Saturday, 5 January 2013
Napoleonic Problems.
Well I tried out the rules 'About Bonaparte' - and found them not for me ! - sadly . There is nothing wrong with the rules , they are quick and relatively simple to use, BUT not Old School !. If I may explain my problems with my Napoleonic armies (I will be laying down on a couch whilst typing this and will have a bearded Freudian gentleman taking notes ) , my 28mm Napoleonics were bought on mass from Foundry when they did army and unit deals and were to be used for Grant's Napoleonic Wargaming rules . The problem was that I found that his Napoleonic rules were not as good as his Horse & Muskets set , the morale rules do not seem to work and the combat systems for hand to hand clashes are a bit cumbersome , the shooting rules are straight forward enough but I ended up disillusioned with them and mothballed my figures. I do believe General De Brigade rules give a good Napoleonic game and I have played them successfully in the past ,but for solo play they are rather slow and there are a lot of rules to remember - and they are not O.S. ! .What I want is single based figures , big battalions , simple rules that can be remembered easily , are conducive to solo play and give a quick decisive game!. So my quest goes on- I will look again at the Grant Napoleonic rules and maybe try grafting on a simple morale system onto them .
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Have a look at Featherstones Horse and Musket rules, definitely Old School, simple, and easyily tweaked.
ReplyDeleteI use them for ACW with minimal changes.
Jim
Will be giving them a look
DeleteI'm sorry you were disappointed by the rules, both for your sake and because I was hoping you would post a detailed description/analysis that might help me decide whether to try them.
ReplyDeleteThese days, I'm wary of spending what little hard-earned money I can spare for wargaming on rules that may prove unsatisfying - but will happily experiment with those on freewargamesrules, for the obvious reason!
Will be investigating the free wargaming rules scene
DeleteWell I have a beard if that adds weight to my words. There is an OSW set of rules whose authors say that they were based on the late 18th¢ ie early Napoleonic and indeed were used for the Peninsula by one author (Lawford) and referred to as Napoleonic by the other (Young). I refer of course to Charge! I have certainly seen them used in somevery nice Peninsula games and one can't ask for a better set of rules.
ReplyDeleteI find it interesting that gamers seem to associate certain OS rules with specific periods ie - Featherstone = ACW, Grant = SYW when in fact their rules cover a much larger era ie - 1700 to 1900 or Horse and Musket so I will be investgating their possibilities further
DeleteAnother option could be "Playable Napoleonic Wargames" by B. Edwards.
ReplyDeleteI have a copy of these and mean to read them again.
DeleteThe quest for the Holy Grail that is the 'perfect Napoleonic rule set' continues. Will anyone ever find the mythical set?
ReplyDeleteI'm afraid not !
Deletesingle figure based? Napoleonic? What really is 'old school'?
ReplyDeleteIf you want such a system, that will satisfy your needs, writing it may be the best option.
- OR -
KREIGSPEIL
Tell the story of the game yourself!
if it is a solo game, who else will know?
Some simple 'quick contests' are all you need to use for shooing or morale (a 3d6 system using bell curves centered at 11.5 allows you to set the 'values' for the troops that YOU WANT).
Example: French Guard Infantry morale 16, shoot 16 save 14
shot at by British Guard Infantry morale 15 shoot 16 save 15
Shoot roll = 12 (hit it was under the 16 shoot skill), French save 10 = save the hit (since it was under the 14)
Range: muskets 6", horse arty cannister 15" ball out to 20", foot arty cannister 18" ball out to 36" (make the roll by 1-4 only 1 hit, 4-8 2 hits, 8+ 3 hits) +2 to roll if within 9' of target for horse, +4 for foot. -6 if horse battery unlimbered in same move as firing.
Movement: 6" line, 9" column for foot double for limbered foot or horse artillery, triple for horse, 4x for light horse (or cossacks) road move = 1 extra move (cannot attack from road move bonus)
Leadership: units at 20% casualties (conscript), 25% (trained), 30% (line), 35% (Elite), 40% (Guard) must roll versus morale (with leadership of any 'special' leaders modifying the roll) then again must roll every 5% (conscript, trained) or 10% (Line, Elite, Guard) after the first roll - or to continue to move into contact with enemy.
Simple Win? 30% total casualties, get there first, you loose.
Need to 'order' the movement? Roll 3d6 for each 'unit', the lowest score moves first, then so on ... each turn is about 20-30 mins, with 12-18 castings per battalion, 8 per squadron, 3 'gunners' per gun "battery".
Everything else is chrome, and you do not need it for the solo game.
Interesting concepts !
DeletePerfect Napoleonics is a hard one - there will always be compromises. I think it boils down to what sort of battles do you want to play ?
ReplyDeleteThe search goes on and I need to analyse what I want from these games.
DeleteYou could also take a look at G. Gush Horse and Musket rules
ReplyDelete(those from the book "A Guide to Wargaming")I think they could be adapted to play Napoleonics.
Slightly more complex than Edwards´s.
Regards, Cesar.
Will give those a look as well
DeleteI have the Barry Edwards and they are well worth a look.
ReplyDeleteCharge sounds a fun option too.
best wishes
Alan
Hunting for my Barry Edwards rules in my somewhat chaotic bookshelves.
DeleteCharge! is a wonderfull set of rules, but as it uses Simultaneous movement with written orders, I think that it would not adapt very well for solo-playing. What do you think?
DeleteHave adapted Grant's'The Wargame' rules (which uses written orders and sim mov) by using drawn playing cards to motivate units individualy so the same system could probably used for 'Charge'
DeleteThat is very interesting! Could you please tell me more about your card system?
DeleteYou have assigned a color to each side or every unit has its own card?
Not really my system 'borrowed' it from
Deletehttp://littlejohnslead.blogspot.co.uk/2009/01/grants-wargame-rules-variations-for.html
Thank you very much for the Link.
DeleteHi,
ReplyDeleteI'm the author of "About Bonaparte".
Always looking for comments that can help me for improving the rule.
Must say it works really well in our club. The club is growing, people liking the fst and simple.
Cheers
Dirk
Latest gam:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omrKUJJFBm8
I dont think there is anything wrong with your rules at all - just not what I am looking for , thanks for your interest , Cheers Tony
Delete