"3mm 1700s-1800s rules" Topic

I've got some of the Irregular miniatures terrain and some wooden blocks that can stand in for miniatures (I don't like the thought of painting 3mm!) and I'd like a set of grand tactical rules that aren't too complicated or long to run 1700s AND 1800s battles.
I've considered volley and Bayonet, but can't for the life of me track down a copy, digital or otherwise. Blucher looks good also, but I'd want it to cover non Napoleonic wars. Any ideas?

You should be able to get V&B here: link

Bruce Weigle's rules for the late 19th C. European wars would also work. grandtacticalrules.com

So would Bloody Big Battles: link

I don't see why you couldn't use Twilight of the Soldier Kings with blocks. The units are pretty high level and abstracted: link

You can get all of these from On Military Matters:
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Twilight of the Soldier Kings and also the sets covering th earlier periods, Twilight of the Sun king and Twilight of Divine Right, are frequently gamed in 2/3mm without any problems.

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(Thanks for the mention, Admiral.)

YomtoYomto: there's a useful set of comparative reviews of Napoleonics rulesets on the 'Wargaming Everything' blog here:
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For collected reviews of BBB, see here:
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Good luck with finding the ruleset that suits your taste.

Chris

Thank you! I think the main things I'm looking for are simplicity and versatility in terms of period. I'm a wee bit sick of Napoleonics to be honest, but the Blucher rules seem quite innovative. Lasalle came across very well in Wargames Illustrated too. I've heard of TWIGLET, and intend to play its at some point, as well as 1871, which seems to get very good reviews. I'm not that interested in the minutia of guns, precise troop quality etc in this project, more an interesting command system. BBB could be good as well (thanks for the recommendation Chris, a very expert opinion I'm sure!), especially since it seems to be more versatile than the other systems and has a neat use of morale & its interaction with movement. Food for thought.

Horse, Foot and Guns is Phil Barker's spin-off in the DBx family.

De Bellis Napoleonicis is more period specific, as are the several treatments in "Vae Victis Rules" (translated and compiled from the magazine, but I think legally disseminated for free). HF&G is more directly "plug and play" from the War of the Spanish Succession to the Balkan Wars preliminary to World War I.

Rank and File is another candidate for a generic "horse and musket" to "saber and rifle" set. You can get it print on demand from Lulu, or in PDF from Wargame Vault. I don't know enough about the two to make a comparison with Bloody Big Battles (which I gather is geared more to the post-Napoleonic period).

Shako as the title implies is primarily Napoleonic, but the first edition included adaptation to the Seven Years War. Jemima Fawr's Miniature Wargames Blog offers ‘Tricorne', a further refinement that can be used as well with Shako II but part of which involves rolling back some of that edition's changes.

Besides the publisher, I think On Military Matters carries V&B. Note that it does not bring significant mechanisms for command-and-control friction; Frank Chadwick's expressed view is that the way to reflect that is with actual multiple player-commanders and limited communications. My impression is that many people find it otherwise to have stood the test of time better than Sam Mustafa's (also splendid) descendants.

Regarding DBA adaptations (if tossing for PIPs suits your ‘friction' needs), I think one can still find the "DBA Extension for 1500-1900 AD" produced by Humberside Wargames Society online, despite the Fanaticus website being defunct. I'd still recommend Barker's own, stand-alone HF&G 1.1.

Arofan Gregory presents what I think is a very interesting, interactive treatment of maneuvers and counter-maneuvers in The Sound of the Guns. That's a very brief (4-digest-page pamphlet) document that's freely available online. The combat resolution method is also extremely simple and quick, but I commend it mainly for possible interest in grafting the more interesting aspect onto another rules set.

Gregory's old (1990s) rules set Republic & Empire is pretty elegant and adaptable, but if memory serves includes no examples of application to 18th century subjects. He also posted that online for free distribution, but I don't know about current hosting.

Some folks released a number of period-tailored sets based on the Napoleonic Elan system. The still Napoleonic Elan Deluxe can still be found online, but those "rival" works seem to have vanished. If you do find them, and they sufficiently meet your "simple" criterion, the commonality among them (while providing more tailored material) might be appealing.

Shane Lacey Hensley's Fields of Honor is long out of print, but might be found second-hand. That again focused on the 19th century, but there was also a spin-off for the American War of Independence and I think it's fairly easy to apply to earlier conflicts if one knows a bit about them. The mechanics are fairly straightforward, while bringing a lot of interesting "chrome" options to add flavor to games. Scale adjustments provide for everything from small unit skirmishes to big battles, without fundamental changes to the rules.

For specifically 18th-century material — even if not using the battle rules (which would require modifying some bits calibrated to 12-figure units) — Warfare in the Age of Reason includes both a nifty treatment of sieges and the Sport of Kings campaign system.