Lead Adventure Forum
Miniatures Adventure => Age of the Big Battalions => Topic started by: OSHIROmodels on August 14, 2018, 11:44:55 PM
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Looking for some simple, fun, battalion level Napoleonic games that would suit for peninsular and Europe.
A broad brush I know but I’m looking for a fun game that captures flavour rather than an overly accurate set that would get me bogged down.
cheers
James
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Black powder.
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One of my mates loves playing the Warhammer Historical “Waterloo” rules. Good luck trying to find a copy these days though.
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General de Armee or General De Brigade?
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Black Powder.
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Lasalle.
Very clear and easy to understand. Interesting tactical decisions for the players.
Shako is also good.
Not a fan of Black Powder myself
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Over the Hills, that is my recommendation.
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Neil Thomas's Napoleonic set. :)
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I don't currently have a tactical set, using Bloody Big Battles (general 19th century rules) for grand tactical battles. No column/line/square mechanics.
Many folks I have met who don't fancy Black Powder do not like the activation rules. The score of 2 D6 determines if a unit moves at triple, double, single speed or not at all. That is not what bothers me.
Melees can drag on for several turns, with small forces holding up much larger ones for what seem to me unrealistic amounts of time. The last BP game I played saw small light cavalry forces delay brigades of enemy troops this way, seriously affecting the outcome of the game. In my view, the attacks would have been sent about their business in short order. Even if they had been successful, the whole affair would have been over sooner.
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How many players?
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Not a recommendation per se, as I haven't played it, but for what it's worth, the set I've been planning to get for some time is Et sans résultat!
http://thewargamingcompany.com/esr/index.html
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Many thanks for replies gents, plenty of food for thought :)
How many players?
Three or four probably (the usual suspects).
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In that case I highly recommend La Salle (you know my play style) and back up Black Powder for ease of play, but looks like BP 2.0 is coming out.
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It would be remiss not to mention another Sam Mustafa set, Blücher, which is on a different scale to Lasalle, but, unlke the earlier game, is still available in printed form.
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As a newbie to setting up Napoleonic games - though I've played lots....
All things being equal, I'd always plumb for Piquet due to the 'command and control' tension games played with that rule set engender. But, Piquet is not for everyone.
I'm playing my current scenario using BP. Although BP is all over the place for beginners (bits of the rules in this section, bits in that section, and no clear indexing) it gives a reasonably quick fun game, and the bolt on 'abilities' to unit specs give a reasonable amount of period flavour, and the command system is quite well suited to periods using 'impulse tactics'. I hope BP2 clears up more than it adds.
I've played Lasalle but, although it flows well in it's simplicity and has an elegance of mechanism, I found it's simplicity worked against it for battalion level games - I found it lacked flavour.
Mustafa's Blucher, as mentioned, deals with battles at a much higher command level, and I liked it - the flavour being Napoleonic 'high command'. I'm not sure it's suitable for most Peninsular actions.
General de Brigade is too involved for my taste, though I dare say it's complexity will appeal to some.
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Black Powder once was ten times more than I needed - I thought the rules defeated the purpose: a game of movement and action with a reasonable chance for either side to win. As pointed out, the way the rules work can lead to some truly wonky results. Never again! But, clearly, there are devotees here. To each there own.
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For simple, fun games I highly recommend Black Powder, and would take the soon to be released 2.0. We have excellencent games with them in the Peninsular and realistic results, even in larger multi player games.
General de Brigade is excellent but more detailed and needs more playing practice than our goup is able to put out on a regular basis.
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Roll a D6, highest roll wins. ;)
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Roll a D6, highest roll wins. ;)
Sorted!
::)
lol
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Roll a D6, highest roll wins. ;)
+1 for the French and British, of course.
Reminds me, back in the day I game tested at SPI. One guy designed a matchbox game, literally fit in a small box of wooden matches. It was called Strong-point W5, after the fortified place of that name on Utah Beach. The map had 4 hexes in a row, the southernmost the strong-point, the northernmost the beach. The US unit was a 4-2 (strength 4, movement 2) deployed on the beach. The German unit in the strong-point was a 2-0. It doubled on defense. The US unit marched across the beach, made contact and attacked at 1-1 odds. 1-3 it was eliminated. 4-6 it eliminated the Germans. There was a tiny set of rules and a small die.
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Chosen men from Osprey. Made by Mark Latham, the guy who wrote Waterloo for Warhammer historical. It is very easy and good playable.
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We have played now several games with Over the hills and like them
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Two 3x5 cards, right down move rates, form rates, fire distance, 123 miss, 456 hit, skip morale, skip command. Bang. Off and running.
Rules way too often forget we want to Play With Our Miniatures rather than have our noses in rulebooks or shuffle around playing cards. The less that gets between moving the figures - and sometimes 'knocking them over' - the better. Personally, only 'good' reason for rules is to avoid friends getting bloody noses from other friends (better your friends aren't so disposed, of course).
I credit the ease of access to technology for creating a veritable armaggedon of rules that restrict us when all we really want is to have some fun with our mates and enjoy our 'toys'. Well, that's my take on it.
Pretty rules make nice eye candy but I've yet to see any of them make a game more fun.
To those who think the first paragraph off base, I did exactly that - with one less card - and had one of the most fun games I've every played in. We focused entirely on the table because we all had the rules down with a glance. And zero room for the rules nuts (aka lawyers) to maneuver.
*** "That FifteensAway character is a bit daft, don't you think?" ***
It's okay, we visionaries are often thought of that way until others see we are right. lol
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FifteensAway - there is so much logic to your post I think you deserve our undying praise and lifelong fealty. Not daft at all. ;D
Mind you - Kickstarter is going to hate you. Where would our hobby be without a new set of rules being released every week? ;)
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Black Powder is a lot of fun, not perfect etc but it's enjoyable pushing units of lead around a table.
There's a new version coming out later this year, they did give free pdf versions away of the old set, message me and I can send you them to see if you like the premise.
You do need at minimum an 8' by 5' table.
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Cheers Shaun, there’s a copy in our ‘group’ that I forgot about and we’ll be using 15mm so the table size isn’t too much of a problem :)
Pretty rules make nice eye candy but I've yet to see any of them make a game more fun
You’re obviously not playing it right then ::)
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Much depends on what your opinion of "simple" is ... especially in Napoleonics. ;)
The simplest set I know of that also gives a good feel for the period is Rank & File by Crusader Games. Surprisingly straightforward mix of familiar rules mechanisms that comes together in the right way. Far more streamlined, fast, and representative of the period than Black Powder.
Next up the ladder in terms of complexity are probably the old favorite Shako, and the lesser known but still solid Lasalle. Both use fairly abstracted systems that play pretty quickly, although they are different from one another. Again, both more solid bets for historical realism than Black Powder.
The new set Over the Hills is probably a bit (but not much more) complex, but it uses an interesting system of managing disorganization points that has very good potential.
One set that uses battalions as its basic element, but aims at larger battles, is March Attack. Because it is aimed at larger battles with multiple divisions and corps on the table, both movement and combat are streamlined, perhaps more than any of the above, however in the end it works very well indeed.
Anything above this (admittedly blurry) line I would start to rate as "complex" - which of course includes some very good rules.
Essentially - and this is coming from an ex-player of extremely complex rules - there are now many good options for playing Napoleonics with simple, fast rules that also have a very good historical basis.
Cheers,
Christopher
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Black Powder always gives a good game. My problem with it is is that afterwards I always feel I've played a game of Black Powder, rather than a Napoleonic, or ACW or Zulu War battle; all periods we've tried the rules for.
I don't have a problem with the activation system or the blunders and such like. I just feel that the game system is dominating and I'm not seeing enough history (and this is true of all the Warmaster-derived rulesets including Warmaster Ancients).
Good games, bad history. But maybe that's just me.
Another set you might want to look at if you want a bit more meat is 'General d'Armee' by David Brown. Faster and cleaner than General de Brigade, and has an excellent orders system.
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If you want to try out black powder in the shed with the usual crew just shout....I think they make for a great game
Can do 28mm or 10mm
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If you’ve had any experience of Fire And Fury, then Age of Eagles might be useful:
https://ageofeagles.com
It’s aimed at Brigade level, but heathern that I am, I don’t see any problem using it at Battalion level and F&F always have a good, straight-forward game.
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I agree that Rank and File are good rules and highly playable (yes, I actually do play with rules - sometimes). 8)
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I hear good things about Over the Hills and General d'Armée looks really good. Got the rules, but haven't gotten to play them yet.
Then of course (if you don't wanna be bothered with formations and micro-management like that) I strongly suggest Blücher by Sam Mustafa. He's really, really good at abstracting games so that they're fast and fun, while keeping the period flavour. It's corps-level (as in you command a handful of corps) and works wonderfully.
If you elect to skirmish, I don't think that there's any need to look further than Sharp Practice.
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I'll write you some. You'll only ignore them anyway! :D