*
Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.
March 28, 2024, 03:51:27 PM

Login with username, password and session length

Donate

We Appreciate Your Support

Recent

Author Topic: What is the best set of rules for this period?  (Read 80213 times)

Offline Dale Hurtt

  • Assistant
  • Posts: 38
Re: What is the best set of rules for this period?
« Reply #45 on: September 25, 2016, 04:59:49 AM »
I am surprised no one has mentioned the classic The Sword and the Flame, along with the variant The Sword to Adventure, which covers the small wars of 1908-1931 (especially the North-West Frontier). I am going to use it for Central Asia vs. Russia for The Great Game skirmishes.

Offline shakespear

  • Assistant
  • Posts: 47
    • Chance of Gaming Podcast
Re: What is the best set of rules for this period?
« Reply #46 on: September 27, 2016, 02:46:57 AM »
Where can you get a copy of setting the east ablaze?
http://chanceofgaming.com/
Chance of Gaming Podcast

Offline Ignatieff

  • Moderator
  • Scatterbrained Genius
  • Posts: 2667
Re: What is the best set of rules for this period?
« Reply #47 on: September 27, 2016, 07:17:31 AM »
Caliver books sell them, also through Amazon
"...and as always, we are dealing with strange forces far beyond our comprehension...."

All limitations are self imposed.  Work hard and dream big.

Offline Leapsnbounds

  • Mad Scientist
  • Posts: 503
Re: What is the best set of rules for this period?
« Reply #48 on: September 28, 2016, 02:57:19 PM »
I agree that The Sword and the Flame variant "The Sword to Adventure" is the set I like the most. Easy to use and it is the rules that I grew up with on the Northwest Frontier.

Offline Alcide Nikopol

  • Mad Scientist
  • Posts: 508
Re: What is the best set of rules for this period?
« Reply #49 on: January 04, 2018, 04:43:55 AM »
I can strongly recommend Pulp Alley. We use it for multiple periods and it never disappoints. These rules have reignited my love of miniatures gaming.
A.Nik-

Offline tony6655@outlook.com

  • Schoolboy
  • Posts: 8
Re: What is the best set of rules for this period?
« Reply #50 on: February 26, 2019, 12:29:05 AM »
I'm using the first edition of StEA and in the points section (appendix one) "modern tactical training" costs + 1 point BUT I can find no other reference to it, ( or advantage to having it) in the rules. Have I missed something ?

Offline Andreas Johansson

  • Assistant
  • Posts: 33
Re: What is the best set of rules for this period?
« Reply #51 on: March 06, 2021, 02:42:52 PM »
Searching for the original Back of Beyond on BoardGameGeek, I stumbled across three apparently-obscure sets sharing variants of the title:

Interesting Times in the Back of Beyond
Back of Beyond Strange World
Back of Beyond Skirmish Rules

Thought I'd ask if anyone here knows anything about any of them? :)

Offline Andreas Johansson

  • Assistant
  • Posts: 33
Re: What is the best set of rules for this period?
« Reply #52 on: March 08, 2021, 09:13:03 PM »
I'll take that as a 'no'  :)

Returning to games people here have heard of, do I gather that both CLA and StEA are meant for relatively large numbers of figures, like dozens or hundreds?

Offline Shardifier

  • Assistant
  • Posts: 38
Re: What is the best set of rules for this period?
« Reply #53 on: March 11, 2021, 02:58:21 PM »
I think 30+ per side seems reasonable? I believe Ignatieff has mentioned having hundreds per side with StEA. Are you looking for smaller skirmish-y type rules?

Offline Andreas Johansson

  • Assistant
  • Posts: 33
Re: What is the best set of rules for this period?
« Reply #54 on: March 12, 2021, 09:00:18 AM »
I think 30+ per side seems reasonable? I believe Ignatieff has mentioned having hundreds per side with StEA. Are you looking for smaller skirmish-y type rules?
Thanks for the reply :)

Yes, I'm looking for low figure counts. I've got way too projects ongoing already, so any foray into BoB better be modest, at least initially. 30 figures a side would be around the upper limit.

Offline Shardifier

  • Assistant
  • Posts: 38
Re: What is the best set of rules for this period?
« Reply #55 on: March 12, 2021, 11:55:39 AM »
I'm more of a Back of Beyond reader than gamer right now, but I imagine Setting the East Ablaze could work for that.

If you're a Facebook person, join the group in my signature and ask - there's a bit more activity there than on here!

Offline Andreas Johansson

  • Assistant
  • Posts: 33
Re: What is the best set of rules for this period?
« Reply #56 on: March 12, 2021, 04:20:47 PM »
I'm more of a Back of Beyond reader than gamer right now, but I imagine Setting the East Ablaze could work for that.

If you're a Facebook person, join the group in my signature and ask - there's a bit more activity there than on here!
Thanks again. I think I'm actually already a member of that fb group, but didn't think to ask there.

Offline trev

  • Mad Scientist
  • Posts: 693
    • The Bits Box
Re: What is the best set of rules for this period?
« Reply #57 on: March 19, 2021, 02:35:01 PM »
Hi Andreas,

You might be better posting this as a new question as I missed it several times up here in the stickies. 

CLA is the original Back of Beyond rule set and StEA is probably the obvious first look for the period currently.  I've not played CLA but I think it is the same as StEA and uses 10+ figure units.  So 30 a side is going to be a small game without much flexibility.  I expect you could reduce the the figure count easily enough though, perhaps by only taking off figures after multiple hits.

Perhaps a better option for small skirmish games is Fistful of Lead.  The basic rules are 1 for 1, so you're gang is only five or six figures but the neat turn sequence using playing cards lets multiple players each have a gang whether allied or in opposition.  These rules were originally designed for Wild West but they have expanded and the core mechanics are a lot of fun and work with just about anything you can think of.  Perfect for Ostern scenarios obviously but I've seen them used for undersea divers, WW2, Horse and Musket and fantasy to name a few.  We played Werewolves vs British army in a homage to the film Dog Soldiers and it worked great, even if my poor squaddies were eaten just before dawn.  :D

try these links for FFOL
https://wiley-games.myshopify.com/
https://oshiromodels.wixsite.com/oshiromodelswebshop/rules

If you want something a bit bigger FFOL has a bigger battles expansion that uses the core mechanics for units instead of individuals.   We played that with 5 figure units.

You can see our Dog Soldiers and a FFOL:BB Russian Civil War games here
https://thebitsbox.blogspot.com/search/label/Fistful%20of%20Lead

Another option if you like the Lion Rampant series is the men who would be kings. 
https://ospreypublishing.com/the-men-who-would-be-kings

The main rules are 12 man foot units and 8 man cavalry but they have a small skirmish variant in the main rules that uses half sized units.  That will work for 30-ish figures a side.  They are for Colonial era rather than RCW but can be converted.

There are other options, the Song of ... series and Pulp Alley spring to mind but above are the ones I've played.

Cheers,

Trev

Offline Andreas Johansson

  • Assistant
  • Posts: 33
Re: What is the best set of rules for this period?
« Reply #58 on: March 19, 2021, 07:14:17 PM »
Thanks for the reply. Yes, maybe posting in this thread wasn't the best idea.

10-figure units don't sound like a good fit for the size I'm imagining, no, and I'm not big on fiddling with rules before I've played them as written. So CLA and StEA are perhaps someting to look at later, if I get bitten big time by the BOB bug.

Fistful of Lead sounds like something to look at.

I played Dragon Rampant once, seemed pretty neat, but some brief looking around the web suggest that even the skirmish version of The Men Who Would Be Kings easily runs well over 30 figures for low-quality forces.

I like SOBAH, so Flying Lead (the "shooty" version, for settings were firearms dominate close combat weapons) should be worth checking out.

Offline VonAkers

  • Scientist
  • Posts: 329
Re: What is the best set of rules for this period?
« Reply #59 on: March 07, 2022, 11:39:02 PM »
abikapi2
This is an easy one ...
Two words.... BOLT ACTION
It works very very  well , in fact it is better at WW1/ Back of Beyond stuff , than WW2 ..imho.
Cheers

 

Related Topics

  Subject / Started by Replies Last post
8 Replies
3177 Views
Last post January 18, 2014, 06:36:03 PM
by M.P.
82 Replies
25588 Views
Last post April 16, 2017, 07:05:21 PM
by Lt. Hazel
13 Replies
4529 Views
Last post April 16, 2016, 01:04:16 PM
by eilif
22 Replies
6285 Views
Last post August 06, 2016, 07:39:29 AM
by miltiades
7 Replies
1665 Views
Last post January 12, 2021, 02:52:34 PM
by SJWi