VICTORIAN WARFARE is a set of wargames rules for fighting battles from the Mexican American War of 1846-47, up through the end of the Second Boer War in 1901. It encompasses the American Civil War, as well as the Franco-Prussian War, the various European land conflicts of the period, the Maximilian 'adventure' in Mexico and the many colonial wars of the Victorian period.

I remember vividly my first 'real' wargames armies. It was an order of Aloys Ochel painted flats from Germany. There were two complete armies, French and Prussian FPW with cavalry and plenty of foot, including marines, African chasseurs and Prussian jaegers. This was in 1963 and I've been wargaming ever since.

So, the question is asked, why another rules set for the this period? Basically because this is one of my favorite historical periods of history and I've never found a set of rules that complemented my understanding of warfare during it. Utilizing the successful game mechanics of SAGA's Ancient Warfare and Medieval Warfare rules, I returned to this period with the idea of playing smaller scale battles or portions of battles and using a tactical basis rather than grand-tactical for these rules.

My interest to the conflicts of the later 19th century grew out of my desire to emulate my ancestors who had fought in the American Civil War. For a few years, I'd been in a Civil War re-enactment group and participated in the Gettysburg and Hanover centennial re-fights in late June and early July of 1963 as well as several actions in Missouri in the late 1960's. This gave me a sense of what armies and battles of the period were like. As I hauled around a .58 caliber smoothbore muzzle-loading Tower musket, I learned the drills and marches of the 1860's. I slept in a soggy tent with 3 or 4 other similarly accoutered 'army buddies', with my constant companions being the heat, sweat and burning eyes smarting from rolling waves of black powder smoke as an enemy formation appeared out of the haze.

Feeling the blast of a 12-pounder and realizing that if it had been loaded with canister instead of a blank charge, I would have been blown to oblivion gives one a very real appreciation of the reality of battle. Likewise, seeing an enemy cavalry squadron with drawn swords charging at you full tilt - and your unit has foolishly fired off all of its ammunition - causes one to feel real fear, even if rationalizing that the cavalry will not really run you down...will they? And running out of ammunition? Yes, it happened and having it occur at that critical moment in a even a mock battle is scary. By the same token, holding a strong defensive position and feeling the psychological boost from doing that is something I will never forget.

Being an historian also has allowed me the privilege of reading voraciously firsthand battle accounts, not only written by generals, but by the small unit commanders and the men in the field as well. Studying the very nature of warfare and its psychological effect on men in battle has been instrumental in my five decades of study.

From all of my personal experience and study, from numerous playtests and discussions, both on-line and off, have come these rules. The rules are tactical, as has been my personal experience and interest. They weigh the psychology factors as heavily as the physical realities of combat. If you can play them, have fun with them and perhaps even come to an understanding of what warfare and combat, leadership and command control were like in the later 19th century, then we've been successful. Whether leading your miniature armies to glorious victory…or ignominious defeat, you are in command. Good luck and we hope you enjoy playing VW as much as we had writing them.

Note: Those of you familiar with our other SAGA Warfare series of rules will be right at home with VW, as they utilize the same core systems as the rest of our rules sets.