"Solo Campaign Rule Books" Topic

Any recommendation?

Actually I'd be interested as well.

But Rosenberg perhaps a little context might help. What are you expecting? An AI mechanism? I ask because many ideas for campaigns seem to be play type agnostic – detail which then has an influence on play mechanics, be that combative or solo.

Let the forum know what you are after, and I'm sure there will be calibrated responses.

The whole "solo wargaming bookshelf" is pretty thin. Henry Hyde is good down to two-player campaigns without an umpire, but then talks more about campaign diaries than about the sort of solo campaigning which might generate battles. Much the same in Stuart Asquith's Military Modelling (or Partisan Press) Guide to Solo Wargaming. But Charles S. Grant's Programmed Wargame Scenarios has two solo "mini-campaigns" with a primitive A.I. which might be a good jumping-off point, and Don Featherstone has some useful ideas in War Games.

For myself, the plan for this year--I have lots of plans--is to hone simple campaign systems from various wargaming magazines to reduce or eliminate umpire discretion, make a plan for "my" side, and dice for the overall strategy and general tendencies of my "opponent." Not perfect, but few things are.

I've heard a lot of good things about Field Commander Napoleon:

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The rules are d/l and well written. There are several good youtube videos on the game.

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Morale Napoleon from Two Hour Wargames is designed for solo campaigns and games. You can get it at Rebel Minis now: rebelminis.com/monap.html

I agree about Morale Napoleon as an option. I have read the rules but not yet tried them, but they look interesting.

I use Field Commander Napoleon. A beautiful board game, covers all the time periods, designed from the ground up as a solo campaign game with a battle mechanism. The unit counters give you an OOB for your minis. There are numerous map boards to play the campaigns on for each period. Supplies matter as well.

The battle resolution mechanism kicks in when opposing forces are in the same area. I ditched this,instead set up my armies on my table based on the unit counters from the campaign board.

I use NeilThomas' Napoleonic Rules. They are fairly simple but historical and give a good game. And you can readily modify them to taste. But to this I add Nic Burt's Adjutant Introuvable. I think this is the best AI mechanism there is for horse and musket battles, and it should work with any rule set you are using.

This gives you the whole package, a great solo campaign game, and battles against a decent AI.

Last time I looked Adjutant Introuvable was a $6 USD download. Field Commander Napoleon comes with about nine map boards and a lot of unit counters. It's a Verssen game, high quality. Maybe around $$50-60.

there is a book by William Silvester, The Solo Wargaming Guide which is primarily focussed on creating solo campaigns for wargame

I can too recommend William Silvester, The Solo Wargaming Guide.

In addition my free Berthier Campaign Management software supports solo campaigns using the ArmyPlan feature. This allow you to set up to 5 different movement plans for one (or both sides). One plan is randomly chosen and you move the sides units – without knowing where they are – until a contact with the other side is made.

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