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"What are your favorite ACW rules?" Topic


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Action Log

06 Jun 2022 1:30 a.m. PST
by Editor in Chief Bill

  • Removed from ACW Discussion board
  • Changed starttime from
    05 Jun 2022 11:36 p.m. PST
    to
    05 Jun 2022 11:36 p.m. PSTCrossposted to TMP Poll Suggestions board

07 Jun 2022 6:44 a.m. PST
by Editor in Chief Bill

  • Changed title from "What are your favorite ACW rules? Thank you" to "What are your favorite ACW rules?"

03 Jul 2023 8:02 p.m. PST
by Editor in Chief Bill

  • Removed from TMP Poll Suggestions board

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©1994-2025 Bill Armintrout
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hi EEE ya Supporting Member of TMP05 Jun 2022 11:36 p.m. PST

Hello eveyone,
What are your favorite ACW rules?
Thank you.

martin goddard Sponsoring Member of TMP06 Jun 2022 1:29 a.m. PST

This is going to be a long list.
Apologies for chopping in.
Might I suggest that responders give a main reason why a rule set "works" for them.

e.g we really like the game length, number of figures, table size, dice type, writer is present
That would create an illuminated discussion ? (possibly not?)


martin

Personal logo David Manley Supporting Member of TMP06 Jun 2022 2:56 a.m. PST

Iron and Fire, my favourite ACW Naval rules for detailed yet fast playing actions.


Dahlgren and Columbiad, my favourite naval roles for larger actions, battles where I only have a small playing area or short time for a game, or for one day campaigns.

A declared interest – I wrote them (mainly because I didn't find other naval rules "worked" for me)

Personal logo 20thmaine Supporting Member of TMP06 Jun 2022 3:07 a.m. PST

For different reasons:

Terry Wise Airfix ACW rules
Rolling Thunder (Parkfield Miniatures Rules Number 4)
'61-'65 ACW (Ganesha Games)

pzivh43 Supporting Member of TMP06 Jun 2022 3:20 a.m. PST

And depends on what you want to do. Fight skirmish battles--Sharp Practice or Brother Against Brother.

Fight major ACW battles. Fire and Fury

pavelft06 Jun 2022 4:06 a.m. PST

Johnny Reb III – I prefer them because I like regimental combat.

optional field06 Jun 2022 4:10 a.m. PST

Johnny Reb III

John Leahy Sponsoring Member of TMP06 Jun 2022 4:10 a.m. PST

Field of Battle by Brent Oman. These are our grail rule set! We have fought many Acw battles with them. Each unit represents a regiment although that can be scaled up or down a bit if desired.

Thanks

John

BillyNM Supporting Member of TMP06 Jun 2022 4:23 a.m. PST

'The Devil to Pay' good fun and free at:
thedeviltopay.com

Dave Gamer06 Jun 2022 4:36 a.m. PST

At one point I would have echoed John Leahy's recommendation of Piquet:Field of Battle. I used it for ACW for many years and it usually produces exciting games but after a while it feels like the game situations come about due to the way the cards came up and not by any brilliant strategy on your part. You could be losing the battle and then get a good run of cards plus some "triple magic moves" and you suddenly make a come back and pull victory from the jaws of defeat. Exciting stuff but it wasn't because of anything clever you did.

I'm currently moving away from any set of rules that has a lot of random command rules (FOB, Black Powder, etc..). There's enough randomness in most combat systems that you could make all the "right" moves and still lose. Right now I'm back into Volley & Bayonet where one base is a brigade and command is you can do anything you want as long as you stay in command distance of your command figure (in other words, the command figure is there to keep the brigades in a division together on the table top). Note that, because one base is a brigade, there's not a lot of ACW "flavor", but I'm perfectly fine with that.

Son of MOOG06 Jun 2022 4:37 a.m. PST

Fire and Fury for large battles

Grand Dragon06 Jun 2022 4:41 a.m. PST

Johnny Reb III

huron725 Supporting Member of TMP06 Jun 2022 5:19 a.m. PST

Sharp Practice. I like the shock rules. Sharp Practice is a large skirmish ruleset but I have been playing around with making each unit a regiment. It's just scale.

GatorDave Supporting Member of TMP06 Jun 2022 5:22 a.m. PST

Fire and Fury

sma194106 Jun 2022 5:40 a.m. PST

Fire and Fury

Dexter Ward06 Jun 2022 5:49 a.m. PST

Fire and Fury for large battles, Longstreet for smaller ones

jdpintex06 Jun 2022 6:04 a.m. PST

Johnny Reb III is my favorite.

Fire and Fury for larger battles and conventions.

Timbo W06 Jun 2022 6:10 a.m. PST

I always like Whipping Bobby Lee, yes that's a ruleset by the Ragnar Bros, not a personal issue!

79thPA Supporting Member of TMP06 Jun 2022 6:30 a.m. PST

I think Fire and Fury does a good job with regimental combat. It helps to have an umpire that really knows the rules, but it is simple enough that anyone can get the hang of most activities within a couple of turns. For large battles (a stand is a brigade) I like Volley and Bayonet.

Big Red Supporting Member of TMP06 Jun 2022 6:41 a.m. PST

Fire and Fury for large games.

Fire and Fury Regimental for medium sized games.

Rebels and Patriots for semi-skirmish games.

DisasterWargamer Supporting Member of TMP06 Jun 2022 6:51 a.m. PST

Fire and fury for regimental sized and larger battles

Perris0707 Supporting Member of TMP06 Jun 2022 7:47 a.m. PST

Fire and Fury.

cabin4clw06 Jun 2022 8:41 a.m. PST

A home ground set of rules written by the guys at Old Glory15 which is for brigade level.

The other set is Mr. Lincoln's War which is a great set of regimental play.

lkmjbc306 Jun 2022 9:22 a.m. PST

Volley & Bayonet without a doubt.

We have fought most of the major battles with them… as well as multiple campaigns. I've played many others and found them all wanting… Though I do find Fire & Fury fun as well.

Joe Collins

ZULUPAUL Supporting Member of TMP06 Jun 2022 12:22 p.m. PST

Rusty's Rules

Personal logo Dal Gavan Supporting Member of TMP06 Jun 2022 2:25 p.m. PST

JR2, because I am not rebasing/reorganising to fit the changes made in JR3.

Personal logo Old Contemptible Supporting Member of TMP06 Jun 2022 3:40 p.m. PST

Mr. Lincoln's War

Frederick Supporting Member of TMP06 Jun 2022 4:05 p.m. PST

We like Fire & Fury but also play Black Powder (a lot) – I think a true ACW afficinado can poke a lot of holes in Black Powder but it plays fast and works well for people who are not too familiar with the ACW

Personal logo Murphy Sponsoring Member of TMP06 Jun 2022 8:48 p.m. PST

The Old "Rally Round The Flag" rules by Iron Bde Miniatures.

raylev306 Jun 2022 10:15 p.m. PST

Fire and Fury (Brigade) rules. I prefer higher levels of command. I want to let my colonels make colonel-level decisions.

hi EEE ya Supporting Member of TMP06 Jun 2022 11:36 p.m. PST

@All :

And what do you think of:

"When Johnnie comes marching home,"? by ACTIVE SERVICE PRESS.

ciaphas07 Jun 2022 1:58 a.m. PST

As an side, is JR III much better than JRII, I quite like JRII until a charge happens and it then slows to an absolute grind.
jon

Personal logo Dal Gavan Supporting Member of TMP07 Jun 2022 2:58 a.m. PST

I quite like JRII until a charge happens and it then slows to an absolute grind.

Too true, Jon, but it's still not enough to make me want to re-base and re-org my figures. Though grafting the JR3 charge rules onto JR2 is a good idea. All I have to do is find where I put the rules….

CaptainDarling07 Jun 2022 4:08 a.m. PST

Don't know about 'When Johnnie comes marching home' but my group uses;
Small skirmish, Song of Drums & Shakos with official mods.
Big skirmish, Sixty One to Sixty Five.
Games with regiments as base units, From Shakos to Coal Scuttles or Longstreet.
Big battles, Chamberlain (Blucher variant).
Good luck with your search!
🙂

Rich Bliss07 Jun 2022 6:50 a.m. PST

Volley and Bayonet. All day, everyday

Bismarck07 Jun 2022 8:39 a.m. PST

Longstreet
Fire and Fury
On to Richmond

Bashytubits07 Jun 2022 9:57 a.m. PST

Johnny Reb 2, Mr. Lincolns war is good as well.

svsavory07 Jun 2022 5:56 p.m. PST

Fire and Fury
Fire and Fury Regimental

doc mcb07 Jun 2022 6:52 p.m. PST

JR II, but only to play against a peer who knows the rules well.

hi EEE ya Supporting Member of TMP08 Jun 2022 6:44 a.m. PST

And nobody knows :
"When Johnny comes marching home," by ACTIVE SERVICE PRESS.?

farnox08 Jun 2022 1:49 p.m. PST

American Battlelines ODGW

hi EEE ya Supporting Member of TMP09 Jun 2022 5:34 a.m. PST

And nobody knows :
"When Johnny comes marching home," by ACTIVE SERVICE PRESS?

MaleGriffin09 Jun 2022 6:46 p.m. PST

Fire & Fury and Regimental Fire & Fury.

blank frank12 Jul 2022 1:28 p.m. PST

Fire and Fury seem to be the fave. Quite remarkable for such a set of rules which came out 30 years ago and only one revision.

Wargamer Blue12 Jul 2022 6:44 p.m. PST

Blackpowder for me with the Glory Hallelujah supplement for me.

I just enjoy it.

Personal logo Old Contemptible Supporting Member of TMP12 Jul 2022 8:28 p.m. PST

"Mr. Lincoln's War"

We like it because it's regimental, easy to learn, has a sane basing system and doesn't have a complicated, drawn out charging sequence.

hi EEE ya Supporting Member of TMP07 Jul 2023 7:03 a.m. PST

And nobody knows this very good rules:
"When Johnny comes marching home," by ACTIVE SERVICE PRESS?

95th Division25 Jul 2023 11:11 a.m. PST

Sharp Practice for skirmish/large skirmish and Fire and Fury (brigade) for big battles.

Aspern1809 Sponsoring Member of TMP24 Nov 2023 4:41 p.m. PST

Johnny Reb for regimental and Brigade Fire & Fury for brigade level.

GamesPoet Supporting Member of TMP16 Jan 2024 5:43 p.m. PST

I've enjoyed They Couldn't Hit An Elephant, Carnage & Glory, and Longstreet.

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