"Pre-Battle Rules for Maneuvers, Logistics, etc.?" Topic

Hey all,

I'm continuing to fiddle with house rules for big battles in the sixteenth century, but am interested in the impact that maneuvering armies, logistics challenges, and pay & recruitment of troops had in this time period (a pretty big impact).

Are there other wargames or miniature rulesets that have this element of war included as a minigame or pre-battle component?

Doesn't have to be pike and shot era: horse & musket era back to medieval period would likely have analogues for me to work from.

Doesn't need to be robust or long, either. In fact, something simple is probably better, but I'm not sure where to begin with the mechanics for such a thing.

I seem to remember hearing that Peter Pig's Regiment of Foot had something in this vein, but given their lack of easy digital options, I'd like to not mess with them unless their rule sets are compelling.

Blucher – the Scharnhorst rules

Adapting an operational level board game might be too complex, but Campaigns of the Thirty Years War by GMT could be a means. Or Kevin Zucker's Campaigns of Napoleon series.

The Schanhorst mini-campaign which comes with Blucher is perfect for this

+3 for Scharnhorst.

I am a big fan of Two Hour Wargames' recruitment rolls to reflect these things.
You always have a base core force. But then each new campaign turn you get so many rolls on the recruitment chart to see what new units have become available.

+4 for Scharnhorst.

Most of the Peter Pig rules have this. We have houseruled this into all of our local sets. Makes for better scenarios.
For our WW2 set each player rolls diece to get operation points. These are then spent on terrain, choosing table side, air & artillery support, supply status, moving up the arrival of reinforcing troops, die rolls for troop quality ,etc. It is as much fun setting up the scenario as playing it!

JPK

+5 for Scharnhorst

You may want to take a look at the Perfect Captain's rules link in particular the Spanish Fury and A Crown of Paper rule sets as they are closest to the period.

Another set of rules to look at is Le Feu Sacre from Too Fat Lardies, I always thought that the blinds system used in these and other TFL rules could work very well for Renaissance battles, not to mention that one could make very nice blinds using Ren. artwork.

Well hot damn, is there anything Sam Mustafa hasn't done well?

The Scharnhorst minigame looks to be a great idea. No need really for the rest of Blucher (not likely to play it myself), but I may have to pick it up just to get the idea of what he's doing there.

So that's the maneuvering to-and-fro aspect. I'm curious how the supplies and pay (and even morale and propoganda) side could get bolted on in an equally quick-playing manner…

Simple dice roll with what ever modifiers you want to create. Say 10+ gains new units for the battle, and 4 or less removes units from the roster. Modifiers: operating in home territory +1, force marched -1, lost last battle -1, won last battle +1, isolated from logistics depot-2, etc. You might have the effects include morale reductions or bonuses as another or the same roll. 15 minutes of thought and you should be able to come up with a list of applicable modifiers.

hi there

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So that's the maneuvering to-and-fro aspect. I'm curious how the supplies and pay (and even morale and propoganda) side could get bolted on in an equally quick-playing manner…

>>>>>>>>>>>

I'm not sure if either of these easily bolt on, however I have seen but not played a system where the effects of the above were generated through playing cards.

Each side got x cards and would have their hand renewed each season / year and maybe secure some cards via battle victory or securing objective points.

This was many moons ago, from memory there was a list of tasks linked to each suite – so playing Hearts could move a force a bit more or force an enemy outnumbered division to retreat or a town garrison to surrender and so on – however if the other guy had a higher Heart card he could play it to trump the first player.

Other cards could stall an enemy force, rally stragglers after a battle defeat or summon reserves, or build a bridge etc.

Sorry I can't remember the details but it would be easy enough to build the system matched to your scenario.

regards

David F Brown

Ps +6 for Scharnhorst

There was another free Sam Mustafa design which pre-dates Blucher called 'La Grand Guerre' – that certainly had supply rules (and very simple battle rules, too)

There's a copy here:
link

"I am a big fan of Two Hour Wargames' recruitment rolls to reflect these things.
You always have a base core force. But then each new campaign turn you get so many rolls on the recruitment chart to see what new units have become available."

Which version of their rules is that in?