The Kriegsspiel system is fantastic but where can you get games? Well, it’s not easy…
You can get the rules from Too Fat Lardies. They have done a beautiful job. They have a few map options but that is about it. Mostly Kriegsspiel players are left to their own devices to come up with maps and scenarios. That’s possible but very time consuming.
We have been hard at work lately exploring ways to produce historical Kriegsspiel Scenario sets: Maps, pieces, setups, starting orders and OB charts to track strength and casualties.
Here are some sneak peaks at the Brandywine scenario. This is set to true Kriegsspiel scale: 8,000:1. The OB and pieces are historically accurate.
This …I want.
This Brandywine game looks amazing. This is the level that best suits this battle. However, I don’t know much about the Kriegsspiel rules system. How complex is it? I would perfer a level of complexity just a bit beyond that of Pub Battles.
If the Kriegsspiel rules fit this bill then great. If not, can we come up with an “advanced” version of the Pub Battles rules to take this game to the next level? Brandywine at the regimental/battalion level on the existing map and somewhat more detailed rules would be fantastic! We would then have the current quick playing Pub Battles game (which I love) AND a longer more granular “Kriegsspiel” style game for a more in depth study.
Yes, exactly! Pub Battles is great for quick play and introductory level complexity. This would give you the detail of a full serious wargame.
The formal Kriegsspiel rules work. They are a little dry and too detailed for my tastes. We just did a play test last week. We played regular Pub Battles rules on a Kriegsspiel map, with Kriegsspiel pieces. Surprisingly, it worked! It worked really well. In fact, the Pub Battles rules almost seemed to work better with Kriegsspiel scale. The smaller pieces give you more detail and actually clear up many of the problems like: Where is the piece? Half of it is in the woods, half of it is in the clear.
So, our plan is to offer these in 2 formats:
-Full Kriegsspiel Scenario with 3 sets of maps and pieces.
-Two Player format with 1 map and set of pieces with adapted Pub Battles rules as an option.
Antietam on the Pub Battles map at the brigade level would also be great!
Yes! Even lower than that. At true Kriegsspiel scale, the pieces work out to Regiments: 450 men each. So each big Divisional block in Pub Battles would be about 6-9 little Regimental blocks.
Also, they do stack up to 4 deep. In Brandywine they are all spread out. At Antietam, I would expect a lot of Federal units to start double stacked.
One thing really neat about this is how it automatically accounts for line extension, massed brigades with heavy concentration, road column sprawl, etc. All in 1 simple easy system. You don’t need a bunch of special rules for that.
On major roads, units can march side by side at double capacity. Minor roads units must all spread out 1 at a time. Traffic jams and sprawling lines. It is all perfectly accounted for.
I’m really liking this as a system for full blown, serious wargames. What we have discovered as well, is that it seamlessly merges with a larger operational scale also. We have a set of 64,000:1 scale campaign maps for Waterloo, Gettysburg, Chancellorsville and Philadelphia 77. You can fight these out with the exact same blocks. They are all compatible. Amazing.
Hi there! I don’t understand the post: where are the scenarios and relative OB? Best, Paolo
These are new products we are currently developing. If all goes well, they should be available for purchase in the next few months.
it looks beautiful