I've gamed nothing but ACW for a number of years now. I prefer larger battles- or often parts of large battles. One of the great things of the Civil War is that even many small battles are well documented. I've now reached my limit as to space, so no more painting for me!
A nice and concise presentation on the nuts and bolts of getting started in our hobby. The bit about the low key enjoyment of slowly growing your army is dead on. My first battle in my 7 Years' War era campaign had three infantry regiments of Baccus 6mm figures (48 figures on 6 bases per unit), one hussar regiment (27 figure on 9 bases), and one stand with a gun and 4 gunners per side. For the following two battles, each side got some reinforcements determined by what I had painted. Since we're play testing my own rules, the incremental growth of the number and types of troops has proven fun, and above all, useful in working out kinks in game mechanics and playability. Gradually adding terrain pieces is another source of satisfaction, I might add. I do have a question, but it's not directly on the topic of this video. What is the best way of sending you pictures and battle reports from my games? I believe you encouraged your followers to send such things to you in one of your terrain making videos, but I don't plan on posting YT videos that can be linked to. I have enough on my plate painting armies, lol.
Heading up to the Christmas before the last one I decided to get back into the hobby after about forty years away ,back then I had the usual British kids stuff ,Airfix mainly, but played 6mm Napoleonics .I've always massively preferred the big battles to skirmish games, and I settled on ACW this time and set myself a goal of putting on a participation game at the biggest 6mm show around, Sheffield's Joy of Six. I'm well on the way of hitting my target, despite putting several self imposed hurdles in the way, (gaming on a shoestring, scratchbuilding every possible bit of terrain, having dense forests that you can actually fight under the canopy of leaves ). I should be running the Battle of Chancellorsville using Altar of Freedom at Joy of Six 2025, if nothing major stops me. :) That's my journey in the hobby so far and it's one I'm glad I started. I've played many different rulesets in many different eras, but there's nothing quite like 6mm ACW .
That goal of yours sounds awesome, so with Alter of Freedom, each base is 1 brigade if I am correct? How are your armies coming along? I too am a lover of the smaller scales if I'm honest, it just has such a great effect on the table.
@@bigbattleslittleworlds yeah, Altar of Freedom is designed to be played with one 60mmx30mm base as an infantry brigade, which is the basic unit, but Greg says in the rules that as long as all units are consistent in their basing, it is not a requirement. For me the USP of the system (I researched a few before choosing AoF) is the way Command & Control is completely integrated with a variable turn length. This means that where the friction in issuing orders/activating units, lands is not totally (card/token draw, dice driven) random, but is largely down to decision on priority made by the players. How bad the friction is has a random element, but even that can be influenced...but at a cost to other priorities. It's really quite ingenious. If you haven't checked out the system, I recommend you take a look at it. Other than that, AoF is a fairly vanilla big battles rules set designed so you can fit even monsters like Fredericksburg into an evening.
@@bigbattleslittleworlds Just realised I only answered half of your question. The army build is steady and I'm about to put on the first of my Peninsula Campaign battles at the local club next week. The Battle of Seven Pines. I have about twenty five brigades on each side finished, but it is growing by the month.
Great introductory video to the hobby. Nice to see someone from GB 🇬🇧 enjoying the ACW. Many of us here in America have a similar enthusiasm for 🇬🇧 conflicts like the Zulu War or Madhist war.
Glad to hear you are enjoying it and have an interest in our conflicts too.lol, the Zulu and Madhist wars are periods I would love to do a campaign on. One day when I find some good miniatures.
Nice video great advice for starting out. The way I started into ACW was purchasing the game War Cry . Then I bought 1/72 miniatures Italeri and I had Airfix miniatures etc. Now have 1/28 and epic . Lots ways to satisfy your quest for ACW gaming
Played Johnny Reb rules in the 80s then Ver II in the early 90s. It was the 1st game we ever played in 10mm. Before that everything was 25mm. Currently have the Warlord Games Epic Battles.
Great video! I painted up the Epic Guts and Glory box last year as a palette cleanser and am looking into actually playing a game with the minis. This video helped a lot in that regards, thanks!
Glad I found your channel some really good advice. I started down this path with Johnny Reb II probably 1989/1990 can't quite remember. I bit off more than I could chew in the beginning, Had a blast though. We played as much as we could then life happened.Our group split and moved on. I Never stopped painting and collecting. Now as I am older I have come back I think I appreciate the little things more. What has changed is 3d printing. We now access to files and technology that we never could have dreamed of 15 years ago. I have printed hundreds of feet of fencing and buildings etc that I could never have afforded to buy. Moderation and building what matters is what I think is key. Couldn't agree with you more, yes my collection is enormous but I will never be able to put it all on the table. Quality vs quantity. Good stuff thanks for posting this video
Thank you for watching and leaving your message. I bet you have quite the collection. I think you are correct regarding moderation and choosing the best quality, although sometimes quantity can be fun lol. Thanks again.
I like the 1970 to middle 1980’s rules where 1 figure = 20 men I hame a preference for Trevor Halsall’s rules for napoleonic and ACW with bases were for a single rank of figures. With some alterations but not to throw the baby out with the bath water. If using a ground scale of 1” = 20 yards or 1mm = 1 pace (30”). as long as the base sizes are close enough the men per figure ratios match it will make little difference providing they are close enough. I use the former rather than the latter because that is where the original rules come from. However. squeezing a 28 mm Front Rank figure onto a half inch base will be taxing, so a Perry Bros. figure might be better. I suppose fixing the basing rules is the best place for me to start for 28mm figures. A game was played IIRC for a British Army of. 4 battalions of 24 commanded by a CinC a heavy cavalry unit of 16 and light cavalry unit of 24 commanded by a Brigadier also a battery of 9pdr. Guns. So that’s 96 Infantry, 40 cavalry, 3 guns, 12 gunners and 2 Generals the French would have more infantry but less quality unless the Old Guard was present. Part of the fun was picking an army that suited how you want to play the game. This was ideal for 2 to 2.5 hour game.
@@bigbattleslittleworlds For Napoleonic my favourite was “Rules for Napoleonic Warfare” by Trevor Halsall with a competition style army list . I was chatting with an old friend from back then about ways to get fast move times without spoiling the game. A pre game manoeuvre on a hex map Putting blinds on the table A sketch showing where you start from and where you will move to No deviation without orders. As 1 figure = 20 men then unit size is to be half the numbers allowed Then change to casualties taken in figures. Re define supporting units Quite a few minor changes that the last 50 years show are always needed in one form or another.
@@leonleese4919 Interesting. Those ideas you have put forward there would really make for a very interesting and tactical game. I will have to check out the rule book. Were the points towards the bottom your homebrew or from within?
@ as I haven’t played against a live opponent since 1985 apart from DBA and DBMM competition it’s all home brew. I’ve used maps from Kevin Zucker’s board games but they are 2 miles per hex something is needed to create an objective once I have that working I’ll be happy.
Great and interesting vid,first became aware of acw games when getting Donald featherstones book wargames in 1970 and made the armies from airfix,then did the same with dixon figures in the 80s (still in progress😂)duplicated in 54mm in the 90s and now done the same in warlords epic,thank god I didn't try action man size,like the wargames rules,gettysburg and fire and fury and have still to try warlords version.
I’m just starting out the hobby with 10mm civil war miniatures and wanted to know how to create regiments, brigades. I have infantry, cavalry and artillery. Thank you
Hey William, Thanks for watching and leaving a message. What rule set are you using or are you still at an early stage for that? Historically brigades had 2-5 regiments, usually around 3 regiments. They tended to be all inf or cav. Artillery batteries may have been attached to the brigade as extras but usually, artillery was not brigaded except for special situations such as Napoleon's Grande batteries. If you interested in an easy-to-follow rule set and a campaign, check out the new campaign we are running on the channel(check out the community and live tabs on this channel home page as I have developed both for it.) Thanks again and any more questions please ask.
Sorry to say, I like going old school with the "Johnny Reb" Rules Set. With 15mm figs. Regiment level that lets you play either a small skirmish battle or a section of a large battle.
That's a fine set of rules, no need to apologise to be honest it completely slipped my mind when putting the video together but definitely deserved a mention. Thanks for watching.
First of all can I say I enjoyed your video and secondly are there any details on when your rules will be published? I have been wargaming, more often that not ACW, for more years than I care to say and other that time have collected armies in a variety of scales and an awful lot of rulebooks. It is fair say the modern wargamer is blessed (or cursed) with a massive choice nowadays. Regarding figures I would like to share a couple of ideas you did not touch on, which budget wise are a good fit for the newer player to the period. First it is often maligned 2mm blocks from Irregular Miniatures, these are dirt cheap and with an adjustment of groundscale, allow for large battle to be fought on a small space. For instance, halving base sizes and groundscale for the excellent Altar of Freedom rules mean battles like Shiloh are playable on a 2x2 table and even Gettysburg can be played on the dining table. Access to 3d printing, then I recommend Project Wargaming's excellent 3mm range (I upscaled mine to 4mm) which can be painted very effectively. Again small initial outlay but really cheap to expand on. Cannot or cannot be bothered to paint, try Peter Dennis's excellent paper minis, originally available as 28mm, but can now be bought from his site in 18mm for less than £20. These sheets can be printed to create as big an army as you want, already "painted". Transport's a breeze as well, no carrying a wightlifting set of minis from place to place. My last suggestion, inspired by the excellent Pub Battle by Command Post games, is to use blocks. Those that come with Jenga or the far cheaper knock offs are ideal and at around 50x20mm fit nicely to most base sizes in rulesets. As for terrain simply use maps ala Kreigspeil. this is cheap are cheerful and something that can allow for expansion into something far larger such as running a campaign. Just my thoughts
Fantastic ideas there, You are right I missed an opportunity to talk about scale and figure cost. i guess i will just have to do another video to touch on those aspects. lol what a hardship, good job I enjoy making videos. You are spot on with regards to the plethora of available rule sets out there now, it is a schmorgas board. My rules will probably be done by June time this year 2024. The mechanics are now more or less complete, i am now doing the writing and editing of the book, scenarios and campaign that will be attached. I have never played with 2mm but that is something I may need to investigate now. Thanks again.
Thanks for the video. ACW always had appealing to me, but no players around me. I finally decided to jump into it. 15mm and rgt/brigade level (I loved Scourge of war Gettysburg) and I'm playing solo. I'm learning different rule sets, starting with Pickett's charge and F&F Brigade/Regimental, looking at JR3, Across a deadly field and Longstreet (cards driven game, looks interesting). Waiting more reviews to get with hot leads and cold steel as well. Where can we find your rules? Looked on internet but couldn't agree find it. I really like F&F but jeez, you need a lot of figures. Back to your video, you mentioned the skirmish scale but you didn't mention any rules to play it. I heard that Sharp Practice 2 is good
Hey, thanks for your message, Sorry I meant to say Sharpe Practice as the skirmish game. So my rule set is still in the production stage. I have nearly finished my pike and shotte 30 years war rules, should be ready in the next 3 weeks now. Then I will be doubling down on ACW hopefully getting it finished by August or September. You seem to have played a good few games, do you find that most of them translate to solo play well?
I only had 2 games of F&F and 2 games of Pickett's Charge. I do own JR3, Across a Deadly field, Longstreet (Sam Mustafa) and Altar of Freedom. When I play solo I pretty much play both side trying to do my best and see which side will take victory. I know that there is a youtube content creator who created a AI reference sheet to play solo with F&F but more kinda "I pick my side and try to win with my side"
Great video! I'm thinking about branching out to the ACW with some 15mm Essex figures. However, I'm in the search for rules - what are some rules for skirmish games of around 5-10 figures a side? So far I've come across (and been recommended) Fistful of Lead and One Hour Skirmish Wargames, but I'm not a big fan of using playing cards. Song of Drums and Shakos seems interesting, but unfortunately there's no ACW rules in it afaik. What about using Old West rules? Any suggestion for those? Thanks!
Sounds like a great idea to go 15mm skirmish. Honestly, I am not sure about any rules that are designed for 5-10 figures. Cowboy/western rules would do the trick. I recently did a battle report for Pikacho Pass during the Civil War. 14 men total using my own rule set that I am working on designed for small-scale games between the 1840s-1890s. So probbaly a set of rules designed for that sort of thing would be best.
Seen these ( Napoleonic) but the ACW are designed by Peter Dennis who did the drawings for Paddy Griffith book Tactics in the American Civil War. The armies look great but remember these are essentially "flat" figures. However on a large 10mm battle they look great and more important require no painting (no I don't have any shares in WoFun!)
What are your thoughts Black Powder/ Glory Hallelujah? Also, do you own any of the Regimental Scenario Books from Historic Imagination? If so, which do you like? Cheers!
I have played Black Powder Glory Hallelujah, its fun but not my favourite set of rules. It is a bit generic for me, and I feel that some of the mechanics limit your abilities as a leader. But its not bad. Unfortunately, I haven't got any of those books, but I am interested and may look into them now. Thanks again.
Great but not so great. A lot of qrs and diagrams to explain the rules and apparently it doesn't bring that much historical flavour. The rules are meant to be like the new F&F standard but a bit more fun and simple. I've seen only one review video and they seem to just compare with Black Powder. I'm waiting for more reviews. I'm intrigued by those rules, they look interesting, but maybe not as good as they seem to be
Not to great cancer kicking my butt right now. But gaming keeps me going. Plan to use the epic scale black powder rules a friend is doing some of my union troops
Hmm, i think the two scLes I've used were 10mm for johnny reb 3ed and 28mm Perry Minis for some random rule sets i found. I struggled with acw and many historical sets as they generally were scenario based and needed specifics. Is there any ruleset more generic in lieu of bolt action you recommend by chance?
@bigbattleslittleworlds correct. As nerely, everything I've come across was scenario specific with pre-set orders of battle. So i would say like bilt action or flames of war where you build your company / regiment and it balanced out either by ratings or by points?
I guess you could try Sharpe Practice ACW. It is more of a skirmish game but I tried using epic scale bases instead of individual 28mm figures and if you change anything else it gives you a cool-looking "big battle" but plays quick like a skirmish. Or there is Black powder which is a bit vanilla but could do the job or then my set that I am working on "Follow the Flag" It will be released later this year, but it has a random army and battlefield generator for when you just want a random game but also allows you to play full historical if you want.@@MadSpaceWolfDiary
I've gamed nothing but ACW for a number of years now. I prefer larger battles- or often parts of large battles. One of the great things of the Civil War is that even many small battles are well documented. I've now reached my limit as to space, so no more painting for me!
A nice and concise presentation on the nuts and bolts of getting started in our hobby. The bit about the low key enjoyment of slowly growing your army is dead on. My first battle in my 7 Years' War era campaign had three infantry regiments of Baccus 6mm figures (48 figures on 6 bases per unit), one hussar regiment (27 figure on 9 bases), and one stand with a gun and 4 gunners per side. For the following two battles, each side got some reinforcements determined by what I had painted. Since we're play testing my own rules, the incremental growth of the number and types of troops has proven fun, and above all, useful in working out kinks in game mechanics and playability. Gradually adding terrain pieces is another source of satisfaction, I might add.
I do have a question, but it's not directly on the topic of this video. What is the best way of sending you pictures and battle reports from my games? I believe you encouraged your followers to send such things to you in one of your terrain making videos, but I don't plan on posting YT videos that can be linked to. I have enough on my plate painting armies, lol.
The Achilles heel of wargaming is, lack of space for storage lol Thanks for watching.
Heading up to the Christmas before the last one I decided to get back into the hobby after about forty years away ,back then I had the usual British kids stuff ,Airfix mainly, but played 6mm Napoleonics .I've always massively preferred the big battles to skirmish games, and I settled on ACW this time and set myself a goal of putting on a participation game at the biggest 6mm show around, Sheffield's Joy of Six. I'm well on the way of hitting my target, despite putting several self imposed hurdles in the way, (gaming on a shoestring, scratchbuilding every possible bit of terrain, having dense forests that you can actually fight under the canopy of leaves ). I should be running the Battle of Chancellorsville using Altar of Freedom at Joy of Six 2025, if nothing major stops me. :)
That's my journey in the hobby so far and it's one I'm glad I started. I've played many different rulesets in many different eras, but there's nothing quite like 6mm ACW .
That goal of yours sounds awesome, so with Alter of Freedom, each base is 1 brigade if I am correct? How are your armies coming along?
I too am a lover of the smaller scales if I'm honest, it just has such a great effect on the table.
@@bigbattleslittleworlds yeah, Altar of Freedom is designed to be played with one 60mmx30mm base as an infantry brigade, which is the basic unit, but Greg says in the rules that as long as all units are consistent in their basing, it is not a requirement. For me the USP of the system (I researched a few before choosing AoF) is the way Command & Control is completely integrated with a variable turn length. This means that where the friction in issuing orders/activating units, lands is not totally (card/token draw, dice driven) random, but is largely down to decision on priority made by the players. How bad the friction is has a random element, but even that can be influenced...but at a cost to other priorities. It's really quite ingenious. If you haven't checked out the system, I recommend you take a look at it. Other than that, AoF is a fairly vanilla big battles rules set designed so you can fit even monsters like Fredericksburg into an evening.
@@bigbattleslittleworlds Just realised I only answered half of your question. The army build is steady and I'm about to put on the first of my Peninsula Campaign battles at the local club next week. The Battle of Seven Pines. I have about twenty five brigades on each side finished, but it is growing by the month.
Sound very interesting, i will have to give it a go.@@davidbenton8775
Excellent, I hope it goes well for you, would love to see photos.@@davidbenton8775
Great introductory video to the hobby. Nice to see someone from GB 🇬🇧 enjoying the ACW. Many of us here in America have a similar enthusiasm for 🇬🇧 conflicts like the Zulu War or Madhist war.
It sounds like some Australian undertones in that accent 😀
Glad to hear you are enjoying it and have an interest in our conflicts too.lol, the Zulu and Madhist wars are periods I would love to do a campaign on. One day when I find some good miniatures.
@@user-mc4sq3fk5d Haha, I have been living in New Zealand for the last 4 years so that might have a part to play. Good ears though.
Nice video great advice for starting out. The way I started into ACW was purchasing the game War Cry . Then I bought 1/72 miniatures Italeri and I had Airfix miniatures etc. Now have 1/28 and epic . Lots ways to satisfy your quest for ACW gaming
Thanks for watching. and glad you enjoyed it. I too started with a few different scales and manufacturers,
Played Johnny Reb rules in the 80s then Ver II in the early 90s. It was the 1st game we ever played in 10mm. Before that everything was 25mm. Currently have the Warlord Games Epic Battles.
Johnny Reb is a great game. Im using the Epic minis too.
Great video! I painted up the Epic Guts and Glory box last year as a palette cleanser and am looking into actually playing a game with the minis. This video helped a lot in that regards, thanks!
I am so glad that it was useful to you. Thanks for watching and commenting.
Glad I found your channel some really good advice. I started down this path with Johnny Reb II probably 1989/1990 can't quite remember. I bit off more than I could chew in the beginning, Had a blast though. We played as much as we could then life happened.Our group split and moved on. I Never stopped painting and collecting. Now as I am older I have come back I think I appreciate the little things more. What has changed is 3d printing. We now access to files and technology that we never could have dreamed of 15 years ago. I have printed hundreds of feet of fencing and buildings etc that I could never have afforded to buy. Moderation and building what matters is what I think is key. Couldn't agree with you more, yes my collection is enormous but I will never be able to put it all on the table. Quality vs quantity. Good stuff thanks for posting this video
Thank you for watching and leaving your message. I bet you have quite the collection. I think you are correct regarding moderation and choosing the best quality, although sometimes quantity can be fun lol. Thanks again.
I like the 1970 to middle 1980’s rules where 1 figure = 20 men I hame a preference for Trevor Halsall’s rules for napoleonic and ACW with bases were for a single rank of figures.
With some alterations but not to throw the baby out with the bath water.
If using a ground scale of 1” = 20 yards or 1mm = 1 pace (30”). as long as the base sizes are close enough the men per figure ratios match it will make little difference providing they are close enough. I use the former rather than the latter because that is where the original rules come from. However. squeezing a 28 mm Front Rank figure onto a half inch base will be taxing, so a Perry Bros. figure might be better.
I suppose fixing the basing rules is the best place for me to start for 28mm figures.
A game was played IIRC for a British Army of. 4 battalions of 24 commanded by a CinC a heavy cavalry unit of 16 and light cavalry unit of 24 commanded by a Brigadier also a battery of 9pdr. Guns.
So that’s 96 Infantry, 40 cavalry, 3 guns, 12 gunners and 2 Generals
the French would have more infantry but less quality unless the Old Guard was present. Part of the fun was picking an army that suited how you want to play the game.
This was ideal for 2 to 2.5 hour game.
Sounds very good, do you happen to remember the name of the rule sets you liked the best?
@@bigbattleslittleworlds
For Napoleonic my favourite was “Rules for Napoleonic Warfare” by Trevor Halsall with a competition style army list .
I was chatting with an old friend from back then about ways to get fast move times without spoiling the game.
A pre game manoeuvre on a hex map
Putting blinds on the table
A sketch showing where you start from and where you will move to
No deviation without orders.
As 1 figure = 20 men then unit size is to be half the numbers allowed
Then change to casualties taken in figures.
Re define supporting units
Quite a few minor changes that the last 50 years show are always needed in one form or another.
@@leonleese4919 Interesting. Those ideas you have put forward there would really make for a very interesting and tactical game. I will have to check out the rule book. Were the points towards the bottom your homebrew or from within?
@ as I haven’t played against a live opponent since 1985 apart from DBA and DBMM competition it’s all home brew. I’ve used maps from Kevin Zucker’s board games but they are
2 miles per hex something is needed to create an objective once I have that working I’ll be happy.
Great and interesting vid,first became aware of acw games when getting Donald featherstones book wargames in 1970 and made the armies from airfix,then did the same with dixon figures in the 80s (still in progress😂)duplicated in 54mm in the 90s and now done the same in warlords epic,thank god I didn't try action man size,like the wargames rules,gettysburg and fire and fury and have still to try warlords version.
It is definitely one of my favourite periods that for sure. I like your commitment over the years.lol
Thanks for watching.
I think ACW will likely be where I end up next in my wargaming journey. Thank you for this video, it is helpful.
Thanks for watching, glad it will be useful.
I’m just starting out the hobby with 10mm civil war miniatures and wanted to know how to create regiments, brigades. I have infantry, cavalry and artillery. Thank you
Hey William, Thanks for watching and leaving a message. What rule set are you using or are you still at an early stage for that? Historically brigades had 2-5 regiments, usually around 3 regiments. They tended to be all inf or cav. Artillery batteries may have been attached to the brigade as extras but usually, artillery was not brigaded except for special situations such as Napoleon's Grande batteries. If you interested in an easy-to-follow rule set and a campaign, check out the new campaign we are running on the channel(check out the community and live tabs on this channel home page as I have developed both for it.)
Thanks again and any more questions please ask.
Sorry to say, I like going old school with the "Johnny Reb" Rules Set. With 15mm figs. Regiment level that lets you play either a small skirmish battle or a section of a large battle.
That's a fine set of rules, no need to apologise to be honest it completely slipped my mind when putting the video together but definitely deserved a mention. Thanks for watching.
First of all can I say I enjoyed your video and secondly are there any details on when your rules will be published?
I have been wargaming, more often that not ACW, for more years than I care to say and other that time have collected armies in a variety of scales and an awful lot of rulebooks. It is fair say the modern wargamer is blessed (or cursed) with a massive choice nowadays.
Regarding figures I would like to share a couple of ideas you did not touch on, which budget wise are a good fit for the newer player to the period.
First it is often maligned 2mm blocks from Irregular Miniatures, these are dirt cheap and with an adjustment of groundscale, allow for large battle to be fought on a small space. For instance, halving base sizes and groundscale for the excellent Altar of Freedom rules mean battles like Shiloh are playable on a 2x2 table and even Gettysburg can be played on the dining table.
Access to 3d printing, then I recommend Project Wargaming's excellent 3mm range (I upscaled mine to 4mm) which can be painted very effectively. Again small initial outlay but really cheap to expand on.
Cannot or cannot be bothered to paint, try Peter Dennis's excellent paper minis, originally available as 28mm, but can now be bought from his site in 18mm for less than £20. These sheets can be printed to create as big an army as you want, already "painted". Transport's a breeze as well, no carrying a wightlifting set of minis from place to place.
My last suggestion, inspired by the excellent Pub Battle by Command Post games, is to use blocks. Those that come with Jenga or the far cheaper knock offs are ideal and at around 50x20mm fit nicely to most base sizes in rulesets. As for terrain simply use maps ala Kreigspeil. this is cheap are cheerful and something that can allow for expansion into something far larger such as running a campaign.
Just my thoughts
Fantastic ideas there, You are right I missed an opportunity to talk about scale and figure cost. i guess i will just have to do another video to touch on those aspects. lol what a hardship, good job I enjoy making videos.
You are spot on with regards to the plethora of available rule sets out there now, it is a schmorgas board.
My rules will probably be done by June time this year 2024. The mechanics are now more or less complete, i am now doing the writing and editing of the book, scenarios and campaign that will be attached.
I have never played with 2mm but that is something I may need to investigate now. Thanks again.
Thanks for the video. ACW always had appealing to me, but no players around me. I finally decided to jump into it. 15mm and rgt/brigade level (I loved Scourge of war Gettysburg) and I'm playing solo. I'm learning different rule sets, starting with Pickett's charge and F&F Brigade/Regimental, looking at JR3, Across a deadly field and Longstreet (cards driven game, looks interesting). Waiting more reviews to get with hot leads and cold steel as well.
Where can we find your rules? Looked on internet but couldn't agree find it.
I really like F&F but jeez, you need a lot of figures.
Back to your video, you mentioned the skirmish scale but you didn't mention any rules to play it. I heard that Sharp Practice 2 is good
Hey, thanks for your message, Sorry I meant to say Sharpe Practice as the skirmish game. So my rule set is still in the production stage. I have nearly finished my pike and shotte 30 years war rules, should be ready in the next 3 weeks now. Then I will be doubling down on ACW hopefully getting it finished by August or September.
You seem to have played a good few games, do you find that most of them translate to solo play well?
I only had 2 games of F&F and 2 games of Pickett's Charge. I do own JR3, Across a Deadly field, Longstreet (Sam Mustafa) and Altar of Freedom. When I play solo I pretty much play both side trying to do my best and see which side will take victory. I know that there is a youtube content creator who created a AI reference sheet to play solo with F&F but more kinda "I pick my side and try to win with my side"
Great video!
I'm thinking about branching out to the ACW with some 15mm Essex figures. However, I'm in the search for rules - what are some rules for skirmish games of around 5-10 figures a side? So far I've come across (and been recommended) Fistful of Lead and One Hour Skirmish Wargames, but I'm not a big fan of using playing cards. Song of Drums and Shakos seems interesting, but unfortunately there's no ACW rules in it afaik.
What about using Old West rules? Any suggestion for those?
Thanks!
Sounds like a great idea to go 15mm skirmish. Honestly, I am not sure about any rules that are designed for 5-10 figures. Cowboy/western rules would do the trick. I recently did a battle report for Pikacho Pass during the Civil War. 14 men total using my own rule set that I am working on designed for small-scale games between the 1840s-1890s. So probbaly a set of rules designed for that sort of thing would be best.
Well done and interesting video. 👍🏻 Beginners need all sorts of help, especially with historical miniature games.
Thanks very much, it was a fun video to make and anything to help newer players is time well spent I think.
What about using WoFun Games 10mm ACW figures?
Seen these ( Napoleonic) but the ACW are designed by Peter Dennis who did the drawings for Paddy Griffith book Tactics in the American Civil War. The armies look great but remember these are essentially "flat" figures. However on a large 10mm battle they look great and more important require no painting (no I don't have any shares in WoFun!)
Thats an interesting idea. I have not used it/ them before but I think that would be a great introductory idea.
Great resource. I'm not but but I still found this information useful. :)
Thanks for watching. Is there a period your more interested in?
What are your thoughts Black Powder/ Glory Hallelujah?
Also, do you own any of the Regimental Scenario Books from Historic Imagination? If so, which do you like?
Cheers!
I have played Black Powder Glory Hallelujah, its fun but not my favourite set of rules. It is a bit generic for me, and I feel that some of the mechanics limit your abilities as a leader. But its not bad.
Unfortunately, I haven't got any of those books, but I am interested and may look into them now.
Thanks again.
Nice channel - subbed
Thanks very much, glad you liked it.
Osprey have recently released a new ruleset which seems very popular and has some great reviews. With Hot Lead and Cold Steel.
Interesting, I will have to have a look at it. Thanks for watching and commenting.
Great but not so great. A lot of qrs and diagrams to explain the rules and apparently it doesn't bring that much historical flavour. The rules are meant to be like the new F&F standard but a bit more fun and simple. I've seen only one review video and they seem to just compare with Black Powder. I'm waiting for more reviews. I'm intrigued by those rules, they look interesting, but maybe not as good as they seem to be
Great video hoping to Finnish my epic scale minis
Thanks for watching and glad you enjoyed it. How are you getting on?
Not to great cancer kicking my butt right now. But gaming keeps me going. Plan to use the epic scale black powder rules a friend is doing some of my union troops
Sorry to hear that, but glad the gaming is helping. Sounds like your set to have a good game.@@clarkcommando1983
Hmm, i think the two scLes I've used were 10mm for johnny reb 3ed and 28mm Perry Minis for some random rule sets i found. I struggled with acw and many historical sets as they generally were scenario based and needed specifics. Is there any ruleset more generic in lieu of bolt action you recommend by chance?
When you say generic, do you mean for just an easy set up and to play a battle?
@bigbattleslittleworlds correct. As nerely, everything I've come across was scenario specific with pre-set orders of battle. So i would say like bilt action or flames of war where you build your company / regiment and it balanced out either by ratings or by points?
I guess you could try Sharpe Practice ACW. It is more of a skirmish game but I tried using epic scale bases instead of individual 28mm figures and if you change anything else it gives you a cool-looking "big battle" but plays quick like a skirmish. Or there is Black powder which is a bit vanilla but could do the job or then my set that I am working on "Follow the Flag" It will be released later this year, but it has a random army and battlefield generator for when you just want a random game but also allows you to play full historical if you want.@@MadSpaceWolfDiary
@@bigbattleslittleworlds thank you, amd will have to keep an eye out.
We enjoy gettysburg soldiers rules
Interesting, I have not played with them. What do you enjoy about them?
You should retitle the video:
‘Get practice for the next one…’
Not sure I follow, rename it as "Get practice for the next one" or are you suggesting I get more practice for naming videos lol? Thanks for watching.
👍