Been looking beyond the Borodino Refight for a new modelling/gaming venture for some time now. Various ideas have been bandied about but nothing firm enough has emerged beyond initial enthusiasm which doesn't carry far.
I did recall some old rulesets that were freely available from eight years back. What attracted me to them, besides being free, back then were their high quality production. They also covered various specific periods within the historical wargaming genre - from the Pelopponesian conflicts of the Ancient eras through to the numerous wars of the Middle and Renaissance periods right up to global conflicts of the early 19th century.
The rules themselves were aimed at company-level (of low hundreds) operations. Not quite full-on large-scale battles but definitely not skirmish. And they cover not just land but naval actions. Nowadays all levels of wargaming are catered for in the twenty-first century. But these sets produced from the early 2000s (and earlier) were few and far between and often quite crude in their output production values, i.e, one or two Word-style pages and tables.
I was indeed fortunate enough to find these treasure trove of rulesets.
I invested in a couple of sets many years back. The first was the Peloponnesian Wars. I managed, at that time, to assemble together, in 15mm, a small Spartan and Greek list. I had high hopes for future expansion but nought came of that. Even though I coaxed a fellow club member at the time to join in for a playtest, interest soon waned as something else soon caught my eye.
The next set was devoted to the Russian Civil War. Chose 20mm and accumulated a large enough list of both Bolsheviks and White Russians. Even had armoured vehicles. Started campaigning after playing a few small engagements to acclimatise myself to the rules.
Of late, however, I've begun to rediscover renewed interest in starting a new wargaming/painting project. Hence the search for other rulesets from the publisher who offered a wide variety of period rulesets. These included both land and sea and stretched from Ancient times to early nineteenth century.
Lately I've begun reviving interest enough to read through some of the rules, going so far as start prepping them for printing.
The publisher of this veritable treasure chest of free rules is The Perfect Captain - a North American entity made up of several talented rules writers. One of their strengths is the production values pertaining to each ruleset produced.
Their website (The Captain's Chest) is still active. However, downloading the still-listed rulesets is no longer possible as I recently found out the other day when I tried to download the Medieval set. EDIT: I have since learned the site shut down October 2020. Good news is that they're still active as a facebook group.
Fortunately, for me, I had the sense to download the sets all those years ago.
The ruleset I am interested in reviving Ironbow 2 which happens to be the core ruleset covering the Early Medieval period. It is not confined to one specific region; this is where Strongbow comes in being an expansion set that covers those lists not in IB2 - specifically all manner of feudal French (both northern France and south of the Loire valley, Flanders, German (Holy Roman Empire), the wild Irish, Scots, Welsh),
Other expansions of the IR2 series include Alexius 1113 (Byzantine campaign against the marauding Seljuks), and Villehardouin (an IB2 scenario for the Byzantine-Archean War 1262-64).
There is also Princes of the East (dealing with the First Crusade) and In The Shadow of Byzantium 2 (1205-60). Both of these are separate rulesets to IB2.
I have lumped all these sets listed above into one grouping and called them Medieval.
The main author of Ironbow 2, by the way, is Billy Toufexis (I believe) and it was released by The Perfect Captain in 2006.
I am focusing on the Strongbow expansion specifically to get me started on the road to discovery. And as I read through the document, it calls to mind Lion Rampant by Mr. Mersey. But apart from that single distinction Lion Rampant is very much a simplified generalised tabletop game wearing historical costume whereas IB2 seems more historically substantial and less gamey. Various factions have specific characteristics emphasised more than LR which tends to lump all types into neat gaming boxes.
The usual hurdle remains, namely, adapting IB2 to solo gaming mode. But as this is par for course anyway, it's not really an issue. Just another step to actual play.
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