"15mm American Civil War gaming questions" Topic
6 Posts
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ThunderAZ  | 17 Oct 2025 10:49 a.m. PST |
I'm putting together an American Civil War regimental level ruleset for miniatures. (Intended to be free) Primarily for the enjoyment of creating a ruleset. I have minimal ACW gaming nerd level knowledge and that's where my fellow TMPers come in. The scale of the miniatures I have in mind are approximately 15mm / Epic. I'm visualizing 4 to 6 miniatures per stand and each stand representing 100 soldiers. Please help me by answering the following questions in the context of game: 15mm figures and a play area of approximately 3 feet X 5 feet. (can be larger) 1. In a regimental level game, how many infantry regiments would you prefer per side? Or, list a min max range. 2. How many leaders, calvary units, artillery units per side? 3. How wide (on the table) should a 600 man strength regiment in line formation be? For example, if we have 1 inch wide stands where each stand represents 100 men, this would be 6 inches wide. This might mean regiments up to 10 inches wide at full strength. 4. What dimensions for stands would you prefer? I'm currently considering adopting Johnny Reb basing for compatibility purposes. 5. I'm currently considering a general fire distance scale of 1 inch = 25 yards. This might, depending on what you feel are effective max ranges, give rifled muskets a range on the table a max range of 12 inches. Maybe 36 to 48 inches for artillery (with minimal effect at extreme range). What ranges do you prefer on the game table? For those interested, I have a website with development rule content. The current version is changing frequently as I refine this. microbunker.com/pages/rebs Thanks for your help! |
| ThunderAZ | 17 Oct 2025 11:05 a.m. PST |
On another note, I have been using AI to help me playtest the rules. AI has come a long way but isn't perfect. Through AI playtesting, it has helped me find multiple problems with my ruleset and suggested generally impressive solutions / updates. The biggest problem is AI tends to have a bad memory and randomly forgets things and replaces it with whatever it made up on the fly. So, I always need to keep an eye on that. In any case, I am sharing my most recent AI playtest here. I think you might find it interesting. PDF link Enjoy! |
| William Warner | 17 Oct 2025 12:30 p.m. PST |
Don't forget, that your 100 man stand represents 50 men wide in two ranks. Your 600 man regiment would be six stands wide but represent an actual frontage of 300 men. Frontage per man according to the drill book would be 18", so a 300 man frontage would be 450'. I've marched in reenactments, so I would suggest a longer frontage, as the "touch of elbow" is hard to maintain while moving. Good luck. |
 Dal Gavan | 17 Oct 2025 12:44 p.m. PST |
To state the obvious- a lot will depend upon the rules, ThunderAZ. But to answer your questions, what I prefer (others will disagree): 1.1. In a regimental level game, how many infantry regiments would you prefer per side? Or, list a min max range. A minimum- a three-regiment brigade with a battery. Maximum a division with cavalry and artillery attachments. 2.How many leaders, calvary units, artillery units per side? Leaders- one per formation (brigade/division). The artillery and cavalry will be dependent upon the scenario. A scenario from Brandy Station is going to require a different proportion of forces to one from Cold Harbour. 3 and 4 combined. I use JR2 myself. As for frontages, the most likely strength of the "average" regiment is going to be 300 to 600 men, or three to six stands? I'd work on that- the unusually large and small units later will always look out of place because most rules tend to go for a "standard" unit size for every unit. 5. I'm currently considering a general fire distance scale of 1 inch = 25 yards. This might, depending on what you feel are effective max ranges, give rifled muskets a range on the table a max range of 12 inches. Maybe 36 to 48 inches for artillery (with minimal effect at extreme range). What ranges do you prefer on the game table? Rifled muskets, smoothbores, carbines, etc. I'd borrow from Johnny Reb. It works. Cheers, mate. |
| 79thPA | 17 Oct 2025 12:46 p.m. PST |
A 6 gun battery occupied 80 yards. |
| 79thPA | 17 Oct 2025 1:40 p.m. PST |
Don't forget that your scale for range and frontage need to jive. One inch = 25 yards for firing means that one inch = 25 yards for frontage. Depending on the scenario and player experience, a player would command anything from a brigade to a division. What are you trying to get that you don't see in commercial rules? |
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