dave ryan – The Wargaming Erratic

I do have a general idea about an order of postings, yet every now and again I get derailed. The usual suspect here was a wargame show – the other partizan. And that show found me browsing the extensive rulesets on offer at Dave Ryans Caliver Books stand.

I had seen this ruleset before, but moved on many a time. The cover was more Franco Prussian – I had kept avoiding this conflict simply because my interests were 10 – 20 years earlier and there seemed a gulf between these warring times: 1848 to 1870 was a transitional period especially for technology.

“There are you Guns” derives from the “General de Brigade” rules system

This time I looked through a bit more, no, I read the introduction. Somehow the words immediately offered something broader. Never judge a book by its cover they say.

Well the upshot was I parted with some “plastic” notes (I like to take a budget in my pocket – when its its gone, and it kind of adds to the immediacy of a decision) and this ruleset added to my burgeoning ruleset collection – yet again.

A few days later I set about reading the book cover to cover. Not usually my method – I often just get a few figures out and tinker with parts of a ruleset first off.

On this occasion I felt the ruleset could be read as a book. This was because the design philosophy as well as gaming examples are intervweaved amongst the rules chapter by chapeter.

Each chapter is self contained and includes contemporary illustrations and suitable military quotes of the day. It proved a good read.

When I had finished the book I put it to one side and got on with some figure painting. This was after a lay off, the usual “I was painting one day and the next – nothing”. I even had one unit just needing some base foliage adding – but no – production had ceased.

Then I suddenly decided I had to play a test game and yes I had to try for sufficient forces to look at the “divisional” set up. I felt anything smaller might not help me explore the rules sufficiently.

So “Blue on White” was born and I had one division per side comprising 2 brigades of infantry and artillery plus some divisional cavalry. I opted for most of the variables to match on both sides and also headcounts as well.

In effect I took out lots of variables regarding quality. I also discarded all the terrain rules by virtue of fighting the action across a plain.

The Battle of Gatehouse Road: Set on a small rise the road to the Gatehouse described a very low ridge.

The result was a long game where the game was left set up for several days – something I tend not to do. The reason was I felt compelled to find what the result would be by playing out the game.

The rules are not fast play and quick kills were not obvious where forces are very well balanced. At this point I should say that mostly smoothbore ruled the field. The exception was some muzzle loading riflemen. We are talking 1840’s not 1870’s.

I also suspect my use of the smallest size of units made the task of defeating an opponent harder. Although it should follow that units were eliminated quicker – which did not seem to happen.

I might just get a report out discussing the detail because I was pleasantly surprised how much I enjoyed the ruleset mechanisms.

So where do I reckon “there are your guns” (TAYG) comes out against the basket of rules I tested recently?

In short with an overall score of 25 its looking very promising.

“there are your guns” (TAYG 1848) ruleset scores

Criterion	Score
Production	4
Rule Philosophy	8
Game Mechanisms	4
Action Mechanisms	9
Total	25

At 25 this ruleset came in joint second

The best thing about the rules were their feel – having read quite a few books now around the mid 19th century – the rules seemed to reflect well the descriptions/opinions I have encountered. Now one test does not answer every question and crucially I had in effect boxed off 4 brigades against 4 others with some divisional command on top. No flanking and no variability in force quality. No terrain influencers either.

There are your Guns or TAYG1848 – I can never resist an abbreviation

Overall I will be using this ruleset but I am not yet sure how. They feel like they need a sizeable force on the table.

Blue (with a bit of Green) on White – who won? or in this case did the rules win me over?

Happy wargaming.

Which rules are best for mid 19th century warfare. Of course it helps to know which continent your on because apparently the North America Civil Wars were nothing like those happening in Europe…..

My current preoccupations are with the Italian Wars of Unification that, depending on your viewpoint, ran from 1820-1871 or 1848-1870 or even just 1859-1861!

Whichever timeline you choose the events threw up numerous conflicts across the Italian peninsula.

My previous rules shortlist included

Neil Thomas 19th Century European Wars – reviewed here previously
Table Top Battles by Mike Smith – reviewed here previously and here
Gentlemans War by Howard Whitehouse
Practical Wargaming by Charles Wesencraft
Piquet by Brent Oman
These last three were considered here and here for my Kloster Arens Encounter

I guess I had settled on the Neil Thomas set with Mike Smith’s Table Top Battles offering a solution for larger battles generated by my mythical campaigns.

The thing is I had not actually tested Piquet for this period so that was still an unknown. And so was A Gentlemans War for that matter.

And then at Hammerhead 2022 I played Fire and Fury. It reminded me that this ruleset had caught my eye the odd decade ago (!) only to fade away.

I enjoyed the participation game and to cut a long story short, tracked down a 1990 1st Edition courtesy of Dave Ryan at Caliver Books. It included some photocopy extracts of post publication comments which suggested a lot of improvements! There were a lot of complaints at the time it would seem. Nice touch from Dave Ryan to include these contemporary articles with this ruleset.

With so much negative noise why bother with them though? Well they have continued to be published. And it seems they have been morphed into other era’s. My Hammerhead participation game was for the Renaissance: Perhaps this endurance shows the core mechanics work for lots of gamers.

I thought, just maybe an ACW (American Civil War) ruleset might suit my 19th century European wars in Italy after all.

The Italian Wars of Unification fit between the Crimean Wars and the Franco Prussian War while they also bracket the American Civil Wars.

Next up will be some simple tests of Fire & Fury to start with.

*In 2020 I was all Anglo Saxon and shieldwalls and tested a few rulesets to see which might work for me.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Battaglia_di_Curtatone_e_Montanara.jpg

This image is to be found in an excellent Wikipedia page about the Italian Wars of Unification.