Napoleonic Era Gaming

[TheWeasel]

So... Hello!
I am relatively (ok, very) new to this forum. I have recently begun to work on building up a French Napoleonic force. Pictures will follow when I can find my digital camera cable.

So—I am wondering: does Napoleonic era belong on this forum? If so, does it go under swashbuckling or colonialism?

Does anyone know of any good rulesets for 25-28mm games?
(For the time being, I am running it as Empire in Warhammer Fantasy)

[keeper]

Shako II is quite good, although I confess to only ever having played one game of it.

[Lowtardog]

Depending on what scale you are looking at gaming

Skirmish - Sharp Practice

Large battles - SHako2 or General De Brigade

[Plynkes]

Big battle gaming comes under neither Swashbuckling nor Colonial (though Wellington in India is perfectly welcome in Colonial as far as I'm concerned). The place for stuff that doesn't have its own place is Other Adventures.


But, heroic actions by small bands of individuals such as Brigadier Gerard, Sharpe or Hornblower are definitely in the swashbuckling mode, and I don't think anyone would object to things of that nature going on this board. At least, those are my thoughts on the subject. Moderator Pete may have other ideas, and it's his call here.

[Mad Doc Morris]

I've posted my Sharpe games here in the Swashbuckling area, but mainly due to bad information.
Don't think we are hard on such rules round here.

Anyway, there are lots of possibilities in gaming the Napoleonic era - and even more rules you could use! It really depends on your taste.
Personally I've adapted Rattrap's Gloire for small skirmishes with around 2 to 10 figures per side, focussing on heroic actions as described in the Sharpe novels/films. Sharp Practice isn't my cup of tea, but it has also a strong roleplaying aspect and is made for a bigger scale with whole units (of 10 to 50 miniatures).

I'm an absolute noob with Napoleonic warfare, so no recommendations for rule sets with a more tactical approach. Best to look for what is preferred by the (potential) player's in your area.

[Aaron]

I'll second Sharp practice. My group plays with about 100 figures a side and it goes amazingly well. I think it is intended more for 30-50 per side though.

Modified Gloire would be great as mentioned for acting out smaller "scenes". I bought "Song of Drums and Shakos" which is also intended for a small (@5-10) number of figures per side, but haven't played it yet.

If you are looking for mass battles Rick Preistly et al are due to release "Blackpowder Battles" soon I think. It sounds ideal for the miniature lover as you don't remove individual casualties so your lovingly painted figures get to stay out on the table longer.

[PeteMurray]

I've got no problem with people putting Napoleonics under Swashbuckling. 

[TheWeasel]

Thanks for the recommends. I will likely be keeping the game sizes down—I'm more interested in playing smaller adventures and intrigues as from Sharpe and the Patrick O'Brien series than recreating in miniature the battle of Austerlitz.
I'm currently creating a French Army contingent as OpFor for my Royal Navy landing party, and hopefully some 95th Rifles to oppose them.
Eventually, I'll swing it back around with some formation of British Infantry for small groups of daring french to skirmish with.
Maybe I'llget into games of 100 or so models per side, but that is currently a long way off.
Hopefully i'll be able to post pictures soon!

[Rich J]

I too have Sharp Practice but find it hard to play without a GM and takes a while - so we use Song of Drums and Shakos from the same guys as do the Song of Blades and Heroes - easy to get into and play and lets you play those small patrol scenarios or a small part of a bigger battle. We use between 10 and 20 figures a side in a normal game and they last about an hour so you can get a few in in an evening etc.

There is a game report I did in their free webzine 'Free Hack' if you want to know how the mechanics work etc. You can download it for free from:
http://www.lulu.com/content/5241226

Good game and great with the new Victrix and Perry plastic 28mm (especially the Victrix as you can make all thefigures different etc)

Rich J

[Malamute]

A suggestion for playing skirmishes involving 50 -100 or so figures would be Brother Against Brother. Whilst they are nominally aimed at the ACW they include rules for the C18th - early C19th with fliintlock muskets etc.

Its a fun set and easy to play with ten figure units, we have played with up to 150 per side.

I own Sharp Practise, but so far have not managed to read through the rules and get my head around playing them....let alone play a game.(I picked them up to use for the Alamo period, which is what we use BAB for.

Anyway, good luck with your Napoleonic skirmishes, looking forward to seeing some pictures. Its certainly a painters dream period with all those gorgeous uniforms.

[meninobesta]

For small skirmishes we are planing to use Song of Drums and Shakos, the system appears to be very nice!

For bigger battles (the size of army corps, which is a scale that plays very nice for the Peninsular war) I've used shako and liked it. the overall system is very simple and fluid, and the overall look of the battle table is awesome because you have the divisions lined up but they are composed of several distinct battalions, other rules systems tend to represent a brigade with just a single unit and I really don't like that too much
but the game (in my opinion) has a major problem which is the small amount of dice you use to resolve an action, this leads to very lucky/unlucky situations, like a company of french legére infantry standing in front of a russian artillery batttery and winning the firefight, it's not that it couldn't happen or that the odds are wrongly calculated in the games system, it was just that the french player rolled high and the russian one rolled low!

With this in mind I've written a rules system for me and my friends to play at this scale (odly the system is based around blood-bowl)... this is what normally happens when you play napoleonics at this scale there are a lot of home brewed systems because the ones already available don't suit every player (Napoleonic players, me included, tend to be very picky with this period)

There are a lot of good rules systems for even bigger scale battles, but that's just too big for my cup of coffee (which stands for tea for the Portuguese folks)

[Gluteus Maximus]

A suggestion for playing skirmishes involving 50 -100 or so figures would be Brother Against Brother. Whilst they are nominally aimed at the ACW they include rules for the C18th - early C19th with fliintlock muskets etc.

Its a fun set and easy to play with ten figure units, we have played with up to 150 per side.

Yet again I agree with Malamute 

BAB is a fine set of rules, simple, fun and quick-play but very effective. It would be very easy to adapt to any black powder period. Ideal for company-sized games.

My favourite large-scale Napoleonic rules are Principles Of War Napoleonics. Our group has refought all the large battles from 1813-14 [including Leipzig] plus Waterloo, a combined Quatre Bras and Ligny on the same table, Borodino and most Peninsular battles at various shows and the results are almost invariably either similar to the originals or historically plausible. They can be played with any size of figures, from 2mm up to 28mm.

For small skirmishes, either Gloire or Song of Drums and Shakoes are my favourites.

Whatever rules you use, it's a great period to play in, even with all the anal-retentives that it attracts 

[Malamute]

A suggestion for playing skirmishes involving 50 -100 or so figures would be Brother Against Brother. Whilst they are nominally aimed at the ACW they include rules for the C18th - early C19th with fliintlock muskets etc.

Its a fun set and easy to play with ten figure units, we have played with up to 150 per side.

Yet again I agree with Malamute 

You know it makes sense

[Gluteus Maximus]

A suggestion for playing skirmishes involving 50 -100 or so figures would be Brother Against Brother. Whilst they are nominally aimed at the ACW they include rules for the C18th - early C19th with fliintlock muskets etc.

Its a fun set and easy to play with ten figure units, we have played with up to 150 per side.

Yet again I agree with Malamute 

You know it makes sense

It's ot often you can say that about my posts.......

[Malamute]

A suggestion for playing skirmishes involving 50 -100 or so figures would be Brother Against Brother. Whilst they are nominally aimed at the ACW they include rules for the C18th - early C19th with fliintlock muskets etc.

Its a fun set and easy to play with ten figure units, we have played with up to 150 per side.

Yet again I agree with Malamute 

You know it makes sense

It's ot often you can say that about my posts.......

You shouldn't put yourself down...Thats what we are here for.
Sorry for hijacking the thread.