"Need help choosing big battle (6mm) rules" Topic

Hi,

I've mostly played fantasy and sci fi games until recently. Have started some ancients painting and gaming, and now a friend and I are looking to the next project.

I've read about Grand Armee and Polemos online. Here's the general jist of what we are looking for.

1. larger base-elements. I wouldn't want to go much smaller than Grand Armee's 3x3 square.

2. 6mm models preferred

3. Our comfort zone would be games with army lists with points values. Historically accurate or not, we like being able to collect and army, and use that army many times. Neither of us is interested in having to buy and paint numerous "variety" units every time we play a different scenario.

4. We want games that can be played in an evening. I'm an employed father. My days of gaming all weekend are behind me.

Anyway, any advice based on experience would be helpful. I realize (as per a recent thread here) that there are literally hundreds of rulesets for this period.

Thanks,
JET

JET:

First, welcome to Napoleonic gaming.

Look at 'Fast Play Grande Armee'. They are also by Sam, they are on his web site and best of all, they are free. I've never played them but they have received very good reviews.

Here's the link:
sammustafa.com/fpga.html

Sincerely,
Dale Williams

You want Bigger bases then 3 x 3 ?????
VR
James Mattes

Impetus addicted ;-)

Hi Jet:

In general you'll find most games use bases about 1" x 1"

Volley & Bayonet and Grande Armee both use 3" squares bu they are the exception.

I'm not aware of any rule sets that use points though Grande Armee and most of the others have ways to translate from historical documents to game terms.

I'd strongly suggest Grande Armee only because it has good support and lots and lots of scenarios available for free download.

Grande Armee bases represent brigades, mostly (or large regiments or small divisions). Many Grande Armee (and FPGA) players, such as me, use 2x2" bases instead of the "regulation" 3x3", and alter the ranges accordingly. We do it because of restricted table space and or to reduce the number of figures needed, and or to allow for larger armies. Others even go to 1.5x1.5" (halving ranges) or some number of centimeters.

Polemos offers two sets of rules in one booklet: General de Division uses one rectangular base (you choose the size) per battalion; Marechal de l'Empire uses two such bases or one square base to represent a brigade. The latter could also be used for GA/FPGA, although they base artillery differently.

I second the suggestion that you dowload FPGA and read it over. If you like it, you might want to buy the real GA, if only to pay Sam back for the free FPGA.

PS: My impression is that most Napoleonics players do not go in for tournament-style point values. Most seem to start with an historic order of battle. This does not mean you are condemned to re-fighting the same battle over and over. It's just a way to build a realistic mix of forces.

My suggestion is Age of Eagles using the given stand size but using 6mm to get the massed quality. Of course the massed quality reflects my sense of visual style but the rules are quite nice and there is now a scenario booklet too.

Didn't the old WRG horse and musket rules have points values?

I can't remember and my copy is locked up somewhere.

Age of Eagles is good for large battles and as such you can base your troops how you want!! Also Field of Battle is a very good rule set which doesn't worry too much about basing..
As for 'points' I would just build a generic French, British, Russian, Austrian or Prussian army each and fight with equal(ish) forces( say 6 divisions each)……

I'd look at Shako. There's nothing to stop applying the concepts that gave a big battle variant to Shako 1 to Shako 2 although you can get a heck of a lot of stuff on the table at the level the rules are pitched

No points list as suych but there are "pick yup" lists with bonus selections.

You could accomdate your desired base size even using 6mm figures on one of the suggestions for 15mm bases. (I'm assuming your 3 x 3 is cm by cm)

You'd get you game over in an evening.

Didn't the old WRG horse and musket rules have points values?

Yes. It was e.g. 4 points for a trained, musket-armed infantry figure in line infantry units that were usually 16-figures strong. Making it a veteran added +1 point to its cost per figure.

Other than the points idea, I'd probably go with Fast Play Grand Armee first.

Both Polemos rules contain what they call an Army Generator for selecting realistic but somewhat random forces. I havent studied it because I'm not into that sort of thing. Maybe someone here knows how it works.

well, you guys have certainly given me some info to digest. I'm looking around. In the meantime I'll try to find some pics of the different basing sizes for 6mm to get an idea of the visual.

Thanks,
JET

IMO, Grande Armee is MUCH better than the fast play version. I'm not sure why there needed to be a "fast play" version since the rules are not that hard. :)

I do 6mm with Grande Armee. You can checkout some pics of our games if you go to the borodinoepic Yahoo group.

You could also have a look at Horse, Foot & Guns.

Being a Mr Barker production it naturally has points, plus you could use 6mm figs on 25mm sized bases if you want big bases.

Biggest battle I've used it for is the paired battles of Waterloo/Wavre.

link

It is free.

"Didn't the old WRG horse and musket rules have points values?"

Yes, but I'd hardly describe tham as a fast play big battle set.

I did fight Waterloo with them but we ran it at 1/3rd scale and it still took all weekend…..