By Fire and Sword is the free version of a commercially published set of rules for the wars of Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth against Turkey, Muscovy, Sweden, the Crimean Khanate and the Cossacks.
I fell in love with the period some years ago when I read a trilogy of books — With Fire and Sword, The Deluge and Fire In The Steppe — that was set in the period. The Polish author, Henryk Sienkiewicz, won the Nobel Prize for literature.
Miniatures Rules
Toy Soldiers Horse and Musket Wargames Rules
Toy Soldiers is a set of free wargames rules for the Horse and Musket period. The author writes:
Abstracted rules for battalion combats in Horse and Musket period. A unit is a battalion. A single player might have 2-5 units under his command but only one commander. The intent of the rules is to allow players to bring a small command to the table of generic troops with no points system or national characteristics. The balance that I am aiming for is that a cavalry unit = an infantry unit = an artillery battery.
Infantry battalions are represented by 6 stands of several miniatures. In 15mm, 4 wide seems to work. Artillery batteries are represented by 3 stands. Limbers should also be included.
Units and commanders will always have at least a single D6 placed behind them. For units, this represents their disorder value (1 is well ordered, 6 being disordered). Commanders will have a Chaos dice which will always be at least 1 (well coordinated command) and may go as high as 6 (Ineffective command control). Often, units will also be marked by a single red die marking their stress. Stress goes from 0 to 6.
Warhammer 40K Battle Manual
Games Workshop offers an “essential” edition of its Warhammer 40K rules free for the downloading.
All Quiet On The Martian Front Rules
All Quiet On The Martian Front is a great game set in an alternate history where HG Wells’ Martians return in 1908. It’s got a WWI vibe, with steam tanks and big cannons and motorcycles. You can take a look at the free rules here.
March of Eagles Fast Play Napoleonic Rules
Victrix Miniatures has released a set of free wargaming rules called March of Eagles, which is designed to go with their plastic boxed miniatures. They write:
We commissioned Barry Hilton, League of Augsburg, to write a set of fast play Napoleonic rules. The rules are quick to learn, very realistic, extremely bloody and a game can easily be played within an evening. At present we are only publishing rules for infantry combat but we will be releasing supplements to cover artillery and cavalry.
These March of Eagles rules are included in each box of Victrix figures along with lots of cut out counters that are an aid to the rules. We have also included a very useful set of measuring devices within the sprue frame.