"The Complete Brigadier: Anyone still playing?" Topic

I unearthed my copy of this very well thought out and organized set of rules, and am curious if anyone is still playing it.

Has some very interesting concepts, like zero dice or chance!

Also, one of the best written introduction to wargaming rule sets ever.

I figure there must still be a few people playing it?

I had it years ago. I disliked removing the element of chance. So I sold it.

There was an article in The Courier to add randomness to the game. You would dice against the faction of hits to see if you received another casualty.

I still have the rules but have never played.

The lack of die rolling made it possible for some of us to gain a victory. And it is a well written set with good scenario examples.

Had it years ago. Always liked it but it is now long gone.

I've been intrigued by this game for many years now, but not succeeded in finding a copy this side of the pond. Noble Knight has a copy, but I don't want to pay the postal charges to the UK.

Anyone have scans of the rules?

I have two copies on hand (boxed sets). Reach out to me if interested at battlefieldterrain.com or message me here.

Doug

I considered this set to be one of the best written rules and one rules writers should model. I used to play it way back when, but stopped as outcomes became predictable due to the lack of chance (even with using a D10 to see if you got an extra casualty). I played a game at a convention with one of the authors. He was surprised when I declared a retiring unit to be impossible to come back as how could I know without going through the modifiers. I simply pointed out there were too many negative modifiers and not enough positive ones to stop the unit. That predictability was a systems flaw and not a flaw in how the rules were written.

@John G. I am in UK. I have a boxed copy never been used.

I played maybe ten times. There were things I liked about the rules, but they were really tough to teach. They were exercises in order writing. Very much of their time.

The rule's illustration of what a base of figures represents is still the best I've ever seen, and the discussion of how to convert a historical battle to a game ranks high. But the rules themselves did not appeal.

Hi RittervonBeck, please contact me at John.gillson@gmail and let me know what you are asking for it.

I once played a scenario solitaire of Compleat Brigadier, over the course of a few days. When returning to the game one day and opening the orders that I had written for a cavalry unit, I saw that I had mistakenly called for a right wheel instead of to the left. The unit obeyed the mistaken order, moved into a patch of impassable woods, and was destroyed.

I, the 400-foot tall general, knew what I meant that unit to do, but the troops on the ground obeyed what I had written, though it meant certain disaster. No book about Balaclava ever gave me the same appreciation for Lord Raglan's state of mind as watching my 20mm horsemen hurl themselves into those woods.

That is an awesome historical wargaming memory -- and lesson -- gprokopo, and thank you for sharing it! I had a similar minor epiphany while commanding the small brigade-size British army facing a division worth of Afghan regulars, plus tribesmen and Ghazi fanatics at a refight of Maiwand (1880), when something like half-a-dozen batteries of Afghan regular artillery at the far end of the table moved into range, unlimbered and commenced firing. I'd read how that had happened multiple times, but I'd never understood the deterministic nature of it, or as you said, had the same appreciation for it, until seeing my 28mm brigade on the wrong end of all those guns, turn after turn, with virtually no way to either reach or escape them.

RE: The Complete Brigadier, I still have my copy in its box, in close to mint condition! I confess, that is probably because I played them a few times when I first got them, almost 45 years ago, and never again. But similar to what some others said above, since first reading Volume I -- titled "An Introduction to Wargames" or words to that effect -- until today, it remains the best written introduction to the hobby and explanation of the various elements that go into preparing and then playing a historical miniature wargame, ever written, which is a very impressive accomplishment in itself.

On the other hand, Volume II -- which contains rules for tactical/Brigade level combat in the Horse & Musket era (1680-1880) -- while workable (albeit without the element of chance) and playable (albeit requiring written orders for each unit every turn) simply are not in the same league, at least IMHO.

However the interstitial art in both volumes remains the most simultaneously charming and effective wargame rules illustrations in history!