Bloody Big Battles – Rules Review

Bloody Big Battles (BBB), by Chris Pringle, is a set of miniature wargame rules designed to play large battles during the 19th century. Each unit in the game represents a brigade sized formation (although this can be scaled up to a division or down to a regiment using the games flexible scaling system). While designed with the late 19th century in mind, it does not take much to use them for a wider range of periods (more on this later!). The rules are brief and succinct, while also including substantial number of examples at the end of each chapter. The concepts and mechanics are straight forward and allow players to quickly run their own units and combats within a few turns of playing the game. As the mechanics are pendant, they are also very well suited to multi-player games (something many other rules in this space can struggle with).

For those of you that are familiar with Fire and Fury or the older On to Richmond, you will quickly see a lot of similarities in the game mechanics. The command, shooting and melee tracks with those rules quite clearly. However, BBB easily stakes out its own space with its lean mechanics and qualitative unit differentiation. Needless to say, if you like those before mentioned rules, you will like BBB!

Organizing Forces

As mentioned before, units represent brigade level formations in most games. This can be scaled up or scaled down, depending on the needs of battle, not to mention figure collection available! The rules as written state a base should represent between 1,000 and 1,500 men. As such, a base often represents one or two battalions of infantry or regiments of cavalry. Artillery is grouped into single bases representing 24 guns. The base sizes “around” one inch. However, the size is no too important, as long as both sides are the same. To determine a brigade size in a given battle, just look at the strength and divide it by the scale you are playing. This makes coming up with orders of battle for historical fights quite easy. Each unit has also to be rated for quality (e.g. veteran, trained, raw) and type (infantry, cavalry, artillery). Assign a weapon type (fire arms only) that represents the historical unit and you are set. One of the real jewels of the system are the special attributes that units can be assigned (aggressive, passive, skirmisher, etc.). This is really where you can represent the differences in armies and periods being played. The ratings are subtle, but make all the difference. Finally, you have to add generals to your formation. In BBB you only represent commanders of special ability. All the others are assumed to be doing their job, but no more! The commanders in play effect the ability of units to move, fight and recover. This is represented by simple die roll modifiers in the different charts..

Command and Movement

Like OtR or F&F, the command, morale and movement system are tied together. There are no issuing or orders or chit allocations. Simply roll on the movement table (applying to appropriate modifier) and we can determine what your brigade can do. The chart changes depending on if your unit is in good or bad order (units in bad order have a harder time moving and can even run off, if they have enough bad modifiers). This adds a good deal of friction on the table top, as units do not always do what you want. This really does away with the need to issue orders, as it is taken care of through such friction in the mechanics. The movement itself is quite easy, as it is all about straight lines. No multiple about face or wheel moves required. Pick a direction and go. Base movement is 12″ for infantry and 18″ for cavalry. If the move is out of arc and/or through difficult terrain, you take a move penalty. Very straight forward. Considering the level of formation, this makes sense, as you are moving the brigade, not individual battalions or companies. For some, this might be too generic, but it gets the job done on the table top. In my experience, only one in three wargamers know how to perform a proper wheel on the table top, so taking this out of the mix makes me quite happy! It of course also ensures the movement phases go quickly.

Fire Combat

Fire combat represents skirmishing and long range fire between formations. As such, it is not too destructive using early muskets, but ramps up quickly when getting into later breach loaders. The rules provide stats for each category of small arms and artillery used in the period. The player basically totals up their fire factors and rolls 2D6 on the fire table (got to love bell curves). Modifiers to fire are applied as column shifts on the rire table. The fire table can result in losses, disruptions, halting of chargers and units going low on ammo. This is probably the one mechanic you will most often refer to the rules for (there is a Quick Reference Guide at the back of the book and another available on the Yahoo groups). This is not do to complexity (players can quickly memorize the modifiers), just that the chart has a number of columns. In any case, it is a quick cross reference.

Close Combat

Close combat represents the units in short range fire fights or actual assaults. Both sides total up their modifiers and add these to a D6 roll to determine the winner. How big the win is is dependent on the difference in die rolls. At the low end, its a tie and you fight again. At the high end, one side bowls over the other. The use of the D6 makes the combats somewhat deterministic, if you can pile on the advantages. However, it also removes the randomness one can find in other systems. IN the end, it incentives players to soften up their targets before closing with steel. As the weaponry improves during the period, it becomes even more important!

In addition to the basic mechanics, their are also additional sections to cover night intervals and pre-made scenarios. All the scenarios are for large battle of the Franco Prussian War (there are two scenario expansions that cover other wars during the period.

Summary

Our group has found the rules as a good and simple system that allows us to play (and finish) battles during the 19th century. We often get occasional players, so having a system that they can quickly grasp is a true bonus. We actually find that the weapons tables and unit attributes allow us to use the rules for the later Napoleonic period without modification. We just reduce the unit scale and apply the appropriate unit attributes and the rules fit like a glove. We had been working on our own variations of rules to cover this scale, but are all in agreement that this is not longer necessary, as BBB is what we have been looking for. The rules themselves are not as “shiny” as most modern rule sets out there (only a color cover with all back and white pages), as they do not have all the colorful eye candy. However, do not let this dissuade you! If your looking to play full sized battles in an afternoon with some buddies, BBB just might be for you!

• Manteuffel