"Favorite ACW Rules?" Topic

Which ruleset is your favorite?

Johnny Reb 2 (actually the tweaked version – JR 2.5)

On to Richmond.

Regimental Fire and Fury

Still like the old (1970s) Rally Round the Flag [albeit 15mm troops, 25mm moves].

Altar of Freedom – whole battle on a 6x4 with the right feel to me.

Fire & Fury, but it takes too many minis on too big a table to do the above.

Volley & Bayonet. They allow the large battles of the ACW to be fought with ease and with period feel.

Johnny Reb II for Brigade sized actions and Altar of Freedom for big battles.

Regimental Fire and Fury for regimental, Fire and Fury for brigade.

On to Richmond.

I have JR2 – how do you get 2.5?

Cannot really say just one as this is a period I like to fight in different ways with different styles.

Regimental Fire and Fury/ Brigade Fire and Fury for fighting historical engagements.

Longstreet for fun light loose gaming.

Black Powder for quick small or large games especially useful for multi player fast games of set them up and knock them down.

Christopher

Fire and Fury

On to Richmond

Altar of Freedom. I agree with darthfozzywig.

A Union So Tested

As always it depends what you want from your rules.

Longstreet are my favourite by a country mile.

I don't find any of the others I've played particularity historical (haven't played JR2) so the fact that Longstreet are a lighter touch doesn't bother me.

My next step will be doing what looks like straight forward mods to shift "Blucher" across to ACW for battle size actions, to get a similar feel for the larger games.

Fire & Fury or Fire & Fury Regimental.

I find myself in the absurd situation that I actually use 4 rules sets for the ACW. At brigade level for solo play or with just a couple of friends, I use On To Richmond. For larger brigade based games, I use Fire and Fury.

Then the Perrys brought out those plastic 28mm ACW sets, so in 28mm at regimental level I use Black Powder, and am now also being sucked into Regimental Fire and Fury!

And I enjoy them all! They all do something slightly different that helps me appreciate the period.

What ACW Bill said. I am also reading through Gettysburg Soldiers, but strangely using them for non-ACW.

JRIII

As always, it depends on what level of game you are playing, and how many and how experienced players you are playing with, and how heavily you want the rules' systems to weigh on your game play.

On the regimental level, my favorite by far are Regimental Fire & Fury. However, if I need to accommodate new or infrequent players who aren't investing in learning the rules, then I also find that Rank & File (Crusader Games) are good.

On the brigade level, I played a lot of "original" Fire & Fury a while back and enjoyed them, but this year I've been experimenting with house rules to Volley & Bayonet, which has worked very well when I have a large number of players (3+ per side) but know that they won't invest time in learning even simple rules like F&F.

With the recent news that the venerable F&F is being upgraded with the more recent changes made to RF&F, I'm pretty sure that it will move to my "favorite" category for brigade level battles.

Of the more recent sets, I can't abide the gamey-ness and historical shortcuts of Longstreet, and while Altar of Freedom has some interesting new takes on larger scale gaming, for my sake it was one level of abstraction too far. However, AoF's commitment to gaming the period is admirable, and their list of leader attributes in the core rules and their extensive scenario books are to be admired. These are personal views, and both games have been successful, so more power to those who enjoy them!

As for skirmish level gaming, I don't have a lot of experience with it for the ACW, but can attest that – as for most horse & musket periods – The Sword and the Flame can be used to give an enjoyable game.

Cheers,

Christopher

@Teppsta: Google "Johnny Reb 2.5" and you'll find where to download the sheet of changes to JRII.

Fire and Fury.

Mostly the old club used house rules developed over a long period of time. I've played a number of different sets, but settled more or less on Volley & Bayonet. I really don't care for any of the Johnny Reb series, and although we played Fire & Fury, I thought it was a little too much.

My interest these days is in accenting the "game" part of "wargame". As such, Volley & Bayonet works very well for me. Having said that, I'm also working on a mod to the Impetus system for the ACW. I like the fact that one base equals 1 unit, in this case either a regiment or a brigade, depending upon which level you want to game.

Except for skirmish, I'm just about done with multiple bases per unit like F&F, JR and the others all use.

As above, these are my personal opinions based upon my own likes and experiences over the past half century.

Haven't played [much] ACW in years, but just started a new project and picked an old favorite as the basis for the project. In [true] 25mm I'll be using the old Hardtack rules by Lou Zocchi – old school rules and 99% old school figures.

These were my favorite rules years ago, and still hold up for my purposes.

JRIII. I never saw the need to try anything else once I found that.

Whipping Bobby Lee, complicated turn/initiative system but after figuring that out they gave many very entertaining and nailbiting games.

Brother against Brother

On to Richmond.

They Couldn't Hit an Elephant

Fire & Fury.

JRIII by far

Fire and Fury. (Both brigade and regimental)

@Timbo – Whipping Bobby Lee sounds interesting from this old thread … ignore the Booby Lee … ;)

TMP link

Does anyone know if they are available anywhere? The reinforcement/setup system sounds worth stealing if nothing else.

Cheers,

Christopher

Iron and Fire

I prefer the naval side of the war

Rank and File

Rusty's Rules or Hardtack

Many fave's: On To Richmond; A Glint of Bayonets;

Regimental Fire and Fury; Brigade Fire and Fury;

A home-grown set developed by our local group. It
is titled _Butternut and Bucktail_

JRII followed by Fire and Fury

Anything but Fire and Fury or Johnny Reb. Really hate those rules. Because of those rules people in my group wontbplay ACW anymore after too many bad experiences.

The old Rally Round The Flag…been playing them for over 30 years…

Fire & Fury both sets.

Regimental Fire & Fury in 28mm. Our wargame group likes it. We have run it at conventions and the players all enjoy it. Will be running it at Texicon FT. Worth Wars June 26th. Scenario is Diversion at Glass Mill. Breckinridge vs. Neagley at Chickamauga.

Altar of Freedom.

Our group started out with On to Richmond. We had a brief, and less than thrilling, venture into JR.1. We finally settled onto some house rules that were supposedly penned by Bob Coggins. IIRC he disavowed any knowledge of them. It MAY have been that there was enough of the Napoleon's Battle's mechanics in them that he MAY have been concerned about eroding his copyright. At any rate we took to calling them "Not Coggins." In truth they are quite good and actually fit on 2 sides of a sheet of paper.

This was, however, years ago. Sadly our group wandered away from ACW and have never gone back.

"Rifle Wars" form our own War Artisan

Fire and Fury or Regimental Fire and Fury

For large size games – On to Richmond

For medium size games – A Glint of Bayonets

For small size (skirmish) games – The Sword and Secession

Jim

Fire and Fury and Mr. Lincoln's War