Vauban Siege Rules for Ultima Ratio Regum

[vtsaogames]

I just discovered this PDF rules supplement for the Ultima Ratio Regum rules, avaliable at Wargame Vault for a princely $2.57. If you are contemplating running a siege, get these. They are a tad too complex for my tastes but good ideas worth pinching. Use the rules you want and ditch the rest. I finally found a mention of scale in a comment on the Wargame Vault site. Basic units are brigades, each stand being a battalion. A most interesting mechanism is having storms and sorties resolved by a single opposed die roll, greatly speeding the progress of the siege. I have a model Vauban fortress - well, two bastions, a ravelin, curtain walls and glacis - that I would love to put on the table more often. It has taken part in one or two siege games in a decade or more.

A judicious paring of the siege rules might even work for a campaign in which the fort isn't on the table.

Has anyone ever played the base rules, Utima Ratio Regum? Not the computer game, the grand tactical miniatures rules. If so, please post your opinion of the rules, how long games take to resolve, etc.

[fred]

Thanks for the heads up - I’ve invested just under £2 in the PDF!

They are very old school - scanned typed pages with hand drawings! But are definitely interesting. As you say a lot of detail and complexity, some of which I’m sure isn’t needed.

I’ve got a few fortifications in my terrain collection, and they rarely get onto the table - and while I’m more likely to fight with fantasy or medieval troops this document certainly provides some good ideas around gaming a siege.

[valerio81]

I really, really wanted to like and play the basic rules. They had very interesting overall design, and I especially liked the column concept. Very linear warfare. Given the price, worth to buy even only to pick ideas IMHO.

However, I found them nearly umplayable because of the combination between a very black and white combat mechanism (one die roll to win or lose a fight between whole lines of brigades? Something like that) and punitive morale (half your infantry are routed if you lose one turn of combat: army morale could collapse in one turn as well).

BUT, I tried them several years ago as a very inexperienced wargamer, and might very well have misunderstood the rules. Or they might be easy to fix. To this day I wish to have a second opinion so please take a look on them!

[vtsaogames]

I really, really wanted to like and play the basic rules. They had very interesting overall design, and I especially liked the column concept. Very linear warfare. Given the price, worth to buy even only to pick ideas IMHO.

However, I found them nearly umplayable because of the combination between a very black and white combat mechanism (one die roll to win or lose a fight between whole lines of brigades? Something like that) and punitive morale (half your infantry are routed if you lose one turn of combat: army morale could collapse in one turn as well).

BUT, I tried them several years ago as a very inexperienced wargamer, and might very well have misunderstood the rules. Or they might be easy to fix. To this day I wish to have a second opinion so please take a look on them!

At $4.09 they won't break the bank. But I'm up in Maine away from mot of my games. Reading rules and playing them are two different things. Many times rules that read well play differently. Rules that are hurt my head to read usually don't make it to the table. DBA is an exception, difficult to read but a fun game to play.

As for black and white combat, the storm/sortie rules have quite drastic results. A losing storm party can lose 50% or be wiped out. A tweak could cut that down to 25% and 50% or use dice to determine losses.

[valerio81]

Sorry, I was commenting the base rules, Ultima Ratio Regum, not the siege ones (which I never read). As I said I only tried them solo, but found this issue with combat and morale. Might be fixable indeed, and there are some very cool ideas anyway that might be used.