"15mm AWI Rules" Topic

Looking for a good set of 15mm AWI rules not to complex and easy to play (teaching a novice), and lastly figures which ranges are best–i.e. cover all or most of the troop types involved in the conflict

thanks in advance

I can recommend American Battlelines (ABL) by ODGW. It is uses 1 stand to represent about a company (brigade level I believe), is easy to learn and is fun to play. ABL rules can also be used for Texas War for Independence, Mexican American War and American Civil War. If you will be at Historicon, ODGW is running continuous walk-up demos of the ABL rules system in AWI, ACW and MAW Thursday through Saturday. Come in any time, learn and play the rules, ask the staff any questions, and decide for yourself. If you can't make Historicon, go to the ODGW website, odgw.com , and hit the support section and ask any questions you might have about the game. Sorry about the shameless plug but I like the game as a player. :)

Ooops. I forgot the rules set also covers the War of 1812 too. <Blushing>

The rules I use for 25mm, "British Grenadier", also have scales, distances etc for 15mm. Good rules, easy to learn and very historically aware. I learnt them pretty quickly and I have the brain of a flea. Being a variant of the "General de Brigade" Nap rules, the rules have a support site at the GdB discussion group–www.generaldebrigade.com.

Giles

We use the British are Coming from TCS. Battalions are normally 9-18 figures, most being 12. Scale is 1-20 to 25. All die rolls are 1D100. I've been playing it for 20+ years and it is the only set of rules that I play unmodified. It's perfect.

Easy to teach, easy to learn, written clearly and a decent amount of supporting material in the rules.

For figures I would go with Old Glory and Musket Miniatures. I prefer the animation of Old Glory but for one off Regiments and supplimental Generals Musket works well.

Don't load up on cavalry, there wasn't that much. It was mostly an Infantry war.

British Grenadier are the best I've seen so far. The British Are Coming isn't bad either, though some of the mechanics are kinda screwy

Guns of Liberty…If I was to wargame the AWI with 15mm, I'd use GoL (2nd edition). Morale is the most important component and can be brittle, units will fold, rally, etc…It is perfect for smaller to mid size battles. It is very easy to learn and moderately priced. I believe that basing is 2 figs per stand (for both foot and horse), with 12-18 figs per unit. I picked up the ruleset and was very pleased. Anyway, for figures you have some good choices: Musket, MiniFigs, and Old Glory. Musket & MiniFigs have a more "rigid" look and have fewer poses (rigid is not a bad thing for this period). Old Glory guys look more varied in thier poses. Incidently, if you check out the GoL website, Eric Burgess (the author) has reviews and photo comparisons of various figure lines: link

You might also look at the "America's Wars" rules. It's the regimental version of Fire and Fury. While its heritage is ACW, these new rules are designed to cover all of the American conflicts.

fireandfury.com/aw/aw.html

The new 18th century POW rules will be out this summer covering AWI, Seven Years war .

principlesofwar.com

We use Loose Files and American Scramble at our club which were published in Wargames Illustrated number one!

They are by Andy Callan and on the web at:

link

I'd recommend them.

Mike

another vote for British Grenadier; an excellent set of rules, intuitive, fast to learn and subtle in their replication of the era's tactics.
No need to look further as far as I am concerned.
They are sold by Caliver in the UK

Are any of the rules mentioned abonve like Johnny Reb? (In terms of basing, scale and orders)?

Actually, it would be helpfull to all to list some of the features of the suggested rules sets. AWI is a period absolutely BLESSED with decent rules. Some I like, some I don't, but all of them have a following.

Specifically, theoretical scale, complexity of the rules, size of the normal unit, etc.

Most (not all) rules of the period tend to be 1:25 or so. Small war, so games like VnB don't fit so well. I think that British Grenadier is 1:10 or 1:5 with 24 man units–I've only seen it once but it was physically very pretty. I hope to see it played at Historicon. Much more complex than TBAC (The British are Coming) I hope that it is more playable than Flint and Steel, another very pretty game but with the turn sequence from hell. Charts out the ying-yang.

GOL is a bit thin, yet it has a decent following. I have it and it seems very much like TBAC only using D6 instead. It has virtually no supporting material in the rules, so you are totally on your own for research. That said, 1776, TBAC, Flint and Steel (especially F&S), do a much better job with supporting material (scenarios, unit information, General ratings and Uniform information.

I can say nothing good about Patriots and Loyalists.

I've played the F&F version of the Regimental rules. If you like F&F, you will like this. Not being an F&F fan, it didn't do much for me.

I also have American Battlelines, yet have never played it. Physically well done, pretty, it seems much more mechanical. It suffers from the fact that I actually like what I normally use a great deal so I don't take the time to wade through the rules to try it. I'm told that the games will be a bit smaller on this one.

My vote is for Guns of Liberty.

Ok, some details. British Grenadier is technically 1:20 though most use it at 1:10 and I've heard of at least one group doing 1:5. No ground scale is specified but as a reference point, maximum musket range is 20cm (12"). Movement is not set distances. Example: 2nd rate infantry in line formation move 1 or 2 d6 (second die if you forgo a number of options). One noticable change from General de Brigade is disruption points. You pick these up through movement. These can seriously ruin your day. Pausing to reorder your ranks is advised.

You could use JRIII without difficulty. Use weapons as muskets–all rifled units are skirmish only without bayonet. Instead of General Lee, it'll be his father Light Horse Harry. General Grant will be wearing red and make the horse units MUCH smaller. Much less artillery and reduce it's effectiveness.

We did a crash of Complete Brigadier and JRII once, called The Complete Johnny Yank. The order system from CB suited the period better.

GoL is very easy to learn and teach. "Sons of Liberty" is similar and available from the Free Wargames rules page.

If you favour small actions Patriots from The Perfect Captain is free, includes scenarios, army generators, lots of colour and is easy to learn and use, best of all it's free.

My own personal favoprite is Larry Brom's "Disperse Ye Damned Rebels" I like the way it duplicates period tactical evolutions and manuvers in a simple way on the table top. Scale is 1:15 so armies need not be huge.

No advert here. of course I play 'Fire & Discipline: The Americas'. The 1:10 troop scale seems to reflect regarless of unit size, the average firing/fighting unit.

Of course my opinion is slanted.

I play GOL. I have heard it compared favorably to Johnny Reb. I like the scale and ease of play. There are scenarios available at charlottegarrison.org/GOL
I can also recommend britishbattles.com

Best modern day set is British Grenadier, but then I already had General de Brigade. However, I love the Disruption points. Loose Files is also good, since its free, its definitely worth a go. I also like the old set, Generalship which covered 1812, and Mexican War too.

I like Loose Files & American Scramble. It's designed for 1:10 figure:troop ratio but I've used from that up to 1:25 and like the results. Troops become disordered through movement and combat. It is really very hard to attack with militia, best to find some obstacle for them to defend.

There was a discussion about 15mm AWI minis some months ago, which you can find here:

TMP link

For pictures and detailed comparisons, I recommend you visit here:

link

The British Are Coming:

link

You'll enjoy 'Washington's Army' by Peter Pig.
The rules include a battle generator, are in inches for distances, 5/0 foot x 3/0 foot table, 6 sided dice.
• The standard base size is 3x3 cm, allowing latitude to figure position on the base, good tactile size
and constant unit footprint when bases turn on the spot.
• Use of six sided dice (D6) for all purposes.
• Move increments of three inches allowing bigger moves so that the bold player cannot have his
plan intercepted and nullified by the purely re-active player.
• Armies begin the game at a close distance so as to force players into keeping/using their initial
deployment.
• The use of a pre-game system to create the scenario and make an attacker/defender situation.
• Generous amounts of die rolling to help even out any wild results intrinsic to single die roll
outcomes.
• Players are allowed to react to enemy actions, thus keeping them engaged in the game.
• A victory point system to give an objective result that both players can abide by.
• A countdown system to limit the game length but introduce an element of randomness.
• The use of inches because each inch is a significant increment.
• The use of markers in order to reduce book keeping.
• Importance given to the position and quality of each commander.

Peter Pig also make a comprehensive range of figures to go with the rules.
More than 100 packs, including infantry, cavalry, and artillery.

peterpig.co.uk/awi.html

The Peter Pig rules are very good if you are running either (a) a competition, or (b) a campaign, or (c) fighting "pick-up" or otherwise non-historical battles.

If your battles are historical, I would suggest British Grenadier, with the caveat that you have at least one player present who has played them before, as it will speed up the group's assimilation of them.

I would 2nd Peter Pig's ‘Washington's army' very easy set with lots of examples.