"Good rules for Grand Tactical ACW with 3mm miniatures?" Topic

I have a wide collection of 6mm miniatures and want to give 3mm a try. Never really got into ACW wargaming and thought that 3mm would be a good fit for that. I am looking for a rule set that allows for the play of complete battles from a generals point of view. Being able to reconstructed entire ACW battles seems like a lot of fun to me. I am looking for something that plays quick that a one day battle can be played out by 2 players in 2 to 3 hours. Also I would like something that can play on a 6'x4' or smaller table. But of course the biggest thing is that the game needs to provide tactical depth and (most importantly) be fun. Based on my own research Volley and Bayonet and Fire and Fury Brigade seem like they fit the bill. But if there is something else better out there I would love to hear about it. Also any advice on whether and Bayonet or Fire and Fury Brigade are a better fit for what I am looking for would be greatly appreciated.

I use 3mm for my Altar of Freedom games. 6mmacw.com is their website.
John

There is a free ACW variant of Blucher called Chamberlain (available on the Honour forum sammustafa.com/honour-forum) that might fit the bill.
All the elegance of Blucher, but for the ACW; there's a load of nice scenarios already doen for it as well.

Bloody Big Battles (BBB) was designed specifically to meet your brief of fighting entire battles on 6'x4' with 2-4 players in a sensible time. May still be a bit larger/longer than you need, but 4 of us did fight all 3 days of Gettysburg in 4 hours including set-up and take-down.

Reviews here:
link

And plenty of ACW scenarios available via the BBB Yahoo group:
link

Chris

Bloody Big BATTLES!

Volley and Bayonet would be a good choice. And with 3mm it could really look impressive.

Dave
WargamingMiniatures.com

Another vote for Altar of Freedom.

The scenario books have OoB and maps for every major (and some smaller) battles, all of which will fit on a 6' x 4' table.

I am really liking what I see with Altar of Freedom. I think I might give that a try and see if it is what I am looking for.

I'm just getting into gaming the ACW myself, in 6mm, but I'm also quite impressed with Altar of Freedom.

AoF, BBB and V&B all work well. My current favourite is BBB and is well supported with a lot of scenarios. I have based units on 3cm square bases (for 6mm forces) which will work well for all these rules so you can mix and match across all rule sets.

Altar if Freedom are an excellent set of rules, with a very interesting, yet simple, command mechanism.
They really suit large battles too.
Lance.