Longstreet Lite

A rank may not exceed or be started before the one in front is full. Formation change by facing 90 degrees, or by guidon: one base stays fixed and others form left, right or rear, with the footprint shifting no more than 2 files either side. Artillery is limbered (one limber base) or unlimbered abreast. Three or more ranks make a dense target.

When changing formation by guidon, the footprint of a unit may not expand or contract more than 2BW to the left and/or right.

Active units may move through friendly units (never enemies) if the phase was invoked with two cards. When falling back, the player may discard one card to let all units interpenetrate and cross difficult terrain freely; otherwise each friendly unit passed through loses a base and a unit crossing difficult terrain loses one base.

If you do not discard a card, then each of your units that falls back through a friendly stationary unit, causes 1 base to be removed from that stationary unit.

Terrain may be difficult (for some unit types), give cover, obstruct artillery, or be impassable. Moving through or changing formation in difficult terrain causes disorder (two-card phase). Units in difficult terrain get -1 to volleys, defence and attack rolls; bases in water cannot fire.

When a unit moves through difficult terrain, it causes disorder. Disorder requires the moving player to use an additional card.

A charging unit may wheel up to 1BW then must move directly forward up to its allowance to contact with its front edge; it must charge the closest reachable legal target. Artillery and smoke-marked infantry cannot charge. Contact engages all enemies directly ahead within 1BW.

If a unit could legally charge two or more targets, then the active player must charge the closest of those targets that can be reached in a legal charge.

Forward movement may combine straight moves, wheels (measured on outside arc) and obliques up to 45 degrees. Retrograde, sideways or obliques over 45 degrees are flank moves and cannot be combined with forward movement. An about-face costs nothing before moving but causes disorder within 6BW of the enemy.

Forward movement may be at an oblique angle up to 45 degrees. Any angle greater than 45 degrees is considered “flank” movement, and no longer “forward.”

Infantry 4BW, limbered artillery 6BW; unlimbered artillery may only prolong 1BW. Infantry declaring a flank move have their basic allowance halved, with card bonuses (e.g. Quickstep +2) added after halving. In a movement phase each unit may move or change formation, never contacting the enemy.

For example: an infantry unit has a movement allowance of 4, meaning that it could move 4BW. Infantry units have their basic movement allowances halved when making flank moves.

Six-card hand drawn from neutral plus national cards with year indicators. Active player: invoke any phase, or modify a phase if the card bears its symbol (rifle fire, crossed swords combat, bugle movement), max one modifier per phase type. Passive player: play one kepi-symbol interrupt per turn (red-banner interrupts are removed from the game) or spend cards for morale value. No voluntary discards.

Invoke a phase Active Any card may invoke any phase. Modify Active May only modify type of phase indicated by symbol. Interrupt Passive If banner is red, then remove after play. Morale Value Passive

A unit forced to fall back rolls two dice. An active unit, such as an attacker in combat, picks the lower die. A passive unit picks the higher. The result is the minimum fall-back distance in BW, and the unit must also end at least 1BW from any enemy. A limbered artillery unit in combat rolls two dice and keeps the higher as its defence score, or the lower if attacked by any mounted unit (quick reference).

A unit that must fall back rolls two dice. An active unit (such as an attacker in combat) picks the lower of the two. A passive unit picks the higher of the two.

Fire, kills, combat and fall-back all use d6; ties are broken by a single die (even wins for the roller).

All references to “dice” in these rules refer to normal six-sided dice.

'May re-roll' lets a player re-roll failed dice; 'must re-roll' forces successful dice to be re-rolled. A die is never re-rolled twice, modifiers still apply, and the active player re-rolls first. E.g. Rebel Yell forces Federals to re-roll successful defence rolls.

If the rule states that the player must re-roll dice in that circumstance, then he has no choice: he must abide by the second (re-rolled) result.

Any card may invoke any phase and is discarded even if the phase is not used. If any unit is to do something that causes disorder (interpenetration, difficult terrain, formation change or about-face within 6BW of the enemy), the phase must be invoked with two cards, after which all units may do so freely.

If he wants any of his units to do anything that causes disorder in a movement or combat phase, then the active player must use two cards to invoke that phase.

1) option to reshuffle; 2) option for a fire phase; 3) one command choice: movement, combat or pass; 4) status phase: both sides redraw, remove smoke, check victory. A player may not pass two turns in a row. Forcing a choice between moving and charging rewards preparing coordinated attacks.

After the fire phase (if there is one), the active player may make one command choice. He has three options. He may invoke a movement phase, or a combat phase, or he may pass.

Interrupts are played immediately after the enemy invokes (and modifies) a phase, or at the start of the enemy's turn as specified. Examples: Old Rivals stops one enemy unit moving; Pinkerton forces a Federal combat phase to become a pass; Obsolete Muskets gives -1 to enemy volleys.

A card with the kepi symbol in its banner is an interrupt card. Only the passive side may play it for effect. Doing so interrupts some action or activity in the active player’s turn.

During your turn you are the active player and your opponent passive; roles switch at turn end, continuing until one side is defeated. Only active units shoot, move or charge.

The game continues in this IGO-UGO sequence until one side is defeated.

The first base the 1BW zone touches is the target, with priority directly ahead then up to 45 degrees. A volley requires a zone free of cover and crests; otherwise the base skirmishes, which is never obstructed but hits only on 6s. Artillery fire passing obstructing terrain penetrates only 2BW further and cannot shoot over a crest.

A base may volley if it can lay down a fire zone to its front, up to short range (6BW) that does not pass through any cover, nor over the crest of a hill, prior to hitting an enemy.

Front-rank infantry bases and unlimbered guns fire one die per base (canister two). Hits on 4+ (+1 dense target of 3+ ranks or enfiladed; -1 artillery vs cover; -1 volleying from difficult terrain); skirmish fire always hits on 6. Hits accumulate; after morale cards, the shooter rolls one die per remaining hit, each 4+ removes a base. Firing infantry are marked with smoke and cannot charge.

He rolls a number of dice equal to the hits on that unit, and each successful roll results in a “kill”: a base removed from the target unit.

Within 6BW is short range for small arms and canister; artillery must fire canister at targets in short range and may only bombard (24BW in the Lite game) if no short-range target exists, never splitting bombardment fire.

Small arms and canister have a maximum range of 6BW. Being within 6BW is known as short range.

A unit falling back rolls two dice and must move at least that many BW from the enemies it engaged and not end within 1BW of any enemy, by the shortest legal path to flank or rear. A unit unable to fall back, or forced off the table, is broken. Unlimbered artillery limbers first.

A unit that must fall back rolls two dice. An active unit (such as an attacker in combat) picks the lower of the two. A passive unit picks the higher of the two.

A vulnerable defender hits only on 6s and attackers get +1 against it. Cover gives attackers -1. An attacker engaging several defenders must allocate dice as evenly as possible, with priority to units in contact and occupying the most frontage; a marginally engaged defender may receive one die.

A vulnerable defender always and only hits on rolls of six, regardless of any possible modifiers.

The defender rolls one die per base (all ranks), the attacker one per base in the front two ranks, max ten dice per unit; successes on 4+. Ties go to the defender. A losing defender loses bases equal to the difference and falls back; attackers still engaged with a winning defender lose one base and fall back. Limbered artillery rolls two dice keeping the higher as its score.

Each defending unit whose defense score is lower than the enemy’s attack score against it has lost the combat by that difference. Because it lost, it will have to fall back. And it must lose a number of bases equal to that difference.

After fire, the passive player may play up to two cards per unit, removing hits equal to their morale values, but the last hit cannot be removed. After losing a combat, each morale point saves a base (max one card if vulnerable, two otherwise), but one base is always lost and the unit still falls back. Fire thus erodes cards rather than bases.

What they don’t realize is that the enemy’s fire is affecting their cards rather than their bases.

The owning player chooses which bases to remove so long as the formation stays legal, even ones not in the enemy's range. An infantry unit reduced to a single base is removed as broken; artillery can remain at one base. Removed bases are kept to count against the shattered point.

When an infantry unit is reduced to only a single base, that base is also removed, and the unit is broken.

1BW is approximately one base's width (about 40 yards). Infantry units are regiments of 2-10 squarish bases; artillery batteries of up to 3 gun bases. Figures per base is irrelevant.

All rates and distances in the game will be expressed in BW, the size of which depends upon the size of bases you play with.

Lite covers infantry and artillery only; the full game adds cavalry, six artillery types and ratings for experience and elan (shown on the full-game QRS and Force Roster).

These Lite rules deal with infantry (INF) and artillery (ART) units only. The Lite game does not cover the use of cavalry.

At turn start the active player may (or must, if his deck is empty) reshuffle discards into the deck, then deals the top six cards out of the game unseen. A player loses at the moment he has no cards in hand, deck or discard pile, or if he passes with no cards in deck or discards.

Each time he reshuffles and creates a new action deck, the player must then deal the top six cards from that deck and - without looking at them - remove them from the game.

Both roll a die; the higher sets up between the higher roll and the sum of both rolls in terrain pieces; the other player chooses a side. The board is split into thirds with each army deploying in its edge third and the higher roller choosing to set up first or second.

He may set up a number of terrain features up to the combined number of their two die rolls, but at least as many as the higher of those two rolls.

Before play each side halves its base count (round up); the lower figure is both sides' shattered point. In his status phase the active player rolls one die and adds enemy bases removed; equal or greater wins the game.

In the victory step of his status phase the active player rolls one die and adds it to the number of enemy bases removed from the game. If the resulting total is equal to or greater than the shattered point, then he has won the game.