WHAT YOU NEED

"Loose Files" is suitable for playing just about any battle of the Revolution, so it probably lies somewhere between Midsize and Big Battle in terms of game scale. As a player, the regiment is the core maneuver unit of your army, and regiments in this game are made up of several smaller bases. This means you're going to probably need a decent number of bases to play a standard battle. A force of 50 infantry bases, a few commanders, and half a dozen guns would be enough to get started. While that means the figure requires are not insigificant, the good news is that the rules are basing and scale agnostic. Your regiment could just as easily be several 20mm bases of 6mm scale figures or 30mm bases with 15mm figures. There are players who run Loose Files in 28mm scale! It's flexible in this regard, but whatever scale figures you choose, you will need a good number of them if you want to play a big action like Saratoga or even a modest one like Princeton. The rest of the game components are very basic--a handful of six-sided dice, some tokens for disruption, and terrain for your battlefield.

HOW IT PLAYS

1. COMPULSORY RETREATS: Resolve routs from the prior turn

2. MORALE: Apply Morale effects 

3. FIRING: Eligible units may fire

4. COMMAND POINTS: Move commanders and allocate CPs for orders

5. MOVE: Units attempt charges and complete movement

6. COMBAT: Resolve melees

7. REDRESS RANKS: Units that did not move may recover 

The original 1987 magazine article written by Andy Callan was just 3 pages of rules! The 2025 reissue expands to 12 pages, but includes big illustrations, photos, and designer commentary. It is, effectively, the same game but with a modern layout. There are a number of unusual aspects to this system worth mentioning in greater detail.

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Each phase of the game is intended for simultaneous resolution by both sides. This is easier said than done in some cases! Charges are a great example. Practically, who gets to announce and roll for charges first if its simultaneous? Players will find a handful of moments like this in each battle, where the simultaneous aspect of the game has to be set aside for a "high roll goes first" house rule. If this sounds like a quibble, it's a pretty minor one overall. Loose Files is a tight, well written game that packs a TON of tactical nuance into its original 3-page format. 

The core thesis of the rules is that it's harder than you think to get men in this war to do what you want them to do. Whether its the broken terrain or the limited communication of 1700s warfare, doing stuff is hard. The rules drive home this thesis in variety of clever ways. Leaders issue Command Points, and certain orders (like ordering a bayonet charge) require a greater investment of points. Movement is randomized, as each unit rolls dice for distance. As your regiments stumble through streams and climb fences, they accumulate "D. Points," a catch-all concept for disorder, disruption, and demoralization. As you command your men, you start to discover that virtually everything you ask of them results in disruption. Change formation? Cross a fence? Limber a battery? Pass through a friendly regiment? Everything is disruptive, and eventually, accumulate enough D. Points and each regiment starts to remove bases and take losses. This system is the heartbeat of the game and perfectly captures the difficulty of ordering 18th Century armies through the often rugged American countryside.

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Shooting and combat are resolved with a handful of six-sided dice and a list of modifiers--a list that sometimes feels a touch long for a game this short. Andy Callan admits as much in his "afterthoughts" commentary in the article. Despite the old school modifier-heavy approach, combat resolution is not complicated. The Class rating of your units weighs heavily in the final tally, so a 1st Class British light infantry regiment will often have its way against 4th Class militia. 

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If you want to jump directly into a ready-made historical scenario, Simon MacDowall's outstanding Legio Wargames website offers two battles for Loose Files, both of which are directly available below. But his site includes plenty of other games and scenarios Wargame Library visitors will find intriguing.