"The actions of one brigade's journey through a campaign" Topic

Having slowly climbed the lead mountain for a couple of years now, and still only just managing to finish a brigade of British and French with supports per side as well as half a supported United Kingdom of the Netherlands brigade, I have decided to try and make use of what I have and design some fun add-on rules to make gaming at this small tactical level a bit more enjoyable and captivating.

I like the Lasalle rules as they are fairly easy and quick, but want to add progression of forces or something along those lines. I found the Sharp Practice rules on officer types etc to be rather interesting and I wanted to see if I could take this idea and run with it.
So here is what I'm looking to achieve.
Each unit/battalion gains or losses morale/experience after each battle.
Brigade and divisional commanders gain traits or flaws after each battle.
After sustaining consistent losses battalions have to receive new raw recruits which would effect battalion experience level.
Basically I want to add a RPG level to my gaming. I think it will keep me motivated to push on and finish those first divisions.

Can anyone point me towards rules/blogs/resources that might help me achieve this?
I like the idea that I would be fighting small actions or small parts of bigger battles. In other words the game focuses on just one brigades experience of a campaign. Will my brigade turn into heroic legendary battalions with a fearless tactical genius at the helm or will it all end in dishonour and disgrace with our hopeless fop behind a tent with a loaded pistol!

I look forward to hearing your responses, not sure if my idea is old hat or completely barking mad but if anyone can tell me I know it will be all of you great "TMPers"
Cheers,
Nb

As far as I understand Longstreet does this for the ACW.

Napoleonic Beginer

I think it is a wonderful idea. I am doing something similar for "Sharpe's Practice" size games. It is called Rifles Forward and will be somewhat similar to my WW II rules entitled Platoon Forward. If you go to my blog platoonforward.blogspot.com you can probably find some inspiration. You will have to get through some small craft battle actions first as that has nipped me as of late. My second to last post " Never trust a Bey" might help.

Good Luck!

Joe

Yeah, check out Longstreet for some ideas.

link

Here are my Longstreet posts… I painted and modelled the units to show how they changed over time, which was a hell of a lot of fun. I will say, though… After a while I just couldn't risk my best boys if I thought they might die! Bad trait for a leader…

let me add that if all you do after buying Longstreet is steal the campaign system to use with a different game , then you'll still get your money's worth .

and if you actually play Longstreet , that's like the gravy on poutine !

@ Joe Logan
Any chance that we will see Rifles Forward as a book any time soon?

The OP sounds a lot like an advertisement for Two Hour Wargames style play.

"…Each unit/battalion gains or losses morale/experience after each battle.
Brigade and divisional commanders gain traits or flaws after each battle.
After sustaining consistent losses battalions have to receive new raw recruits which would effect battalion experience level.
Basically I want to add a RPG level to my gaming. I think it will keep me motivated to push on and finish those first divisions…"

Not an exact match to THW but quite close.

Post the AARs, please.

Wow the pointers and resources all seem useful. I had avoided Longstreet off hand due to the ACW setting which was obviously a mistake!
@Joe Legan I will be following Rifles Forward with great interest thank you for that.
@Lord Ashram thanks for your blog also very useful and again I will follow it with interest.
Thanks for your help everyone
Nb

@Mute Bystander – I certainly will let you know how I get on. First I will have to devise/borrow/pinch system(s) to get the result I want though I'm hoping it won't take me too long as I really want to start rolling dice!

@Joe Legan
I second Sharanak request for the Rifles Forward rules/charts etc to be available for our reading pleasure!
Seriously the AAR's seem to have the level of detail I am looking for. Have you thought about publishing?

The campaign system from Longstreet should tick most of your boxes. Just be aware that the applicable mechanism would probably be the Confederate rather than the Union one: From what I've read, the former tried to maintain regiments by integrating new recruits (as did Napoleonic armies), while the latter mostly preferred to raise new regiments from scratch and let older ones shrink.

It is going to be awhile before "Rifles Forward" sees print. I have a lot of playtesting to do still. I will probably publish it through Too Fat Lardies as they have published my other stuff.
Longstreet seems very interesting just at a different scale.

Thanks

Joe

Just be aware that the applicable mechanism would probably be the Confederate rather than the Union one: From what I've read, the former tried to maintain regiments by integrating new recruits (as did Napoleonic armies), while the latter mostly preferred to raise new regiments from scratch and let older ones shrink.

This is true to a degree. The Union, given the same number of recruits, created about 1/3 more regiments than the Confederates overall. Some states like Wisconsin and New York more than others like Pennsylvania and Ohio. So overall, the Union had 2/3rd of their established regiments receiving new recruits…

Ok so Longstreet seems the way forward for now,Joe I hope one day Rifles Forward does make it into print/pdf, good look with the project!
I will let you folks know how I get on, I think I will try to blend in some of the Sharps practice stuff too for character/officer creation.
We shall see…
Thanks all
Nb

This is exactly what you are talking about.

link

Scroll down to the bottom and you'll find the TOC.

Hi Ed,
I can't believe I missed these- read up on a few AAR's and they look great.
I will have to wait until tomorrow to get a look at the TOC as I'm writing this via my mobile so I shall save further questions until tomorrow when I have followed your lead further-
All the best
Nb

My pleasure. There are a lot of good rules out there and I'm sure you'll find something that works for you.