"Best 40mm AWI skirmish rules?" Topic

I have had gifted to me and have had forced upon me some gorgeous 40mm AWI figures. I am slowly painting them.
I have jaegers, minutemen, LI and Indians.
Normally I play Age of Reason for regiment unit scale, TSATF for Wyoming a Massacre size battles.
Now that I am accumulating units with sizes of 5-10 actual guys, what's a good set of rules ?
I am toying with combining elements of WRG's Fire and Steel and Habitants and Highlanders to make the OFM's Own Flames of Liberty.
Anybody have recommendations?
Not that said rules would not work with 28mm also!
I am basically looking at rules with around 5 guys per "faction" with about 6-8 players.

Why not stick with TSATF, and just use the small unit variant which is 8 figures per unit.

Muskets and Tomahawks?

I'd second Muskets and Tomahawks. Excellent from 15-40mm.

The Colonel

"This Very Ground" would work as well.

"Song of Drums and Tomahawks" by Ganesha Games might be another possibility.

Yeah, Muskets and Tomahawks.

Sharp Practice ? Close enough in period – just make
some adjustments for 'special' figures and make sure
Morgan's riflemen are represented in some fashion

Another vote for this very ground.

Muskets and Tomahawks I think would be closer to what you are looking for. We use them with 40mm AWI small units and they work very well.

Another vote for Sharp Practice link from TooFatLardies:

"A set of rules for wargaming the actions of literary heroes, with swashbuckling adventures in the black powder age. Packed with colour and character Sharp Practice transcend the gap between wargaming and role playing and allow the gamer to fight large scale skirmishes between 30 and 120 figures per side."
There are also two Sharp Practice scenario supplements for the AWI:
"With Fire and Sword" and
"This Land Divided"

That said, "Muskets and Tomahawks" also looks good for your requirements although I have yet to play it myself.

If you are into reaction type rules, I would also suggest "Muskets and Mohawks" from Two Hour Wargames using their Chain Reaction game engine. You can download Chain Reaction for free link and if you like the system get M&M for 14 dollars.

What will the 5-10 guys represent? 5-10 guys? A company? More?

I want the 5-10 guys to be at a 1:1 scale.

I have tons of individually mounted/based figures, but I almost always play large battles on a TSATF scale. Like Wyoming Massacre, Lexington Concord, etc.
Obviously, the light company and grenadiers in 28mm individually based will be set to play.
But I have about 20 on each side 40mm figures, and want to try something smaller unit scale. I want to buy more, but I want a useful fun set of rules to try first. I have no wish to build similar armies to my 2000+ 28mm regiments.

Like I, err Winston, said above, I may just meld Fire and Steel with Habitants and Highlanders, with some TSATF thrown in the pot for taste.
Then my annual April Fools day Flames of Liberty hardcover for $100 USD may be a serious thing.

Hummmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. I think next you'll need a few mounted Civilian Scouts to go ahead of your militia so they don't stumble into an ambush from those Indians. I'll see what I can do to solve this problem.

Muskets and Tomahawks.

Light Bobs Battalion Level Rules

Please consider my rules that are coming out this spring.

They are for the scale you want unit wise (2-12 figures) and can be done in any scale. 4 to 6 units per player. I use 40mm and I'm addicted to them and sell them as well on my site at dayofbattle.com.

The full beta version is available at this link as a free download. Nothing to sign up for.

dayofbattle.com/light-bobs

Here are two links on TMP. One announcing the beta release and the other showing 4 videos of a short play test on youtube.

TMP link

TMP link

Hope to hear your thoughts and good luck.

Chris Parker

Thank you