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| A Featherstonian battle in progress from decades past. Photograph "borrowed" from the Man of Tin blog. |
Rules of Wargames in the American Civil War Period (pp. 34-35 of Feathertone’s Complete Wargaming, 1988)
“The effects of being fired upon or taking part in a hand-to-hand melee are reflected by the morale of the unit as a whole being affected in that it is – Unaffected, when it remains where it is on the field, able to move, fire, or fight in the next game move in the normal style.
Shaken – when the unit withdraws its normal move distance, still in good fighting order, but not able to move forward (or towards the enemy) until the next game move. It may fight in the normal way if attacked.
Disordered – when the unit withdraws its normal move distance, but ends with its back to the enemy, unable to fight or fire until its owner is able to score a 4 or over on the dice, which he may throw at the beginning of each subsequent game-move. Each failure to make the 4 means the unit retreats a further game move distance. Whilst disordered, a unit can be fired upon or attacked without being able to retaliate and automatically moves back – in disorder – its move distance.
Units do not suffer individual casualties and no figures are removed from the table. This means that the actual strength of the tabletop unit is unimportant – it may consist of 20, 30, or more figures without practically affected in any way, neither advantageously, or detrimentally.”
-- Stokes
Comments
A quick check of my bookshelves proved this to be correct: plate 10 in Featherstone's "War Games" (December 1965 reprinted edition). The climax of the excellent little "Action in the Platteville Valley", with the Federal forces triumphing as night falls at end of move 8. I can't quote the morale rules though as none are given - though the account of the action shows that they exist and are a little more primitive than the 1988 version. No "disorder", units just become "shaken" and, unless rallied at some point, eventually retreating off the table edge. This makes a nice "old school" refight (I just borrow the Ancient Warfare morale rules from earlier in the book).
I think that the picture credit should probably be "Don Featherstone by way of Man of Tin blog" though it is possible that both of you need a higher quality scan.