Club Regulations
Age of Reason Kriegspiel is a friendly international PBEM club for WDS Musket & Pike players, built around historical flavour, fair play, and a simple military career system.
For recommended optional rules, historical play guidelines, and gentlemen’s agreements, see the Musket & Pike Historical Play Guide in the Library, under Miscellany.
The club exists to provide a courteous, historically minded place for players of Wargame Design Studio’s Musket & Pike titles set in the Age of Reason, broadly covering the period from 1700 to 1783.
Its purpose is not merely to maintain a ladder, but to give PBEM play a period setting: armies, officers, ranks, honours, records, and a modest sense of military career.
Members are expected to play in a generous spirit. Historical rivalry and light role-play are welcome; insults, harassment, cheating, bad faith play, or deliberate disruption of the club will not be tolerated.
Membership is free. New members enlist through the official Enlistment Form and choose an army or national service for their public roster identity.
Every member must provide a first and last name for the club records. This may be a real name or a period-appropriate fictitious name, but simple aliases or anonymous handles are not used in the public roster.
Personal email addresses are kept for internal administration and are not published on the website.
An officer is listed under one army or national service in the Roster. This affiliation gives the officer a public identity, rank, and place in the club’s order of battle.
Army affiliation does not restrict play. A member may play either side in any agreed battle or campaign, regardless of the army shown in the Roster.
A battle counts for the club record when both players agree before or during play that it will be reported as an official club battle.
At the end of the game, one player submits the Battle Result Report. The result should match the final result given by the game unless both players agree that a correction is necessary.
The club supports single PBEM battles, multiplayer PBEM battles, and campaigns when both players or teams agree to record them.
Training or friendly games may be played without affecting the public rating if the players agree in advance.
All officers begin their career with 0 Command Rating points. The system rewards active service as well as victory: every completed official battle grants each player 1 point for each turn played.
After the battle is concluded, a result bonus is added to the points earned from turns. Defeated officers keep their turn points, but receive no additional result bonus.
| Final Battle Result | Points for Turns | Result Bonus |
|---|---|---|
| Major Victory | +1 point per turn played | +100 |
| Minor Victory | +1 point per turn played | +50 |
| Draw | +1 point per turn played | +25 to each officer |
| Minor Defeat | +1 point per turn played | 0 |
| Major Defeat | +1 point per turn played | 0 |
A battle ends on turn 45. The winner obtains a Major Victory: 45 turn points + 100 result bonus = 145 points. The defeated officer receives 45 points for completed service.
Some scenarios begin with one side already in a difficult position. When a player starts a scenario in Minor Defeat or Major Defeat and improves the situation by the end of the battle, the club may apply an additional percentage bonus to that officer’s battle points.
The bonus is based on functional improvement from the initial scenario state to the final result. It does not change the official result of the battle; it only recognises the difficulty of the command undertaken.
If the initial situation is not clearly shown or agreed, no initial disadvantage bonus is applied.
| Initial Situation | Final Result | Additional Bonus |
|---|---|---|
| Minor Defeat | Draw | +10% |
| Minor Defeat | Minor Victory | +25% |
| Minor Defeat | Major Victory | +50% |
| Major Defeat | Draw | +25% |
| Major Defeat | Minor Victory | +50% |
| Major Defeat | Major Victory | +100% |
An officer begins a 45-turn scenario in Major Defeat and finishes with a Minor Victory. His base score is 45 turn points + 50 victory points = 95. The underdog bonus is +50%, giving a final total of 143 points after rounding.
The club uses a common promotion ladder inspired by the Prussian military hierarchy of the Age of Reason. This gives every officer the same path of advancement, while allowing each army to display its own national equivalent rank in the Roster.
Rank equivalence is functional, not literal. Eighteenth-century armies did not share a perfectly uniform hierarchy, and some titles varied by country, branch, period, or military tradition. The club therefore matches ranks according to their approximate level of command within a common progression system.
| Minimum Points | Prussian Reference Rank | Command Level |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | Fähnrich | Junior officer / ensign |
| 100 | Sekondeleutnant | Second lieutenant |
| 250 | Premierleutnant | First lieutenant |
| 500 | Stabskapitän | Staff captain |
| 1,000 | Hauptmann | Captain |
| 2,000 | Major | Field officer |
| 3,500 | Oberstleutnant | Lieutenant colonel |
| 5,500 | Oberst | Colonel |
| 8,000 | Generalmajor | Junior general officer |
| 12,000 | Generalleutnant | Senior general officer |
| 18,000 | General der Infanterie / Kavallerie | Full general |
| 25,000 | Generalfeldmarschall | Field marshal |
National rank equivalents are listed in the Library. The Roster shows the equivalent rank appropriate to the officer’s chosen army.
The public Roster is organised first by army or nation. Within each army, officers are ordered by rank, then by points, then by number of completed battles, and finally by enlistment date if a tie remains.
This makes the Roster an officer list and career register, not merely a chronological list of members.
The Pour le Mérite is awarded to an officer for each completed battle ending in a Major Victory. It represents decisive battlefield success and is recorded separately from rank and Command Rating points.
In the Roster, multiple awards are shown by number rather than by repeating large medal images, in order to keep the officer register clear and readable.
Other honours may be awarded for tournament victories, service to the club, scenario design, historical contributions, or administrative work.
Pour le Mérite × 1
The club is maintained by volunteers. The webmaster keeps the public website, Roster, Library, and official records updated as time permits.
Voluntary donations may be used to support maintenance and future club expenses. The club remains free to join and play.
Donations are optional and do not affect rank, points, awards, or membership status.
