"Franco-Prussian War Campaigning" Topic

I made a verbose post on my blog regarding my selection of campaign rules for the FPW. If the subject interests you I hope it gives you some ideas.

carnivalempire.wordpress.com

I have "To the Last Gaiter Button". I'm running the Bloody Big Battles campaign because it is way easier. The only bookkeeping is who won what battle. I've done more complex campaigns back in the last century and wanted to avoid the paperwork. I will be most interested in seeing how your campaign goes and how you fit Bloody Big Battles into the TTLG campaign system.

Vive la France! I have Sedan (sigh) coming up sometime in September when we can get 4 players for two weeks in a row.

Never heard of Real Time Wargames before. I have played most of the other games on your list. The board games were all decent but it would take some work to scale them to a miniatures campaign. I am surprised you did not consider either Fire & Fury or Black Powder as these are the most popular 19th century sets.

JPK

Bloody Big Battles is similar to F&F but has some nuances I like. I did look at the F&F variant Fire & Furia Francese also. I own Black powder but for whatever reason has never sparked an interest.

To vtsaogames, I almost went that route but I wanted a little more 'what-if' possibility to the campaign. Hopefully it works out! ;-)

BBB is similar to Fire & Fury but stripped down and simpler. Movement and firing are done using 2D6 instead of 1D10. This produces a bell curve, so results are less dicey. Assaults are done with each side rolling 1D6. Extreme results will not happen on an even fight – one side or the other will need several modifiers for a big win.

Instead of units going from fresh to worn to spent, units in BBB go to spent once they lose X number of stands; 1 for raw, 2 for trained and 3 for veteran troops. Units should not be more than 7 stands strong, although I put an 8 stand strong unit in my Bull Run scenario. Rules are made to be broken.

The rules cover weapon from smooth bore muskets up to bolt action magazine rifles, from smooth bore artillery up through breech-loading steel guns.

A stand can represent anywhere from 500 troops/12 guns up to 2,500/60 guns, with exceptions either way.

Shiloh is a mid-size game that plays in an evening.

Thanks, Lascaris. I imagine your approach will take a little more effort than my simple "historical script" BBB campaign, but sometimes what we get out depends what we put in, and of course it opens up far more possibilities. I hope that your campaign generates some fun "what-ifs", and that the reward more than justifies the effort. Please keep us posted!

Chris

Bloody Big BATTLES!
link
bloodybigbattles.blogspot.co.uk

Played one game of BBB in Scotland earlier this year. I liked them a lot. They certainly gave the best FPW game I've played – just the right scale of things, so to speak.