"Principles of War -Colonial- opinions?" Topic

Just picked these rules up for the princely sum of $6 at a swap and sell meet. I am looking for rules for the Sudan what are peoples opinions of these rules and how do they play?

FM

They play well. Sequence is similar to what is now used in Lasalle; that is the last thing done is movement. Your charges are resolved in the opponents bound. I found this the most difficult thing at the time for people to get their heads around. The spotting rules and army command are nice. The basing treats most native units as mobs. Gave a balanced game, if the terrain was chosen and placed correctly.
I recommend using dummy command tiles at setup. Eventually left them.
Ran up against most folks here preferring their Colonials games played at a skirmish level.

The Table Top gaming group in Mesa Arizona plays them quite a bit.
It's a yahoogroup, so you will need to join to see their info. Anyways here the link:
link

Use PoW almost exclusively for colonials, admittedly in Abyssinia.

Agree with Ogdenlulimus statements above. Explaining the turn sequence can be a pain, but it fits in place once your playing. Dummy command tiles are almost essential for native forces to gain local mismatches.

Is your book 1st edition (white) or 2nd (blue), as 2nd has a bit more variety in native units.

I enjoy the rules. They are the first Principles of War rules I started on. I have not used them for Sudan, but have for Zulu Wars, Franco-Austrian War, American Civil War and Boer War. The rules are IGOUGO, which I have no problems with. I drop the command rules, but stick with the initiative rolling. The turn sequence can get people a little confused, but it works.

I've played POW for Colonial/FPW 18thC and Renaissance.

They work, but perhaps I over played them and I'm looking foe alternatives.

Be careful with your basing. Don't base to the large 89mm frontages for native units. Do them as 3 x 30mm. Keep a flexibility to experiment with other rules.

All of my Colonial are based on 20mm square bases per figure (28mm) so i am thinking about putting them on a base 4 by 2 so 80 mm frontage by 40mm depth…would that work? Mine is the 1st edition in white cover?

FM

As there is no casualty removal until a unit evaporates how you base is effectively irrelevant providing you are supplying both armies except you need to note that the standard POW bae is 90mm. Regular troops are 3 x 30 to give some line/column formation flexibility.

If your 80 x 40 is a regular module then your unit is going to be 240 x 40.

If 80 x 3 (make it 81mm) is your standard module them your regular guys are going to have to be on 27mm

It's the divisibility by 3 you need to keep in mind.

Who plays Crimea, Franco-Prussian, ACW? Any heartburn with the rules or basing?

Forgot to mention I have used them for Crimean War as well. Not bad, just keep the number of units low. ACW, the rules have worked well. The basing is a bit narrow, resulting in troops tipping over on almost any slope. I've used other basing and the rules still works fine.