Found this on the 2mm yahoo group. Couldnt find a link that showed anything as yet so copied and pasted the blurb. Sounds interesting
I am delighted to announce the publication of "Bloody Big BATTLES!" (BBB), a new set of rules for wargaming the Late Nineteenth Century, and of a companion scenario volume, "Bloody Big EUROPEAN BATTLES!" (BBEB). Both are published by SkirmishCampaigns.
BBB has been playtested predominantly with 6mm figures, which give a good mass effect and create the impression that the game is a big battle rather than a small skirmish. This would be even more the case with 2mm figures, which is why I wanted to announce it to the members of this group.
BBB does exactly what its title says. It is intended for fighting the biggest, bloodiest battles of 1850-1900 in a manageable way. Specific design goals included:
to tackle the major battles such as Solferino, Gettysburg, Königgrätz, Sedan or Plevna, often spanning several days' combat;
to fit them on a 6'x4' tabletop;
and to fight them in their entirety, in a single 3-to-4-hour session, with 2-6 players (typically 4).
BBB is not suitable for small actions of a few thousand men a side. There are plenty of rulesets that do that. But none do what BBB does, namely;
Enabling players to command entire armies of 100,000+ men ;
Fitting battlefields of up to 20km across on the table;
While still producing a fast, fun, flavorful game and a result in an evening.
Scale varies according to the battle but is typically:
Figure scale 1,500 men or 36 cannon per 1" base (organized into multi-base division or brigade-sized units, usually of 3-7 infantry bases, 2-3 cavalry bases or 1 artillery base);
Ground scale 1" per 200-250 yards;
Timescale 1 hour per turn.
BBB uses simple mechanisms and memorisable tables that fit on a clear 2-page QRC.
Turn sequence: IGO-UGO
Command and Control: reflected partly by how many generals get represented on table, partly by how units are rated.
Movement: 2D6 movement table incorporates difficult terrain, generalship and doctrine, troop quality and morale, loss recovery.
Fire Combat: calculated by adding fire points. 2D6 fire table to determine casualties, recorded by base removal.
Assault: opposed D6 roll incorporating a few relevant factors.
Night Interval rules to allow multi-day battles.
BBB is not meant for tournament games or for casual, "get-toys-on-the-table" games. It is meant for fighting historical battles. BBB and its companion volume, Bloody Big European Battles, therefore provide fully playtested scenarios for 25 of the most important battles of the period, linked into full campaigns. Further free scenarios are also available on the web.
All the scenarios fit the battles they depict into a beautiful, tightly engineered game structure. They have clear, simple, but carefully thought-out victory conditions, designed both to recreate the historical situation and to generate an exciting and balanced game that can be completed in a sensible period of time. A particular joy of fighting historical actions on this scale is that usually both sides have several different viable strategies available, meaning the scenarios are full of replay value and can produce quite different games each time.
Dr. Nicholas Murray of the Naval War College and formerly of the US Army Command & General Staff College uses BBB to teach decision making and history to US and international officers. He specializes in the evolution of warfare in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and is author of The Rocky Road to the Great War.
The BBB rulebook contains not only the rules, but also a complete campaign of linked historical scenarios for nine of the largest battles of the Franco-Prussian War.
BBB Contents:
Introduction
Scale & Organisation
Terrain
Sequence of Play
Movement
The Firefight
The Assault
Night Intervals
Scenarios, Campaigns & Victory
Franco-Prussian War Campaign Scenarios
Froeschwiller
Borny / Colombey
Mars-la-Tour
Gravelotte
Beaumont
Sedan
Loigny / Poupry
Beaugency
Le Mans
Quick Reference Sheets
BBEB is a companion volume to the BBB rules. It provides 16 historical scenarios. Most of these are connected to create mini-campaigns, so that players can fight through the entire course of the major European wars of this period.
BBEB Contents
Introduction
European Wars 1853-1897
Scenarios, Campaigns & Victory
The Crimean War
Kurudere
The Alma
Inkerman
The Chernaya
Risorgimento! Italian War of 1859
Magenta
Solferino
The Second Schleswig War
Dybbøl & Als
The Austro-Prussian War of 1866
Custoza
Nachod, Trautenau, Skalitz
& Soor
Königgrätz
The Russo-Turkish War
The Second Battle of Plevna
The Third Battle of Plevna
Aladja Dagh
Metchka / Tristenik
The Serbo-Bulgarian War
Slivnitsa
The Greco-Turkish War
Domokos
BBB is taking orders from dealers now and will be launched at Fall In in November. To keep informed of availability, join the BBB Yahoo Group
http://www.skirmishcampaigns.com/
or monitor the SkirmishCampaigns website:
http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/BBB_wargames/
Vendors who carry SkirmishCampaigns books will have BBB products:
http://www.skirmishcampaigns.com/order.htm
The Yahoo Group files include:
Colour versions of the scenario maps from BBB and BBEB;
Additional free scenarios;
Quick Reference sheets;
A list of the biggest European battles 1854-1897;
Tables listing the scenario size and troops required for every scenario in BBB and BBEB.
Colour versions of scenario maps, along with more photos of wargames with 6mm figures than anyone is likely to want to look at, can be found in my Flickr photostream:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/127771552@N03/sets
It does sound interesting - not sure why they haven't at least got a blog up or something. There is quite a bit of info, but it takes a bit of digging to find out.
The linked images of the book and scenario maps look good - the battle photos less so...
It would be interesting to see if it could be taken up to and including WW1...Nice to have a huge part of Flanders on one table
That's an interesting thought.
They should work for 1914 - the Germans and French were both still using FPW tactics.
Quote from: fred 12df on 25 October 2014, 02:19:15 PM
That's an interesting thought.
They should work for 1914 - the Germans and French were both still using FPW tactics.
Well I joined the yahoo group and asked the question so we shall see
I checked the QRS on the group and it looks like it could work for 1914
This sounds very interesting so have joined the group. Would be looking at the 6/2mm options.
I wouldnt use anything larger for it
Fenton, all,
Thanks very much for spreading the word about my new BBB rules and BBEB scenario book. Although the great majority of the playtesting was done with 6mm figures, I have seen BBB used with 10mm and even 15mm figures, and the games looked good to me. If I didn't already have a large 6mm collection myself and was starting afresh, I might well go for 10mm. Certainly Pendraken 10mm figures are eminently compatible with BBB.
Early WWI: certainly we have talked about tweaking BBB for this purpose. I'd welcome ideas. It's something I will probably look into seriously soon.
Thanks also for the nice comments about my maps. I hope people will find these useful regardless of whether they want the BBB rules, which is why I have made them all publicly available. Ditto some free scenarios. (Maybe I will set up some nice staged photoshoots as well, so you will have better pics to look at than the ad hoc snaps of games in progress.)
I agree it would be nice to have a blog, but as I can't guarantee to keep it fresh I am restricting myself to the BBB_wargames Yahoo group. Also would have been nice to get copies in the hands of dealers before announcing the rules, but we needed to get the word out before Fall In, so please excuse us for not being entirely joined up in that respect.
Orders from vendors are being handled by SkirmishCampaigns, not by me, so I'm not sure right now which dealers will have copies. However, I can report that Caliver Books have ordered a batch, so if anyone in UK is seriously interested, I encourage you to contact Caliver.
I may not be visiting this forum regularly, so if you do have any questions or comments about BBB or BBEB, please get in touch via the BBB_wargames Yahoo group:
https://uk.groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/BBB_wargames/info
I'd be very happy to hear from you.
Cheers,
Chris
Even if you're not here very often, Chris.....Welcome to the forum !
Cheers - Phil
Welcome Chris. As a keen mid/late C19th gamer I'm looking forward to seeing these rules.
Welcome Chris
Glad to have you onboard
Hello and welcome Chris!
Already joined his Yahoo group. Lots of good stuff there worth downloading; watching out for these rules in the UK
Phil, all,
Thanks very much for all your generous welcome messages. What a nice friendly bunch - maybe I'll drop in here more often after all!
Cheers!
Chris
Hi Chris, welcome to the Forum!
8)
Contacted Dave Ryan, at Caliver, and he expects to have the rules available in a couple of weeks
Good news
Did he give any indication of price?
Frayed knot.
Is that a really shabby English Civil War re-enactment society?
Bad puns Army - FSN
Yeah, the type that uses velcro fastening Hush Puppies.
Quote from: Dour Puritan on 30 October 2014, 08:40:52 AM
Yeah, the type that uses velcro fastening Hush Puppies.
Absolutely! Any fule kno that Hush Puppies were not introduced until the Restoration in 1660. ;) :D
Mollinary
;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
Presumably, prior to the Restoration, shoes were required to be plain black, and sufficiently ill-fitting to cause the wearer virtuous suffering?
If I may go off-topic for a moment:
Don't know how many people this will be relevant for, but for US members, Dennis of "On Military Matters" has posted on TMP to say that OMM will have BBB and BBEB from the Saturday of Fall-In, i.e., 8 November, at US$ 25 a book.
http://onmilitarymatters.com/pages/dfindex.php
Chris
On the BBB yahoo group it says that Irregular Miniatures will be stocking the rules
I'll buy them from the first available in the UK. Will add them to my Blucher wish list.
Anyone got any ideas for the gunboats on the Seine that feature in one of the FPW scenarios? I'm going to be doing this in 6mm. I'm OK for the armoured train thanks to the Irregular Boer War stuff but no idea what to use for the boats. Don't think a Sudan style paddle boat will do though.
Quote from: Dour Puritan on 17 November 2014, 05:13:22 PM
Anyone got any ideas for the gunboats on the Seine that feature in one of the FPW scenarios? I'm going to be doing this in 6mm. I'm OK for the armoured train thanks to the Irregular Boer War stuff but no idea what to use for the boats. Don't think a Sudan style paddle boat will do though.
THey do have a gunboat at irregular:
http://www.irregularminiatures.co.uk/indexes/6mmindex.htm
Thanks Peter. How on earth did I miss that?
I'm not buying them, I don't need any more rules, I'm not buying them, I'm not buying, I'm not, I'm ............ :-S
You'll end up regretting it.
I got mine from Irregular - very quick service and £20 inc p&p. The rules look excellent and are very clear - I am expecting the scenarios supplement soon! Chris is very quick to answer any questions on the yahoo group.
Simon
Anyone had a chance to play BBB? If so how does it play? What are the key mechanics?
Hi Fred,
Thanks for your interest in BBB. You'll find a fair amount of description in my original announcement on TMP:
http://theminiaturespage.com/boards/msg.mv?id=363597
A new BBB player's AAR of his group's first game here:
http://theminiaturespage.com/boards/msg.mv?id=369420
Plenty of extra info, including colour maps and quick reference sheets, in the files of the BBB Yahoo group:
https://uk.groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/BBB_wargames/info
Hope this helps,
Chris
You can find my Battler Report and Review for the rules here
http://phdleadhead.blogspot.com.tr/2015/01/battler-report-and-review-langesalza.html (http://phdleadhead.blogspot.com.tr/2015/01/battler-report-and-review-langesalza.html)
With Respect
KTravlos
Got that bookmarked for proper perusal. Many thanks KT.
Interesting review and report :)
A nice review of BBB and of BBEB has just been published in Foreign Correspondent #105 (journal of the Continental Wars Society. I say "nice" because it is very very positive. :)
Chris
Bloody Big BATTLES!
https://uk.groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/BBB_wargames/info