| Mute Bystander | 16 Nov 2014 6:12 p.m. PST |
Bought a set of rules – a 2005 Polemos' set – War of Spanish Succession by Chris Grice and Stu Gibson. The cover does not look like the current Baccus' Polemos rules: 1) Chosen men, well disposed treats one base as a battalion and enables you to play smaller actions OR 2) Obstinate and Bloody Battle which has a scale of one base representing a Brigade and lets you fight the largest actions. So, those who know the rules; what are the differences between the current rules and the 2005 rules I bought? |
| Who asked this joker | 16 Nov 2014 6:43 p.m. PST |
I don't know the rules well but from what I understand, the 2005 version was strictly played on the regimental level (one base is a regiment) which is equivalent to "Chosen Men." The "Obstinate and Bloody Battles", presumably, is for fighting the larger engagements. |
| Baccus 6mm | 17 Nov 2014 3:23 a.m. PST |
The rules have been substantially revised and overhauled for the new edition. The original set worked with a scale of one base to one battalion. In practice this meant that playing some of the really large engagements of the period became clumsy because of the sheer number of bases required. When Chris started work on the second edition we decided to move to the format that we'd successfully adopted in our 19thC rulesets of a two tier approach. One set working on one base to a battalion for smaller actions and one set working on one base to a brigade to allow you to play the big battles. While the basic principles of both sets of rules will be familiar to players of the first edition, there have been modifications introduced to take into account the dual approach and the army generators have been substantially overhauled. |
| Mute Bystander | 17 Nov 2014 3:34 a.m. PST |
Good to hear from Baccus directly. I have the Polemos Napoleonic rules so this gives me some clear direction. I see that "Chosen Men" and "Obstinate and Bloody Battles" appear to be separate hardcopies on LuLu unlike the Napoleonic set I own (which is back to back, one "upside down" (I assume to help keep the reader clear which set he may be referencing during a game?) from the other. Is that intentional? I rather like the format (and cost) of the Napoleonic rules. |
| Baccus 6mm | 17 Nov 2014 3:56 a.m. PST |
After chatting to a number of Polemos players we found that most people tended to use one set in the double rulebooks almost exclusively. As a result we took the decision to go with the separate rulebooks for the WSS. It hasn't really affected the price, as the cost of doing a double sized single volume would still have been £20.00 GBP |
| Mute Bystander | 17 Nov 2014 4:46 a.m. PST |
Fair enough. Third sigma, again… |
| steamingdave47 | 17 Nov 2014 6:36 a.m. PST |
I think there is a pdf version available as well.
Personally, I don't like the Polemos rules for big battles. I prefer the simple "Twilght of the SunKing" rules, only need a two- sided A4 sheet to play and even the rule book is only about 8 pages. |
| Baccus 6mm | 17 Nov 2014 7:41 a.m. PST |
Steamingdave47, Have you tried the second edition, especially OBB? Only needs a two sided A4 sheet and while the rules section runs to 24 pages the rules themselves take up less than half of the area. We have taken up a lot of space in this edition with expanded examples and play throughs. Polemos rules are not cumbersome and play very quickly indeed once you get the hang of the game concepts. When the Polemos apps start coming out next year, we've found that using them makes the games even simpler to play and increases the speed of play by around 30%. |
| steamingdave47 | 17 Nov 2014 9:55 a.m. PST |
Hi Peter,
Yes played OBB at our club, refight of Blenheim. We have done this battle three times, once with the original Polemos, once with ToTSK and most recently with OBB. I just did not enjoy the third game as much as the first two. Purely a personal opinion, others in the group were quite happy with them, but for me the game did not "flow" as well. And it wasn't just because the British were well beaten- we did Ramillies with ToTSK and the British were completely slaughtered!
Nick is trying to convert me again, but then he has a bit of an interest in Polemos rules. |
| Recovered 1AO | 03 Jan 2017 8:37 a.m. PST |
Peter, There was some discussion that the rules on a stick might not "play well" with my iPad. Have you heard any feedback on that? I always prefer both hard copy for reading but use PDFs a lot when prepping for a game. |
paints brigs for the British fleet.
