the price of the new edition, and an especially nice addition for beginners to the Era who may not have historical references for the period, or a collection of some of the out of print phamplets on battles such as the old subscripition publication entitled "Terribly Obscure Battles of the ECW" by the old Matchlock figure company.

All this being said, the bottom line is that for people who are looking for a good set of ECW rules and who haven't been able to find a copy of the original 1644 rules long out of print; this is a chance to get them with a few extras and in a very, very colorful format.

This edition is very pretty and a likely nice addition to any dyed-in-the-wool English Civil War gamer. Hopefully Wargames Foundry are saving a collection of pre-designed historical and set piece battles (scenarios) for an add-on module.

A longtime wargaming opponent convinced me to try out 1644. The online charts (for downloading) are a BIG help. I am part of a smallish group of wargamers who like more than just one set of rules to use for our wargaming.

The rules are spelled out well. You do need to think when learning the rules. There are very few grey areas (if you think). It is an easy to see/read set of rules. Helpful and enjoyable diagrams and photos abound. The style and size of the print is easy on old eyes, likely the same for younger eyes as well.

In my opinion, 1644 Rules for Battles of the English Civil War, Thirty Years War, European Conflicts of the 17th Century is very good.....5 stars in fact.

By the by.....Amazon.Com is a smart way to get your hands on a copy of Rick Priestley's rules.....Enjoy, enjoy.

This is the second edition of these Rick Priestley rules, I have the original from the 1990's. Very good then. These rules are updated adding allot of new stuff and streamling the rules IMO. He adds TYW lists and Marlburian lists as well (Excellent!)...Get these, especially made for the 20-30mm figure gammers as figures are based individual for casualty removals, like WAB, etc.

The Bad: Not much, could use more TYW & Marlburian lists but all-in-all very well done, color thru and thru as well.