"“Porterloo” Advanced Travel Battle Rules PDF A6 Cards" Topic

A couple of mates and I wanted to share some rules we have developed for Travel Battle (aka "Porterloo"- I have to credit my genius pal Ru with that one).

They are designed to be printed on A6 cards and arrayed in front of you while you play (ours are laminated), making for quick reference.

At their heart, these rules stand in the shoulders of the excellent efforts of Mike Moss (link: TMP link who posted his rules on this forum back in 2017. Since then, I went to work presenting them more graphically, while my most Napoleonic-savvy mate had a think about further points of realism. Then, during a very rainy holiday in America, we went to work play-testing. A couple of iterations later, we have something we quite like.

At time of writing we're riding back from a weekend in Rutland with wives and friends and we got a couple of games in. 3 of us took part over 2 games. We're in a stage of our lives now where, although we all love various different gaming systems and genres, I have a suspicious feeling that this is what we'll end up playing the most. Life is complicated, time is short, babies are marauding all over the place and fleeting opportunities to "geek out" are priceless. Accordingly- set up is virtually instant, play is fast, and we know we can buy more sprues and boards to expand (we're now chucking all manner of scenario, campaign and painting ideas at each-other; we're very likely to combine 3 sets of the game). With these rules, we think we've got just enough depth to make for a compelling game, with that little element of tension that makes it all worthwhile and satisfying.

See my slides attached as a PDF- we'd be very grateful for the considered feedback of those on TMP!
link

Nicely presented. I like it.

Looking good. Cheers.

Beautifully presented! On a preliminary reading, it seems a great improvement upon the original system.
I don't possess Travel Battle myself, but hope to adapt your system slightly to suit my Hexon II terrain and 10mm armies.
Thank you very much for sharing!

I cannot rate the adapted 'Travel Battle' rule system a.k.a Porta-loo, highly enough. Nick has spent a huge amount of time and effort tweaking and playtesting Mike Moss's upgraded set with a couple of us (it saved a washed out vacation to Florida!). Of course, you'll still find the odd hole, but gamesmanship is always important!

We tried to find a happy medium between the very swift and easy to pick up original Travel Battle rules, and took Mike's set one step further towards a 'historically accurate' feel, without losing too much of the ease and speed of use. As new parents, we've found the challenge of getting the real deal 15mm/28mm armies out and playing a full GdB style wargame nigh-on impossible, so this delivers a fantastic, swift to set-up and get those wargame 'kicks' into those opportunistic moments! And you won't cry when your 2 year old drops your beautifully created and imagined command stand :-)

Bravo BronzeOneZero!

These look very, very good. I have tried HFG, the KISR DBN rules. Here is my 'problem' I have purchased and painted 6 sets; giving me 12 boards (1200 locations!!) and I am using my Baccus 6mm figures: 12 to a base for line foot, 8 for lights, 3 heavy cavalry, 2 Lt Cav and 1 gun and crew per base. For generals 1, 2 , 3 per base for brigade, divisional and corps commanders. I like to play 4 boards across and three deep; which gives great opportunity using a D^ or D10 for varied brigade arrival. Any suggestions for 1)National differentials? 2) Corps commanders? 3) Supply trains? or camps? 4) Adding streams and ponds?

Danny Weitz Nipomo California….

Danny, you could absolutely do that, but that wasn't the level of scale or complexity we were aiming for – we think this ruleset would stand up really well to an extra pair of boards and a couple of extra brigades to enable more manoeuvre and game play options, but we're keen to retain the ‘portable' and swift resolution DNA of the original Travel Battle concept.

All of the ideas you suggest could easily be added with simple rule additions and you can purchase excellent flexible/rubber stream/river scenery and add movement restrictions around them. I look forward to seeing your scaled up version!

Is tHere a way to download the pdf from the AdobE site?

Teppsta- despite posting this mysel I'm not quite sure! Have you tried to print, but then "print as pdf" instead of your usual printer?

Any further tips from someone good at computers would be appreciated!

And thanks all for kind feedback!

The 'Porterloo' rules are excellent; I did add a 'variable' brigade move and fight sequence using random draw cards….
I also bring in reinforcing brigades via dice roll on roads to side and rear. I plan to use a card for division commanders to order any one of the brigades under their command to fight and move. I'll have militia test only once to rally, if they fail they are removed. I allow units to deploy in the two end rows of the board. When I play with four or six boards(two deep), now far should a 'beaten' unit move to the rear? I was thinking 6 for foot and 8 for horse?
Any ideas are welcomed.

Danny- sounds amazing; i'd love to incorporate your card methods if you'd be willing to share?

Also- why not post some pics of your full set- I can see myself buying a second pair of boards soon. I do like the idea of adding more depth to the battlefield. Beyond that, I might even cut the new tiles up and rearrange them- there are a couple of simple options for this that won't mess with the way the roads match up etc.

Re: routed troops, I think both infantry and horse should go back 6 squares. Horses are faster, but the human brains riding them have the same appreciation of how far to recover from contact to feel that they have "broken clean" and can lick their wounds.

I also like the idea where militia only get one chance to rally, adding a third tier to infantry types.

All the best mate

What is the 'R' for heavy cav?

@Evilgong: ‘R' for Heavy Cavalry or Guard Infantry means you can re-roll one of your dice (but you have to stick with the result, so use judiciously!).

@Danny Weitz: All great ideas. I quite like the idea of -1 for landwehr/militia in combat rolls too.

Late reply, but the download button is upper right.