Polemos: War of the Spanish Succession – Chosen Men, Well Disposed 2014

Polemos War of Spanish Succession is specifically aimed at enabling the wargamer to fight large scale actions; actual battles, rather than small scale skirmishes. Systems for firing, melee and morale are straightforward and easy to learn, but allow your troops to emulate the tactics used by their historical counterparts. For instance, troops using the platoon firing system have improved close range factors, while others using fire by ranks are allowed to be more aggressive.

Chosen men, well disposed is therefore produced as one of two sets of rules produced to cover the period. CMWD enables the player to recreate the small to medium sized battles of the War of Spanish Succession, or crucial parts of the major battles. Use CMWD you can, if you wish, replay General Webb’s action at Wynendael or perhaps the attack of the Allied left column on the village of Blenheim.

The aim of the rules is to allow you to fight actions of this size to a finish in three to four hours while retaining the feel of warfare in this period and giving you some tactical control over your troops

The same wargames figures may be used in both sets of rules, as the basing system is universal; only the nominal scale will differ.

Basing and Representation

The basic unit of manoeuvre in Polemos CMWS is the Base - a group of wargames figures mounted permanently on a single base of a given size. The actual position of the figures on the base is not important, nor is it important that the base sizes given below are adhered to. So long as both armies use the same basing system, the rules should not be affected. A base of infantry in CMWD represents between 300 and 500 men. This generally represents a battalion in most armies of the period. Some armies tended to field larger battalions and these will be represented by two bases. A base of cavalry represents a regiment or two to three squadrons. An artillery base represents 2-3 guns. All distances in Polemos games are expressed in Base Widths (BW) and Base Depths (BD) in order to allow the use of differing base sizes. A BD is half a BW. This system means that any size can be used for bases, so no rebasing is required so long as both sides are consistent. We believe that a 60mm x 30mm base gives the best results in terms of both practical use and visual impact.

—description from the publisher