"Mid 18th Century Solo Wargaming" Topic

Retirement is a wonderful thing. I have spent the first six years painting two forces and some buildings for an imaginary conflict between Ottoman and European forces, as well as plenty of travelling and cinema going and joining a Military History Group.

Yesterday I tried a small solo game with 25 figures per side. This has led to a number of questions. I would like to hear from anyone with their tips for setting up a solo game. How do you ensure even handed decision making? What do you think of the books currently on the market, Donald Featherstone's book on solo gaming still gets good reviews, are there any others you would recommend?

Neil Thomas Napoleonic rules might do?

There are some useful suggestions on this forum:

link

Also, depending where in God's Own County (TM) you are, there must be other wargamers about. Have you looked up Yarkshire Gamer and Olicana Lad?

I like Sacre Bleu rules. I use them for large scale skirmish and they can easily easily be adapted for most of the horse and musket period. Quirky, fun and fast. I'm to old in the tooth to wade through pages of rules,

Charles S. Grant's "Programmed Wargames Scenarios" not only provides lots of scenarios, but provides some excellent mechanisms for solo play.

Even-handed decision making: always do what you think is best for the side you are playing at the moment.

I like the Piquet rules for solo games. The opposing impetus rolls each phase, combined with the random card activation, creates enough fog of war or lack of control that you can play both sides as best you can under the situations. For example, if for each phase of a turn the rolls indicate how many activation/impetus points you have, and the card says you can move, or reload, etc., it limits the options you have such that you can try to play the best game for each side.