Honours of War by Osprey

[Fenton]

Just saw these mentioned on TMP

Anyone anything more about them?

[petercooman]

If you are interested you can be a playtester apparantly

http://keefsblog.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/honours-of-war.html

Don't know much of it myself...

[Steve J]

I'm in the process of putting together an AAR of a solo game I played this weekend. I must declare that the author is a good friend of mine and I've played many games with these rules in their various incarnations. I really like them and find they reflect the SYW very well. Until I get my report up, the following gives a nice quick view of the game:

http://sgtsteiner.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/honours-of-war-rules-beta-playtest-syw.html

As Peter suggests, check out the authors Blog as well for plenty more information.

The rules are now at the printers with release due end of November. Hope this helps?

[Fenton]

Cheers

Sgt Steiner lives in the same neck of the woods. Will have try and get in touch

[mlr314159]

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Honours-Wargames-Rules-Seven-Osprey/dp/1472808096/ref=sr_1_11?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1436994529&sr=1-11&keywords=osprey+wargames

[Shecky]

Is the game designed for players to command an entire army or do players command a few brigades per side?

I'm looking for something other than Might & Reason to refight entire battles such as Kolin.

[Steve J]

You could fight large battles such as Kolin, if you have the time and space to do it. Basically a commander will have say 3 - 5 units of infantry per brigade, with attached artillery. Cavalry brigades at probably around 3 units. Artillery can be attached to a brigade or formed into grand batteries if so desired.

When we have played larger games, Keith has condensed the units (bathtubbing I believe it is called) to fit the space in his house (6'x4' table normally) and the time we have for the game (normally 2-3 hours). So as mentioned above, if you have enough players, time and space, I don't see why you couldn't refight Kolin, Leuthen etc.

Check out his blog for some of the battles he's played to see if they might be the sort of rules you would like to play.

[mlr314159]

In BATREPS

http://www.pendrakenforum.co.uk/index.php/topic,12482.0.html

going to

http://wwiiwargaming.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/bohemian-rhapsody-1761-honours-of-war.html

[Keith57]

Shecky, the answer to your question is - both. The game was originally intended to be for the 'classic' evening horse and musket wargame, with a few brigades on each side. However, it can be used to re-fight full size battles like Koiin. I myself have used it for Lobositz and Hochkirch - for the latter see here:

http://keefsblog.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/being-entertainment-with-toy-soldiers.html

As with Charles Grant's 'Wargaming In History' series, the trick is to let a single on-table battalion represent more than one actual battalion, but then just use the rules as normal. The technique is commonly called 'bathtubbing'. Personally, I have found one on-table unit to 5 or 6 actual units is about as far as this technique can be stretched. It's really a case of looking at your available table size and available models, and seeing if you can work out a reasonable way of representing the battle. For the record, Kolin is the next actual battle I am working on, and using 28mm figures on a 8' x 6' table, I reckon it can just about be done. Of course, using 10mm models makes the whole thing much easier - in fact, with HoW, it becomes exactly 3 times easier as game distances are reduced by a third when using 10mm figures - provided you stick to the same size of units.

The game as I play it uses 16-24 infantry in a close order battalion (in 2 ranks), and 6-12 cavalry in a regiment, in 1 or 2 ranks.

Hope this helps. You can download a fairly recent version of the rules (though not the final published version) in the Files section of the Yahoo group, and see what you think:

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/honoursofwar/info

Best wishes, Keith Flint.

[Techno]

And as that was your first post, Keith.....A warm welcome to the forum.
Cheers - Phil

[paulr]

Welcome Keith, you are improving the 'signal to noise ratio'

[fsn]

Welcome Keith.

By the Hairy Pendulous of the Dark Lord - he seems to know what he's talking about! - FSN

[Chris Pringle]

Having had the pleasure of one game of HoW with Keith (and hoping for more some time), I may say that the game romps along quickly and smoothly. The combat tables' use of average dice is simple yet subtle. HoW seems to capture particularly effectively the importance of having a supporting line for the first line to retire behind and rally. I know very little about SYW, but that felt right to me.

Chris
Bloody Big BATTLES!
https://uk.groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/BBB_wargames/info
http://bloodybigbattles.blogspot.co.uk/

[Bill Braham]

Welcome Keith, having had a chance to look through an earlier version of HoW via the Yahoo group and I have to say I like the way you suggest adapting to figures smaller than 30mm. I think that you demonstrate a much better than the suggestions for smaller figures in Black Powder (which I find a touch condescending) or in those Der Krieg Kunst (where the authors demonstrate a total lack of comprehension of how and why people use smaller figures). 

[Aksu]

I say, this does look interesting! Now that my ACW armies are almost done (perhaps...) I've been looking into SYW. I gather these rules will accommodate any basing scheme, but what kind of basing and figs per base do you think would "look the part" when using Pendraken figs for linear warfare?
Cheers,
Aksu