Help Me Find a Set of Napoleonic Rules

[Melnibonean]

Greetings Folks,

I've played Napoleonics since the late 70's with periods of play interspersed with breaks of various lengths of time.
Since about 2005 I've played a set of homegrown club rules and decided to go back to them this year but the few games I've had have seen me grow more and more disillusioned with them.

So I'm looking for a new set of rules... And please DO NOT recommend Black Powder. I want a good set of rules that depicts the period.

What I'm after is a set of rules that uses battalions/cav regiments/batteries as the main tactical units. I like big battalions so something with battalions of 20+ figures. Something that has a reasonable amount of detail but not over the top.

Rules sets I've considered:

Shako/ShakoII
Lasalle
Republic to Empire
General de Brigade
Ye Olde Bruce Quarrie rules...

Any recommendations on the above or any others I've not heard of are welcome.

[Hitman]

What about "Sharpe Practice" by Two Fat Lardies?

I wrote a set of skirmish rules called "Green Jackets and Voltigeurs" for the Peninsular War, however, as stated, it is a skirmish rule set. If interested you can check out my website here:

http://www.battlefieldgamedesigns.com/

Regards,
Hitman
 

[General]

How about "Muskets and Shakos" by Two Hour Wargames http://www.twohourwargames.com/muandsh.html

or "Le Feu Sacre" by also by Too Fat Lardies  http://toofatlardies.co.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=55&zenid=37f3d7189086a0da7338613a8b9074d9

[Nikfu]

GdB. Smooth System that refects the period in a wonderful Way. Based on historical "facts" without too many Details that would Slow the Game Down. And its 1:20 ratio, meaning that your battalions will be on the larger side....

[Sendak]

The rules already mentioned will work. You may find a maze of choices out there.

I chose Napoleon at War (NaW) for the mechanics and getting a game going, meaning ease of introduction of the game to newbs and leveraging that with convenience for the uninitiated. I found a bevy of players but they were locked into their rules; it wasn't for me, so I set to action building my own base of players.  

NaW plays like / in a similar fashion /as a close relative to a famous WWII game, Flames of War. Yes and no, but that is beyond the scope of this post. As is my usual practice, I have both French and Allies.

I found some WWII apostles who gave NaW a go in a small demo game. In six months I played six times. An improvement over my previous tallie of twice in a year.

I don't think I lost a lot of 'history' in the process, however NaW isn't light on history so much. So I almost got stuck in the morass of historicity vs playability. I spent a lot of time looking for a rules set but not playing Napoleonics (our local lingo for the 'game').

Some 'finds' in my Google-werk.....

Napoleon At War: Source
http://www.manatwar.es/?p=157

A nice Blog View:

http://sgtsteiner.blogspot.com/2011/12/napoleon-at-war-playtest.html

A Vid:



Best of luck!

[Sheerluck Holmes]

March Attack from Crusader Publishing maybe?

http://www.crusaderpublishing.com/MarchAttack.php

The link has some examples to look over at the bottom of the page.

 And it wont break the budget to see if you like the rules or not.

[Melnibonean]

Thanks for the suggestions folks. After a bit more investigation I've decided to try out General de Brigade.
I like the basing and from what I gather it is fairly detailed and leans towards early Napoleonic gaming styles.

Cheers,
IanKH

[Fuzzywuzzieswiflasers]

Ian I have the Seven Years War variant of General d brigade called Die Kriegkunst.
system looks quite good and certainly of the battalion/squadron/battery scale.
The battalion size is normally 16-24 figures so maybe a tad large compared to Cold Steel.

I could never get excited about Cold Steel. 8 Figure Russian battalions just doesn't look to me like Napoleonic gaming.

Cheers
Fuzzy.

[Fuzzywuzzieswiflasers]

You could always break out the bounce stick and go all old school with Charles Grant.
 


Actually I have thought of modifying Grant's rules to make casualty determination simpler while still retaining the fun old school bounce sticks and canister templates.

Fuzzy.

[Melnibonean]

Fuzzy,

After years of full on Napoleonic gaming I've only played a few Nap games in the past couple of years and this year I decided to get back into it. However, having now played a few games of Cold Steel this year my new enthusiasm has been seriously curbed (especially with the game I played on Saturday).

An after game a chat with Fly (who had a similar reaction last year) he put forward the idea of moving toward old school 70's type Napoleonics. From some of the reviews I read concerning GdB it has that 70's/80's flavour but with a range of modern concepts and playability added. This is what attracted me.

I also thought of the 24+ figure battalions and thought it might also interest yourself and others who prefer the big battalion aesthetic. I'm also like big battalions but my figures were based for Cold Steel so I stuck with it. However, I've started painting up new 28mm French with a couple of Wurttemberg regiments in the post so now is a good time to start on a new Napoleonic system.

[Nikfu]

Gents, i Play "die kriegskunst", too and again i think it manages to bring the Feeling for the period on the table in a splendit Way (a Second Edition would be nice though as there are some editing mistakes). But Keep in mind that GdB uses a 1:20 Ratio while DKK is into 1:40. which is great at all cause it gives you bigger battalions 
Ian, i dont think that you have to worry about the basing in GdB. As basing according Company numbers is encouraged (but obviously not mandatory) different armys have different Base Sizes anyway. (And, to my humble opinion, the Big "Base size" Question in HTT is treated with Way to much respect at all)

[Melnibonean]

Hi Nikfu,

The problem with my current figures is that the battalions a small (9 to 12 figures) because of the rules I've been using. Also they are 20mm and I want to do 28mm. So, because I'm starting 28mm and because I'm not happy with the rules I've been using I may as well do things in a way that members of my club are going to use.

GdB is 1:20 and that lets me make nice big 36 figure French battalions. All I want to do is a division so this won't be too hard and should look very nice when they are finished.

[sgallagher]

I have played black powder ( sorry) , great 1. 1/2  hour game, hate the movement system tho played napoleonic at war n liked the rules much better. Will try brigade, I have 28mm does it work for 28mm?

[black hat miniatures]

I have moved over to Field of Battle 2 from Piquet for my Napoleonics games after playing Quarrie for many years and then taking a break from napoleonics.  I have sinc tried:

Shako, Lasalle, Waterloo, FOG:N, Neil Thomas, and some others that I forget.

Field of Battle gives me the command and control style I like (unpredictable but not TOO unpredictable) and can easily to tailored for scenario play.

I am using 4 stands of 6 figures to a unit in 15mm and like the look, probably going to 5 stands for my Austrians.

Mike

[Nikfu]

GdB is 1:20 and that lets me make nice big 36 figure French battalions. All I want to do is a division so this won't be too hard and should look very nice when they are finished.

1 Division is about the right size for a nice game, looks good on the table  and is good for the "painting-morale" 
Maybe you want to add some cavalry for increased gaming and painting pleasure.

Will try brigade, I have 28mm does it work for 28mm?

Yep, GdB works perfectly fine with 28mm. Only thing is, for larger battles you will need...larger tables