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Now that im abit older I've been thinking of starting more historicals. I've always had a soft spot for ACW, already have several history books and Killer Angels is one of my favorite novels so it seems a perfect fit. The period just feels weighty to me and an almost endless amount of adventures and drama but still Ive been intimidated to wargame it or any ' horse and musket' period. Im not gonna start smoking a pipe and going to bed before 8 or anything, and I'll still work on my sci fi stuff, just saying

Anyone have thoughts on what rules are good? Probably not going to be refighting gettysburg anytime soon so looking for a slightly smaller scale. Like Bufords delaying action on the first day.

Also the most important part, some nice characterful figures! Any recommendations?

I dont know if this period is very popular on dakka but anything will help a beginner to this?

Thanks

Sam Mustafa's Longstreet has just come out. I haven't read the whole thing yet, but all his other games have been excellent, so it would definitely be worth taking a look at.

link

It's part of Sam Mustafa's Honour system. You can download a free lite version of the rules to take a look at as well.

Longstreet, without a doubt. Sam let us playtest it before release. Superb system and an AAR is on Dakka.

Figures? Well if 28mm then star with Perry Miniatures plastics...so far they infantry, zouave, rebs and cavalry with artillery coming plus superb metal range. Redoubt, foundry and sash and sabre all do ACT as do renegade and old glory.

15mm, best bet is Battle Honours, the old AB range.

I haven't played Longstreet, but I have played his two previous Napoleonic rules sets (Grande Armee and Lasalle) and they were both excellent.

As for figures it depends on the scale you want. I'd second the Perry recommendation for 28mm. I'm not familiar with ACW in 15mm. If you want to go super tiny, Picoarmour has some great 3mm.


So tiny!

Wow 3mm...might just rather play a boardgame

Would love 28mm but will go 15mm if the price is much more reasonable. Longstreet seems pretty exciting sounds like something I'd enjoy. Looks about the scale of battle im wanting unless I'm mistaken, a handful of regiments per side? Is a regiment the basic unit?

Any favorite books/resources for ACW war-gaming?

Thanks for the info fellows

http://www.sammustafa.com/honour/downloads/

There's also a 25 page simplified "Longstreet Lite" version:

http://www.sammustafa.com/honour/wp-content/uploads/downloads/2013/07/Longstreet-Lite-2013-v1.01.pdf

"Each base represents 60-80 soldiers. An infantry unit may have as many as ten bases, or as few as two"

Regimental Fire and Fury is my go to set. I have Longstreet, we will be testing it in a couple of weeks. Read through seems good. 15mm is best bet if you go with RFF or Longstreet.

Nice thing about Regimental Fire and Fury, you can port the rules and indeed on the forum they have QRS for Mexican American War, and AWI.

Regiment sizes ranged from a bit over 1,000 (just recruited) to under 300 for severely depleted regiments -- if we make a huge generalisation the average for the war as a whole was about 500-600.

Does black powder give a good game? Book looks pretty. Need it to play fast as all day gaming marathons are not feasible these days.

Also been reading about Sharpe practice by toofatlardies and the ACW supplemen for it. This sounds like fun, good way to play with your toys if you dont yet have 500 soldiers ready! Anybody try this thing out?

Both games are solid. Black Powder is a refinement of the Warmaster rules Priestly came up with when working at GW. Sharpe Practice has been popular enough that it has fan adaptations to other periods. I've enjoyed both games.

 jedi76 wrote:
Does black powder give a good game? Book looks pretty. Need it to play fast as all day gaming marathons are not feasible these days.

Also been reading about Sharpe practice by toofatlardies and the ACW supplemen for it. This sounds like fun, good way to play with your toys if you dont yet have 500 soldiers ready! Anybody try this thing out?

If you like Warmaster, you may like it. I tried WM and WMA and didn't like them at all, so Black Powder isn't for me. Having played Longstreet twice now that's the one I'll be using.

One of our club just played Longstreet, and has waxed lyrical in its praises, so it seems that's going high on the "to get" list.

I think what I like most is the scale (from what I've heard), as in the rules are designed for playing as small as a single Brigade of 5-6 units. I've also been told it's a very, very good multi-player game.

Due to the scale, it seems I wont need to buy too much more. I already have a Brigades worth of troops from the Perrys.

Playing a four player Longstreet tonight...

Cool Big P! Let us know how it goes and snap a few pics if you remember

Im thinking about getting perry 28mm in the near future. Was considering blue moon 15mm but I would want more miniatures per unit and it would make it the same price as 28mm so decided to go big!

Probly get some rebs and zouaves to start off with, look like quality kits.

Check out the Johnny Reb rules set.

- J

Our group still plays Johnny Reb III. I have also done Original Fire and Fury.

These are not for you if you are looking for 1 player per side and about a 2-3 hr game.

I'd further others recommendations for Longsteet or Black Powder. I've tried BP and liked it, but prefer the detail from JRIII. I haven't tried Longstreet but some of our guys tried Maurice (Seven Years War version). They thought the rules played well, but since we tend to play games withn 3-5 players per side, it wasn't for us.

good luck.

Here's some pictures of our 150th anniversary Gettysburg game (using JRIII) for inspiration.



http://www.goingaming.blogspot.com/2013/07/gettysburg-150th-anniversary-game.html

I noticed this kickstarter running:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/270194544/gettysburg-the-valley-of-death-board-game

The board game option looks pretty cool, and obviously you could incorporate minis (and would not have to use theirs by any means).

I picture bases the size of the unit counters packed with 6mm troops.

Jake

I duno. I'd almost advise to stay away from Gordon & Hague. The guy who produces it is very indecisive, and has already gone from 10mm pre-painted, to 15mm unpainted, to 15mm pre-painted miniatures.

Do you know how the rules play though? I think the map is gorgeous, and even just as a board game it looks interesting to me.

The scale for the game figures really shouldn't matter too much I would think.

There are loads of good rules for ACW.

The point of Gordon and Hague is producing a bunch of top quality plastic 15mm figures and basically they have failed on that.

There are heaps of good ACW figures in scales ranging from 3mm up to 28mm, although only in 28mm are most of them available in plastic (Perry Bros). Arguably, though, metal is fine for everything smaller than 28mm anyway.

If you want bases with massed figures, the 3mm from Oddzial Ozmy, or 6mm from various makers, would do the job.