"Die Kriegkunst-first game and review" Topic

I have updated my blog to include a brief review of the Die Krigkunst rules by Partizan Press played for the first time by my club (Thames Valley (Gentleman) Wargamers)and used for an AWI game.

mywargamingcorner.blogspot.com

Thanks for looking and I hope you enjoy. By the way, click on the pictures for a bigger one.

Hey mate.

Thanks for that. A friend of mine suggested I look at KK before I invest in Might and Reason so your review was helpful. I think I will give it a go.

Also, lovely figures and terrain there.

TW.

Thanks TW, glad we could be of assistance. We just thought it may be useful for someone else out there to see how they play.

Is the basic unit in the game the battalion?

Yes, as in GdB and others from this stable, the battalion is the base unit, we used a scale of 1:20 as we like larger units, especially as most battalions in the AWI were under strength, although the rules are written for 1:40 but work just as well for smaller figure:man ratios.

There are a couple of fairly serious typos (if that is what they really are). The ground scale is supposed to be 1 inch = 50 yards for 25mm, yet musket range is 12 inches (i.e. 600 yards). Muskets were almost totally ineffective beyond 300 yards and pretty poor beyond 150. The other absurdity (also repeated so I wonder if it really is a typo)- you get +2 on your dice when firing at charging cavalry. Since that would be one of the worst targets in an era which had no adequate method of adjusting to a rapidly moving target – maybe it is meant to be -2?
I also notice (on the subject of charging cavalry) that there is NO morale modifier for cavalry attempting to charge steady infantry frontally. Horses hate bayonets. Some rules do not allow this to even happen as it was extremely rare.
I am sure these rules give a good game but as for realism, even in the very circumscribed sense we wargamers use the word, look elsewhere.

Ranges are somewhat long, especially cannister range, but that could be down to the typo on ground scale mentioned by Andrew above.

Realism is not necessarily an issue for us but a feel for the period is and these rules appear to provide a quickish game with certain period flavour that can be played on a club night.

I would agree that if you want realism then look elsewhere but if you want to get your nicely painted figures on the table and fighting then these rules will give a good game.

Not having used cavalry yet I don't know about the morale for charging but that is for another time for us.

Andrew:

The scale does seem to be a little off. Using the suggested base size of 40mm square, a five stand Prussian battalion would be 200mm wide (5x40mm), or about 8 inches. At 50 yards per 25mm, this would make the battalion 400 yards wide, which is twice what it should be. The effective range in the rules is 6 inches, or about 75 percent of the width of the battalion, or about 150 yards, assuming the battalion to have a frontage of 200 yards, which may be a little much. This strikes me as fair. The long range is perhaps a little too long, but still would equal a maximum of 300 yards.

We stopped playing these rules. But we did take some ideas to incorporate into house rules for our current set of rules. The nail in the coffin was hussars charging frontally and destroying an uphill grenadier unit, to the man.