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With Hot Lead and Cold Steel: American Civil War Wargaming Rules
A set of wargaming rules for fighting large battles set during the American Civil War.
From the First Bull Run to Appomattox Court House, enter one of the defining conflicts of American history. With shot, shell, and sabre, guide the armies of the Blue and the Grey through this first modern war to determine the fate of a nation.
With Hot Lead and Cold Steel is a large-scale, mass-battle wargame for recreating the American Civil War. Designed to handle brigade and divisional level engagements while providing a balance between ease of play and period detail, With Hot Lead and Cold Steel is ideal for new gamers and wargaming veterans alike. It contains everything players need to raise armies and craft scenarios, whether based upon historical campaigns and orders of battle or those of their own devising.
From the First Bull Run to Appomattox Court House, enter one of the defining conflicts of American history. With shot, shell, and sabre, guide the armies of the Blue and the Grey through this first modern war to determine the fate of a nation.
With Hot Lead and Cold Steel is a large-scale, mass-battle wargame for recreating the American Civil War. Designed to handle brigade and divisional level engagements while providing a balance between ease of play and period detail, With Hot Lead and Cold Steel is ideal for new gamers and wargaming veterans alike. It contains everything players need to raise armies and craft scenarios, whether based upon historical campaigns and orders of battle or those of their own devising.
80 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 26, 2023
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
July 20, 2024
With Hot Lead and Cold Steel (WHLCS) is a set of rules written by Arthur van der Ster, published by Osprey Publishing, covering miniatures wargaming during the American Civil War (ACW) with regiments as the smallest maneuver element. Total force composition ranges from two brigades on the small end to a corps or more on the high end.*
What I liked:
- WHLCS is pretty comprehensive without being cumbersome. All of the basics are here in about 80 pages: infantry, artillery, cavalry; generals and their personalities; shooting, melee, morale; simple scenario design. I don't have a lot of in-depth knowledge of the period nor experience with ACW miniatures rules in general. However, this looks to be somewhere in the middle of the scale between beer & pretzels and hard-core simulation. Purists might find issue. As a neophyte, I see a fun game here, a gateway to more detailed games for those so inclined. The scaffolding looks simple and stable enough to incorporate ideas from other rulesets and support kit bashing.
- Osprey Publishing has a reputation for releasing miniatures rules into the wild and letting them sink or swim on their own. However, the designer has independently provided decent support for the game. In addition to a handful of scenarios in the book itself, the designer provides references to other, third-party scenario publications that were adapted to WHLCS. It might take some work to incorporate these scenarios, but the references are appreciated. The designer also has a YouTube channel with a few tutorial videos and has been active in some of the niche fora that support the miniatures wargaming hobby.
- Like many miniature wargames, the designer has a preferred scale and figure basing, but simple conversions are provided for other scales and the rules are designed to adapt to whatever standard you can get to the table.
This is a focused set of rules, so you won't find a lot of background on the ACW. Rules need to be tight, however, and there are some omissions and ambiguities in WHLCS. There is an FAQ, readily available with a search, that answers many questions. Unfortunately, the rules addendum is behind a private Facebook group.
Overall, thumbs up for a lightweight set of rules that can be read in an afternoon and enable a tabletop simulation that can be played in a few hours.
*The Aide de Camp rules are not designed for use with fewer than two brigades. However, you could game out an action with a single brigade on each side with a slight tweak to this rule, say 1d3 ADC points to be divvied up amongst the subordinate regiments. Perfect example of the adaptability of the ruleset.
What I liked:
- WHLCS is pretty comprehensive without being cumbersome. All of the basics are here in about 80 pages: infantry, artillery, cavalry; generals and their personalities; shooting, melee, morale; simple scenario design. I don't have a lot of in-depth knowledge of the period nor experience with ACW miniatures rules in general. However, this looks to be somewhere in the middle of the scale between beer & pretzels and hard-core simulation. Purists might find issue. As a neophyte, I see a fun game here, a gateway to more detailed games for those so inclined. The scaffolding looks simple and stable enough to incorporate ideas from other rulesets and support kit bashing.
- Osprey Publishing has a reputation for releasing miniatures rules into the wild and letting them sink or swim on their own. However, the designer has independently provided decent support for the game. In addition to a handful of scenarios in the book itself, the designer provides references to other, third-party scenario publications that were adapted to WHLCS. It might take some work to incorporate these scenarios, but the references are appreciated. The designer also has a YouTube channel with a few tutorial videos and has been active in some of the niche fora that support the miniatures wargaming hobby.
- Like many miniature wargames, the designer has a preferred scale and figure basing, but simple conversions are provided for other scales and the rules are designed to adapt to whatever standard you can get to the table.
This is a focused set of rules, so you won't find a lot of background on the ACW. Rules need to be tight, however, and there are some omissions and ambiguities in WHLCS. There is an FAQ, readily available with a search, that answers many questions. Unfortunately, the rules addendum is behind a private Facebook group.
Overall, thumbs up for a lightweight set of rules that can be read in an afternoon and enable a tabletop simulation that can be played in a few hours.
*The Aide de Camp rules are not designed for use with fewer than two brigades. However, you could game out an action with a single brigade on each side with a slight tweak to this rule, say 1d3 ADC points to be divvied up amongst the subordinate regiments. Perfect example of the adaptability of the ruleset.
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