"Age of Valor BIG Announcement!" Topic

Age of Valor is the 19th Century European Age of Rifles expansion module to Age of Eagles, the officially sanctioned Fire & Fury variant for the Napoleonic Wars. Units are brigades and batteries. Scale is 1 inch = 120 yards, 1 turn = 30 minutes, 1 stand = 360 infantry, 180 cavalry or 6 to 8 guns. This is a BIG battle game.

WE ARE GOING DIGITAL!!!

OK, before everybody freaks, read the rest of the post in its entirety, and read carefully.

Here is the deal. Two things are driving my decision to go digital with LESS scenarios than I originally anticipated. The first is economics. The period in question (1848 Hungarian Revolution thru 1905 Russo Japanese War) is very esoteric with not a large following. So on one hand it seems logical to do a book that appeals to the largest numbers of conflicts possible so as to grab as large a customer base as possible. On the other hand, a person who is only interested in the Crimean War isn't going to be happy about shelling out $ 30.00 for a book where the majority of coverage is on wars that don't interest him. Going digital might be the solution as far as price and convenience is concerned. Here I am thinking not more than $ 5.00 if you get the disk with another AOE print product, not more than $ 10.00 if you don't. Then you can simply print out the pages you need for your specific period.

The second issue is personal. I'm pooped. And I want to scale back my commitment. When you consider all of the business activities of producing and selling the books, to include service after the sale as regards the Website and Yahoo Group, not to mention putting on games at conventions to market the product, plus designing new products such as Age of Valor, I think we are talking about some serious terminal burnout. Scenarios are especially tedious as not only am I doing all the maps and other graphics myself, but everybody and his brother from Wargames Illustrated to Vae Victis wants me to do one for them.

So here is what I envision in a digital product which will be a pdf file:

a. Cover.

b. Inside Cover.

c. Title Page & Table of Contents.

d. introduction and General Rules applicable to all. For example we now have an infantry designation called Light Infantry which uses a slightly different mounting format and gives the unit some unique attributes, such as a negative DRM for close combat, a positive DRM for being the target of enemy fire, and the ability to move thru rough terrain without penalty. This section will also include rules for a smaller scale version for smaller battles.

e. Conflict Sections.

1. Hungarian Revolution.

a. Each Conflict Section will have its own Introduction page which will include any special rules modifications that are unique to that conflict, such as allowing Hungarian infantry to automatically switch to Light Infantry mode by expending half movement. This intro will also a reference section which will include hyperlinks to material hosted on my Website such as flags, maps, uniform plates and public domain reference books or in print references.*

Flags – I will have these hosted on my Website as 15 mm pdf flag sheets, such as the Russian "Nikolai" regimental flags used during the RJW.
Maps – this will be the tough one, but the links will be to pdfs on my Website.
Uniforms – links to the appropriate section of color plates to the Vinkhuijzen Collection from the NYPL, Knoetel or other sources
Public Domain References – links to documents on my Website, such as the Austrian official history of the 1866 war, a lot of official history stuff which traditionally contains gobs of OB information.
In Print Refernces – links to Amazon or other vendor Webpages for books like the Partizan Press tomes on the Hungarian Revolution or the 1st Schleswig War.

b. Each Conflict Section will have its own set of unit and personality data charts.
c. Each Conflict Section will have its own Quick Reference Sheet of tables and charts. I feel it will be less confusing and allow more room for conflict specific rules reminders.

2. 1st Italian War of Independence.
3. 1st Schleswig War.
4. Crimean War.
5. Franco-Austrian/2d Italian War of Independence.
6. 2d Schleswig War.
7. Austro-Prussian War.
8. 3d Italian War of Independence.
9. Franco-Prussian War Imperial Period.
10. Franco-Prussian War Republican Period.
11. Russo-Turkish War.
12. Russo-Japanese War.

f. Scenarios. I don't want to do more than four or five. I am looking at Isaszeg, Alma or Malakov Redoubt, Custozza, Nachod, Coulmiers, Telissu.

g. Generic 28 mm Quick Reference Sheet of charts and tables.

h. Appendix – the Nafziger Collection. Individual links to all the OBs he has for this era compiled by conflict. For example, the Hungarian Revolution section would include:

848JAA
Austro-Croat Army, Battle of Pakozd, 29 September 1848
PDF link
848KAA
Austrian Army in Venice, 1 November 1848 – 31 August 1849
PDF link
848LAA
Austrian Army in Hungary, December 1848
PDF link
848LAB
Austrian Army, Operationing Detachments in Hungary End 1848 – Beginning 1849
PDF link
848LAC
Austrian Forces under Auersperg, Hungarian Revolution, 15 December 1848
PDF link
848LAD
Austrian Forces under Perczel, HungarianRevolution, December 1848
PDF link
849AAA
Austrian II Reserve Corps, 19 January 1849
PDF link
849BAA
Austrian 2nd Corps, Hungarian Revolution, 23 February 1849
PDF link
849BAB
Hungarian & Austrian Forces, Battle of Kaplona, 26-27 February 1849
PDF link
849CAA
Sardinian Army, 19 March 1849
PDF link
849CAB
Austrian Army in Italy, 19 March 1849
PDF link
849CAC
Austrian Army under Windischgratz, Hungarian Revolution, 12 March 1849
PDF link
849CAD
Simunich's Corps Before Komorn, Late March 1849
PDF link
849DAA
Austrian Forces under Nugent, Hungarian Revolution, 9 April 1849
PDF link
849DAB
Austrian Brigades in Bohemia, Mahern, Austria and Steier mark that were sent into Hungary to form Wohlgemuth's Corps, April 1849
PDF link
849DAC
Honvid Upper Danubian Army, Battle of Iaszeg, 6 April 1849
PDF link
849EAA
Austrian Main Army, Hungarian Revolution, Mid-May 1849
PDF link
849FAA
Austrian Army of the Danube, Hungarian Revolution, June 1849
PDF link
849FAB
Russian 5th Corps Facing the Hungarian Revolution, in Siebenburg, 13 June – 1 July 1849
PDF link
849FAC
Russian Army Facing the Hungarian Revolution in Galicia and Bukovina , 13 June – 1 July 1849
PDF link

AND A WHOLE LOT MORE FOR THIS CONFLICT ALONE!!!

h. Latest Supplement.
I. Rear inside cover.
j. Back cover

*Or I could have these link to folders containing the material actually on the disk itself.

At that point when ever I created a scenario to present at a convention – say Inkermann – I would simultaneously publish it as a freebee download on the Website.

Comments?

Warmest regards,

/// BILL ///

Wilbur E Gray
Colonel, US Army (Ret)
AOE, PSS, HMGS WFG+

ageofeagles.com

"The society that separates its scholars from its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting done by fools." Thucydides

Dear Colonel Bill,

If I remember correctly, there is an American saying: "Where do I sign ?". I for one are very happy with rules that can be downloaded (as, for instance, cardboard houses and such), because especially the cost of mail from across the ocean is sometimes prohibitive. I have already many years a laserprinter at home, and for colours a professional printer a few miles away. Although I love your present rules and scenarios (and I do not remember very high cost of mail years ago when they were sent to me from China) it is the text (with the thinking behind it) that counts. Fluff is not relevant. So I am looking forward to the moment you inform us about availability. Thank you again for another wonderful job !
Regards,Luc.

Bill

Sign me up! Love the idea. I am putting on Nachod 1866 at Cincycon in March. We have played a couple games so far for 1866. Need to order some French for 1870.

Tom

Bill,

Pdf is a solid way to go. And for those with slow downloads, a CD would be a good alternative. Me, I've scanned and pdf'd Fire and Fury and Age of Empire and use my tablet when gaming. Adding Age of Valor to those would be perfect.

Hi Bill

Yes a purchase PDF download would be great and easy to manage via one of the existing pay for download PDF sites.

Like the idea of the other items via the AoE site.

If you don't want the hassle of printing and shipping books. why not let Lulu or some similar company take care of the whole job?

Also consider the previous suggestion of downloads. Not too keen on $10 USD home-burned CDs – half the ones I've ordered from various dealers have been unreadable, and there's no AOE print product I haven't already bought.

Bill, I played Nachod 1866 at Cincycon this weekend and had a great time! I look forward to buying Age of Valor soon.

I am all for PDFs…instant Gratification!….i prefer hard copies but PDF is handy.

Dear Col I would argue that the late 19th Century does not have a large following. FPW is large which got my interest a long while ago, as a result it has expanded my interest to 1859-1871 European battles. Additionally I have also invaded Northern America in 1864 with French and German forces during the ACW with my 6mm forces …. "nuff said".

But thanks for the PDFs these will be well e-thumbed.

Greetings Colonel,

Glad to hear the news! As I own BOFF and all it's children I will be ordering Age of Valor. I put all my rules in plastic sheet protectors and binders to protect them and my BOFF family of rules are all in one glorious binder. Big, fat, and amazing! Keep it clean……. :) Any way, I do agree with the use of the service that Lulu provides as I had a very good experience purchasing Ty Beard's FFT3 spiral bound work. I would definitely purchase Age of Valor (hopefully spiral bound) through Lulu.

Thanks for your wonderful work.

Mark

I'll be buying. If it can be purchased and downloaded that would be great as I prefer viewing my documents on my Mac and iOS devices and only have Windows machines around for the odd game and more for testing software development I am involved with mainly on Macs.

Before I start an OS war tangent – I don't hate Win, just way less familiar with it and get very annoyed trying to figure out stuff on Win8 these days.

Could we see The November Uprising/Russo-Polish 1830-31 be added

Bill … are you speaking to Chris Pringle who has done a lot of work on scenarios for his rules BBB? There just may be some potential for a good collaboration … a scenario book for the period, non-specific. I also assume you are well versed with Bruce Weigle as well … all Stateside authors like yourself who may well be time poor but idea rich.

Hate to ask for more stuff, but I think a Spanish American War Conflict Section would be a good idea.

Hello,

Just received your email announcing that your event at FallIn will feature the Rules: Age of Valor – Age of Rifles European Fire & Fury. Did I miss the release?

P.S.Congratulations on winning your fight with cancer. My family has not been as lucky.

Steve

Sounds good to me. I love the period and I like pdf format.

Hopefully you can do some simplifying and editing. This is VERY unwieldly:

"Age of Valor is the 19th Century European Age of Rifles expansion module to Age of Eagles, the officially sanctioned Fire & Fury variant for the Napoleonic Wars."

I would like ONE document that is the rules for 19th Century warfare, not needing back and forth cross referencing to 3 other rule sets. That just does not sound like fun to me.

Also I disagree with the comment about "just give me text". I love the "fluff and filler" of pictures and examples of play as well as historical information including maps and period tactics.

Thanks an good luck

Like I said before, I like the idea. I do think a 15mm Quick Reference Chart should also be included (F&F was a 15mm game).

It is a great idea/format.

Bill

Can you please give us some idea of the base sizes. Will it be the same as F and F? I am particularly interested in basing for jaegers and the like. I am currently painting up FPW armies in 15mm.

Thank you