"Campaign System for FPW" Topic

Anyone have one they like, either designed for the FOW or potentially adaptable from ACW or nappies?

FOW == FrancO prussian War. Honest.

I believe that ""Strategy and Tactics" had a Franco Prussian Campaign game out years ago. It pops up on Ebay every once and awhile. It's perfect for campaigns. I think I gave my copy to my brother…

Take a look at the FPW rules retailed by Realistic Modelling Ltd, under the name Real Time Wargames. They produce a set of FPW rules called "Wars of Empire II: Down to the last gaiter button" which are simple and fun, and similar in some respects to Peter Pig's "Square Bashing System". These rules contain a well thought out and pretty detailed campaign system which includes two full colour maps and many colour printed counters for both sides. A clever mechanism for representing French chaotic mobilisation and a decent system for integrating politics and the campaigns and for fighting those battles which, for some reason or other, you do not wish to do on the table. Overall, pretty good value at 13.13 pounds sterling. And no, I have no commercial intererst in the company!

gablenz,

do you have a URL? I tried googling but nothing came up.

cheers,
Norberto

Hi Norberto,

The URL is realisticmodelling.com. Go to the catalogue section and enter "Painted Miniatures". The Real Time Wargame Rules are the top item. Hope this helps.

Norberto,

The link I have put in here does not seem to work, but I googled realistic modelling and found it in the first few hits, and had no problem entering from there.

Thanks, that looks worth an order. The link is failing because of the period at the end of the sentence, which is parsing as part of the URL.

Gablenz

I've looked for reviews on the web but found nothing.
Could you give us a few more details of the rules? Specifically, what is the the scale (eg are units battalions, regiments or brigades, and how many figures/elements to a unit)?
I presume that the campaign represents the whole of the early part of the war – I really want to know how practical that will be (not having very large armies) before shelling out for another set of rules I won't be able to use…

Thanks

Advocate,

First thing to say is that you can use the campaign rules with any set of tactical rules you wish to use, not just the ones provided. Second, the campaign rules include a mechanism that allows you to fight whole battles, or parts of battles, without using figures, leaving you to fight only those bits you want to on the table! The tactical rules are based on battalion sized units ( for the Prussian this is four bases, for the French three at full strength). As far as I recall (I am at work and do not have the rules to hand) the counters for the campaign are at divisional and corps level. The rules are intended for 10mm, but there is nothing to stop them being adapted for other scales, and they do not involve complicated record keeping. The tactical rules are based on simple mechanisms, which even novices can pick up quickly. As you get more experienced there are aspects I would tweak (cavalry are a bit too powerful, coordinated movement may be a bit too tricky) but overall they give a very different feel to a miniatures game that I like. You don't have complete control, the amount of troops allowed in a square (like a stacking limit in a board game) forces you to plan carefully as to how, where and when to mass your forces, and the decision of timing when moving troops from road column to line (think "combat formation") is absolutely crucial. Don't be deceived by their simplicity, a lot of thought has gone into them. They are designed for Corps level actions, with a Corps needing about 5ft of table edge to deploy. In the designed scale, which as I say you can alter, a 3 Division French Corps would have about 450 infantry, maybe 50-70 cavalry and about 16 guns/mitrailleuses. The campaign is capable of representing the whole war, including the move into the republic. Ultimately these are only my personal views, and need to be taken as that. I found them fun, and very good value, but they may not be to everyone's taste. Maybe an e-mail to Keith Warren at Realistic Modelling would get you the sort of extra infomation you want. When I had questions on the 1866 rules (sadly no campaign version – yet)he put me in touch with the main designer and we had a fascinating and very productive discussion on various tweaks. Hope this helps.

That's a very useful overview – many thanks. The game sounds interesting and worth the investment.

Having just purchased the rules my first impression is very positive. I have long sought a campaign engine for my favorite "1870" tabletop rules and this one seems to be perfect. Even the ground scale of 100 metres = 1 inch is the same.
So when will the follow up module be released for the republican phase of the war?

Does the Wars of Empire 1(1866) rules include a campaign system with counters, map etc as per the 1870 set being discussed here?

Sadly the 1866 rules still do not include a campaign system, although it was the intention of the authors to do an update and provide exactly that. Unfortunately I have no information on where this project currently stands, as it was originally planned for some time ago. Keith Warren at Realistic Modelling Services may be able to help.

Andrew (Gablenz)