Playtesters wanted - mid 19th century battles

[Hwiccee]

Hi all,


I am looking for playtesters interested in mid 19th century battles like the Crimean war, the 1859 & 1866 wars, the ACW and the Franco Prussian War. The rules are for large battles and are inspired by the Fire and Fury rules and the modifications to these at http://www.wfgamers.org.uk.

I have set up a yahoo group at http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/FuFF to do this. Please join up if you are interested and have time to playtest.

[Shedman]

Do your rules use Fire & Fury basing?

[mollinary]

Hi Hwiccee,

This is absolutely my period, and my experiments with 1866 RFF based rules at 80 men to the stand have gone well. If it required no rebasing I'd be interested in your project. My figures are based four infantry to a 25mm wide by 20mm deep base, cavalry  and artillery on 30mm square bases.  Not sure how much  time I would have for play testing, being heavily involved in doing the same for my RFF variant,  but would be very interested in the project as a whole, from the point of view of what you would be looking to model in the games, tactically and grand tactically speaking.
Best of luck,

Mollinary

[Hwiccee]

Hi Mollinary/Shedman,


You decide your own base size and then all measurements are in terms of the base width. Infantry move 12 base widths if all is going well for example. While you can of course use any size of base you want I do have in mind bases of 20 to 30mm for figures of 15mm or less.

The aim of the set is very much for big battles - a Prussian Corps of 1866 would be circa 40 infantry bases at full strength, plus cavalry/artillery. So most of the smaller 1866 battles leading up to Koniggratz should be doable with 2 players in an afternoon/evening.

[Luddite]

I am looking for playtesters interested in mid 19th century battles like the Crimean war, the 1859 & 1866 wars, the ACW and the Franco Prussian War.

Very different time periods with significantly different strategic and tactical frictions.

The rules are for large battles and are inspired by the Fire and Fury rules

One of my all time favourites!  Perfect ACW rules.  I've tried to convert them to other periods/settings but they never quite worked, due to the issue i note above.  The official conversion (to Napoleonics (Age of Eagles) suffers similar problems.  Not sure why...

Good luck though, and i suppose 'inspired by', give you the chance to take concepts and make them work (which converting / copying doesn't seem to).

I have set up a yahoo group at http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/FuFF to do this. Please join up if you are interested and have time to playtest.

Are you planning to release these commercially?
Playtesters may wish to know this?

Given the lack of a set of FPW rules out there that i like, i'm always very interested in rules that promise to do the period justice so i'll follow you progress with interest.

You decide your own base size and then all measurements are in terms of the base width. Infantry move 12 base widths if all is going well for example.

Very common abstraction in rules nowadays - almost 'standard' eh?
As i've ranted elsewhere, i think rules could do with the return to a bit of proper groundscaling - in order to baseline the period frictions of 'time to cover X distance', weapon ranges (force projection, threat zones and effect), etc.

All rules (particularly for the period you're planning to cover) have 'the basics' they need to elucidate;

Command and control
Movement
Combat - ranged
Combat - close
Combat - effects of the above
Morale (whatever that is)

I'd say for the period's you're considering, additional concerns include;

Logistics (supplies, ammunition)
Technological differences (vital in FPW for example)
Politics (The Crimean was fought with one eye on the daily newspapers back in London for example!)


I'm looking forwards to how you progress with your rules.  Hopefully you'll produce something that works for FPW!  

[Hwiccee]

Very different time periods with significantly different strategic and tactical frictions.

One of my all time favourites!  Perfect ACW rules.  I've tried to convert them to other periods/settings but they never quite worked, due to the issue i note above.  The official conversion (to Napoleonics (Age of Eagles) suffers similar problems.  Not sure why...

Good luck though, and i suppose 'inspired by', give you the chance to take concepts and make them work (which converting / copying doesn't seem to).

Yes very good rules and very different time periods. I think you have to be careful which periods you try to convert the Fire & Fury (or indeed other rules) to without a major overhaul/major changes. Personally I don't that you can do a Napoleonic version of the rules without really major changes, if at all. I think the system works best on attritional battles/periods with not much grand tactical movement. Weapons, etc, can be a problem but if the general character of the period/war is not right then it just won't work.

Are you planning to release these commercially?
Playtesters may wish to know this?

I am not sure yet, it depends a little on how the set turns out. It won't be printed but I guess we might sell it as a pdf.

Very common abstraction in rules nowadays - almost 'standard' eh?
As i've ranted elsewhere, i think rules could do with the return to a bit of proper groundscaling - in order to baseline the period frictions of 'time to cover X distance', weapon ranges (force projection, threat zones and effect), etc.

Generally a very good idea I think as it enables a flexible approach on the part of the player. They can just use existing bases or decide whatever they like if starting from scratch. Yet it keeps the important stuff in ratio.

I agree that you need to have some kind of proper ground scale but I feel you have to be careful with this as rarely translates well into reality because of the variables you can only guess at. This is why I think that keeping the ratio between things is important.

The original modifications to Fire and Fury were relatively slight and have been used for more than 15 years now. This new version is a bigger change and hopefully incorporates somethings that were missing in the original rules & modifications, also that you mention. We will see and I am sure not they will not be to everyones taste. But then the one thing I am sure about in gaming is that there is no such thing as a perfect set of rules.