Due to a sad event I have ended up with more figures for 1870 than I could ever expect. I need to get them painted and on the table. Thus will probably take me a few years to finish. There are that many.

I need a rule solution. Something easy to handle. Using Leven 6mm Napoleonic buildings as scenery. Maybe big bases. With 1870 flavour.

Big ask I know. What can you suggest?

Simon

Volley and Bayonet is regimental scale
Big Bloody Battles is brigade scale and smaller units, so will let you get things on table quickly
I use Black Powder with these amendments
 https://madlemmey.blogspot.com/2019/07/black-powder-1870-stats-and.html?m=1

Shapre Pracice woukd also fit. Rebels and Patriots should do as well with a little adaption,

I've used both Black Powder and Fire and Furia Francese (Fire and Fury based by Wyre Forest Gamers) and been very happy with both.

It's a little beyond my preferred eras, but I'm aware of a few rules options:

 * Peter Pig's Square Bashing has an FPW supplement whose name I can't recall. (You'll need to google a bit).
 * Valour and Fortitude has FPW army sheets.
 * Real Time Wargames produce a PDF ruleset calles "To the last Gaiter Button". Like Square Bashing it's another gridded table game.

Quote from: steve_holmes_11 on 19 October 2025, 04:04:18 PMIt's a little beyond my preferred eras, but I'm aware of a few rules options:

 * Peter Pig's Square Bashing has an FPW supplement whose name I can't recall. (You'll need to google a bit).
 

Walter Schnapps  IIRC

1870
https://grandtacticalrules.com/1870-rules/
Bloody Big Battles
https://bloodybigbattles.blogspot.com

Just to be clear about Volley and Bayonet the unit of manoeuvre is a Regiment or Brigade depending on the organisation,
Examples here Franco Prussian Volley and Bayonet

We use 'Mit Blut und Eisen' rules - https://www.wfgamers.org.uk/FUFF

The Bloody Big Battles ruleset also includes scenarios for 9 of the major battles of the Franco-Prussian War. These are all playable on a 6x4 table in about 4-5 hours

I've played several of them and, in general, they are excellent

BBB for me.

BBB are a great set of rules, but I would also get Bruce Weigle's books too, as they contain loads of really useful information for the wargamer.

QuoteBBB are a great set of rules, but I would also get Bruce Weigle's books too, as they contain loads of really useful information for the wargamer.

Indeed, I have all three, and they are an excellent resource.

I'm thinking of getting into 1870 as a retirement project (so 2-3 years off yet) and have been swayed by the enormous - yet non-manufactured - positivity around BBB. What puzzles me is that no-one ever mentions Baccus's Polemos rules. It's almost like no-one uses them (Perhaps no-one does.)

Bruce Weigle's rules 1870 and their fast play development 1871.  Designed specifically for the period, they also encompass considerations for differing unit scales.  Also they include scenarios for the well known battles.

https://grandtacticalrules.com/1871-rules/

Quote from: henjed on 20 October 2025, 05:52:52 PMI have been swayed by the enormous - yet non-manufactured - positivity around BBB.

As the author, I am regularly touched by the kind words people have to say about BBB. Although the pocket money it provides is nice for buying more toy soldiers, it was never intended as a money-making enterprise, but only as a way to share the love for big nineteenth-century battles. The amount of love out there shows we are succeeding, which makes me very happy.

To the OP: the BBB rules recommend basing your figures on 25x25mm squares, several of which then constitute a unit. However, it is equally possible to use single-unit diorama bases, as this Gettysburg game proves:
https://bloodybigbattles.blogspot.com/2025/09/making-daves-gettysburg-dream-come-true.html

To see collected reviews of BBB, go here:
https://bloodybigbattles.blogspot.com/2016/10/collected-reviews-of-bbb-bloody-big.html

Good luck with finding the ruleset that suits your taste and with getting those FPW figures on the table. It's a wonderful period to wargame.

Quote. . . Good luck with finding the ruleset that suits your taste and with getting those FPW figures on the table. It's a wonderful period to wargame.

Genuine question - why?


From my position of almost complete ignorance, I see a war that is over very quickly and a complete walkover for the Prussians, isn't it?

Imperial period - Prussian superiority, but Frethem a bloody nose, can you change history?
Plus, nice, shiny uniforms.
Republican period - lots of potential to fight a more mobile, but scrappy, war, and you even get to use Garibaldi! Potential for winter basing too, and chasing hot air ballons! 

Quote from: Raider4 on Yesterday at 07:34:07 PMGenuine question - why?
From my position of almost complete ignorance, I see a war that is over very quickly and a complete walkover for the Prussians, isn't it?

That's a fair question and a common perception.

150,000 German casualties show it wasn't a walkover. There were some tough battles. The Germans didn't lose many but a few more could have gone the other way. Often they aren't simple attack-defence situations: there are breakouts (Mars-la-Tour, Noisseville, Sedan, Champigny), fighting withdrawals (Borny, Beaumont), swirling encounters (Loigny/Poupry). The asymmetric armies make for interesting tactical challenges. The armies are colourful. Sedan is a surprisingly good game!

And what is true for FPW is just as true for the other wars it is a doorway to. Once you have your French and Prussians, obviously you want Austrians as well, who can fight both parties in 1859 and 1866. Take your French to the Crimea and they can fight Russians; your Russians can fight alongside your Austrians against Hungarians; leaven them with some Italians or Danes as well ...

The weapon technologies change and the armies have very different characters, so we have found over the past 15 years that we can play a game of BBB every week or two, using the same rules every time, but the games stay fresh because each week it is a different conflict, another unique battle, with different armies and different challenges.