Napoleonic or Shakespearean Gloire?

[Plynkes]

Finally got around to ordering this game (in its proper, non-free-download paper version). It's the first time I will ever have got into a fad while it was still current, rather than months or years after everyone else has got fed up with it (Still haven't got a Tamagotchi, I hear they're coming back in. Maybe I should...). And besides, got to keep that Murray fellow in the style he has become accustomed to.

But anyway, as a man weighed down by too many projects already (know the feeling?) I've been seduced by the thought that I can get a game going with a minimum of figure-painting, and that's always good.

I'd also like to dip into various areas more peripheral to the usual swashbuckling genre. It's not that I wouldn't love to cross swords with the Cardinal's men, or deliver the diamond studs to the Queen, but everyone's doing that at the minute.

I was thinking maybe about recreating something inspired by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's "Brigadier Gerard" stories. Small scale Napoleonic escapades involving duels, prison escapes, delivering secret dispatches, missions for the Emperor, and brawling with Prussians and Cossacks at a Wayside inn. All staple Gloire stuff, just with Busbies, Shakos and Dolmans, rather than Big Floppy Hats and Tabards.



But where all this falls down is figures. Those Napoleonic twits love their big battles so much (and endless pointless bickering about artillery carriages and who was the best and so on)  they don't seem to cater much for skirmish gamers. What I'd really like is dismounted cavalry figures of various types, specifically Hussars (the protagonists have to be Hussars, as they are the most stylish thing in the Napoleonic world).

Do such things exist? Not being a regular Napoleonics sort of chap I am almost totally unfamiliar with what ranges there are out there. If anyone knows anything I would be eternally grateful. I have been jealously eyeing up Foundry's Guillotine set, as it has lots of characterful civilians, but I still needs me Hussars and Cossacks, what?


If that fails I shall have to go to Plan B, which is Shakespearean romance, brawling and intrigue on the streets of fair Verona (with Foundry Elizabethans, perhaps? Other suggestions welcome). I think it's time Gloire went up market a bit. After all, Dumas? A hack, surely? 19th Century Pulp at best.



Plan C is taking back what I just said about Dumas, surrendering, and finally doing "Three Musketeers" like we're supposed to.

[PeteMurray]

I have seen exactly one pack of dismounted hussars, and they were Seven Years' War figures from Foundry, only availble to standing order customers. It's a perfect example of what's wrong with that company. I checked the sites of the manufacturers I know, but can't find any dismounted cav of any flavor!

I think Napoleonics would be pretty splendid, even if you're not using dismounted cav. Have you considered doing Light Bobs? Or Royal Marines? On the French side you get the option of using Legere or Voltigeurs, and they come in a variety of interesting styles. The Prussians have Freiwilliger sharpshooters, and the Russians have Cossacks and Jaegers. You could create lots of instances of those guys who are out scouting the fringes when armies blunder into each other, or who engage in all sorts of exciting picket jobs, such as what you describe. I'm not even mentioning the 95th Rifles here.

I do agree that hussars are exactly what you want here, it's just nobody does them. You could ask on TMP, but you run the risk of summoning Hollins-Kiley and their endless, pointless feud.

Napoleonics are on the list of Supplements to do Eventually, by the way.

Elizabethans also offer their own attractions. Pearl earrings, lace, and touchy, touchy humor. You also get the fun of burning the Spanish galleons to the waterline, which is something you've expressed some enthusiasm for.

(Edit: The Perrys have a pack of "Hangers on" of high-ranking officers. These could be your guys. Or your guys' targets. Two guys in helmets, one guy in busby, a few in shako. All have swords and look important.)

[Plynkes]

I've just arrived hot-foot from a daring midnight ride through enemy lines all the way from the Perry site.

Now that's customer service from the Gloire people! Doing my figure research for me! I wish all the rules writers were so obliging!

Excellent work there, Brigadier Pete. There's plenty to chew over in some of those character packs, and not just the one you mentioned. Slightly more active poses would be good, but that's just being fussy. Reckon I'll be making some purchases soon.

I'm glad you found me something, because as fun as Hornblower or Sharpe might have been, it wasn't really what I had in mind. Actual proper military engagements (even tiny ones) will be taking a back seat to romance, intrigue and secret missions in the kind of game I'm imagining. I want something larger than life, something with a certain, er... something.

Miserable cold privates on picket duty taking potshots at one another in the mist might be wargaming, but it ain't really Gloire. (Unless of course there are also murderous Corsican assassins and bumbling Brigadiers also fumbling around in there looking for the Empress of Austria's jewelled undies or something.)

Of course, I hadn't even considered "The Duellists." I'll have to work them into it somehow, too.





Many thanks again, Pete. You're a top chap.

[PeteMurray]

The more I thought about Napoleonics, the more I think it sounds like a fun period to do. I personally think running a team of Legere Roberts through the Russian countryside in 1812 sounds like fun, or some newly-hatched-from-the-cannonball Freiwilliger Jaegers, and all the sorts of "cold picket" games sound like fun. But I do see the attraction of Courtly Intrigue as well, because Napoleon is endlessly fascinating, and this turned into the first period where spying gets going in the modern style. And "The Duelists," of course, are quite fun.

Curse the lack of dismounted cavalry!

Mind you could do Cossacks. All the attitude of hussars with twice the drinking. When we get together, we'll have to run some of this.

[Argonor]

Not to mention Sharpe's Rifles. I'd personally like to see a mini of Sean Bean in green garb  :wink:

There's also a reason for an ongoing campaign in there somewhere...

Edit:
Sorry, I hadn't read the entire thread properly, Sharpe already being somewhat discarded. I wouldn't mind the opportunity of mixing in military skirmishes, too, though...

[Malamute]

Have you considered gaming it in 40mm. There are the delightful Perry Miniatures to look at. Also HLBSC has a 40mm range as do Sash and Sabre.
Youc an buy most of these as individual figures (Except Sansha nd Sabre).
Perfect for small skirmishes and hopefully some dismounted cavalry figures to use.
Having read Brigadier Gerrard when I was a lad(30 years ago), I remember some of the stories were set in the Peninsular, so involving some spanish Guerillas would be perfect and Perrys have some nice ones!

Jim Bowen does a nice Sharpe figure in 40mm I think and he looks like Sean Bean

[Argonor]

I will not even consider the reaction of my wife, should I begin collecting minis and other stuff in yet another scale  ::

Not for me. 25/28 mm and 1:72 plastics is my turf. Don't try to tempt me ... BEGONE + !!!  

[PeteMurray]

40mm figures scare me! My 28mm painting tricks don't look right on them, and I'm not skilled enough to do the kinds of things you need to do on larger scales (like blend paint properly).

Plus I couldn't find any dismounted cav in those lines, either. Boo and hiss!

I didn't mean to snub Sharpe. I just thought it would be fun to do skirmish with a lesser-known unit.

Or you could combine Napoleonics and Indians and do the War of 1812...

Okay, I need to stop. Too many project ideas!