"Neil Thomas' Wargaming 19th Century Europe" Topic

I did a mini-review of Neil Thomas' Wargaming Nineteenth Century Europe 1815–1878 rules on my blog.

link

I think there are some really interesting aspects of these rules. I only made two changes:

1. I used one base instead of four bases for the unit, but I made sure that I kept the ratios between unit frontage, firing distance, and movement intact.

2. I converted everything to a square grid. (I may post that change in a future blog post.)

No pictures of the battle that I used to test the rules as I was using a prototype army, but here is some eye candy. I call it Cartman Joins the Austrian Army.

it is a nice set. If Bloody Big Battles had not come along, it would probably had been my 19th Century system.

Is BBB low figure an unit count, like NT19C?

Is BBB low figure an unit count, like NT19C?

Yes, generally. some of it is how you base your figures… there is no figure removal.

Hi Dale,

BBB is designed to make entire historical battles manageable with modest resources of time, space, players, and figures, but is still likely to need more troops than NT. A typical BBB scenario would need about 40-60 bases per side, a base being 1" square. Some scenarios are smaller than that; the largest nudge 100 bases a side. Bases do get removed as casualties.

I'd like to comment on what you said in your blog post about lopsided scenarios. The BBB philosophy is along the lines of what you and your buddy were saying after your Gettysburg game: in a BBB scenario, the historical result is the 'par score' (unless someone really stuffed up badly), so if you do better than your historical counterpart, you win. There are about 60 scenarios available now, mostly free in the BBB Yahoo group files, with one or two new ones being added every month.

Best of luck with your NT project. Happy gaming!

Chris

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

BBB and Neil's 19th century rules are actually rather similar. Most infantry in Neil's 19th 19th century rules are 4 bases. Most units in BBB tend to be in the 3-4 base range. The only difference is that you need many more units. That said as Chris said, a average Neil 19th Century Army should give you enough to play some BBB scenarios. Both are great games. BBB has the advantage of about 65 ready historicla scenarios. Neil's is an easier pick up system. The army you build will work for both.

I have played many games using these rules, including the scenarios Montebello, Kissingen, Nachod and Mars la Tour. The rules are excellent and the scenarios are fun. The Austrians stand no chance against the Prussians in 1866. To make things more competitive, allow the Austrian infantry to deploy in line and give them a numerical advantage.

I like the look of this version -What did you do about infantry in column which would be one base wide?
I go for units of two bases side by side for line and one behind the other for a column.