19TH CENTURY RULES:
Kriegsspiel

For more information, please visit http://www.kreigsspiel.org.uk/.

Mike Davis (davis@icarus.weber.edu) writes:

Kriegsspiel is a brigade-level game with 1/2 battalions and squadrons as the maneuver elements. It has a slide scaling feature for time (ie., normal turns equal 2 min, but if the forces are separated, multible turns may be taken -- 10 min., 30 min., even an hour).

The game is played blind with an umpire. The players have maps on which to plan moves, and the Umpire marks on the maps where units are that the players can see from their location. The Umpire has a large map on which all the pieces are placed. A player can ask to come up to the map at any time. The Umpire covers all the sections of the map which the player can not see from his current location. Then the player is allowed to come up to the map. The Umpire times the amount of time spent looking at the map, and delays orders from the player the same amount. If you spend 10 real min. looking at the map, you are not allowed to send orders for the next 10 game min.

Movement is handled by the Umpire. Players write orders to thier units and the Umpire carries them out, unless there are sub-commanders being played by other players. Orders are deliverd by courier, with appropriate delay for distance moved. It is possible for orders to be intercepted, but no provision in the rules for lost orders -- except when the player orders the courier to the wrong place.

As Kriegsspiel was a training game, careful attention is played to column lengths. A normal Brigade in road column occupies a mile and half of road, excluding the baggage.

Combat is resolved by rolling dice. The dice tells how many points the target takes. 1 pt = 5 men in line, 3 pt = 10 men in 2 lines, 2 pts = 3 men in skirmish order, 2 pts = 3 riders, and 12 1/2 pts = one gun. In the orginal 1824 rules, there are no rules for morale. A unit fights untill 50% casualtes.

There is an 1828 supplement which changes rules for combat and adds rules for combined arms.

At GenCon, novice players were impressed by the mechanics of the game. Napoleonic players expressed that the game captures the "feel" of the period better than any other game they've played. Its main disadvantage is that it requires an Umpire and a map at 1:2000 scale to play.