"Best Skirmish Rules: Brother Versus Brother" Topic

You were asked to decide – TMP link

Best Rules for ACW Skirmish-Level Games?

And in the final, tiebreaker round:

33% said "Brother Versus Brother"
21% said "Sharpe's Practice"

The thing that always struck me odd about these rules is that gamers didn't seem to care that a skirmish game with four 12 man Confederate 'units' would not also have a standard bearer with each unit. And then you add in the artillery. Aesthetically, I never saw anyone use these rules to game anything that looked like a skirmish action to me.

It depends on the scale of your skirmish. Not all skirmish games are 1 to 1. My Fenian Raids(and my upcoming ACW project) are "large skirmish" game that operates at 1 figure equals 10 men. So it's historical for one unit in four, three, two or even one unit of 12 Fenians to carry flags. Incidentally, I use the Rebels & Patriots rules.

Sure, but I am talking about BAB, where 1 casting equals 1 to 2 men.

As one of the original publisher of the rules, they were meant only to have a fun evening among friends, rolling die, using our 25mm ACW figures and terrain. We would run the game at conventions for fun and everybody wanted a copy of the rules at the end. I know of some teachers using it with kids to excite their interest in history. Sorry it was never meant to recreate ACW strategies, tactics or troop organization.

its a very very fun game to play. one of my favorites.

Yes, a very fun game, both "beer & pretzels" and "old school" at the same time. My most memorable game of B&B is when someone brought a Napoleonic scenario to the, sadly long gone, local game shop, and in the battle around some farm houses (I'm assuming 1813-14), the Prussians I was commanding managed to capture a house and hold it against all attempts by the Frenchies to dislodge us. It reminded me of one of those old Knoetel paintings. My luck was hot with the card draws and dice that day.