Starting Napoleonics - what scale?

[Fred Mills]

A great thread in response to a good question. In my case, it's 15/18mm and using Age of Eagles rules, so brigade-sized units. Most of mine are 24+ figures per, so six bases of four figures each for standard mid-period French units of six companies, and variations of this based on orbats etc. for others.

I did have 6mm once but struggled to paint them, wanting greater detail but not having the eyesight for it, and therefore never being quite contented with the 'look'. As a more or less rubbish painter, however, 28mm also exposes my sins in rather too much detail, making figures look a bit cartoonish or unfinished. (My washing and highlighting skills are especially suspect.) Lacking the money to pay professionals for this, I learned early that smaller figures at the three-foot rule were perfect for me, and so 15/18mm it was. They give me scope to paint details I can see, but en masse don't expose my subpar painting.

I have a few plastics in 20mm also, and love them, but they are childhood holdovers and not regularly on any table. These I will add to and rebase singly to facilitate some skirmish wargaming, but there is a large 1809 Austrian force to paint first.....

Olicana's amazing forces in the previous reply are just fabulous. Wow.

[Aethelflaeda was framed]

 made a decision yet?

[vtsaogames]

Re: painting skills, I am taking a good long look at Citadel contrast paints - paint and shade at the same time.

[Aethelflaeda was framed]

Contrast paints are quick but they are pretty expensive.  I find washes made with  medium or simply diluted with water do much the same.

[jon_1066]

With napoleonics though you might not need lots of colours as whilst uniforms are colourful they are uniform, ie all of one side will be painted much the same.

[vtsaogames]

Contrast paints are quick but they are pretty expensive.  I find washes made with  medium or simply diluted with water do much the same.

Hmm, my ancient period nickname is Pennius Pinchus... I pile up surplus budget when playing Decline and Fall.

[Chillyray]

I like DBN, Valour and Fortitude also looks promising, and is free? As I will be playing mostly solo I need something fairly simple. Also have Commands and Colours on order! I have receantly started Napoleonics again, after a gap of many years, and have gone with worlord`s epic scale. Its all Waterloo so far, but I am hoping for some Austrians. I really like the figures. They are characterful yet modeled to that small scale for easier painting.  I`m amazed at the detail of the sculpts. I have reduced the base sizes to suit playing on a small table.

[Frostie]

I would look at 10mm Pendraken their ranges are great and paint up very well.  You can quickly assemble very good collections.

I, unfortunately have 15mm for my Napoleonics but if I were to start again I would go 10mm

[Napoleon]

I use 15mm for my Napoleonics. For skirmish games I use 28mm. For Napoleonic battles I think 15mm is the best compromise between numbers of figures and ability to see those magnificent uniforms! For periods with more drab or more uniform uniforms I would go smaller (probably 6mm)
for large scale battles (ACW or later). Hussars and Carabiniers had the best uniforms ever. I want to see them.

Basing: whatever you do, base all your units the same. I made the mistake of following the recommendations from "Napoleon's Battles" basing most infantry on 3/4" x 1" bases but lights and brits on 1" x 1". Stupid. That rules also recommends putting 4 cavalry on a base in 2 ranks. I am so glad I didn't do that! I would just avoid "Napoleon's Battles" completely BTW, IMO those rules are awful!

Rules: I am currently using Blucher. very nice for big battles. You can buy playing card armies for this one to get you started. They are easy.

[Frostie]

For me, I have 15mm Naps based on the Russia invasion of 1812.  If I was to start all over again I would go 10mm.  I use 60x40mm bases 4 to a battalion for foot and one base per squadron for cavalry. 

Rules wise Black Powder or General D'Armee 2 when it comes out.

[Old Contemptable]

I have made it a rule that certain size conflicts with huge battles are played in 15 mm. That way I have more space to create larger battles. This would include ACW, FPW, and Napoleonics. For smaller conflicts with mostly small battles, I do those in 28mm. This would include AWI, colonial, and War of 1812.

It's not just the figures but the terrain features. 28mm buildings can take up a tremendous amount of space. Then there is the expense of the larger figures, buildings, and other terrain. It is much easier to store 15mm figures as they take up so little space compared to 28mm.

As for figures smaller than 15mm. My eyesight doesn't support 15mm anymore let alone anything smaller. When it comes to 6mm and smaller much more effort should put into the terrain as the figures are just too small to see, at least for some of us.

[Timmo]

Unless you can afford to have figures painted for you the biggest challenge you face in realising this project is the sheer amount of time it takes to paint Napoleonic figures, let alone large armies for two different theatres.

I’d suggest you order some sample figures in a range of different sizes (6,10,18 and 28mm) and paint them. That should tell you which you are most likely to succeed in mass producing. Although you’ll probably speed up you can roughly work out how long it’ll take you to paint a table top unit.

This might be the critical factor. If you can only paint 30 figures a month it’s going to take you many years to build up large forces. At this point you’ll also know what size figures you enjoying painting the most. Make your other decisions around this.

I spent a lot of time up front working through all this stuff before settling on rules, scale and scope.