"By Fire & Sword: List construction basics Division level" Topic

Following up on my article on the mechanics behind Skirmish lists with an article on Division lists.
Division lists are both similar and different to Skirmish lists.

The similarity lies in how you construct each regiment, which is the building stone of your Division. Regiments are made up of several banners/companies/sotnia's or whatever units are called by each nation. And just like in Skirmish lists the Regiments are made up of a core level amount of troops, optional add-on units and additional troops that expand you regiment. Regiments also have their own Regimental commanders and junior officers to help you control the regiment in the field.

Check the blog for more detailed information on how Divisions in By Fire & Sword are put together:

link

Having backed the KS project, I am anxiously waiting for my copy of the rules and other goodies. Thank you for the insight into army organization. Good work. Time to order some figures.

Cheers
Kent

No problem, happy to help :-)

I also thank you. I am eager to get started but uncertain about how to go about it as I am unfamiliar with the period and rules. Your information takes out much of the guesswork.

miam miam
I just kickstarted, modestly for $5 USD
actually I like my rules in pdf to carry in my i-fruit along other stuff.
Too bad the pdf is not the same as the whole printed book (could have been tehn $20 USD)? like in a 21st century prod?

Cause after all whole thing as beautiful it it, is $75 USD which is a lot. Btw the fear of "pdf around the world for free" actually is reverse the price. Ask the fat lardies.

Yet no doubt I will ultimately (sigh) fall for the whole pole dance.

Hello Poland?

does the rules you try selling now ($75) include both
skirmish and division scales (rules and lists)?

The rulebook includes complete rules, army lists for all nations (division and skirmish lists) scenario section and a bunch of other things. It's a complete package.

$20 USD for a 400 page book?! you really think that that would pay writers and artists involved in making it even a minimum wage? As a comparison the Too Fat Lardies charge a bit over $23 USD for a 92 page PDF which is 75% of the price for the printed version.

OK say 30. And well it all depends on how many buy; how can others do it and some don't; besides Polish prices are not the same (yet)as say the older (ruined) western Europeans.

Don't forget this is also a way to sell the minis, thought they are not the only ones on this market.
Hook customers.
Historical gamers impulse buying have a lower threshold than fantasy ones (and I do include FOW in this).

Note 1: for the innocent who might not know the publishing "industry" game or not; writers would be lucky if they get 10% of the selling price (usually less and a fixed fee at that like Osprey), if they don't do it all (or mostly). That is actually were the electronic new world is SO INTERESTING:
writers and creators can actually make most of the money for their work.

Note 2 It has been proven the "copy" risk is not so big
the risk is against loss of actual sales: if your stuff is popular then you do sell; if not you don't sell and don't get copies.
Most copies (electronic) are not lost sales; just opportunity, would not have been sold anyway.
It is also a form of advertising (see the freebies by novel authors) to hook. c; f. selling minis here.

Then how can one ignore the millions and millions (not all are women) owning ereaders etc. The way of the future, not even, it is here now.

The supposedly lower Polish prices are already factored in, despite it's larger size and extensive original artwork By Fire and Sword has a price per page that is 60% that of Pike and Shotte and 75% that of FOG-R to compare it with other "Glossy" rules.

Using the lardies price model for PDF's would give a BFaS price of $42 USD but apparently that model is no longer valid because the end price isn't cheap enough?

As for the writers only getting 10% that is pretty much an invalid argument since BFaS is a self published product.

That copies don't equal lost sales is wrong though I agree that not every copy represents a lost sale. While the rules are indeed a possibility to sell minis there are already plenty of potential buyers of the rules who have existing armies for the period not to mention that there are numerous other companies that make figures for many of the armies.

Question about the Division lists. I'm backing the KS at Lieutenant level and was wondering if I added 4 boxes (2 each to compliment whichever skirmish boxes I get) would that be enough for a basic Division level game?

@Berlichtingen, very difficult to answer, from a Division building standpoint Sweden is the easiest to give advise upon since their Companies and Regiments are very small, making each Swedish regiment possible to build around a single box of Unarmored Reiters or Pike & Shot troops.

The cossacks are also very easy to expand since their Skirmish list is almost identical to the standard cossack infantry regiment so just add More Moloitsy, Registered Cossacks and wagons.

Other nations, such as the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth would require that you buy 1 box of Pancerni and 1 box of cossacks to get a basic regiments.

In general I can say that each basic regiment in the game requires 2 boxes of a certain troop type and is also in general baed roughly around 12 bases for all nations except for Sweden. Then of course there are configurations, alternative units and stuff you can expand or swap out in each regiment.

I can also say that Skirmish boxes that have less variety in the box, such as the Muscovite boxed set which has a lot of Dragoons (Field and Border type use the same miniatures) is easier to expand into working regiments quickly and use as a stepping stone to division level games than a very varied Skirmish box such as the Polish "Gosiewski Foray" Winged Hussar list.

If you intend to expand both Skirmish boxes in that deal, if would be getting more miniatures that are in the skirmish list so that you can expand those skirmish lists to the max first before moving onto division sized games.

Thanks. I'll look at doing that

The infantry boxes seems to give a complete but very basic regiment each but to for example take advantage of some special rules you need to field larger units.