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Civil War Battles

This is the latest set of rules by the RFCM team (Rules For the Common Man).
CWB is designed for the battles of the American Civil War.

The rules are principally designed for 15mm gaming. However the rules do include a simple conversion for 25/28mm figures.
Extra playsheets can be purchased at £1.50 per pair. There are 15mm playsheets and there are 28mm playsheets (with all the converted measurements already on them, so no "in your head conversions" needed)

What is in the Rules?

•   136 Pages
• 1 Playsheet as the back cover. 1 Separate playsheet loose in the rules.
• 12 Historical scenarios written in a "quick to organise" manner.
• 46 pages of battle rules
• Scenario generator (all games are defence/attack)
• Victory point schedule
• Organisation and unit building information.

How Does it play?

• Players bring along an army that conforms to one of the 14 battle lists  (early/mid/late, eastern western etc)
• Scenario generator takes players through a narrative which moulds the armies in to the on table battle form that they will take (lates/losts/ammunition/abilities etc)
• Players take alternate turns.
• The game "skeleton" is similar to "Bloody Barons"
• Each player  does morale, motivations, movement, shooting, fighting.
• Each unit can have a turn once it is motivated and awarded its Action Points for that turn.
• The non turning player is allowed opportunity shooting at close range targets.
• Units must pass a falter test before completing a charge in to contact.
• Each base/stand rolls a dice for shooting with re rolls allowed for certain types.
• The rules make extensive use of re rolls in order to simulate better/worse troops and weapons.
• Guns are not motivated but proceed straight to action point use.
• The role of the corps commander is to give extra dice to a divisional commander each turn .
• Each Divisional and corps commander has a value.
• All mechanisms are D6 type.
• Measurements are in inches
• There is no significant paper keeping
• Games last about 7 turns (variable)
• Infantry rifle range is 10 inches (4 inches close range)
• Gun range is 30 inches (10 inches short and 5 inches canister)
• The game is well suited to 2 or 3 players per side (division each)
• Once the rules are learned (easy!) games last about two hours.

What Soldiers do i need?

• The soldiers are all on bases/stands. other rule system base sizes are fine as units are judged on the number of bases present.
• Infantry bases are 3x3 cm with three figures on them. (This is the standard peter pig base size for our rules)
• A brigade is the basic tactical unit. A typical brigade has 6 bases.
• A Typical division has 4 brigades and three guns.
• A typical Corps contains 2 divisions.
• A separate playsheet is available for 25mm players.

Other Information

• To avoid book keeping, markers are used for disorder,deads,extra and low ammunition. (use Peter Pig markers available in packs)
• No knocking other rule sets
• Gives a very visual and quick moving game.
• The narrative and opposing die roll systems keep both players fully engaged in the play.
• The dice ensure that there are no guaranteed results.
• The book is really nice . Good value at £16. 1 Book, 2 playsheets, no supplements, plenty of dice.
• The battle sheet is available as a free download from the Peter Pig site.

Some pictures.  Figures painted by Dave Marcroft between 1998 and 2007.

A typical brigade. The man in front is a "Unit disordered" marker.
The position of the command stand indicates the quality. Right(or front of column)=might=Veteran. Centre(middle of unit roughly)=Average. Left (or back)= raw.

Typical cavalry brigade. Cavalry are not always seen in CWB. 2 units per corps would be normal.
Notice the Cavalry units are small.

A typical Division. 4 brigades,2 batteries and Divisional General.

A diagram of how infantry shooting works. 
The brigade has a rectangular arc of shooting. One and a half ranks (rounded down) shoot.(4 bases)
All 4 bases always shoot if any part of the target is in the shooting box.
If the centre of the shooting box does not cross the target then 6s are needed for hits. Otherwise 5,6 are hits.
The target then rolls saving dice, dependant on range and cover.
Long range is largely ineffectual. Short range really hurts.

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