"Recommendations for Seven Years' War rules" Topic

I would like recommendations for Seven Years' War rules for 28mm figures where an infantry battalion is represented by around 24 figures (some may be smaller or some larger). Also, it would be helpful if you could explain why you like the set of rules that you recommend. Thanks in advance.

Kevin

Good morning. I'm a fan of Honours of War.

The author uses five stands of four figures to represent a battalion, but you can have slightly larger units, my Spanish Walloon Guards are 24 figures (six bases) and I have two Hungarian units that have seven bases.

I find they provide enough balance between detail and game play to meet my concepts of the SYW.

They do use a DAvg, but you can find a conversion for straight D6 instead.

Sadly, Keith let his forum go, but I think he moved some of it to The Book of Faces.

Hope that helps.

Eric

King of the Battlefield allows large battles to be refought in an evening. Probably looking at a minimum of 16 battalions of foot and 8 regiments of cavalry per side.

Thank you for your recommendations. I will certainly check out both options.

Kevin

King of the Battlefield !!!

The author goes for three stands per regiment, but your choice will work if the width of the unit in line equals its depth when in column.

Huzzah!

We use Black Powder now but did use Age of Reason rules as well – we find Black Powder works better as the majority of the group are not SYW gamers – have also toyed with the Age of Eagles SYW variants

I would suggest "Batailles de l'Ancien Regime" (AKA BAR) by Bill Protz.

link

I've been using these rules since 2008 and have enjoyed them. Bill's developed a realistic approximation of the linear tactics practiced during the SYW.

Jim

Maurice is another good choice, as is Might and Reason for larger battles

I think it would depend upon how much complexity you like in your games and how much having that "period feel" matters to you. Krieg Kunst is the 7YW version of General de Brigade and is a fine set designed for 28mm figures. Like it's Nappy forebear it gives a good game, but for my group it was a tad fiddly -- you need to change formations, for example, in very particular ways, which gives a fine period feel to the game but also takes a while to get down pat. I play in 15mm, for which Koenigs Krieg works well, but for club games I just usually play Black Powder. It's simple and most folks have at least a passing famiiiarity with the rules and it works w/just about any scale. If you give BP a go, do use the seventeenth century rules mod (which, among other things, changes the fire phase to precede movement) to avoid units being unrealistically fast and maneuverable.

My group uses Rank & File – admittedly significantly modified. For example, RAW R&F doesn't have any C2, and leaders "helicopter" around the table, as they can move 30" and detach/attach in the same turn, to assist in morale checks. What drew me to the rules was the fairly simple firing mechanics: e.g. for infantry roll 1 D6/stand, with not that many mods. For battalion guns, it couldn't be simpler: if your battalion is > 50% strength, you roll an extra D6. As I was not interested in modeling battalion guns on the table for every battalion, this was perfect.

Interestingly, we tried it for AWI, and it didn't work as well, as our experience is that R&F didn't handle small units – e.g. of skirmishers – as well as it might. It seems to work better if units are roughly the same size. In our SYW armies, units are typically 4-6 stands.