"FIW Newbie--What's Out There?" Topic

I need another gaming period like I need another hole in my head, but I find myself interested in the FIW. It looks like a period with colorful uniforms, interesting combatants and small battles. From browsing the FIW links here on TMP it looks like everything from smaller pitched battles to skirmish-type games are reasonable possibilities.

My problem is where to begin?

What rulesets and figures are all the cool kids using?

Muskets and Tomahawks seems to be fairly popular at the moment. It being mostly a skirmish period a lot of people game it in 28mm.

There are tons of figures out there for this period.

A rather incomplete list to get you started would include:

Galloping Major
Conquest Miniatures
Crusader Miniatures
Old Glory

All in 28mm. Old Glory also makes Blue Moon and they make 18mm figures too.

If you want something really skirmishy Thunderbolt Mountain makes some excellent 42 mm figures that would work for the period but I think the range is limited to about 5 figures or so.

Another option is the John Jenkins Designs pre-painted 54mm figures which are very nice.

"This Very ground " rules set is very good as well

Desert Fox;
I just saw your post and thought you should check out my website, Battlefield Game Designs here:

battlefieldgamedesigns.com

Have a look at Buckskins and Rangers which is a skirmish style game for the FIW. Click on "Continue Reading" and you will see that you get everything you need to game except the terrain and figures. I have been sponsored by Galloping Major Miniatures (GMM) whose fine line of FIW figures can be purchased directly from the owner, Lance (GMM) in Great Britain or Loyalhanna in the USA and terrain from Acheson Creations owned and operated by Craig. Both dealers are excellent to deal with.

Further, my rule set, Buckskins and Rangers, won a 2013 PELA Gaming Award at Historicon this past year which I am extremely proud of and have sitting on my mantel at home.

Should you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact me directly from my website here:

link

I hope to hear from you at your liesure and good luck. It is a great era to game.
Regards,
Hitman

Yes, Iron Ivans "This Very Ground" is a good ruleset for the period.

Kings Mountain produces the Over Mountain Men with various heads that would be ideal for F&I War. Check them out at

kingsmtminis.com

Long Rifle and Muskets and Mohawks cover the FIW and include automatically generated campaigns.

Long Rifle is for man to man skirmish while Muskets and Mohawks is multiple unit battles.

Both can be played solo, same side against the game and head to head.

Take a look at these Bat Reps.They will give you an idea of how they play.Each has a campaign system as well.

link

link

link

link
Lots of good rules out there, just depends what you like.

I have played several different rules for FIW. You are really blessed with a lot when they are singly based.

The first set I played was WRG's Fire and Steel. It's a rather involved set, with loading, tap loading, etc. However, make up a roster sheet with relevant stuff, and players can run it themselves with no referee's help after a turn or two.
The maximum a player can handle is probably 8-10 figures, but with a card draw and Opportunity fire (! ), everybody can be involved. I ran a 10 player "Rescue Demi Moore!" game, each controlling 3-10 figures. A 3 hour convention game with total newbies to the rules!
We also played "Diss Sir William Johnson", which was a raid on his stately mansion by Froggies and Injuns.

I have played Brother Against Brother.

For "large skirmish" games, I have used The Sword and the Flame, with minimal changes from the book. For some reason I prefer that to "The Sword in the Forest", which is the "official" TSATF rulebook.

A few years ago, I put on a game where I deliberately used as many different figures from as many different manufacturers as I could. I counted 23 different manufacturers on the table, and the number of suitable manufacturers has gone up since then.

I use "The Sword in the Forest" (a TSATF supplement) for my games. I ran a bunch of these several years ago both for our wargaming group and at a convention. You can get these rules from sergeants3.com , but you'll need both TSATF and TSITF supplement.

Jim

If you want to do it in style, check out Chris Cluckey's setup.
link

^^^ That is amazing. Those Jenkins figures are fantastic.

I use 18mm figures & This Very Ground rules. For my group this accommodates large skirmish games with about 8 players & 100 to 200 total figures.
Jerry

My group played "This Very Ground" and liked it, except for one thing. We felt that the "locked in hand to hand until one side is all dead" was un-historical. We felt a simple house rule would fix it, and the game would be great.

Unfortunately, or not depending, my group flits around a bit. So we never played TVG again, we did use a variant of Too Fat Lardies "Sharpe Practice" several times. That is great fun.

Enjoy

Agree with a a lot of the above, started with 'This Very Ground' now about to get round to Muskets & Tomahawks. If you can stretch to it I'd always recommend playing with John Jenkins Designs 54 mm figures (more like 60 mm). These are cracking toys but can bust the bank, and leave little opportunity to turn the budget to other periods (that's what happened to me – became an obsession!).

Here is a list of 28mm figure manufacturers. Some other ranges, Seven Years War for example, may also have suitable figures.

link

Muskets and Tomahawks is fun and resonably accurate set of Skirmish rules
Lots of great 28mm figures out there

Evzone: Please email me at; jcairo1 (at) udayton (dot) edu

Thanks.

Another vote for 15/18 mm figures – I have about 800 painted so far (large units of about 42 figures).

Fun period.

Desert Fox have you seen this M&T site?
link

Northstar, Redoubt, Galloping Major, Front Rank.
Compatible size-wise, and make pretty much all you could want in 28mm between them,

Here is some good information on the armies found here…

link

Predominately for the regular troops, but colonial units are handled fairly well.

For Indians I would suggest the art of Robert Griffing:

link

Good luck on your new project.

Happy Little Trees – thanks for sending the traffic my way!

Evzone – "obsession" is right! I even use the word in my blog title.

I am a big fan of "This Very Ground." If you want to know what I like about the rules and why, check out link

GR C17 – I like the "one turn and done" melee. To get to hand-to-hand, the attacker has to take a courage test, then the defender has to test to stand the charge (or can choose to retreat), and the attacker may still take opportunity fire on the move to contact. If I can get to contact, I want the melee to get to a fast decision!

Everyone is right – lots of great choices available to game a fascinating historical period.

Desert Fox, I am a huge fan of Muskets and Tomahawks. The rules are intuitive and as has been said above they provide an accurate resemblance to what seems right for the period. What I like about them the most is they have a "cinematic" feel to them. They do this by havering each game consist of not only different objectives for each side but you can also add sub-plots. So it adds flavor and almost gives it a role playing feel to get you into the setting and into your specific objective accomplishments. Highly recommend them.

i am a fan of muskets and tomahawks. very elegant rules

Andy

I'm a fan too of M & T !

Ditto on M&T. Love the game and there is such a wealth of figures out there.

I love Muskets and Tomahawks. The random events and side plots make it unpredictable and give it a story like quality.

Hello,

I throw my support behind M&T as well. I've posted *many* posts up on my blog about M&T at link

For "comparative miniature size" and the ranges available:

link

Regards,

Jay

I would also suggest black powder rules

take care

Andy

Still find that TFL's Longue Carabine supplement for Sharp Practice comes closest to simulating forest skirmishes. The ranges are sensible and the casualties rate aren't crazy like so many rules out there. More Native Americans die in a typical game of some other rules then were killed in several fights combined. The shock system used in SP works quite well.