Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Three of Warlord Games historical titles Hail Ceaser, Black Powder & Pike & Shotte are available from them for free at this link
https://store.warlordgames.com/collections/rules-books
Hope this interests people.

Cool thanks

 Llamahead wrote:
Three of Warlord Games historical titles Hail Ceaser, Black Powder & Pike & Shotte are available from them for free at this link
https://store.warlordgames.com/collections/rules-books
Hope this interests people.

Very useful. As I put the finishing touches on my Warpath Enforcer army, my next project is a Russian Napoleonic army. Having the Black Powder PDF - especially at work - will beat having to reference either the hardcover or softcover I already own - though I should probably also the get the PDF of A Clash of Eagles...

I don't really have an interest in the games, but I think this is a really smart business move. The games have been out for a long time, and the rules probably aren't selling much anymore. This gives them a chance to grab new customers and get them hooked.

I enjoy free rules just to read and think about - thanks!

Also the forums for Warlord are back up after being taken down a while back. Hopefully this helps expand the customer base. I almost bought the rules a couple weeks ago, but I had bought the samurai army which has the points and costs for Pike & Shotte, now I have the rules for the system.

Good move overall.

Thanks! I’ve been curious about these books, good reason now to check them out.

Good spot thanks

Yes, thanks for the link!

Free rules + great plastic kits at £1 a miniature? And for the less common stuff metals at £1.50 a miniature.

I also noticed you need to "buy" the free rulebooks through their web store for £0. So everyone enticed by the news of the rules becoming free to check it out is going to be making an account on their web store. That's pretty smart.

Black Powder rulebook, p.4. wrote:Our game has been developed and played almost exclusively on tabletops at least 6 feet wide and between 10 and 14 feet long. The game works best on large tables and using relatively large forces.

You can actually scale this game down really easily. The units are based on multi figure bases and it works well to simply use less bases or smaller bases. The general rule is that musket range should be about the width of a battallion, so as long as you adjust everything to that you can play on any size table you like.

A common solution is to shrink the figures per unit down to 12 so your table size becomes more like 6x4. Basically it halves all the measurements in the game. At least that's how the local guys do it.

 Chamberlain wrote:
Free rules + great plastic kits at £1 a miniature? And for the less common stuff metals at £1.50 a miniature.

I also noticed you need to "buy" the free rulebooks through their web store for £0. So everyone enticed by the news of the rules becoming free to check it out is going to be making an account on their web store. That's pretty smart.

Black Powder rulebook, p.4. wrote:Our game has been developed and played almost exclusively on tabletops at least 6 feet wide and between 10 and 14 feet long. The game works best on large tables and using relatively large forces.

You can actually scale this game down really easily. The units are based on multi figure bases and it works well to simply use less bases or smaller bases. The general rule is that musket range should be about the width of a battallion, so as long as you adjust everything to that you can play on any size table you like.

A common solution is to shrink the figures per unit down to 12 so your table size becomes more like 6x4. Basically it halves all the measurements in the game. At least that's how the local guys do it.

Good to know - I live not too far from Vicksburg and I’ve been curious to try out a few US Civil War battles based on the actions near the city. Starting small will be very helpful to me.

 Stormonu wrote:

 Chamberlain wrote:
Free rules + great plastic kits at £1 a miniature? And for the less common stuff metals at £1.50 a miniature.

I also noticed you need to "buy" the free rulebooks through their web store for £0. So everyone enticed by the news of the rules becoming free to check it out is going to be making an account on their web store. That's pretty smart.

Black Powder rulebook, p.4. wrote:Our game has been developed and played almost exclusively on tabletops at least 6 feet wide and between 10 and 14 feet long. The game works best on large tables and using relatively large forces.

You can actually scale this game down really easily. The units are based on multi figure bases and it works well to simply use less bases or smaller bases. The general rule is that musket range should be about the width of a battallion, so as long as you adjust everything to that you can play on any size table you like.

A common solution is to shrink the figures per unit down to 12 so your table size becomes more like 6x4. Basically it halves all the measurements in the game. At least that's how the local guys do it.

Good to know - I live not too far from Vicksburg and I’ve been curious to try out a few US Civil War battles based on the actions near the city. Starting small will be very helpful to me.

My local group uses smaller units so that we can comfortably play Black Powder on 6x4 and 8x4 tables. Specifically for Civil War we do 16 to 18 man units.

If you combine this with the Perry Miniatures American Civil War Battle in a Box - which contains 2 generals, 145 infantry, 12 cavalry, and 4 guns, all in plastic, (along with a bunch of plastic terrain), you can make a Confederate and a Union army, each consisting of: 1 General, 4x 18-man units (three 6-man bases to make Column or Line), 1x 6-man Cavalry unit, and 2x Artillery.
Each of them would be a small army, slightly more than a single brigade (like 1.5 normal sizes brigades, or 2 small brigades), but is a great way to get started. I have found the best thing to do is you and a buddy each get a set, and you swap each other Union for Confederate models. Get each a metal pack of Union and Confederate Generals/Colonels from Perry Miniatures. You'll then each have two very sizable forces with enough commanders to field a General and 3-4 Brigades each with a Commander.

Cotton Jim in the USA carries Perry plastic sets at a nice discount including the Civil War set - http://cottonjim.mybigcommerce.com/bs-03-civil-war-battle-set/
Extra commanders - https://www.perry-miniatures.com/product_info.php?cPath=23_32&products_id=1395&osCsid=gf3i9dc9uutne95ao6gb9l80r0 and https://www.perry-miniatures.com/product_info.php?cPath=23_32&products_id=1396&osCsid=gf3i9dc9uutne95ao6gb9l80r0

We just played a small ACW game in Black Powder this past weekend. I've attached a few pics!

Cool, relatively zero interest in these rulebooks, but I always like perusing rulebooks for general rule ideas or snippets, or ingenious ways of handling stuff. Will give these a look!

Thanks for the heads-up on this - appreciated!

Thank you for the heads up I downloaded all three books