"Napoleonic Campaign Rules Recommendations" Topic

I have a copy of the Empire Campaign Set designed to work with Empire III. I also have Bruce Quarrie's book which gives a general framework necessary for designing a campaign rules set.

What else is out there?

Is anyone actually using any rules to play campaigns?

Cheers,

The Bandit

One option is the block games from Columbia Games. Another is the campaign rules for Corps Command 3.0 from Hoplite Research.

I have seen where guys have used the Kevin Zucker board games as a basis for Napleonic campaigns.

napoleongames.com/games.html

VR
James Mattes

We've been using 'Napoleon at Bay' simplified to an area movement system

link

If I had to start again though I would find a slghtly more simple boardgame and use the rules as written. I've been looking at some games from Vae Victis that look like they may be the right level of complexity, Boardgame Geek is down at the moment so I can't link.

I took part in a campaign using Empire Campaign set some years ago and the bookeeping for the umpire looked like a full time job – well worth it though.

For a simple, yet very stimulating game, try Paddy Griffith's Generalship game from Napoleonic Wargaming For Fun [Ward Lock, 1980, but republished by John Curry in the History of Wargaming Project] and fight the battles with your preferred tactical rules and figures.

Piquet 'Theatre of War' are good.

link

Sam Mustafa's 'La Grand Guerre' are good (and free)

Hi Dexter, do you have a link ?

"Empires in Arms" is a good basis for an "all of Europe" campaign

Take a look at Malcolm's campaign rules and maps.

murat.ca

I believe Empires and Arms was made into a PC multiplayer game a couple of years ago.

Matrix games, I think.

The design was such that you could have it spit out orbats in a couple of rule system formats rather than letting the computer generate your battle results, and then return the result once you had played the game.

if you were minded for a whol of europe campaign, that would be worht looking at.

For a specific theatre campaign, I understand that the Kevin Zucker gmaes are excellent for this as pieces match easily to most good rule sets.

A lot depends on how much logistics you want to see and how big the scale of battle is.

There is this one that seems pretty straightforward, adaptable (and is free!).

link

Empires in Arms for computer makes a really great campaign engine. You can resolve battles for both land and sea engagements using either the game engine or using miniatures. Play by e-mail is convenient and keeps the campaign going even when folks can't get together for turns as needed for a typical board game.

Here's a link to the page:

link

One glitch in the miniatures resolution option is that you can't choose to resolve blockade running as a miniatures battle. Regular sea engagements yes, but trying to run a blockade, no. Other than that, it works very well. EIA campaigns work best with at least 4 players. The AI can be assigned to any of the powers, but the more actual human players you have, but more fun it is.

If you just want a 2 player game, the Campaigns on the Danube computer game (also from Matrix) is another one that has the possibility for miniatures resolution built in. Campaigns on the Danube has a very interesting hidden movement/fog of war feature that makes things quite challenging.

Malcolm's campaign rules and maps look excellent. It is a shame that online system is not available to a broader audience as it would allow for groups to self-host an instance and run some very interesting and exciting games.

Does anyone have a link to Sam Mustafa's 'La Grand Guerre' for me to take a look?

The campaign rules from the Shako group: Marching to Glory, look very adaptable though I am a nut for a nice map and so would likely try using Malcolm's maps with this.

For all the endless piles of tabletop Napoleonic choices campaign rules seem in a relatively short supply.

Regardless, these do give me a few ideas to build from.

Does anyone have experience with practical double-blind models that do not require an umpire?

The Empire Campaign system has a double-blind system but I find it impractical. The Shenandoah Campaign System for ACW has a pretty decent double-blind model but for those who are familiar I don't think it would necessarily scale well to the geographic areas commonly disputed during Napoleonic campaigns. Maybe I am wrong about this. Malcalm's maps could certainly be reworked to be used with it, perhaps with the addition of supply line rules combined from Marching to Glory and Bruce Quarrie.

For those who run campaigns, have any of you sourced your own maps? Finding historical maps that include roads seems quite difficult though I have yet to spend a Saturday at the local university map library.

Cheers,

The Bandit