I think you'll find Baroque a much easier set to get to grips with than the original Impetus - the Italian to English is much improved, although alas not perfect and the mechaniocs both more streamlined , easier and better explained.

If there's a particular aspect of the Impetus set that you need assistance with, happy to step you through it, at heart it's pretty straight forward.

I've heard good things about VWQ but not played them.

BTLB is rather old school, judging by your initial comments I doubt its what you're looking for (it is very pretty and has lots of good info, the guys know their stuff), neither is FOG-R I suspect, Pike & Shotte is too early, LOA is allegedly covered by BP but I think its a stretch. Maurice kind of covers it but it's not tailor made.

Decent late 17th C rules are a bit thin on the ground hence the relief at Baroque being released (FOG being far to fiddly for my taste), everything else is distinctly elderly or a bit of a stretch.

Donnybrook are fun but not the right scale - it'd be like doing Wagram with Sharp Practice, technically do-able but in reality just daft

You can pick Baroque up from Wargames Vault as a PDF for a tenner - probably worth the gamble.

Hello

Quote from: fred. on 03 July 2016, 09:05:17 PM
Thanks GoM, VWQ look interesting - have printed a copy to peruse further. The idea of card activation appeals in theory. I will see how it feels in practise.

Card activation works ok for small number of units (and I use it for this) but I think you need brigade cards for larger scale battles. Discussed here for VWQ http://www.leagueofaugsburg.com/fightingtalk/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=3359&sid=b384aa76720cf836ae9b39bae01dc817

Also saw these rules that might be interesting http://hordesofthethings.blogspot.com.au/2015/02/twilight-of-sun-king.html http://balagan.info/twilight-of-the-sun-king-2001-version and http://balagan.info/optional-rules-and-musings-for-twilight-of-the-sun-king they're the original Twilight of the Sun King, current version available from the P&S Society. Saw that Kaptan Kobold tried using a d10 and thought of you  .

Edit - Oops, just went to the P&S Society page and it doesn't look like they sell TotSK any more.

Cheers

GrumpyOldMan

An updated version of the Twilight of the Sun King rules is imminent, along with a scenario booklet with 10 LoA and WSS battles. A second scenario booklet with 10 GNW and Ottoman battles should follow.

Thanks for all the suggestions chaps, I have the following for perusal:

Wargame the English Civil War by Peter Dennis - this is a short set of fairly simple rules, but with some interesting stuff around multi-round combats, designed to work with the paper cut-out figures that come with the rules. The core of the rules are not dissimilar to VWQ, but straight IGOUGO rather than card activation.

Victory without Quarter - card activated, fairly straight forward rules, certainly look good for solo due to card activation

Baroque - picked this up on PDF, rather than the printed book. The most complex of the 3, and the broadest in coverage. Easier to understand than Basic Impetus that I really struggled with, but I'm still working though all of this - it could do with a simple outline of the core mechanisms, with the extra details and complexities presented after. Really like the big Tercio bases.

The good news is that all 3 would work with a unit of 3 x 40x40mm bases (wargame the ECW probably would like you to have 6 bases, but lots of the pictures show 3).

Next step is some trial games to see what actually works - and then sort some figures out. Well sort out the figures I already have to see what armies they would make (and buy the extras that will obviously be needed)

I still think that Tony Barr's RenaissanceMaster is worth a look...if you can't locate it, bung me an email & I'll zap over to you

Ta Nik, found it over on Rick's Warmaster Pages

Quote from: fred. on 08 July 2016, 11:18:20 AM
Ta Nik, found it over on Rick's Warmaster Pages

It's what I keep going back to...

Thanks for that guys. I have now downloaded the Renaissance Master stuff. Shed load of army lists plus the advantage of same base frontage as FOGR and WITAOD.

I love Captain General published by the pike and shot society. http://www.pikeandshotsociety.org/

It really captures the difference between the rank and platoon firing. The basing really reflects the diff.

Here is a French Battalion


And a Dutch Battalion


As you can see both have the same number of figures so the difference is frontage.

The rules have a great command and control system that really shows the difficulty of moving unit. Fire and combat are with out figure removal and the combat between lines is very dynamic.

The authors really know the period and Ian Stanford has written numerous articles about the period in the Arqubussier (the Pike and Shot Society journal)

The rules really show the advantage of designing for a specific period and are not a catch all d6 die rolling game.

William

Thank you for the plug William

kind regards

Iain Stanford

PS ... Issue 1 of Volume 35 will be out soon ... for those of you who have not resubscribed yet

I recently played a game with LoA armies using Warlord's Pike and Shotte, the game flowed very well and the game was very enjoyable.

I think I would like to get my hands on Baroque and see how they work too.

Missed those piccies above !

Very nice work, that man.

Cheers - Phil

I have looked at Baroque and found it more suited toward ECW.
I just ordered Captain general and will compare it to BLB.
BLB seems to capture the flavor of the 9 years war very well, IMHO.

Could you expand a bit more on your analysis, please?

I'm interested to hear the opinions of those who know more about this period, and how the different rule sets map to it.

BLB is designed for the period 1660 to 1721.
It would cover the wars of LoA, Scanian war, WSS and the GNW. For anything before or after those wars there are better period specific rules.
An infantry battalion is 18 figures and a Squadron is 9 figures using this as a base larger battles can be fought with brigades and armies. Ratio 1:40.
Casualties are determined by a bushel basket die throw. This has been declared "old school" but I kind of like it.
BLB covers the difference between fire by rank and platoon fire very neatly.
Orders are issued by chits.This seems cumbersome at first, but reduces the if you do that then I'll do this  lawyer factor.
I find that it gives a game a  conclusive result in about 3 hours for a large battle.
The rules flow very nicely, and like every set they take just a game or two to get down to just reference sheet.
Just as a note, Swedes are terrors of the battle field. Best out number them by a lot.

I hope this helps.
I'll try to point out more pros and cons when I receive captain general.