Just for fun: an AI review of BBB

Just as a bit of fun, I asked an AI tool:

"What do players like or dislike about the "Bloody Big Battles!" wargames ruleset?"

The AI wargamer. Not to be confused with General Fred C. "AI"nsworth.

Here's what the AI had to say about BBB:

===

While opinions can vary, here are some common likes and dislikes that players have expressed regarding the “Bloody Big Battles!” wargame ruleset:

Likes:

1. Historical Accuracy:

   Many players appreciate that BBB focuses on large-scale historical battles. The scenarios provided allow them to recreate famous engagements with a degree of accuracy.

2. Epic Scale:

   The ruleset captures the grandeur of massive battles. Players enjoy commanding large armies, maneuvering divisions, and witnessing sweeping movements across the tabletop.

3. Scenario Variety:

   BBB offers a range of scenarios, from the American Civil War to European conflicts. This variety keeps gameplay fresh and allows players to explore different historical periods.

4. Playability:

   Despite the large scale, BBB strives for simplicity. Players appreciate that the rules are easy to learn and don’t bog down the game with excessive complexity.

5. Generals and Command:

   The inclusion of generals and their impact on command and control adds depth. Players must make strategic decisions based on their leaders’ abilities.

Dislikes:

1. Lack of Detail:

   Some players find BBB too abstract for their taste. It sacrifices intricate details for the sake of playability, which can disappoint those seeking a more realistic simulation.

2. Command System Complexity:

   While generals enhance gameplay, the command system can be confusing. Players may struggle to grasp the nuances of command ratings and their effects.

3. Limited Tactical Depth:

   BBB prioritizes the big picture, but some players miss the tactical intricacies found in other rulesets. Detailed unit interactions and terrain effects are less pronounced.

4. Balance Challenges:

   Achieving balanced scenarios can be tricky. Historical battles often had inherent imbalances, and translating them into a fair tabletop experience can be a delicate task.

5. Unit Basing and Movement:

   The 1" base representing 1,500 men can lead to odd formations. Some players dislike the lack of flexibility in unit placement due to fixed base sizes.

Remember that preferences vary, and what one player dislikes, another may enjoy. Ultimately, it’s essential to find a ruleset that aligns with your gaming group’s interests and playstyle . 🎲👍

====

On the "Likes": 1 to 4 seem spot on. Not sure about #5, players having to make strategic decisions "based on their leaders' abilities". Must be confusing BBB with some other game there.

On the "Dislikes": 1, 3 and 4 all have some truth to them. I'd question #2: the command system is pretty simple and clear, isn't it? And #5 is surely confused - BBB is more flexible about representing formations than rulesets that use a single base per unit, if that's the AI's point.

(Can't fault its summary remarks, though - for regular good gaming, you really need likeminded players.)

All in all, it makes me suspect the AI hasn't actually played the game. What do you reckon? I guess it must have read a few of the other posts on this BBBBlog ... Should I see if I can get it down to the club next Monday?

***

For collected reviews of BBB of the old-fashioned kind by analog humans, see here.

Board Game Geek rates BBB 8.7 out of 10

Board Game Geek is an online resource with more than 2,000,000 registered users that reviews and rates games of all kinds, including wargames. This is a serious site, so I am gratified to report that "Bloody Big Battles!" is listed on BGG with a current rating of 8.7. (The four scenario books are listed as well under Expansions but people don't seem to have discovered them to rate.) Just for context, this is what BGG's rating guidelines suggest 8 or 9 should mean:

• 9 - Excellent game. Always want to play it.
• 8 - Very good game. I like to play. Probably I'll suggest it and will never turn down a game.

 

Slight disclaimer: it's not a huge number of responses (25 at time of posting), and eight of these followed me mentioning BGG on the BBB group, so there's a degree of self-selection from among BBB's fan base. But it was 8.3 even before that, and any game has its fans. The fact that people are willing to make the effort to register on BGG and share their opinions tells us something.

The respondents' comments are illuminating as to why they rate BBB so highly. It's not everyone's cup of tea - some players prefer a lower-level game with more tactical detail, some don't share BBB's focus on historical refights, etc - but those who like it seem to love it. I'm happy that it is giving so many people the kind of game they want.

Vae Victis likes the BBB Hungary '48 scenario book

When we ran our Pákozd 1848 game at the Colours show, one of the many good people I met there was Nicolas Stratigos, editor of the excellent French wargames magazine, Vae Victis. I pressed a copy of the new Bloody Big HUNGARY '48 Battles! scenario book into his hand. BBHB has now been reviewed in VV. I'm happy to report VV's verdict: "This supplement is really well done. [...] the historical content is remarkable and enables this forgotten conflict to emerge from the limbo of history." Merci beaucoup, Nicolas!

Nice review of BBB for Napoleonics

I was interested to see that 'Shugyosha' of the 'Wargaming Everything' blog has embarked on an ambitious endeavour: 'The Ultimate Napoleonic Wargame Rules Review and Comparison'. Especially happy to see that he (I assume 'he', but forgive me if I'm wrong) had some very nice things to say about BBB:

"When thinking of the biggest battles of the era, [...] BBB makes it actually possible in a manageable time frame. [...] Among all true army level systems it is probably the best middle ground between playability and period flavor. This might sound like a compromise, but it is not. BBB stands on its own, and for me among the very top.".

Ultimately it's a matter of taste, of course - but I'm glad BBB is to Shugyosha's, and I very much appreciate him taking the trouble to share his reviews of BBB and many other rulesets in this way.

Oh, and I had to look up 'Shugyosha'. Now I know it means a samurai warrior pilgrim. Thanks, pilgrim!

For more collected reviews of BBB, see here.

BBB - 'an awesome asymmetrical ruleset that rewards tactical nous'

The New Year seems to have brought in a wave of new recruits joining the 'Bloody Big Battles!' group on groups.io (now well over 800 members). This is a very good-natured and helpful crowd. A new member asked some questions this week and was greeted by such nice and enthusiastic replies that I felt they deserved to be shared more widely. I present a couple of them here, therefore, to be added to the BBBBlog's accumulated reviews of BBB.


Nathan on groups.io:

'BBB is great. It's not a competition "two equal armies on a regulation size green felt" game, instead it's an awesome asymmetrical set that rewards tactical nous and where victory goes to he who does better than their real life counterpart under table conditions that reflect reality. Cracking set :) '


Dave Cooke on groups.io:

'I’m also a rookie at BBB. I played my third game yesterday. Each game has been very enjoyable and against different opponents each time. All three opponents have asked to play again, so I’ve organised a game for two of them next Saturday. One of them is sending off for 1866 Austrian troops!

The rules are straightforward and once you’ve played a game you’ll not need to refer to them very often. Yesterday I didn’t open the rulebook at all during the game and just referred to the QRS – a very good one is available on the website. They really give a feel for the period and once a game is over I feel like I’ve fought a Franco-Prussian War battle, not part of one or a large skirmish, a full on battle.'

(These remarks posted here with the kind permission of their authors, Dave and Nathan. I don't believe we've ever met.)

Vae Victis reviews BBB, BBEB & BBBB

Many readers of this blog may already be familiar with Vae Victis. For those who are not: VV is a gorgeous, lavish, high-quality French wargaming magazine. The publication of Konstantinos Travlos's Bloody Big Balkan Battles campaign book (BBBB) prompted Nicolas Strategos at VV to commission a review not only of BBBB but also of the parent BBB ruleset and its companion BBEB scenario book.

The review is mainly descriptive of the mechanisms and contents, but perhaps I can extract and translate its essential assessment here without committing too many crimes against the French language.

For BBEB, it just lists the wars covered. For BBBB, it goes further:
"The content is extremely educational and provides an excellent synthesis of events."

For the BBB rules:
"Overall, BBB offers a level of abstraction and a scale of game suited to 'big battles', with simple mechanisms and loads of high quality scenarios. Basically it allows you and some good buddies to get together around a standard wargame table and recreate the major 'collisions' of the second half of the 19th century (and the start of the 20th)."

Summary:
"Good points: simple mechanisms, suitable for multi-player games, high quality scenarios.
Flaws: running out of ammunition (this seems a bit excessive and will happen too often during a game)."

My thanks to Nicolas for arranging the review, and to VV's reviewer Jean-Philippe Imbach for doing a thorough job and bringing BBB to the attention of our wargaming comrades across the Channel.

I guess at some point we should do that French-language edition of BBB ...

Nice review of BBB from 'Manteuffel' (Wargaming from the Balcony)

Pleased to stumble across this latest review of BBB, published in May 2019 by 'Manteuffel' on his Wargaming from the Balcony blog. I don't know who Manteuffel is, nor what his balcony overlooks (though some clues elsewhere on the blog suggest he is somewhere in Virginia USA or thereabouts), but I hope he won't mind me picking out a couple of my favourite lines from his review:

"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."

"BBB is what we have been looking for."

"If your looking to play full sized battles in an afternoon with some buddies, BBB just might be for you!"

I'm particularly pleased to see that he and his group have been getting good value out of BBB for Napoleonics, as witness for instance his AAR for the Battle of Gordeczna. As he says:

"We actually find that [we can] 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. "

"[BBB is] our current preferred system for to play full sized battles in the 19th century."

Manteuffel, if you're reading this: I appreciate you taking the trouble to write such a thoughtful review, and I'm delighted that you and your group are having such a good time with BBB!

Collected reviews of BBB - Bloody Big BATTLES!

In the two years since publication of the "Bloody Big Battles!" rules and the companion scenario book, "Bloody Big European Battles!", BBB has had consistently positive feedback.

Now seems an appropriate time to collate in a convenient place some of the many good reviews that BBB has received so far. Below is a list of links that will take you either to full reviews or to selected quotes. Wherever possible I have linked direct to the source.

If you are interested in fighting large nineteenth-century battles and you aren't yet familiar with BBB, do yourself a favour and read what other players say about it.

"The Foreign Correspondent", journal of the Continental Wars Society.

Collected comments from many players.

"Miniature Wargames" magazine.

Keefsblogspot (by Keith Flint, author of the Honours of War SYW rules).

Very thorough review for "Deep Fried Happy Mice" by Vincent Tsao.

"Wargames, Soldiers & Strategy" magazine.

Doctor Phalanx review here
and some battle reports such as Gettysburg.

Don't Throw Bloody Spears at Me.

Two Marshals.

The Rat Report.

Mark's Gaming Blog.

"Lone Warrior" (Solo Wargamers Association), by Paul Le Long.
Related BBB Blog post.

Addition per 30 March 2021:

Peter Model in his video review of rules for Napoleonics says: "BBB is probably the best set of rules out there if you want to recreate a historical conflict".

Addition per 31 July 2022:

Shugyosha has posted 'The Ultimate Napoleonic Wargame Rules Review and Comparison' on his 'Wargaming Everything' blog. Of BBB, he says kindly: "When thinking of the biggest battles of the era, [...] BBB makes it actually possible in a manageable timeframe. [...] Among all true army level systems it is probably the best middle ground between playability and period flavor. This might sound like a compromise, but it is not. BBB stands on its own, and for me among the very top."

Addition per 25 August 2022:

On 7 June the "Wargamer's Block" blog posted a very positive "First impressions" review that starts out by saying "Quick summary: you should be buying it right now". Other nice remarks include "My first impressions are nothing short of enthusiastic"; "BBB uses the most elegant/realistic/functional incarnation of the dreaded 'roll to move' mechanic"; "scenarios are outstanding". He's done a subsequent post on the BBB Langensalza scenario in which he describes BBB as "a game you really should try sooner or later if you're remotely interested in 19th century warfare" and offers an A3 hex map and roster to enable the scenario to be played in a compact area with Kriegspiel blocks.

Addition per 25 January 2023:

Very positive review by Dave "The Northumbrian Wargamer" in Morpeth. Some highlights: "the rules are historically accurate, flow well and just, well, feel right. [...] Excellent rules, particularly for large encounters, hence the name!"

Addition per 4 May 2023:

As of this date BBB is rated an excellent 8.9 out of 10 (28 respondents) on the game review website BoardGameGeek.

Addition per 21 December 2023:

New purchaser Andrew Rolph had "a bit of praise" about "the quality of the rules writing. As far as I am concerned, they are practically the gold standard for presentation. They exhibit DBA/Barker levels of precision...but in sentences which do not suffer from multiple recursions and embedded subordination. I am particularly impressed by the terrain section which (regardless of whether it is realistic or accurate) is certainly comprehensive, elegant and precise in its definitions and explanation". He also said about the "Bloody Big Balkan Battles!" supplement: "Konstantinos' work is equally impressive a document and makes excellent use of the consistent scenario framework put forward within the main rules. Also pleasing to see so few typos. And the maps in the volume are excellent."

Addition per 9 May 2024:

For a bit of springtime silliness I did this: "Just for fun: an AI review of BBB".

Addition per 14 June 2025:

Chris Gosney aka 'The Crusty Colonel' did a video of his first BBB game (the battle of Friedland) on his YouTube channel, 'The Crusty Colonel's Wargames Show'. His verdict? "Great rules!"

Addition per 8 July 2025:

Bob H said on the io group after he participated in our BBB Bash Day convention, "Every time I've played BBB I've come away with a narrative and the urge to revisit the scenario map to see if there's another way it could have played out".

Additions per 15 September 2025:

Daniel Oney said on the io group, "Have been enjoying BBB. Very friendly rules after only a few turns of play. [...] I’ve tried to break these rules for a while. I’ll think of a situation and say gotcha! But with a little reflection I’ve always concluded that the rules actually accommodate the special cases or a minor mod like a DRM on move roll or column shift does the trick. They do what it says on the label - let you fight big battles in a reasonable time with enough historical color."

LTC Jeff Leser (US Army CGSC) says in his Königgrätz game report on his blog, "Overall the Bloody Big Battles rules are a joy to play. They do allow gamers to fight those large historical battles in a reasonable amount of time and table space." He does have some issues with the rules; you can find those discussed on the io group.

Not a review as such, but an indication of a kind: The Miniatures Page ran a poll on what Franco-Prussian War rulesets people use. I'm pleased to say that BBB ranked second equal.

Addition per 28 December 2025:

Chris Gosney aka 'The Crusty Colonel' gave BBB his 'Rules of the Year' award in his video review of 2025 here (look 21 minutes in).

Addition per 6 April 2026:

The "Board Game Guys" website's reviewer Michail says: "offers a dynamic and engaging experience with its generous movement rules and simplified gameplay. This makes the game very dynamic, allowing for significant movement and action on the battlefield. [...] BBB is for wargamers who enjoy large-scale battles and historical scenarios without the complexity of overly detailed rules. It is perfect for those looking to quickly set up and play through significant historical conflicts, making it a great option for both new and experienced wargamers."

Addition 6 May 2026:

The RIBS YouTube channel ("Really Itty Bitty Soldiers), Episode 8, is a comparative review of BBB, General d'Armee 2, and La Petite Armee. A fair assessment of three very different rulesets aimed at quite different sizes of game, so very much a case of "horses for courses". Of BBB, RIBS says, "If you are looking for a game where you need to push a lot of troops around the table, you don't have a tremendous amount of time, if you're looking to bring people who are maybe not as familiar with the Napoleonic black powder tactics, I would go with Bloody Big Battles. You can do very large battles on a 4x6' table and the rules are streamlined, they move quickly, they're pretty easy to grasp, and they are good for several different eras."

Solo Wargaming

These days I have no shortage of gaming buddies and can usually get a game most weeks. It was not always thus, and in years gone by there have been times when I have perforce been a solo wargamer, working through tactical problems on a tabletop on my own. Nowadays, of course, with computers and the internet there are many more gaming possibilities than there used to be. Even so, from the various wargaming web fora, blogs etc that I frequent, it is obvious that there are many folks out there who still want to game with miniatures rather than pixels, but who are not as blessed as I am with regular gaming opportunities and agreeable fellow-enthusiasts. So in today's blog I'd like to spare a thought for all those would-be players, who spend so many hours lovingly creating fabulous armies, but who have all too few occasions to actually use them.

One of the resources I used years ago was Charles Grant's book, "Programmed Wargames Scenarios".
Beyond that recommendation, I'm not really qualified to advise on how to do solo gaming. Fortunately there are others around who are. For instance, there is a SoloWarGame group on Yahoo. Check out Jay's Solo Wargaming Blog. This Solo Wargaming Guide was published recently by William Silvester - I haven't seen it myself but it gets good reviews. Caliver Books offers a guide to solo wargaming by Stuart Asquith. There is also the Solo Wargamers Association (SWA) and its Lone Warrior Blog.


What particularly motivated this post was the fact that Lone Warrior has just published Paul Le Long's review of my own "Bloody Big Battles". Some choice quotes from Paul's terrific review:
"BBB is an excellent game ... 
It's simple and you'll have learned it all within minutes ... 
You get the feel that you are commanding a whole army, not just a brigade ...
It feels realistic and dynamic but without unnecessary complexity ... 
Highly recommended."

On the question of BBB's suitability for solo play, Paul says, "there's nothing particularly that's solo friendly. But I didn't find anything that militated against solo play either". I suppose I'd add that I think the movement rolls provide an element of unpredictability that helps to make solo play interesting. The many BBB historical scenarios lend themselves to multiple replays to explore how different plans for each side work out, which can be a fun solo exercise. And the campaign mechanism used in BBB to link nine historical Franco-Prussian War scenarios, and in BBEB for smaller Crimean and Russo-Turkish War campaigns, is a simple and solo-friendly way of integrating campaign consequences into games.

Finally, for any solo BBB players out there who are able to make the effort once a year to meet up with fellow players: come to the next BBB Bash Day, our mini-convention in Oxford UK, on Saturday 18 February 2017!

Glorious Poland

[What's the opposite of a footnote? A headnote? In which case this is a headnote to mention a brief "first impressions" review of BBB by Paul Le Long for Lone Warrior, the journal of the Solo Wargamers Association. Paul will be doing a full review when he has had a chance to actually play some games.]

OK, onward to Poland.
Bad news: I had to go without any gaming last week.
Good news: that's because I was in Warsaw, a lovely city with very nice people and hearty central european food and drink (sauerkraut! dumplings! vodka!), and with a smashing Polish Army Museum that has free admission on Saturdays.

A trophy from Warsaw: my ticket to the army museum. Worth every zloty and more.

For me, and I think for a lot of my fellow British wargamers, the word "Poland" conjures up a romanticized glorious military history, with the Poles often being gallant underdogs of the kind we Brits love: winged hussars, Napoleon's Polish lancers, the 1939 campaign, the Warsaw Uprising, and the exploits of Polish forces on several fronts in WWII.

So I was very excited to visit the war museum, and very fabulous it was. Amazing exhibits.

What did surprise us was that there seemed to be a gap from the early 1700s to 1861. Nothing about the Vistula Legion or the Grand Duchy of Warsaw and all the fighting that Poles did for Napoleon. Nothing about the November Uprising of 1830-1831. These are listed on the website as having permanent exhibits but we didn't see them. Maybe we missed a hall?

Mind you, we were already overwhelmed by what there was.
Masses of swords and armour and other items from the 10th & 11th centuries and early Middle Ages.
Polearms - obviously! - of various types: halberds, bills, etc.
Ornate falconets and culverins and suchlike C16 and C17 cannon.
Organ guns!
A full-sized winged hussar, feathers and leopard-skin and all.
Lots of C17 armour including intricate scale-mail.
A C17 revolving-chamber repeating musket? (That's what it looked like to me.)


Big exhibit about the 1863 January Uprising, with original insurgents' uniforms and equipment, and an 1867 Reffye mitrailleuse (not sure how that got there).
A Dreyse needle-pistol.

Lots about WWI and the Polish Legions that fought on both sides in the French, Russian, German and Austrian armies. Some unusual kit: an Italian Villar-Perosa double-barreled LMG; bayonet-wirecutter attachments; German AT rifle; Luger with buttstock and snail-drum magazine.

Quite a bit on the Polish-Soviet War of 1919-1921. My favourite was the uniform of a soldier from the balloon corps. Nothing special about the uniform, it's just that balloons are cool.

As you'd expect, a really impressive hall about 1939, another about the Warsaw Uprising, and another about the rest of WWII. Too many things to take in, really.
Bofors 37mm AT and a 75mm field gun.
Examples of all the infantry weapons, including a BAR on an AA mount, and a Polish Mors SMG.
Fragment of a shot-down Los bomber.
Weapons made in Warsaw for the Uprising: SMGs, bomb-launchers of different kinds (mortar, catapult, spring-loaded), a flamethrower.
Ingenious single-nail caltrops.
Goliath remote-controlled demolition tank.
MP28 and Lanchester SMGs.
Miniature Soviet uniform for the small boy who was the regimental mascot (over 400,000 Poles served on the Eastern Front).
A dagger given to Mussolini by Argentina.

Outside the museum is a tank and aircraft park. T-34, IS-2, Grizzly (Sherman); lots of Warsaw Pact kit; Pe-2, Tu-2, Yak-9, IL-2, IL-10; Su-22, MiG-29; Hetzer, Hanomag; naval/coastal artillery including a twin Bofors mount from the ORP Gryf minelayer sunk at Hel in 1939. 75 and 76mm field guns, 25pdr, 5.5", Soviet 280mm gun. British 60pdr supplied to Russia, captured by Poles in 1921? Shell from Dora railgun (80cm). Shell from Karl mortar used against Warsaw uprising.

The only real disappointment (Napoleonic era apart) was that the war museum didn't have a decent bookshop. I was hoping to come home laden with trophies. Fortunately in the art bookshop in the national gallery next door, I found "A Painted History of Poland": a gorgeous book of 48 paintings - mostly military-themed - of major events in Polish history, each of which is accompanied by detailed historical background, maps and illos. I am learning about stuff such as the killing of St Stanislaus (the Polish equivalent of the murder of Thomas a Becket) and the Chicken War ...

Anyway I have come away from a happy week in Warsaw with a very favourable impression of Poland. I hope I can visit again and explore further afield next time.