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Author Topic: Anybody play Bonnie Blue Flag?  (Read 3776 times)

Offline Lord Raglan

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Anybody play Bonnie Blue Flag?
« on: September 30, 2018, 05:54:03 PM »
Evening gents

Does anybody play Bonnie Blue Flag?



I like the idea of a regimental set of ACW rules, but just wondering what others thought of this rule-set compared to Fire Fury for instance. 

Cheers
Gareth
« Last Edit: September 30, 2018, 06:00:07 PM by Lord Raglan »

Offline vodkafan

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Re: Anybody play Bonnie Blue Flag?
« Reply #1 on: September 30, 2018, 06:16:31 PM »
My friend and I plan to play this. They seem nice and simple. I can't compare with Fire and Fury as I haven't read or played F and F.
I am going to build a wargames army, a big beautiful wargames army, and Mexico is going to pay for it.

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Offline Lord Raglan

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Re: Anybody play Bonnie Blue Flag?
« Reply #2 on: September 30, 2018, 07:19:22 PM »
My friend and I plan to play this. They seem nice and simple. I can't compare with Fire and Fury as I haven't read or played F and F.

Do you own these rules buddy?

What are the unit sizes please?

Cheers,
Gareth

Offline has.been

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Re: Anybody play Bonnie Blue Flag?
« Reply #3 on: September 30, 2018, 08:20:55 PM »
I too have purchased the rules, but have yet to play them.
They seem nice & simple (based on a quick read through).
Fire & Fury give a good, if quick, battle. The times I have played units get
chewed up & spat out very quickly. Good if you have lots of troops, space & a
big table.  When it was new I spent a weekend translating three linked battles into
F&F units. The intention was to play a battle a week at the club. We went through all
three in less than two hours!!!!!
BBF seems to be for smaller forces.

Offline Lord Raglan

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Re: Anybody play Bonnie Blue Flag?
« Reply #4 on: September 30, 2018, 08:42:10 PM »
They seem nice & simple (based on a quick read through).

Perfect for someone with my limited intelligence, I can't be having with complicated rules which require constant referring to the rule-book.

Unit size buddy?

Offline vodkafan

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Re: Anybody play Bonnie Blue Flag?
« Reply #5 on: October 01, 2018, 09:45:07 PM »
Do you own these rules buddy?

What are the unit sizes please?

Cheers,
Gareth

A Brigade of 4 battalions , each 24 men , plus an optional squadron of cavalry  and battery of artillery (Can't remember the unit size of those offhand) In addition the Brigade is allowed 3 skirmishers per battalion for a total of 12 .

Offline Lord Raglan

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Re: Anybody play Bonnie Blue Flag?
« Reply #6 on: October 02, 2018, 09:44:16 AM »
Cheers buddy

At 14 quid I might as well give them a bash.

Gareth

Offline vodkafan

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Re: Anybody play Bonnie Blue Flag?
« Reply #7 on: October 03, 2018, 12:05:32 AM »
Cheers buddy

At 14 quid I might as well give them a bash.

Gareth

If I remember right there are a couple of example scenarios at the back of the book as well.

Offline Lord Raglan

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Re: Anybody play Bonnie Blue Flag?
« Reply #8 on: October 17, 2018, 09:13:58 PM »
Having now read them, these do seem a great fast play rule-set.

Andrew_McGuire

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Re: Anybody play Bonnie Blue Flag?
« Reply #9 on: December 12, 2018, 12:45:13 PM »
With my Perry plastic forces - well, force, as I only have Union infantry so far - slowly building up, I'm also looking for a regiment-level set with which to employ them at an unspecified future date, and have been wondering about these, as well as the venerable Johnny Reb, Guns at Gettysburg, Regimental Fire & Fury (I already have the brigade-level rules, in both editions) and perhaps They Couldn't Hit an Elephant, (assuming it's better organised then most older TFL rules) but lack detailed information on how the respective sets differ, and would really prefer not to buy them all in order to find out.

Ideally I would like to be able to field a division or more in the longer term, and would be interested to hear which of these sets, if any, can handle relatively large forces, while having sufficient detail to make them feel different from brigade-level rules (which I intend to reserve for truly large battles).

I'm also curious about The Devil to Pay, published by Raven Banner Games, though this is apparently designed for a single brigade per side, and have no idea how well it can deal with two or more brigades, or, for that matter, how it works in general.

Any constructive comments, particularly if they refrain from mentioning Black Powder or other generic horse and musket sets, would be much appreciated.
« Last Edit: December 12, 2018, 04:40:11 PM by Andrew_McGuire »

Offline zippyfusenet

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Re: Anybody play Bonnie Blue Flag?
« Reply #10 on: December 12, 2018, 04:09:21 PM »
I can only speak to Johnny Reb III (I've also played I & II, long ago). JR was written primarily for 15mm figures. While you could play it with 28mm figures, I suspect the footprint of your units and of the game would crowd a standard sized wargame table, that's six feet wide or less. Of course this is a general problem with larger wargame figures in divisional-sized games or bigger.
You'll shoot your eye out, kid!

Andrew_McGuire

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Re: Anybody play Bonnie Blue Flag?
« Reply #11 on: December 12, 2018, 04:20:13 PM »
Thanks, that's useful, and something I hadn't considered.

I suppose I should also have included Osprey's Across a Deady Field, by the same author, which I think is in effect an update of Johnny Reb. I can now discount They Couldn't Hit an Elephant, as it's only available in PDF form, which is of no use to me, but if its enthusiasts or detractors wish to make comparisons with other sets I've mentioned - or overlooked -  that's fine with me.

I've now read a pretty enthusiastic review of BBF, which, interestingly, concludes with the opinion that it should handle larger forces:

https://meicwargames.blogspot.com/2017/09/bonnie-blue-flag-rules-first-play-and.html

I've also just received a response from Raven Banner Games about The Devil to Pay, which is described as a beer and pretzel game, and not overly detailed. That seems to put it in the same category as BBF, and I'm giving it serious consideration, particularly as I want to order some of their figures in any case.
« Last Edit: December 12, 2018, 04:41:15 PM by Andrew_McGuire »

Offline zippyfusenet

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Re: Anybody play Bonnie Blue Flag?
« Reply #12 on: December 13, 2018, 04:57:57 AM »
I suppose I should also have included Osprey's Across a Deady Field, by the same author, which I think is in effect an update of Johnny Reb.

I haven't played Across A Deadly Field, I've only read it through. No, AADF is not an update of Johnny Reb. John Hill doubled the figure-to-man ration, from 1:30 in JR to 1:60 in AADF and changed the scope of the game. Regiments in AADF are just 4 to 10 figures on two stands. AADF isn't a regimental-level game; the basic unit in AADF is the brigade, with its regiments represented as individual elements.

AADF was conceived as a competitor to Fire & Fury, to allow two players to field a corps or more of figures each and fight out a large battle on a ping-pong table in a day or less.

AADF might actually work better than JR for a divisional-size game using 28mm figures because regiments take up half the space of JR, but you'd have to mentally adjust to 6 X 28mm figures representing a 360-man regiment.

Andrew_McGuire

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Re: Anybody play Bonnie Blue Flag?
« Reply #13 on: December 13, 2018, 04:17:15 PM »
Thanks. My (mis)information comes from the Caliver Books website, which describes AADF as "Johnny Reb III (sic) by another name". They presumably meant IV, but it seems they have it wrong anyway.

I can't contemplate using so few figures for a regiment (unless, as with many real life ones, they are seriously understrength). If anything, I'm going in the opposite direction, with pretty much a full box of Perry figures per regiment. I'm undecided over the number of standard bearers, however. To be accurate there should be two, which would also look better,  but in proportion to even 40 figures, let alone less, it seems excessive.

Offline Captain Goode

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Re: Anybody play Bonnie Blue Flag?
« Reply #14 on: December 21, 2018, 02:50:42 PM »
We have played BBF in 15 mm and it works well in that scale when you have limited space. We did like that the game was about the response to the results of fire and not the success or otherwise of inflicting damage. Even with basic forces it kept 3 of us amused for a couple of hours and as a result the groups is busy painting up long forgotten hordes of 28mm Foundry. 
I have been a keen player of JR1 and 3 in the past, the initial encounter with JR1 was a real eye openner to a different way of gameing that I rather relished. I have had a copy of FandF 1 but never really got into it. I also own AADF and have soloed this a couple of times and very much like the taught relationship of ground and space occupied. Whilst not being overkeen on the small units I will admit that, when whole divisions and Corps are deployed one really gets the illusion of mass and movement. One has  to like collecting flags though.
My 15mm collection is returning to Fand F 2 as that set now offers the things that I missed from JR, but at a higher level. I think that is where I will pitch. Fire and Fury 2 in 15mm, and Bonnie Blue Flag in 28.
Graham