"Snappy Nappy, first game" Topic

Played our first "Snappy Nappy" game last night. It was a simple scenario set in Italy in 1809. The Austrians deployed 2 corps, each consisting of an advance guard division of a Grenz brigade, an infantry brigade and a light cavalry brigade. The second division consisted of two infantry brigades. Each corps had two 6# artillery units. A dragoon brigade and a horse artillery battery were added as a reserve. According to the stated scales each of these corps would represent 16,000 infantry, 1500 cavalry and 48 guns. In game terms the corps consisted of 8stands of infantry, two stands of cavalry and two stands of artillery. The French force was equivalent, with two corps of two divisions of two brigades, with attached cavalry and artillery. In "Snappy Nappy" each brigade or unit of cavalry or infantry consists of two stands, which allows the players to represent simple formations or as the author of the rules has referred to them as "stances" or possibly postures. Line, column, square and road column are the only formations, but this is more than adequate taking into consideration the scale of the game.

That scale is what requires players to make a mental adjustment, each turn is an hour and an inch is 150 yds. One is far more concerned with the broad sweep of action not the minutiae covered by other sets of rules.

The game started well and the author is absolutely correct when he says that these rules have a short learning curve. Movement and combat are very straight forward and easy to comprehend. Infantry can only fire 1 inch which did not go over to well with one of the players, but once again it makes sense within the game scale, and would be easily adjusted, by doubling the range and halving the effect at long range. Artillery is critically important, as fire is not simultaneous and "hits" result in morale checks. Which brings us to what I believe is a unique morale system. One rolls morale checks until one passes or routs from the table. The first hit one of my units took resulted in 4 rolls, a retreat from the battleline, a fourfold reduction in morale status and a desperate final roll to save the unit. Makes for high drama. If there was any question about these rules it came up during close combat, and that was only because some modifiers apply by stand and some by unit, after a couple of combats this was no longer an issue.

The game itself resulted in a French pinning attack in the center and a sweep around the Austrian right flank. After two hours of play, only 2 or 3 units had actually been removed from the table but most of one of the Austrian corps was in poor morale status and slowly began to withdraw, resulting in a French victory.

Nothing but positive comments around the table, and the game was apparently enjoyable enough for us to schedule another one next week.

Played a solo game here and quite enjoyed it for much the same reasons you stated above.

Product works as advertised : )

Russ Lockwood stopping in at Dennis' shop here…Dennis has already run through the first printing and has reordered for Historicon.

Thank you both for your kind comments about Snappy Nappy. I'm pleased you enjoyed the game, especially with the comments:

"Nothing but positive comments around the table, and the game was apparently enjoyable enough for us to schedule another one next week"

and…

"quite enjoyed it for much the same reasons you stated above. Product works as advertised : )"

I can't really add much to that!

Glad the game flowed and more importantly, the players figured out the rules quickly.

Russ

I just ordered it. Lots of 15s in the closet that want to get out and play…

I'm getting ready to run Marengo next week. One thing I noticed is the points system. I'm not a big fan of points systems, but this one has two things that seem off. Light cavalry and heavy cavalry cost the same – maybe the superior mobility makes up for increased fighting power? Artillery all costs the same, light, medium and heavy. In these rules the heavy artillery is way more potent than the light.

I mostly set up historical scenarios, but playtesters wanted a points system, so I sat down and figured out a simple system based on all those years of gaming and what occurred when forces met.

The light cav and heavy cav were basically a wash, with players generally preferring light cav because it could move faster to threaten/turn flanks…so I made it a wash points wise.

Regarding artillery, well, I admit I succumbed to player pressure -- they all wanted to use 12-pounders and would pay extra to make sure they had them. Lower points for 6 and 8 pdrs? Lower still for 3/4 pdrs? They took 12s. As for horse artillery, greater movement was sort of a wash with foot artillery (like light cav vs. heavy cav). So, I just made artillery cost all the same, figuring the players would take the big guns anyway…

Russ

Sounds like a good system.

Thanks, Don. 15 years of playtesting with gamers of all experience levels has banged out all the problems.

I am looking forward to picking up a copy at Historicon.

Thanks. At Historicon, you can pick them up at the On Military Matters booth (first booth you come to when you walk down the stairs). I'll also have some at my booth if you want Snappy Nappy autographed. :)

Remember that each purchase (phone, online, or at the show) comes FREE with the matching music CD (background music for painting or gaming) and an issue of Napoleon 17 (with all its marvelous historical info color illustrations). While supplies last and I'm making sure I bring the boxes to Historicon.

I picked up my copy at Hcon09, played my 1st game there on Thursday night (Thanks Russ!) and am hooked. We played a corps-level battle with 6 mostly new players in about 1 3/4 hours (including teaching session). To be fair it wasn't quite to conclusion because a couple of players (I think) needed to leave but conclusion would've taken another half-hour at most.

My impressions: The rules flowed very quickly; the turn sequence, at first glance, makes you think "This is going to be a real grinder" but my fears were groundless, the game moving along at a smart pace. After about a turn 90% of what I thought about was what I wanted to do on the table, not how to do it per the rules.

The battle was a bit of a nail-biter, with several turns of fortune for each side. My flank (I was French fighting Austrians) threatened to collapse completely but the opportune routing of a key Austrian brigade opened a hole in their line and then it was their turn to fall back.

The game was fast but that doesn't equate (as it often does elsewhere) to flavorless, i.e. I didn't feel as if I'd just played a game of DBA. I've played other Napoleonic games using brigade-sized maneuver units. SN gets high marks from me because it doesn't bog down in the sort of pseudo-tactical-detail that would be more properly addressed in a battalion-level game that I've seen in other games at this scale, play is very intuitive and smooth-flowing, and most of all, it is fun!

Thank you for your kind words and I am pleased that you enjoyed the game at Historicon.

I especially enjoyed your comment that "After about a turn 90% of what I thought about was what I wanted to do on the table, not how to do it per the rules."

That's the "Subtle" part of the rules and the most difficult thing to capture on the tabletop. Philosophically, every time you have to flip through rules looking for a paragraph to do something, it breaks the flow of the game. The more you make rules intuitive, the more time you spend solving battle challenges, not rules mechanics challenges.

>"play is very intuitive and smooth-flowing, and most of all, it is fun!"

That's what I like in a wargame, and that's what I hope Snappy Nappy brings to the tabletop.

FYI: For those wanting a copy of Snappy Nappy, you can order directly from On Military Matters (www.onmilitarymatters.com) or for Europe, order from Caliver Books (www.caliverbooks.com).

Thank's for the AAR.