From Shako to Coal Scuttle: Quick-play Battles from Waterloo to the Marne

From Shako to Coal Scuttle lets you get the feeling of a big battle, without memorizing hundreds of pages of rules and having to paint a thousand figures first.

Covering roughly a hundred years, starting with Napoleon and Washington and ending as the old world romance dies in 1914, an army consists of 8-12 infantry units with a few supporting cavalry units and artillery units representing the entire army taking the field.

Intended for 15mm figures and below, each unit consists of 4 stands (infantry/cavalry) or a single gun stand, meaning that a full army won't typically require more than 50 stands.

Commanding your army is done through the Command Dice mechanic:

Your troops will carry out basic movement and combat automatically, but you will have a limited number of rallying and shock actions each turn, based on unit quality and the luck of the Command Dice roll each turn.

If you need additional actions, your army leadership can be committed to give you additional actions, but this puts them at risk. Lead from the front and be rewarded.. or shot from your horse.

Combat uses a single-roll mechanic: Roll a pool of dice (typically 3-4) and check each die for results.

That single roll will tell you everything you need to know, without any additional rolls required: Is the enemy in Disarray? Being pushed back? Taking losses? One roll.

Finally the rules offer simple campaign rules, options to help you set up creative scenarios and a standard "meeting engagement" battle plan you can use to set up.

—description from the publisher