"Warfare In The Age of Napoleon" Topic

So I did a search for this topic and what came up was pretty sparse. So what's the story on these rules? Anyone played them? Comments?

Well I have never played it but AOR is popular with some. Some reviews I have seen says that there isn't enough figures required and it diminishes the visual aspects of the period.

We're talking Kershner's Age of **Napoleon** here, not Age of **Reason**. I have a copy of AoN lying around somewhere. As I recall French were 4 bases of 6 figures (2 wide by 3 deep). Austrians were 4 bases of 9 figures (3x3). British 6 figures (3 wide by 2 deep). Mechanics sort of similar to AoR. I remember the author subscribed to the theory that melee's were best fought in line formation – you wanted to be wider than the enemy so you could lap 'round the flanks. You used attack column for speed to get to the enemy then switched to line. The rules just have very bare bones army iists (more like suggestions, really) and just for 1815. A couple of scenarios in the back like Quatre Bras but these were "genericised" (ie.. all units the same size, more of a generic representation of the battle than a detailed OOB). Charts in the back gave bases sizes for 2mm – 30mm figures but also stressed you could use any base size you already have. There is a separate scenario book you can buy that has historical scenarios throughout the Napoleonic period so if you were to get into these rules I'd get that in order to help you with pre-1815 army lists, etc..

I like the rules and use them for War of 1812 as well as Napoleonics. I have adapted them to allow for units with smaller numbers of figures without too much effort. While I've made many adaptations the core rules are a pretty straight forward and playable system, the exception being the skirmish rules which I'm still wrapping my head around, it doesn't help that some of the skirmish rules are missing! A couple of the rules seem rather arbitrary, for example Prussian Landwehr can only fight in column, but those can be ignored. There is an errata that is in the scenario book that has the missing skirmish rules (as well as rules for Cossacks) but as Dave Gamer says you'll have to put in some homework to make stats sometimes (although there are more army lists in the scenario book none of the scenerios are post 1812 and I play 1813-1815). The rules have proven popular at my local club.