By Keith Stine.
It has been a real pleasure to revisit This Very Ground. It had been a long time coming since the original was published in
2005. I hope you enjoy the new edition of the rules and I hope they are a true improvement over the last edition. I made a
lot of changes to the system, but my goal was to maintain the playability of the original while adding tactical nuance and
flexibility that brings out more of the flavor of skirmish warfare in North America from the early 1600s through the early
1800s, with a focus on King Philip’s War through the War of 1812.
I wanted to capture as much of the tactical feel of the period as I could, while allowing players to field forces from each of
these periods. I also wanted the lists to reflect the differences in weapons, unit types, and unit qualities across these wars
as well. With that said, they will have some similarities. Militia from the French & Indian War are still going to generally
be poorer troops than their regular counterparts, and these lists are scaled to each other as well. With that said, I wanted the
lists to also act as a basic guide for creating your own forces for these wars. It is truly impossible to present all of the unit
types and variations for each of these forces across four wars. There will always be something missing in even the most
exhaustive list. Players are urged to see these lists more as unit archetypes than lists for specific units. It is suggested that
players tinker with these lists to put together the types of units and forces they want to see on the tabletop. These lists are a
way to do that and allow both sides in a game to be on the same page as far as unit stats and weapons.
This Very Ground: Victory or Death certainly has come a long way from the original French & Indian War focus of the first
edition. It is my hope that this has not diluted the rules but strengthened them and broadened them to allow you to play
a variety of wars and field a variety of units and still maintain the tactical feel for these periods. And these four wars are
not the only conflict you can use these rules for! This system will work for nearly any small-scale skirmish in the musket
era. You could use this system to game the wars in the Caribbean and in Spanish America or on the battlefields of Europe.
Of course, it is still meant as a small-scale skirmish game. With the basic tactical unit being a platoon, the focus is still on
1:1 scale infantry combat. But this shouldn’t stop players from zooming into a small area of a bigger battle. The scenarios
presented here of Parker’s Revenge and the Battle of Lundy Lane are exactly that. I felt it was important to showcase how
easily the system will handle skirmishes up to bigger battles yet keeping a skirmish level of playability. It is suggested to
play most games using single-based 15-28mm miniatures on a 4'x6' table. Players may wish to field much larger forces on
up to whole companies per side, or to use unit-based miniatures but record casualties on unit rosters.
--Keith Stine, December 2019.
(c) 2020. This book is owned and published by the Iron Ivan Games division of Sinister Laboratories, a joint venture between Rattrap Productions LLC and Brigade Games and Hobby LLP.
