"Anyone using Regimental Fire & Fury for AWI?" Topic

This rules set was originally written for ACW, but now has a quick reference sheet link for those who want to use it for AWI. I'm wondering if any AWI gamers have play-tested it and could share their impressions positive or negative?

Ordinarily I would ask "Why mot play rules dedicated to the period?"…
However, I use the Age of Reason SYW rules for AWI.
And lately I have been experimenting with The Sword and the Flame and "800 Fighting Englishmen".

Bottom line is that if it feels right, do it!

Yes as well as for the Mexican American War. Worked like a charm.

We used in a 40mm AWI game and it worked very well and was lots of fun. See here for my Blog post on the game:
link

Yes! I am a huge fan of the rules and the author. The one area though that needs some help with regard to AWI is the impact of small elite units on larger sized less trained ones. In some battles regiments or detachments such as grenadiers or lights of 150-200 men had a significant impact. In f&f it's a little difficult to replicate. But over all its a great set of rules.

Played a few games – awfully bloody.

Yep, ran Hobkirk's Hill at Enfilade a couple of years ago. No complaints from me. We've also used the rules for several War of 1812 games.

Thanks for the input, everyone. Viper Guy, are you rating the larger sized militia units as 'raw', and the smaller grenadier or light units as 'elite?' Add a gallant major or colonel, and that beefs them up even more. For ACW, we have made the modification that certain units never become worn, in spite of their losses (for example, the Iron Brigade). Yes, John the OFM, I own several of AWI rule sets. However, I've recently joined a local club that has been using RF&F for awhile for ACW, and everybody knows them really well. So it's the easiest and quickest way for me to get the group to jump into AWI.

Small units have a very hard time inflicting casualties through fire. A 4 stand unit gets a -1 due to size. If firing at a unit in cover is a minus three total.

I helped playtest the AWI rules more than 10 years ago. the AWI Regimental rules were developed first but never
officially published. Not sure if a complete rulebook was ever written. The fire and fury website used to have the quick reference sheets as well as the Brandywine scenario.

v/r

Joe

Hello,

We played it this past November. Used RFF for ACW many times and it works just as well if not better for AWI.

Here is a link to my blog which has what you need for the Brandywine scenario which is till on the Fire and Fury site.

link

I am currently in the process of building AWI armies of my own as our group is trying black powder. I am purposely basing them so I can also use them for RFF as well.

HTH,

Aaron

Aaron, how are you rating the various units engaged? I'm considering the following:

elite: British grenadiers and light bobs, highlanders
veterans: British line, some continental (MD, DE troops)
trained: most continental units
raw: militia

- Don

Don,

I would be careful about rating all British line as veteran; a lot of units saw very little actual combat (as opposed to lots of marching and dysentery) and would have been on a par with the trained Continentals. When you're talking about the likes of the 23rd and 33rd in the Southern campaigns, or the 24th in the Saratoga campaign, then I would almost consider them elite; at the other end of the scale, the 38th and 43rd, stuck in Rhode Island for most of the war, not so much.

Not sure where I'd put the Guards – probably veteran, but no more. Equally, I would not automatically rate Highlanders as elite – the 42nd and 71st would certainly be veteran, but both had patchy records; I'm not sure how you would rate the RHE/84th (possibly different for the two battalions), but the 74th and 76th would have been no more than trained when they arrived in America.

I think you are broadly right about the Continentals – too many people rate the bulk of Washington's infantry too highly, and (like most of the British line infantry) only the handful of regiments in the South ever saw enough action to be able to rate them seriously. The artillery would rate well, as would the cavalry/legions that served in the South.

Something to bear in mind is that some battles only "work" if you re-classify units for that action only – most rules need to rate all British units as elite for Guilford, for example, just in order to permit the historical to be viable.

Don,

If you follow the link in the Blog is gets you to the F&F page with all the unit ratings on it.

I do not believe we modified anything from the scenario designers recommendations. Most Americans are Trained and some VET. Brits are mostly Vet and Crack.

Here is the direct link:
link

The OoB is at the bottom and you can open in PDF or Word.

So far Brandywine is the only one we have done using RFF, but as suggested above I think you would have to take it scenario by scenario and rate troops based on performance or desired outcome based on history.

HTH,

Aaron

Greatly appreciate your great historical insights, SuperM! I am relatively new to this period (from a wargaming standpoint) and will definitely incorporate your input into my unit ratings.

The Brandywine scenario unit ratings are a good starting point, and I have looked at them. I think some could be altered given the time period of the war.