"Foundry Napoleon Rules £4.99" Topic

Just got back from Lakeside Shopping centre in Essex and 'the works' book shop has the rules for £4.99. About 4 left on the shelf in the history section.

That's £4.99 GBP too much.

That bad, huh?

yep

worst edited book Ive seen in a long while, and very basic rules.

Lots of better sets around.

Frank Chadwick must be laughing in his beer. they turned an option on his Volley and Bayonet down to produce that pile of ####.

Lo, how far Foundry has fallen. Now if you could only get figure packs at that discount…

Allen

Now that'd be the ticket!

Hi

Putting the rules to one side (I have never played them), the book is worthy of £5.00 GBP IMO – jeez: people subscribe/buy games magazines that cost that much and are often hit and miss in relation to the buyers zone of interest.
If Napoleonics are a period that interests you there is a fair amount of information in the book.

"Frank Chadwick must be laughing in his beer. they turned an option on his Volley and Bayonet down to produce that pile of ####."

That was indeed a missed opportunity.

It may be worth buying it at that price for the pictures and the army information, but beyond that, there's a good reason they're being sold at a deep discount…no body wants them. (Yes I own the rules -- they are so poorly written, have huge gaps in logic, and there's no way they were decently playtested.)

Yes I also bought the rules. I agree they are maybe worth £5.00 GBP for the photos and the army information.

Actually played a couple of games with the rules. My conclusion was that the sequence of play and the morale system had not been worked thru. The command system fell apart as soon as a brigade had lost a unit as commands become more difficult to issue. Very important as you even have to order troops to fire.

Needed much more playtesting. There was not much obvious support from Foundry. But thanks for the nice download of Russian flags.

Tough crowd………

I bought it for the photos and Army information, could give a less about the rules…….

Tough crowd………

I bought it for the photos and Army information, could give a Bleeped text less about the rules…….

Controversial. I bought my copy of the rules for the rules…

Wonderful, thanks for sharing…..

I don't think that Frank Chadwick and Foundry were ever destined to be a good match. Their styles are just way too different.

I hope he walked away with some money, though, since they wasted years of his time.

Wonderful, thanks for sharing…..

You started it. Do you often buy books for the purpose other than they were intended?

The purpose I bought it for suits me just fine; didn't realize there was some sort of "buy it for the purpose for which it was intended or don't buy it all" condition you had to sign off on prior to purchasing it.

I don't think that Frank Chadwick and Foundry were ever destined to be a good match. Their styles are just way too different.

Which may explain this:

TMP link

The purpose I bought it for suits me just fine; didn't realize there was some sort of "buy it for the purpose for which it was intended or don't buy it all" condition you had to sign off on prior to purchasing it.

Fair enough, but I'm pretty certain that these were marketed as wargames rules and not a uniform reference book as their primary purpose.

I understand what you are saying on this and from a gaming perspective, I am sure it is disappointing to buy them specifically for the rules and then not have them be what you thought they were.

Sorry for that…….

I sold mine on ebay soon after buying and got a good price for them. But for £5.00 GBP I'd probably buy them again for the pictures and other non-rules stuff in there.

I understand what you are saying on this and from a gaming perspective, I am sure it is disappointing to buy them specifically for the rules and then not have them be what you thought they were.

Sorry for that…….

No worries. The trouble with forum exchanges is it can take a couple of responses before you realise that you're on parallel rather than opposing tracks. Luckily I didn't make too much of a loss on my resale and being as I'd read it in the meantime it felt like a fair deal. I think if I had kept the book it would have been as a coffee table feature, because to the uninitiated it at least portrays wargaming in a good light.

I'd buy them for a fiver. As the man said, you can pay that for a magazine. So I rushed off to my nearest Works at lunchtime, but nothing to be seen. Did what I should have done first, and checked The Works website. No trace. Have I missed my chance already? Has somebody bought them all up to sell them on??

Old Bear; agreed 100% about the couple of exchanges sometimes being necessary to get on the same page.

Glad we did and it did not ramp up to the point where one of us ended up in the dawghouse (no doubt it would have been me).

Thanks again for understanding………

Glad we did and it did not ramp up to the point where one of us ended up in the dawghouse (no doubt it would have been me).

Don't count on it brother. I have my own baseball and glove in there.

Sorry to hear that, I avoid being there as much as possible, sometimes these things can't be helped…………………

There is a fair amount of info in the book….but it mixes reality with the needs of the game without making it clear which you are reading. The Prussian army organisation being nothing like….

I agree that it isn't worth the paper it's printed on. Terrible rules and poorly written. I tried to play several games and it was just bad all around. Foundry has no mechanism in place to support the rules they release and the author's seem equally disinterested in supporting their rules. Just a total FUBAR situation all around.

And I wouldn't buy Napoleon for the pictures either --- the miniatures look like a blind walrus painted them. Weak rules, weak pictures, weak history, poor organizations – but it can keep you warm for a bit if you burn it in the fire place :-)

Buy Republic to Empire (from the League of Augsburg) if you want a solid and well written set of playable Napoleonic miniature rules.

Just got a copy off ebay at a reasonable price. I like the divisional organization. The rules might be usable in part. The modelling parts are worth the price I paid as well. Again it is usable to cobble it together with some other simple rules with the divisional organization. Something good can come out of it I think.

Do you really want to base a set of rules on some that are 'useable in part'? I'm just thinking that maybe starting with a set holding more promise if you want to do some tinkering.

Possibly the worst set of rules that I have ever bought (except for anything written by Phil Barker).

That's unfair on Phil. His prose may be impenetrable, but he has produced some darn good rules (DBx excepted). His first edition 1925 to 1950 set were our WWII rules of choice for many years. Ditto first edition moderns 1950 – 1985.

Foundry's 'Napoleon' on the other hand sucks donkey

That's unfair on Phil. His prose may be impenetrable, but he has produced some darn good rules (DBx excepted). His first edition 1925 to 1950 set were our WWII rules of choice for many years. Ditto first edition moderns 1950 – 1985.

Likewise the 1685-1845 were the mainstay of the UK clubs I was in for something like +20 years.

I sold my 'Signe' copy for $20.00 the other day. I feel guilty for ripping the guy off,…
I did say the rules were naff however. I suspect he just wanted it for the eye candy.

DBA is one of the best and most influential (and imitated) set of rules ever produced, and Phil Barker wrote those.
He's written a *lot* of good sets of rules over the years.
More than any of his critics, I'll bet :-)

I agree Thil Barker and his rules, DBA in particular, have been very influential – for good or bad I leave to individual opinion.

But can one really say that rules written in 'impenetrable prose' are 'darn good'? Surely, such prose risks misinterpretation, so that what wargamers play may not be the rules as intended? Off-putting prose may also discourage potential players from actuall completing reading the rules and playing them…

It was only when he tried to write around the rules lawyers that he fell over. There are very few ambiguities in his earlier rules. The ones I mentioned are easy to follow, even for a thick like me :)