Weight of Fire

This is a set of rules for playing games representing battles in the mid-Eighteenth Century period of European history using 20-30mm size model soldiers. The rules cover the period very roughly 1740-1790, when the weight of disciplined musket fire ruled the battlefield. The rules do not try to recreate every aspect of 18th Century warfare; for example they ignore most of the complexities of maneuver.

The rules are meant for games using 6-12 units per side. A game like this should take about four hours for a pair of opponents familiar with the rules to complete. Typical game setup involves two fairly equal forces facing one another across a game table laid out with terrain models representing hills, woods, streams, etc. Victory conditions to win a game can vary widely, but usually one player wins when a stated number of the enemy’s units have been destroyed or routed off the game table before a set number of turns have been played.

– Weight of Fire introduction

Designer: Wes Rogers
Status: In Print
Contents: Available online (25-page PDF)
Scale: One model infantry or cavalry figure represents 24 actual men. A cannon (gun) model represents two actual guns. 1" on the game table represents 20 paces (about 50 feet). A turn represents an undefined amount of time. All dice used are 6-sided (D6). All measurements (except base sizes) are in inches.
– Weight of Fire page 1
Basing: Infantry figures should be mounted 2-deep on bases with a width of 20mm per figure and a depth of 12-20mm per rank. The most common basing is 4 figures on a base 40mm wide X 40mm deep as shown below.

Cavalry figures should be mounted in one rank on bases with a frontage of 20-25mm per figure and a depth of 40-50mm. it is visually appealing to base light cavalry at 25mm per figure and heavy cavalry at 20mm per figure.

Artillery should be mounted with one gun model on a 50-60mm wide base with 2-4 crew figures grouped around it.

– Weight of Fire page 2