Risorgimento Rules?

[sdennan]

Hi All

I have the urge to spend the last of my wargames budget on some lovely figures for the Risorgimento. Nice figures and my wife is Italian so extra bonus points.

I am struggling to find a set of rules to work. There are some FPW sets and I have thought of using They Died For Glory or even writing my own.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

Simon

[Shedman]

It depends on what size units are you going to use

The FPW is not the same as the Italian Wars of Independence so you would have to drastically alter the rules

I use Future War Commander for 1859 but I do get some odd looks

Neil Thomas's 19th Century rules might be worth a look

[Le Manchou]

there also is '1859' from Bruce Weigle

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Black Powder or Fire & Fury? 

[Luddite]

Black Powder or Fire & Fury?  

What Lemmy said.

BP is the worse option i think (lacking any period flavour at all and being basically Warmaster without the 'tightness').

I've been looking at F&F or possibly Age of Eagles (Napoleonic F&F).  they'de pretty much work as written and all you'd need is to tweak the weapon ranges and combat modifiers to make it work.  F&F is als a damn fine set of rules...

[Gennorm]

I'm with Lemmy. BP with a the right tweaks works (surprisingly) very well for most of the era.

[Bernie]

Due to size of the actions Neil Thomas's C19th might be best option as it caters for smaller battles

[Chad]

You might try Field of Battle 2nd Edition.

I struggle to understand what scale Neil Thomas' 19thC rules are trying to represent. Also apparently the French Army of 1859 did not include the Imperial Guard!

Chad

[sdennan]

So maybe Regimental Fire and Fury then? A battalion in Europe roughly equating to a Regiment in ACW.

[Hwiccee]

we use the fire ad fury variants here for larger battles - http://www.wfgamers.org.uk/

There is also an supplement to do Garibaldi here -

http://www.freewargamesrules.co.uk/uploads/7/0/8/1/7081303/furyitaly2.zip

[Wanax]

Hi,

here we use Brent Oman's Field of Battle for "Risorgimento" campaings (1848,1859 and 1866). I find these rules, with the card driven system, perfect to simulate the command problems tipical of the period.

Sandro
Florence
Italy

[stevothedivo]

Sorry for a spot of thredomancy here but I urge you to consider the Polemos set for these. I'm embarking on a project for this right now and you'll find the base requirements in the free PDF. It's not unmanageable I feel with Pendraken's excellent ranges. https://www.baccus6mm.com/includes/products/risorgimento/RisFDI.pdf

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Nice link, even better thread necromancy!

[stevothedivo]

Happy to help. I wish I could do 6mm but I've been committed to 10mm and particularly Pendraken for about seven years now. Leon and the team's effort have really put the bizzo back on the map filling a lot of gaps and I feel it only fair to purchase new ranges that have interested me for some time when they come out.
Polemos aren't my favourite ruleset, I find them a tad simplistic - however a combination of these with Fire and Fury or even Black Powder should likely produce a good game (all this will be considered when the figures have been painted - so probably sometime in 2031?)


This might also be of interest as a repository for further research
http://theminiaturespage.com/boards/msg.mv?id=280802

This is an excellent documentary, too. Probably ideal to listen to while painting the figures themselves.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcAcTCxq9gU

[Leman]

1. Bruce Weigle 1859 - not just rules but a complete guide to the war with scenarios. One base=one battalion

2. Bloody Big Battles - covers 1859 - some 1859 scenarios in the accompanying scenario book (Bloody Big European Battles). There is also a free to download scenario of Montebello on the Yahoo Group website. This would be my go to set in 10mm or below.

3. Good for making up your own scenarios at battalion level - Field of Battle 2 (Piquet card driven system but much more straightforward than the original Piquet); From Shakos to Coalscuttles (downloadable Nordic Weasel game from Wargame Vault), Black Powder (but beware - the authors are very, very dismissive of later C19th European warfare and the rulebook is less than helpful for this period); Neil Thomas'  Wargaming C19th Europe (understandably much more positive about this wargaming period - a good starting point as he reduces the armies in scale and the rules are very, very straightforward and give a good game).

4. Grid-based games - Tin Soldiers in Action (somewhat expensive from Caliver and the translation from German is a bit hit and miss in places, but it does give a good game - very useful for solo play); The Portable Wargame by Bob Cordery.

As you can see there is a lot out there for the 1859 player, especially as you can extend to 1860 and then 1866.