A DIVERSION: AN TREATISE ON WARRE

In this post, dear readers, I meander into the atmospheric whatnots that I have inflicted on players at my games. Specifically, a version of a 17th Century "Treatise" that I would hand out at the start of my League of Augsburg games to put players in the correct frame of mind. I have several versions of these. The one in this posting is a fairly generic set of maxims for all miniatures games. Other versions are game specific, with advice on how to gain victory points sprinkled in among the maxims. Here are a few examples of  in-game advantages written as maxims (for taking artillery, seizing camps, and exhausting divisions): 

Ordnance is chief among the prizes of warre. Safeguard thine, therefore, as a miser doth a newfound copper, and seize the enemy's gonnes to vex him mightily.
 
Menace the enemy's followers and therebye wreake alarum among his soldiers for the safety of their goodes, courtesans, and sundry chattels.  

Eache grande division overthrown is like an weapon struck from Leviathan's hand, and advantage shall accrue in equal measure to the level of confusion wrought therein.


Truth be told, I found that players at conventions, given everything else they were trying to assimilate, did not invest much time in these (quite understandable).  They would often overlook the treatise entirely among the charts and OOBs that they were working with, and I would wind up having to bring it their attention.  Often, I would then find myself highlighting the maxims that "counted" in order to set the framework for the game: hardly what I was thinking when I came up them. I came to the ultimate realization that these were more for my amusement than the players, and were on the borderline of being more distraction than enhancement.  As a result, I now use them more sparingly, more so in club situations where players are familiar with game systems and not trying to take too much in.  
  

I offer the following general treatise on miniature gaming below as a amusement, if nothing else, for my blog readers.  I used one very much like it as a set of guidelines for my basement gaming group when I lived in Maryland.  It worked well enough in that role. Your mileage may vary, if not as a tool, then as a diversion.  As usual, you may Clix Pix for Big Pix:

There is also a  pdf version available  that might be easier to read.

Excelsior!