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I'm sure there are many, many opinions about this one. To get things started.
I'm pretty flexible with what rules are on or off. I will adapt my tactics to the situation. The rules are simply another factor in the game.
Yes to Optional Fire and Melee rules -- unlike the talonsoft games where the optional rules changed the odds, this one simply makes the average result more likely. Without it you are letting dice rolls have as much influence as your fire tactics. If you think Tiller's fire and melee casualty process is correct, then I think you want to always play with these two rules. If you think his process is incorrect, more randomness is not a solution.
Yes to weak zocs and partial retreats -- I will always vote to make zoc kills as hard as possible.
Yes to Isolation, flank morale and terrain modifiers -- seems to me these are the rewards for good tactics and I like to play with them.
Yes to multiple cav melees, no to multiple infantry melees -- I think this is historical --- it was way too hard to corrdinate phased infantry attacks against a single unit.
Don't have much experience with the newer rules, but not allowing retreat overruns of skirmishers seems to be gong backwards relative to zoc kills so its not on my preferred list. Restriciting opportunity fire against skirmishers, if it means a better chance of firing at other targets would get my vote -- if it doesn't change things then why restrict it?
Pass thru and target density -- I have no strong opinion, I will play either way -- if given the choice I will select it but only because I think the effect of canon fire is not adequately represented in terms of its impact of unit morale, so this allows more casualties, which increases the chance of failing morale checks, so it is a poor solution for the problem I see but moves things in the right direction.
Rout Limiting and Line Movement restriction. I struggle with these two. I think they are historical and so the inclination is to use them. However, we are playing competively against others, not necessarily recreating or evaluating history and these two rules effectively enhance units with higher quality and better leaders. Can get a little complicated but I think these rules can easily shift the balance of game by giving (in most cases) the french player a 10-15% increase in effective number of troops -- has to do with the process of units recoverying from disorder. So I prefer to have rout limiting on and line movement restriction off.
Points for leaders is a no brainer -- always on.
Manual Defensive Fire -- or playing in phases. My preference is to play in turns and allow for a mix of movement, fire, melee -- seems to me that was real war. But in the game it also brings with it the downside of the blitzkrieg problem, which means you want to play with a house rule. I've recently played a few games in the ACW Club using phases and it was okay, so I wouldn't object to it, but its not my preference.
Brigadier Sir Bob Breen KT
1st (The King's) Dragoon Guards
Commanding 71st Highlanders
Commandant, RMA
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