"In the Age of Bismark & Napoleon III Wargaming Rules" Topic

Can anyone tell me about these rules. I believe they were published by Rank & File, so I imagine they are geared towards 15mm. Anyone know about complexity, mechanics, scale, basing & general opinions towards them? Thanks!

One figure represents 125 infantry. Two figures per base (I believe the bases were 1" wide by 3/4" deep). 4 bases = 1 Prussian battalion, 3 bases = 1 French battalion (for FPW; it also covers 1859 and 1866). Battalions of the same brigade must stay together on the tabletop. You normally run a Corp. Ground scale is around 1" of tabletop is around 75-100 yards "real life" Several formations including skirmish and Prussian mixed. No "modern" command/control rules. Combat involves multiplying the number of figures (each figure counts as 2 so Prussians have an equivalent of 16 figures)by their Rank (1-9 I believe) and some modifiers to get a number like, say, 152 – meaning you kill one opposing figure and have a 52% chance (roll percentile dice) of killing a 2nd. Leaders only affect morale and melee. Also, all the really high-level leaders have a special ability that can be activated if you roll low enough during the Initiative phase (everyone rolls percentile dice – highest roller determines which phase sequence to use [basically who moves first and who fires first]. Interesting thing for multiplayer games is that all players roll for initiative. If you win you are supposed to choose the phase sequence that most helps YOU out, even if it is to the detriment of the other players on your side).

I never actually played it as by the time I got enough figures painted up Volley & Bayonet came out so I moved to that. Game mechanics seem old-fashioned although there are some interesting touches (like the multiplayer initiative above or that movement rates (and routing rates) are fairly high for rules of this type {something like line formation moves 8"). So I think the game would play faster than the combat mechanics would have you believe.

Hi, I know the author from years ago and the gent who created the Rank and File line. He ran many games of the rules and I have played in several. The rules are based on a homegrown set we used for Naps in Dayton, Ohio for years. What Dave describes above is accurate. I was just reading through them again about a week ago. The rules did allow you to fight fairly large battles with a moderate number of figs. The games run by Chris Atkin (the Rank and File owner and sculptor) were always nice looking. He also painted quite nicely and was very involved in the wargaming scene in Dayton until he moved back to the UK and seems to have disappeared.

I enjoyed the rules and they are pretty straight forward. I'd probably be playing them now if I wasn't so enamored with Field of Battle.

Thanks,

John

This was the main rules set I used for 1859-1871 for many years. Its not a bad set of rules but feels a bit dated. I'd rate it moderate to high in complexity.

Its main downfall is poor editing. There's a lot of important info tucked away here and there that could have been presented better I think. I had to read it closely, take notes, and make up my own cheat sheets. The fire combat is a bit clunky too. It uses column shifts to the range band, column shifts to the fire class of the firing troops and multipliers as well. That said, they provide a nice chart to help with this, but it can still get confusing. For artillery fire, they throw in another step – each shot you have to roll for the "performance" of each battery which yields a variable multiplier to the chance to cause casualties.

The turn sequence is chosen by the winner of an initiative roll. The winner is Side A and the sequence is either:

Side A formation changes(& changes facing, etc.), Side B moves (& charges), Side B formation changes, Side A moves OR Side A moves, Side B formation changes, Side B moves, Side A formation changes. Firing comes afterward and is simultaneous.

One of the nice things about them was that you didn't need a lot of figures. A French battalion had 6 figures and Prussians had 8 figure battalions. All the infantry are based 2 per stand and it took 2 hits to remove a figure.

Other good points were nice summaries of the history for each period as well as organization tables for all the armies. The officer characteristics are interesting too, but you don't have to use them if you don't want to.

Overall, I like them, but I think there is a bit of a learning curve due to the cluttered nature of the way they are written.

Yeah, my advantage was we had been playing the same mechanics for about a decade before they were released.

Their Russo-Turkish War 1877 book is a great resource!

Thanks,

John

Funnily enough I have just been rereading my copy. We played those rules maybe twenty years ago and they are certainly not fastplay. That said they have some interesting ideas and do enable corps size battles to be played (in 15mm or 10mm)without needing enormous tables or masses of figures while yet capturing a lot of tactical stuff more modern rules tend to abstract. I am seriously thinking of giving them another trial now that I am am of an age where time is plentiful.
Think of them perhaps as not Old School but Early Modern School.
Andrew

Does anyone know where I can get hold of the Russo Turkish War book??

It has long been out of print. I got a copy by a miracle. You see a copy come up on Ebay every once in a great while.

Thanks,

John

I might have a copy laying about…'
send me a PM

Quite a while by the looks of it