New ACW/19th century rules - Feuer und Furia Francese

[Leman]

First thing I did when I retired was buy a laminater and a binding machine as I too prefer hard copy even though I have a tablet. Same reason I prefer a clock with hands to a digital. My neural pathways are set up for the former. My son has just almost burst a blood vessel trying to get me to understand how to open a new tab. finally convinced him I don't need to understand - just need to know which buttons to push and in which order.

[toxicpixie]

Nice to see a scenario, we're looking at some Crimea games soon so good to get an idea of where you're pitching them

Good rule book etc btw, very pleased with the purchase

[WFGamer]

Glad you like the scenario. Over time we hope to convert all the present scenarios over but hopefully it should also be reasonably easy to do them yourself. We are also working on some new ones - Chancellorsville and Konniggratz. But the main problem is finding the time to do all this

[toxicpixie]

We're looking at the Crimea atm, but my main worry is that the Russians are really quite unapologetically bad and "balance" is going to be hard - if I can get them in and fighting then it should be fine, but I suspect it'll be a lot of "stand around for ages, some unit lurches forward, gets butchered on it's own, Allies pick off rest one by one" But if we over do the amount of Russians it could be a steamroller if they actually move and get in!

I'm hoping for the latter, as having just painted @200 odd infantry for a commision for us I'm delegated to command them "Up the Czar! For autocracy, Mother Russia and pointy onion churches! Aieeee!"

[WFGamer]

Yes I am afraid the Russians are pretty bad but they should often have substantial numbers/terrain advantages to help a little.

[toxicpixie]

Having done a bit of reading on the war in preparation, it's to overstate just how bad they appear to be! I suspect instead of rifles they should have just issued spears. At least they'd have a weapon usable & designed for with their "tactics". And cheaper. Also, they should probably train for sticking it into the enemy and worry less about beating half their conscripts to death for not pointing their toes correctly when marching slowly into withering fire...

[mollinary]

Just got back from the stationers with my copy printed and bound, and the fast play sheets laminated.  Now to read them!

Mollinary

[toxicpixie]

Played our first game a couple of weeks ago and it was great fun. Winning draw for the Russians in a fictional Crimea. If you manage to get those columns moving and they don't get stopped...

Anyway, it threw up a few queries which I'll ask her as answers might be handy for others using the rules!

Morale - we were using approx a corps for the Russians with three foot and one horse division, and ran morale at divisional level. It seemed really harsh (and the same for the allies); with each subunit (regiment) contributing two morale points but meaning you roll one dice to fail as soon as even one subunit became worn divisional morale dropped out the toilet really quickly. I think we must have missed something - we're we going to small a scale for the morale, maybe?

Second was low ammo - the rules say each army has their own low ammo point but we couldn't find it! We just assumed 15 like regular F&F which seemed to work ok but do you have better info?

I'm sue there was more but I should have a/ noted them down and b/ posted immediately after instead of forgetting to for three weeks!

[WFGamer]

Glad you enjoyed the game and a good idea to ask here.

On the morale I think it is usually best to the Corps or something similar as the morale level. Given the nature of the Crimean war we usually use 'Commands' rather than Corps as not all the nations use Corps and even when they do they are often split up. So we would group say 2 to 4 Divisions in a 'Left Wing Command' and another similar group into the 'Centre Command' or 'Reserve' or whatever.

You can use Divisions as you did and these will be relatively fragile - they should have a morale rating of about 7 or 8 (2 major units - 4 pts, say 2 guns - 2 pts and 1 or 2 for the Divisional commanders rating). Is that the kind values you used? We do use Divisions but usually if we want a quicker game. You could also add a 'special circumstances' bonus to the divisions morale if you want too use Divisions for morale but want to beef them up.

In any case whatever you do then it should be done to both sides.

Low Ammo: Mmm we seem to have lost something there. It should read -

Low Ammunition: Each army has a Low Ammunition number which reflects the efficiency of the army's re-supply system and rate of fire of their weapons. This will be in the range 15 to 18. With amateur or newly organised armies, like American Civil War armies or Republican French in 1870-71, would have a Low Ammunition number of 15. Most regular armies would have a Low Ammunition number of 17 but poorly or well organised armies could be 16 or 18. For example, both the British and Russian armies in the Crimea suffered from organisational problems and so could be rated as 16 for Low Ammunition. If when firing a player rolls this number or greater, without any modifiers that may apply, the units and bases firing are given a Low Ammunition marker. A unit will only receive a marker if at least half of the available bases that can fire have fired in this combat. Usually this means half or more of the front rank but would be half of the first two ranks if the units are in contact.

I hope that clears things up a little and if you remember any other points that come up then get in touch.

[toxicpixie]

Yeah, we did the Divisions as you say - we were thinking along the lines of what you suggest, either treating the army as a whole at that size, or maybe split into a couple of commands. Cheers

Low ammo - there's nowt after "each has a low ammo rating" part, and nothing we could find in the army list/theatre specific bits - suspect it's got lost in the shuffle! If you've a list I'll just email it to the chaps and print it out And if not, we'll run with the general suggestions above!

Edit -

And some more - this one's a quote so apologies if it doesn't make sense!

Can you ask them about support units shooting on the way in to combat.
eg 2 units in line, one behind the other, charge in to combat so they support.
Does the 'rear' unit get to shoot.
The rules say you get to fire two ranks if shooting 'in contact', but nothing about a 2nd rank support unit firing.
If that makes sense?

[WFGamer]

Low Ammo: Yes I think was just missed - the version in the rules is an old version of the rule. We basically use 17 as the default number and then vary that if we think it is appropriate.

Support: No the 2nd line must be the same unit. In the situation you mention the 2nd unit couldn't fire but it would count in the close combat.

[toxicpixie]

I'll roll that back to the chaps!

Cheers for the quick answers