"Recommendation for ACW Rules" Topic

Just got into ACW by buying a fairly large collection of Warlord Games ACW figures. Blackpowder rules are fine, but I am wondering what else is out there? Looking for any suggestions for land and naval battles.

I do subscribed to the daily Wargames Vault Deal of the Day and todays is a ruleset called "Cheer Boys Cheer". Interesting because they have also Naval rules. I recently purchased Scary Bisquit Studios "Iron Clads" rule set, but they don't integrate land battles in their rules. I do find alot of recommendations for the "Fire and Fury" rule set. Just curious what people play. Looking for games that would last between 2-4 hours on average and that can accommodate multiple players on a side. Thoughts?

Do you want to fight brigade/ division-sized,corps-sized or army-sized battles?

I game mostly with 20 figure regiments doing brigade to division sized battles with an old rule set call Rally RoundThe Flag from the 70s. I tried Johnny Reb, which has a good period feel but is more detailed than I'm interested in, Pickets Charge and Fire and Fury Regimental had interesting aspects, but again, I wanted something simpler.

For Corps sized battles with brigades as tactical units, Fire and Fury is a good option. Or you could look at On to Richmond or Volley and Bayonet.

For army-scale battles, I'd point you to Altar of Freedom and LittleWarsTV for some introductory videos and rules review.

Mr Brantley,

Your first question is exactly why I am confused somewhat. What are your opinions about brigade vs division vs corps vs army battles? How do the rule sets differ when playing at different levels? My experience so far is with Blackpowder only. I appreciate replying to my question. I have played WW II rule sets for years. Just recently got into Napoleonics and ACW. Still trying to wrap my head around the different rule sets for different sized battles in the ACW.

I personally use Fire & Fury. They have both a brigade, i.e. the basic unit is a brigade, and a regimental, basic unit is a regiment, rulesets. You can use the same basing for both sets of rules. The regimental is more detailed, as you'd expect, but both versions give a great game with civil war "flavor" in my opinion.

What do you want to do with ACW? Replay the Battle of Gettysburg or Shiloh (which would require several corps of troops on both sides)? Or perhaps replay only the First Day actions at Gettysburg (which would be about a Corps on each side)? Or maybe just the fighting between a regiment or two on both sides. Once you make that decision, then you will have a better idea of what rules are best.

I'd recommend Fire & Fury (either the regimental version or the Brigade version). They are chock full of clear and well illustrated examples of play. Also well supported by a website full of scenarios, etc.:

fireandfury.com

Happy gaming!

Sharp Practice. It is more of a large scale skirmish set.

Fire and Fury is popular. On to Richmond is worth a look for large battles (I believe a stand is 300 men) where the basic maneuver element is a brigade. Volley and Bayonet is scaled at a single 3" x 3" stand represents a brigade. You can also use sabot stands so you can put your regimental figures on brigade stands and play various level actions as you please.

Different rules will allow you to do different things. Do you want to game the Iron Brigade at Brawner's Farm, or do you want to game the entire Battle of Antietam? If you want to game both, you will need two rule sets in order to play a reasonably sized game in a reasonable time.

Are your Warlord figures 28s or the 13.5mm Epic?

A basic consideration in scaling a game is what size playing area you have available and how many figures you want to buy and paint. Another important consideration is who you may be playing with and what rules are they familiar with and have troops for. If you're playing solo, that is less of a concern. For most gamers, any table bigger than 4x6 is a luxury, and that works for 2-6 players, with 2-4 being optimal in terms of elbow room. If you like gaming with regiments as your tactical units, you can get anything from a brigade up to a division-sized force on a 6x4 table and a brigade on a 4x4. If you want bigger battles on that size field, you'll need to change your figure scale, which you can do several ways….regiments as 1-2 stands or each stand equals a regiment or brigade. If you're doing that, many folks also prefer to downsize their figure scale from 15mm to 10/12mm, or 6mm, or even 2/3mm so that the units don't look like chess pieces.

In terms of my gaming preferences….I prefer a game where each player is commanding a brigade of 4-6 regiments and a battery or two of guns. But I also like the idea of being able to fight Gettysburg or some major portion of a historical battle with two players from the perceptive of the general in chief or the corps commander, which requires rules with a different set of command and control mechanisms and smaller sized units. I also want the game to take less than half a day including set-up and breakdown. This is where rules like Altar of Freedom, Volley and Bayonet or On to Richmond tend to hit the sweet spot, although Fire and Fury is a good option on a bigger table where you can indulge yourself in terrain and if you have more time to play. If you like that big table look with lots of figures but with regiments as your tactical unit…Fire and Fury Regimental is a strong option. John Hill of Johnny Reb rules tried to bridge the two with a set of rules called Across a Deadly Ground…. they looked interesting, but I don't think they really caught on.

I have written summaries of many of the ACW rules out there here:

link

If you base very carefully, you can use Fire & Fury Regimental for "each player commands a brigade" and then switch to On to Richmond when you want each player to command a corps. That's an example. I think you could also use Mr. Lincoln's War for the brigade end and Touched with Fire or original Fire and Fury for larger battles. The John Hill rules--Johnny Reb and Across a Deadly Ground--also let you fight small and large battles without rebasing, but the John Hill basing is in itself a bit finicky. If you've got your heart set on fighting Gettysburg or Antietam with a friend, I'd at least base for Altar of Freedom, even if I wound up using DBWhatever or V&B.

Sets where you command a brigade have to cope with formations, ranges, ammunition & musket types and the huge variance in regimental size. Rules where you command an army can ignore most of this, but you start having to get serious about command & control. Commanding a division or corps is somewhere in between.

Me? I keep a set of 10mm ACW based for Mr. Lincoln's War, Fire & Fury, Touched with Fire and On to Richmond--but mostly use it with my homebrew Stonewall Brigade. (Stand=100 infantry.) That works up to a corps a side. And I have a set of 6mm based for Altar of Freedom. Not easy to do Ball's Bluff and Antietam with one scale and basing, and I don't try.

I'd say look at several rules, but decide on basing. It's a lot easier to learn new rules than to rebase an army.

Another vote for Fire and Fury. Brigade or Regimental, a solid set that most folks can pick up the basics in 2-3 turns

Fire and Fury as well

Agree with Fire & Fury

Volley and Bayonet is my preferred choice for ACW

While my favorite set is the old "Rally 'round the Flag" ( each unit of several base was a regiment" my group finds the flexibility of both versions of "Fire & Fury" to allow us to handle both levels of play nicely.

Mr. Lincoln's War

A simple regimental set of rules. IMO regimental is the best way to game the ACW. I wrote my own simple rules for integrating naval battles. I don't know of any ACW rules that do. But I would suggest the scale you need is regimental or skirmish. If you are doing 15mm then a 15mm boat is larger than you think. 28mm is huge. You are going to run into other scale issues. Ground scale is an issue in meshing land and sea/river.

I gave up on a Vicksburg project because the ground scale I needed for the cliffs which the ships past by were enormous. The cliffs are gigantic. Smaller scale ships just looked ridiculous and were smaller than the 32lb guns that were firing at them. I asked Richard Houston about doing both and he said don't try it. The scaling compromises you have to do makes the game look strange.

link

Brigade "Fire and Fury" gets a vote from me as well. Another one I enjoy is "Bloody Big Battles", where the basic manouvere and command units are divisions, so it is possible to play most of the major battles on a 6 x 4 table.