"Kriegsspiel pieces in miniature wargaming" Topic

Hello!

I have a bunch of Kriegsspiel blocks which I use for, well, playing Kriegsspiel.

I recently started getting into DBA using wooden blocks instead of miniatures (as I don't own any) and after some digging around I came across Ed M's blog, in which he talks about using Kriegsspiel blocks to play half-sized Civil War using the Big Bloody Battles rules.

As someone virtually new to miniature gaming and greatly interested in wargaming the 18th and 19th centuries, I was wondering: what rule sets would you recommend for using with Kriegsspiel blocks on paper maps? Apart from the American Civil War, anything anytime in the aforementioned centuries interests me.

The infantry blocks are roughly 12 x 7 mm (supposed to represent half-battalions of 450 men in three ranks) and depict either regular infantry or Jäger. The cavalry squadrons are about 10 x 10 mm. There's artillery batteries, skirmishers and baggage trains as well.

I suppose I'll eventually get BBB, although the lack of a digital download and the fact that I live in Europe is making me cautious.

Thank you very much!

Any grid based game such as Bob Cordery's Portable Wargames series of rules.
Neil Thomas' various rules would work with blocks as well as figures and of course the several DBA variants.

You can get the latest version of the Krirgspiel Rules themselves as well as a couple of maps from Two Fat Lardies. Pub Battles also has some cool Kriegspiel dice that are specially marked to give results readily, as well as maps and blocks. Neil Thomas' 19th Century Wargaming is easiest to use, common sense rules based on historical observations.
BBB is fine, more details to manage. I would start out with NT if it were me.

The maps are the big challenge with Kriegspiel, IMO. Expensive to buy, there are downloads, but not cheap to reproduce for gaming. This is really more of a board game than a miniatures thing. For NT, I suppose you could just draw your own maps on a large sheet of paper. I would also look at Bob Cordery's rules online. You can find large graph paper for gaming online as well, grids make for an easier game. I use them all the time with minis.

Neil Thomas' rules are an excellent place to start. Using a mat with terrain models or even paper cut outs for hills and forests, etc. might work instead of paper maps.

Simon Miller's Ancients rules, To the Strongest and his ECW rules For King and Parliament are grid bases. A grid sized to use with your Kriegsspiel blocks would work for Ancients through Pike and Shot eras.

Good luck with your project and please let the rest of us know how you are progressing.

Thanks a lot!

von Bek,

I've followed Bob's development of the Portable Wargame for some time and I've recently ordered the Compendium so I'll be giving it a thorough look. I was wondering more along the lines of using the blocks in lieu of rectangular bases to depict the units and their frontage, but I have to admit that using the blocks on a chess board with some terrain markers sounds fun.

Tortorella,

We use the rules from TFL along with some dice that I made, and I wholeheartedly agree with you that the maps are the main obstacle. I'm currently exploring using cartography software to modify topographic maps of the battlefields, removing modern roads etc. I'll see if I can have a jab at it during the holidays and if I get anywhere with it I'll report back.

I hadn't considered Neil Thomas' work, so thanks for bringing it up. As for graph paper, that's how I play the Admiralty Trilogy and once I tried it I never looked back!

Big Red,

Will do! Right now I'm looking at some options on Wargame Vault (I'd rather not get any physical rule sets with expensive shipping until I know what I'm after) and it seems On to Richmond and BBB are strong options, as the bases represent roughly the same number of men as the original KS blocks, which means the scale should be similar enough to work with. Altar of Freedom and DBN look good as well, except treating the blocks as brigades rather than regiments. I'll do a bit more reading and see what I can come up with.

Thanks again all!

Hi Doolanshire, glad you find Ed's project inspiring. Good luck with your own.

For those TMPers interested, here's a link to Ed's Map Room:
link