I am looking to put together 2 opposing armies to fight Fontenoy. I am likely to use
either Might & Reason or Maurice for rules.
Does anyone know where I can find a simplified order of battle? Might & Reason uses
brigade scale for units. I am unsure how to incorporate the smaller units from the historical
order of battle for a wargame.
This is my first kick at the can for doing a game for a purely historical wargame. I am a
Saga player primarily. I really want to try a big battle type of game.
Thanks in advance!!
Alex
Welcome to the forum Alex :-h
Unfortunately not rule sets or a period I play so I can't be any help :(
The good news is there are a number of members that use both those rule sets and I'm sure you will get some assistance once some of the members in the UK/Europe are awake ;)
There is a Volley & Bayonet scenario and order of battle here http://homepages.paradise.net.nz/mcnelly/vb/scenarios/fontenoy_1745_mk.htm (http://homepages.paradise.net.nz/mcnelly/vb/scenarios/fontenoy_1745_mk.htm) at the regimental level that may be of some use
Maurice has the scenario and bathtub OOBs for Fontenoy in the scenario section.
Welcome to the forum, Alex.
Cheers - Phil
Quote from: Leman on 29 January 2016, 07:41:00 AM
Maurice has the scenario and bathtub OOBs for Fontenoy in the scenario section.
Oh! that's great! I'm waiting for the book to arrive in the mail.
Thanks!
Welcome on board Alex. As LeMan say, Maurice has details in the book which is a great help for starting out in this period.
So what is everybody's favourite rules for big battles? I was leaning towards doing this battle in Might&Reason because
it's specific for the period and brigade scale. I'm very new to historicals so please bear with me...
Welcome Alex. My favourite set for the mid-C18th is Honours of War, which give a really good game. Have a look at:
www.honoursofwar.com
Welcome Mr Mac207. Or is that presumptuous? Could you be a lady-Alex?
Whatever, welcome. Don't ask me about Lace Wars. If it hasn't got a motor, or His Grace the Duke of Wellington, then I'm not interested. I'm sure though that someone will come up with a profound answer. Some say I'm incorrect, but I just know that all the other forum members, apart from myself are very, very attractive females. Oh and I can't forget His Grace the Duke of Marlborough. Them's good wars. And medieval. And come to think of it ancients are excellent. Have you seen the revamped ACW ranges? Very nice. I like the ACW for it's simplicity. Techno, is of course a Borg Queen, and Paulr looks somewhat like Paula Abdul in "Opposites Attract". I write my own rules. All this basing and rebasing and adding stupid little dice to bases is madness. All you need is a proper spreadsheet, random number generator and some common sense.
Do stop in at the forum barfight on your way out. It may be a little early, but I've been blown about getting around this morning, and I think a whisky and peppermint would calm the nerves. Just bring it to the snug, would you?
Alex.
You have now met fsn....aka Nobby and Lord Oik of Runcorn.
He tends to live on a different planet, unless he's taken his morning pills. (So, don't be alarmed.....If you've been following the forum, before posting, you might have already sussed this !)
Cheers - Phil.
Hello and welcome,
Alex,
There are bits scattered about here and there on Fontenoy - here is a link to a Volley & Bayonet page on Fontenoy
http://homepages.paradise.net.nz/mcnelly/vb/scenarios/fontenoy_1745_mk.htm
There are specimen orders of battle for both sides in the files section of the Lacewars Yahoo group (you may need to join to be able to view them). With this you should be able to reconstruct the OoB in Maurice or M&R terms
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/LaceWars/files
There is also full OoBs on wikilies
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_Battle_for_the_Battle_of_Fontenoy
As to incorporating smaller units I assume you are thinking of Arquebusiers de Grassin etc? That may be problematic at the scale at which M&R and Maurice operate. Especially as at various points the Grassins faced of part of Ingoldsby's force (a weak brigade under M&R?) but then you run into problems with modelling the use of the Black Watch (a single battalion) to initially attack the village nd then whisk them over to face the Grassins.
Bill
QuoteSo what is everybody's favourite rules for big battles? I was leaning towards doing this battle in Might&Reason because
it's specific for the period and brigade scale.
I personally use an upcoming set and don't like the 2 sets you have mentioned. But I think most here would agree that there is no such thing as a perfect set for everyone. People use sets that appeal to them, for whatever reason, but it is likely that the same set will be disliked by others. So I would just go with whatever seems best to you (and your opponents).
Quote from: Hwiccee on 29 January 2016, 12:53:06 PM
I personally use an upcoming set and don't like the 2 sets you have mentioned.
That wouldn't be the long awaited Polemos SYW by any chance? :-\
Mollinary
Yes indeed Mollinary - still upcoming I am afraid.
Quote from: Leman on 29 January 2016, 08:24:33 AM
Welcome Alex. My favourite set for the mid-C18th is Honours of War, which give a really good game. Have a look at:
www.honoursofwar.com
So what is it about Honours of War that makes it a good game? I like my games to have a bit of uncertainty
in the command and control aspect. "Friction"
I have seen that these rules are getting popular. I want to know what the buzz is about. :D
Quote from: fsn on 29 January 2016, 08:27:54 AM
... Paulr looks somewhat like Paula Abdul in "Opposites Attract"...
:o :o X_X X_X :-& :-&
There you go then. I like Polemos ECW, but find the others very tedious.
Quote from: Leman on 29 January 2016, 06:56:09 PM
There you go then. I like Polemos ECW, but find the others very tedious.
I think Hwiccee is actually writing the Polemos SYW Rules! :D
Mollinary
OOps! :-[
Alex,
It was Nobby at Fontenoy who famously said "Gentlemen of the French Guard, hold your fire while I lace up my boots!"
Having exhausted my knowledge of 1745 on the continent I bid you welcome to the forum :)
I'm afraid I don't have the literary skills to explain why I like a particular set of rules, I just know I like them after I've played them. At the moment there are only two sets of rules that are making me want to go back to the table over and over. These are Honours of War and Bloody Big Battles. Both sets are not overly complex, don't make you feel like you've just done a particularly unpleasant session of maths homework, have plenty of uncertainty, are plausible and can be played to a proper conclusion. One thing I don't have to do is constantly refer back to the rulebook looking for obscure bits and pieces, which is what puts me off a lot of rules, not because I'm stupid (degree and three post-graduate qualifications) but because I want to get on and play.
Quote from: alexmac207 on 29 January 2016, 08:17:38 AM
So what is everybody's favourite rules for big battles? I was leaning towards doing this battle in Might&Reason because
it's specific for the period and brigade scale. I'm very new to historicals so please bear with me...
Hello and welcome.
I do like M&R ! ( not played Fontenoy )
Quote from: d_Guy on 30 January 2016, 02:58:03 AM
Alex,
It was Nobby at Fontenoy who famously said "Gentlemen of the French Guard, hold your fire while I lace up my boots!"
Having exhausted my knowledge of 1745 on the continent I bid you welcome to the forum :)
Ooooh! So THAT'S why they're known as the Lace Wars? :)
Quote from: Ithoriel on 30 January 2016, 01:02:51 PM
Ooooh! So THAT'S why they're known as the Lace Wars? :)
That was double-plus good! ;D
Quote from: alexmac207 on 29 January 2016, 06:53:55 PM
So what is it about Honours of War that makes it a good game? I like my games to have a bit of uncertainty
in the command and control aspect. "Friction"
I have seen that these rules are getting popular. I want to know what the buzz is about. :D
Have a look in on the Honours of War website and forum:
http://honoursofwar.com/
If you look through the topics you will find several batreps and reviews that give a flavour of the rules.
There is also the authors blog where you can get a feel for how the rules were developed and play tested, you will have to look under the 82 posts on Seven Years war to do so though.
http://keefsblog.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/honours-of-war.html
Quote from: Ithoriel on 30 January 2016, 01:02:51 PM
Ooooh! So THAT'S why they're known as the Lace Wars? :)
Why, oh why, do we not have a doghouse arrangement here?
So we could put the Kat in it?
No - I suspect the other way round - he wants to put all of us in it. After all he's always right ! ;)
IanS
Quote from: Leman on 29 January 2016, 06:56:09 PM
There you go then. I like Polemos ECW, but find the others very tedious.
Quote from: mollinary on 29 January 2016, 07:39:12 PM
I think Hwiccee is actually writing the Polemos SYW Rules! :D
Mollinary
Quote from: Leman on 29 January 2016, 07:47:50 PM
OOps! :-[
Leman: Don't worry I don't think any rules writer expects everyone to like their rules. Plus the Polemos 'series' of rules are only very loosely a series and vary a lot in practice. I also like the ECW, with a lot of our own modifications, but I am not a fan of some of the other sets. So I would expect a 'typical' player to like some of them more/less than the others, depending on what takes their fancy.
Mollinary: The rules have been written for sometime, the hold up is due to technical stuff. In short Baccus are trying to produce tablet/smart phone/etc friendly sets of rules that will take advantage of this kind of technology.
For gamers who are old and not particularly techno-savvy. Not a reference to Phil. :)
Good news Hw, I am looking to these rules to bring my 15mm SYW Armies back onto a table after a gap of some 20 years. They are based for Linear V&B, so if these rules use the standard Polemos 60x30mm bases then they should be easy enough to use with them. I'd buy them even without the electronic bells and whistles!
Mollinary
I picked up the Honours of War rules yesterday. They look interesting. Thank you everyone for your advice!
Jumping on the back of this thread - anyone got a link to uniform guides / colours for Fonteny...I don't need detail, it's for my 2mm armies for Maurice ;)
British are red, Dutch and French are pearl grey. Swiss are red, French cavalry are blue (royal), red (Maison du Roi) and grey.
Won't do as a Valentine, Leman. Only the first three words scan.
;D
I think that for your purposes I would use the kronoskaf SYW site - http://www.kronoskaf.com/syw/index.php?title=Main_Page (http://www.kronoskaf.com/syw/index.php?title=Main_Page). This covers the slightly later period but in most case they would be minor.
The obvious missing group from this site are the Dutch, the didn't fight in the SYW and are also incidentally mainly in blue by this time, see here for them http://royalfig.free.fr/index.php?/category/25 (http://royalfig.free.fr/index.php?/category/25).
Most excellent - thanks :)
Quote from: Leman on 19 February 2016, 08:22:24 AM
British are red, Dutch and French are pearl grey. Swiss are red, French cavalry are blue (royal), red (Maison du Roi) and grey.
British are red, Commies are red, Papers are red, Plenty's been said.
Scans but utter nonsense.