The "shock cavalry melee resolution" card

After play-testing the Shock Cavalry Melee Resolution card I can now report that it works a treat.

It was several years ago that the idea for this card was first muted. It was in the early days of our group playing Piquet that Mark Dudley and I discussed the sequence decks for SYW armies and their use of a single Melee Resolution card and the use of Heroic Moment as extra melee resolution cards for cavalry. The point of only having one general use melee resolution card was a good idea. It meant that infantry resolved combat with fire rather than the bayonet and made the game feel very SYW, but using the Heroic Moment card as a melee resolution card for cavalry meant that 'heroic moments' were much less common - which was a shame - because the use of this card to bend the rules to allow the unusual is both elegant and interesting. From memory, we added cavalry melee resolution cards to the deck by simply putting an asterisk on a couple of extra melee resolution cards in each deck. But, at some point, this idea fell by the wayside - forgotten.

Recently, I started playing SYW again and I went back to basics, using the Heroic Moment card - then the idea of the extra cavalry melee resolution card was reborn. I discussed the idea with Peter and Graham and they were game. Then, when I came to make up the new Cavalry Melee Resolution card I added the word Shock. I'm not sure if I knew what I was doing when I did it, but as it happens it was most fortunate. I had accidentally built in the difference between Prussian hussars and the hussars of other nations, and also downgraded cossacks (which was probably my immediate aim), at a stroke. 

The difference between SYW Prussian hussars and other SYW hussars has always been a pain to rule upon - other hussars form up in the same way, are similarly mounted and armed, but they have a different function and training. The use of the word 'shock' on the card is a simple, extremely efficient way, of distinguishing the types. Prussian hussars can use the card, others can't.

Anyway, it something you might want to try.