"PETER GILDER Sudan Ruleset" Topic

I believe it was Peter Gilder who once published a ruleset for Sudan, in which all players assumed the role of a European commander and the Natives were on auto-pilot or played by an Empire using predetermined yet random behavior.

Does anyone know where I could find a copy of these rules???

MANY thanks…

Ioannis
leuthenjournal.com

If I recall right they were mentioned in a three part series that ran in Wargames World 1, 2, and 3 years ago. While he discussed the rules mechanics, his basing mechanism, and there was a campaign map in the articles, as far as I know the entire set of rules never appeared there. He did say, however, that it was based on "Pony Wars, or B Troop Isn't Coming Back", which was put out by Tabletop Games a long time ago.

Have you checked out Science vs. Pluck?

link

Hi Loannis,

If you contact Henry Hyde from Battle Games a few years back he had a copy of the rules and filled in some of the gaps when they played a few Sudan Games.

If that fails I have a copy of the basic set.

Cheers Paul

If no one responds with an answer, the Pony Wars rules set were similar with respect to an umpire and card driven Indian aggression.

Rule set: link

Cheers,
Robert

I don't know that Peter's rules were ever commercially available. I've never seen them.

I second the idea that you should look at Science versus Pluck, which has an Umpire running the Mahdists (and much of the universe) while players squabble amongst themselves as Imperial officers.

I am biased, as the game's designer.

Your right Robert,

Peter's Sudan rules were adapted from the Pony Wars rules.

Cheers Paul

Ioannis

The article in Battlegames was by Der Alte Fritz, he not Henry, has Gilders actual rule book which as mentioned was based on Pony Wars. The article was a walk though of working out what Gilder actually meant to happen in certain situations. IIRC there was a second Battlegames article that has rules for natives on auto pilot.

Its a real shame the Gilder variant wasn't ever published.

The rules were never published. I do have a hand written copy of the Gilder rules given to me by Hal Thinglum.I will see if I can find it and send you a copy.

And yes, they were based on the Pony Wars rules.

I was going to ask for the same thing to use with my Zulus & Brits from Wargames Factory.

Jim, weren't you working on updating the rules?

I always loved the Pony Wars rule set, a great mechanism for quality over quantity. I remember many years ago playing a game with them covering Vietnam.

We have a set called "Everyman a Briton" on our web site that should meet your criteria. It uses The Sword and the Flame as it's base but just about any Colonial set could be used.

British players' manual: link

Umpire's manual: link

Jim

Thanks Jim.

Thanks Guys…I will look into all of your leads!!!

Cheers!

Peter's rules were a treat- I played one of the first full scale Sudan games at the WHC in about 1984. I remember one bit of umpire's license, following a bitter fight by the British column around an oasis, was that the Mahdists had dropped a dead camel into it, and so we'd have to march on to the next one to get fresh water…..
I have recently bought a copy of Pony Wars from Spirit Games, and am trying to reconstruct the Gilder Sudan variation from memory and handwritten notes from back then. IIRC Peter only had the rules as a set of playsheets backed up by his last word as umpire. If anyone has a copy of the playsheets I'd love to get them.

I've got copies of his ACW & Napoleonic ones somewhere, but not the Sudan playsheets – we played that on a free day.