Napoleonic Rules for small battles?

[CapnJim]

WARNING - the following may be considered heresy by some!    Having said that...

I would try Black Powder.  The heresy part is a single rank of figures per unit.  5 stands of 3 figures each.  15 figs per infantry unit.  The game itself works well for a fight of that size, and would fit on a 6x4 table easily enough.  Just my 2 cents...

[NurgleHH]

I would mention Fiftful of Lead:Big Battles with Fistful of Lead: Horse and Muskets 2.0

[LazyStudent]

To suggest something that takes the scale up a little bit, I would suggest looking at General d'Brigade or even British Grenadier (the AWI version) by Dave Brown. Both work with the battalion as the main unit, and while people have suffer from a lot of size creep, the rules work very nicely on a small division vs small division size scenario. 

[Norm]

I think this chap uses home made rules, but thought you might like browsing through his blog as he uses a 6x4 with low unit count and has some excellent games. Link

http://hintonhunt.blogspot.com/2021/05/the-battle-of-bournemouth-game.html

[LazyStudent]

Norm has a very good point, if you are happy to use home written rules then I can recommend looking into the following:

- https://chasseuracheval.blogspot.com/p/321-fast-play-napoleonic-rules.html

- http://landofthelead.blogspot.com/2013/12/28mm-napoleonics-2nd-game-with1-page.html

[ilkley Old School]

I prefer the classics. So its Charge for me.

[SteveBurt]

Charge is brilliant - but the rules are for 18th Century battles, not Napoleonics

[VonAkers]

DJ
Mate for solo gaming try General De Brigade .
They are a more Historical set than most , and most importantly they have .. these crazy things called orders, AND fog of war ...
This makes them perfectly suited for Solo gaming .
You can perhaps even use General De Armee ( add on GDE Brigade command orders )
  For a smaller level a scaled up Sharpes Practise will look awesome , again make up a card deck , 10 cards say , and pick up a card at the start of the battle that gives the relevent orders , ( skirmish / assult / scout .. etc ) that the Non Playing side Must Follow .. and you are away .

The Sharpes Practise line units can still be used  based up in multifigure bases , just paint some separate skirmishers...
As an added advantage small scale games let the terrain come back in to better scale , and often a smaller game  looks miles better than a big game .
Cheers

[Red Sveta]

I would second the General Brigade rules option for what you have in mind. I would also suggest you have a look at the Peninsular theatre. There are many small actions between Spanish forces operating away from the main fronts and the French columns sent to deal with them. Good look with it.

[duc de limbourg]

We play "Over the hills" 2nd ed on a 6*4 table with some 8 units per side in 28mm.
Scale is appr 1:25
But as other mentioned, there are a lot of rulessets and BP in one row is a great possibility to start.

[Chillyray]

DBN 2.1 is my favourite solo game at the moment. Like other DB games, a six sided dice, rolled at the start of each turn, determines how much you can do in that turn. This adds the unexpected aspect to the game. I play on a 60cm x 60cm board with 2mm figs! A different scale to you, but could be adapted? There are added optional rules to add more variation to the armies. There are some good videos available on you tube!

[SJWi]

If you simply want 28mm Napoleonic with a low figure count you could always look at 2FLs "Sharpe Practice2". Not a classic Napoleonic battalion level game but a lot of fun.