Steve Carey - 01:12pm Apr 3, 2003 PST (#2936 of 2941) 
Ready Freddie
<long post> 

I've previously mentioned that some interesting situations occur in
Marlborough Man. Here are a few briefly mentioned (and Richard, please
correct me if I have anything wrong) to help new players (or prospective
buyers) get a feel for the system: 

CARACOLE 

This tactic can be quite effective if planned properly. Get lucky and
roll a '9' on the Pre-Shock Reaction table to Disorder the target (and
also prevent him from firing back at you), then roll for a pistol hit to
force the same enemy unit back 1 hex (note: Disorder results from Fire
cannot eliminate an already Disordered unit, just makes them Retreat).
Continue with other friendly units to exploit the new hole in the enemy
line. 

Or simply Caracole looking for a pistol hit to Disorder the enemy unit,
then follow up with a different unit to Shock and eliminate the target
with a Shock Disorder result. 

On the congested battlefield (note: no stacking is allowed, even during
movement, so keep an open path to the target), it may be hard to set up
your Cavalry line to launch a Caracole attack, but it's usually worth it
to try. 

CONTINUITY 

Some lucky dice to Continue with your Commands are great, made more easy
by adding the Wing Commander's Continuity modifier to the roll. However,
the more often that a Commands activates, the more likely that it will
venture outside of the Wing Commander's range and thus eventually run
out of steam without the WC's modifier. 

It will take a Free Activation to move the Wing Commander and
re-establish your command structure. 

SEIZURE 

At first glance, it looks like an easy call for the non-active player to
usually try to Seize, but failure allows the current player to go again
with the same units that just activated (note: normally the rules
prevent a Command from activating two times in a row). This can be a
powerful tool as the same Command can get momentum by punching holes in
your already weakened line. 

DRAGOONS 

These units have two states: Mounted or Foot. When Mounted, Dragoons
have no Fire ability, yet they do have more mobility. On Foot, they can
Fire (but with a -1drm), yet they're obviously slower. Regardless of
their status, they always suffer a -1 drm in Shock. 

I prefer my Dragoons deployed on Foot. Muskets are the best Fire weapon
in the game, and even when not Mounted, Dragoons have the special
(skirmisher-like) ability to leave a ZOC without having to roll for
Withdrawal. 

ARTILLERY 

These are not very effective units. They're slow, and suffer negative
modifiers, even at point blank range. It takes an entire activation to
fire the guns, usually giving you just a shot or two anyway. 

And Artillery can't even Reaction Fire when the enemy moves adjacent to
you! 

Don't put too much faith in your field pieces. 

MULTI-HEX ATTACKS 

Be careful when attacking multiple defending hexes since a die roll is
made for each defending hex in Shock. Just two succesive bad rolls and
one of your big Infantry pieces will Disorder twice and melt away. 

WITHDRAWAL 

Foot units are at a distinct disadvantatge when combat goes bad since
they can't leave a ZOC without rolling for Withdrawal (note: Foot units
must be In Command to Withdraw). 

Disordered units really have it bad since they add a +2drm to the
Withdrawal roll, and if the roll fails they Disorder ('Break') again and
are thus eliminated. 

RALLY 

You don't need Leaders to Rally, but you do need to get Disordered units
away from the enemy since they can't Rally when adjacent. 

It's sticky for Foot units to pull away from an engaged line, not only
due to Withdrawal but also due to the massing of troops and prohibited
stacking. 

Try to maintain Reserves as things can go downhill very quickly. 

That's it. MM is a rich, yet very accessible, design. I hope the above
comments are accurate and helpful to interested gamers. 

STEVE