"Bigger-Than-Brigade-Level 18th Rulesets?" Topic

Looking to replicate some really big battles on a large gaming surface. Looking for brigade-level and above rulesets (up to corps commander/field marshal level, even). Anything from dozens of regiments up to 50,000 troops or so. From Rossbach to Kunersdorf. Very small figure scale, in the 3/6mm range. Figure scale approximately equal to ground scale. Large playing surface (12' X 15').

Any recommendations gladly accepted.

Black Powder?

We have done many of the battles in 15mm using Might and Reason. It is brigade based.

Age of Honor is brigade based, and developed from Fire & Fury. The rulebook has a stack of scenarios from the war of the Spanish Succession onwards.

Volley and Bayonet.

Land of the Free by osprey would do. It is very flexible and can handle large games with multiple players.

Matthew

Might and Reason

Volley and Bayonet was designed specifically for this purpose.

Another vote for Volley and Bayonet….great game for LARGE actions.

A lonely vote for Twilight of the Sun King.

Brigades are represented by two elements in theory, but we've used it for some pretty big battles like Ramilles.

Although I haven't played it, I understand Baccus' Polemos Napoleonic ruleset should fit the bill since it is designed for 6mm figures.

link

Jim

In 1:600/3mm scale a 12 foot table is 7200 scale feet wide, or about a mile and a half. To do large battles you'l need at least 1:1200 or even larger. At that scale how big would a brigade be?

Might and Reason.

I support Martin Rapier's vote for Twilight of the Sunking. Might need to tweak for later 18th century, but we have played Blenheim and Ramillies with 10mm figures. Great set of rules and cheap!

King of the Battlefield and Maurice would both work too, both are figure-scale independent in practice; I have a KotB project in 2mm!

If you are looking at the WSS then the recently published Polemos rules fit your requirements very nicely – link

You would need to use 'Obstinate and Bloody Battle' which works on a scale of one base=one brigade.

We do have a Polemos variant covering the SYW in the works, but this is still in the intial layout stage.

Extra Crispy advised:

In 1:600/3mm scale a 12 foot table is 7200 scale feet wide, or about a mile and a half. To do large battles you'l need at least 1:1200 or even larger. At that scale how big would a brigade be?

Thank you. That's entirely obvious, yet entirely revelatory. Find out how big the historical area is* and divide that by the available playing area to arrive at the proper scale. And if the available area is twelve feet long it makes the math really easy. I hadn't thought of it that way. Cheers.

To the basement!

*IIRC, the battle lines at Lobositz stretch something like five miles, so your point is well taken. But wait, the room diagonal is a longer axis! Now let's see, the hypotenuse… Oh no, no room for maneuver! OK, THREE command levels higher! One brick is a brigade! A division! A corps! To the garage! To the driveway! 8)

Also, thanks for the many suggestions. Duly noted.

The list was:

Volley and Bayonet
Might and Reason
Polemos
Twilight of the Sun King
King of the Battlefield
Maurice
Age of Honor
Land of the Free
Black Powder

I'll be looking to pick up a few of these. Especially the ones that got seconded, that I'd heard recommended before, that seem scale-appropriate, or that got particularly passionate recommendations. Thanks again, and cheers.