General:

Volley & Bayonet are a set of miniatures rules whose aim is to recreate warfare from 1700-1900. The core concept is to allow the recreation of the major battles fought during this time and therefore as such must have a troop scale and time scale that can allow the deployment of large bodies of troops. In addition to allow such games to be fought the role of the player is defined as that of Corps or Army Commander, thus the divisional, and to a greater extent brigade or regiment detail is generally below the level of player involvement.

Having such a wide time span the rules also use specific period rules, which allow the flavour of these "sub periods" to be added in, or removed, as required. This allows one basic set of rules to be used for armies from several periods.

Volley & Bayonet is not aimed at competition play, and certainly not for play between armies from different sub periods. It is however ideal for refighting historical battles, scenarios and entire campaigns. Gettysburg, Ligny, Waterloo, Blenheim can all be fought using Volley & Bayonet are all achievable battles to refight on your wargames table, something not possible with many other rule sets. That said, a points system is available and we now frequently use this for generating games with considerable success.

15mm Austrian figures from 1800 deploy for battle. The infantry bases shown here are 3" wide by 1.5" deep.

Currently the Volley & Bayonet rules also have five supporting scenario books. These scenario books detail a particular war or campaign in more detail. Descriptions of the scenario books can be found here.

The Basic Unit:

The basic units in a Volley & Bayonet game are called stands. These stands are of several general types:

• Linear infantry stand - early formations that fought in line formations especially 18th Century armies. Usually 1000-1500 men per stand.
• Massed infantry stand - denser formations which include French demi-brigades and later Napoleonic infantry stands. Usually 1500-3500 men per stand.
• Infantry Skirmish stands: 500 man 'detachments', often of light infantry used for specific tasks like holding Le Haye Sainte.
• Artillery Units, either batteries or brigades: 6-18 guns.
• Cavalry stands: Mostly massed stands of around 1000-1500 men. On occasion skirmish or linear stands depending on the situation.
• Command stands: Representing Divisional, Corps and Army commanders.

Massed infantry stands, often called "brigades" especially in the ACW, are mounted on a single base 3" x 3". Linear stands are 3" wide x 1 1/2" deep. A number of stands are gathered together to form a division under a divisional commander. Each stand has a morale value and a strength value. One strength point is equal to 500 men.

The units of the division generally operate together and must be within their commanders command radius or suffer penalties. In addition each division has an "exhaustion value" which is usually between 40-60% of the total number of strength points of the stands making up the division.

Time Scales, Formations and Movement:

To achieve the aim of allowing battles to be fought where the player is an Army commander the following scales are used at the basic scale of the rules:

• Time scale: One turn = one hour.
• Ground scale: 1" = 100 yards.

The next version of Volley & Bayonet will see the introduction of several time and ground scales to allow the refighting of smaller battles.

When first reading the rules this time scale and resulting movement distances caused me some concern as the movement rates were understandably large. This was particularly the case for troops moving in road column. In actual play however, these movement rates work out to be less than expected. 

Formations a stand may take, or lack of them, will also likely surprise players. There are no squares, columns, or line formations. In Volley & Bayonet these being considered a brigade or regimental function rather than the detail a Corps or Army Commander need be concerned with. Instead, these functions are modelled by such game mechanics as stand morale, stationary status or not, and in the later periods, the prone status of a stand. The only game "formations" that are possible are "Field formation" or "March column". The later is usually on road, but can be across open terrain. These mechanics may sound to simple, but the actual effects are very well balanced and produce vey realistic results.

Movement is by single stands and is of course modified by terrain, as well as angles of movement, command limitations, and facing changes all reducing the basic move distance available to the stand. There are no die rolls to determine the number of stands that may move. There are thus no group moves, and there is no aligning stands before combat resolution.

Alternate player turns are made up of several phases when both players have completed a full set of phases the next turn begins. Each player phase consists of:

• Command Determination phase, where stands are confirmed to be in commands.
• Movement phase, stands are moved.
• Rally Phase, stands that have routed may be rallied by corps or army commanders.
• Morale Phase, morale checks are made and resulting movement is made.
• Combat Phase, combat is conducted.
• Exhaustion & Collapse, the divisions exhaustion and morale collapse status is checked and or tested.

Morale, Combat and Routs:

When enemy stands enter close range they will need to test morale. Close range is determined by weapon or troop type. For instance musket and rifled musket armed infantry have a close range of 0", while others such as troops with more advanced small arms and artillery have a close range of a several inches. Some sample ranges are:

Each stand has a morale value, this value is adjusted due to tactical factors and a die is rolled. It is worth noting that Volley & Bayonet only uses six sided dice through out the game. If the die roll is higher than the modified value the stand becomes disordered. "Disorder" and "Rout" are key issues in Volley & Bayonet.

When stands are in range, either close or long, and after morale, attacks are conducted by the attacker and fire returned by the defender. This is done by the use of fire dice. The number of fire dice a stand gets is determined by the type of stand and the tactical position of the stand. Stationary massed infantry stands gain more fire dice than non stationary stands for example. Generally, hits are scored on stands when a six is rolled, and this usually produces a casualty. Some weapons hit on different scores, while some troops, or terrain conditions, result in saving throws. These casualties are recorded on the roster sheet. A stand that has all it's strength points marked off is removed from the table.

Close range combats, often represented by base to base contacts, produce quicker more defined results than distance fire attacks, but are carry more risk. Generally, American Civil War and 18th Century infantry combats see more long distant fire fights, while Napoleonic games see more close range assaults. The results of these these close range combats result in casualties as well as "disorder" & compulsory retreats or "rout". However, base to base does not mean hand to hand contact.

When a division's exhaustion value is reached, due to the accumulation of hits on it's component stands, a division will be more reluctant to close with the enemy and it's fighting ability is reduced. In addition it is liable to suffer a "morale collapse" immediately. 

A Note on Figure Scales:

The scale of figure based on the stand, and the number of figures on each base is not important. Some gamers use 54mm figures, while others, such as myself, use 6mm figures. Of course there are plenty of 15mm and 25mm armies as well. 

I personally use 1/2 scale, which means all my stands are reduced in physical dimension by 1/2 and while the time scale remains the same the distances measured are increased so that 1"=200 yards. This allows me to fight very large battles Gettysburg or Waterloo on a smaller table.

In Conclusion:

Volley & Bayonet is an excellent rule systems if you wish to experience the role of an army commander. The rule mechanics are simple yet subtle and result in my experience to tabletop results which are sometimes perhaps too close to historical results. The rules allow large games with multiple corps on each side to be played out in reasonable amounts of time, but can also be used for smaller games. Period rules allow the same basic set of rules to be used to model warfare from 1700-1890.

Finally, the basing system used in Volley & Bayonet ideally lends itself to trial using armies based for other rules set. Simply make sabot bases and deploy figures on these and your off. 

Why not give Volley & Bayonet a try?