"Anybody Play Unpopular/Obscure Rulesets" Topic

Hi TMP,

Went through the usual suspects:

FOB2
Grande Armee
BP
March Attack
LFS3
GdeB Deluxe
Rank and File
Shako
Songs of drums and shakos
Empire 3
Principles Of War
Napoleon at War
Fields of Glory Napoleonic
Valmy to Waterloo
And many more….

Is anybody playing any older or unheard of rulesets? I remember my dad had a copy of Pas de Charge and Tricolour WAY back in the day. Just wondering if anybody still plays these.

None of the above seem to get it ALL right. A search for the Holy Grail for sure.

Le General by Digby Green (c 1980-ish). Digby was a prolific NZ wargamer in the late 70s/early 80s then just sort of disappeared off the map. I still think his rules are the best for recreating Napoleonic battles of any I have seen.

Rather than you guessing, it might be better for you to figure out what you are looking for in a game.

Most of those rules touch on all of the aspects on Napoleonic Warfare. Some are fiddly or complex and others are easy and straight forward.

This is a subject where beauty is definitely in the eye of the beholder. I could give you a list of titles but I suspect you will be unhappy with all of them.

I suspect you would be better off just designing your own.

ELAN. Still the best IMO.

Column, Line and Square, the only rules that "get it ALL right."

Rick

I play Empire V for Dummies.

Column, Line and Square, there are still 24 of us playing on a regular basis and have 1 or 1 LARGE games a year.

I always thought "Tricorne" by Ken Bunger was the "Cat's Meow!" After all a cannon ball going though your lines will only kill so many guys.

There is But One True Napoleonic Ruleset! WRG 1685-1845! All Else is Heresy!

ELAN is an expansion of WRG 1685-1845 so not too unpalatable.

A schism rather than a full blown heresy.

And the rules are free: always a good price.

I play Uncle Duke's "Napoleonette." It plays like Empire Really Lite.

CLS rules at Deep Fried Happy Mice:

link

And in the spirit of reaching out once again: If anyone has anything CLS that is not at that URL or in the files at the yahoo group, please please submit them so that they can see the light of day again.

I play Uncle Duke's "Napoleonette." It plays like Empire Really Lite

Which is odd since they are actually FRAPPE Really Lite.

Our group Has been playing the ever evolving Strategos N for about 45 years. Currently revamping the fire tables.

Dang, didn't know CLS was free! Or if even available. Thanks Mark for hosting that.

You're Welcome.

Winston Smith;
That's because you still need that lobotomy…

I recall it still be a gigantic PITA, and my Italians not doing much when I was there….

My two shillings, YMMV..

Eric

I play In The Grand Manner – Gerry Elliot's version of Peter Guilder's rule set.

I believe rulesets are unpopular or obscure for a reason, except of course to the cognoscenti!

But I agree with your basic premise, of the Holy Grail not yet being found.

John

1776 for AWI, and WRG 6 for ancients. Also use other older rules for WWII (Tactical Commander, Battalions in Crisis) and other periods.

For years I languished in Quarrie's rules. Now I wouldn't touch them. After massive reorganization and rebasing several years ago, I won't budge off General de Brigade

System 7

System 7

AKA Fire and Steel. I fine choice!

Is there a difference in the game mechanics of CLS, and GDW's Fire and Steel?

Anyone do the French rule system Les Aigles?

I think I have all the System 7 sets.

Isn't System 7, Fire and Steel with counters, instead of figures?

Skeets, do you have a blog?

This catogory could also include unauthorised Napoleonic variants of rules designed for other periods. I have one set I downloaded that uses Flames of War bases and another I adapted from AWI rules.

@Brian Smaller – I would be interested in seeing a copy of 'Le General' by Digby Green if posssible.

I play Uncle Duke's "Napoleonette." It plays like Empire Really Lite

Which is odd since they are actually FRAPPE Really Lite.

Our group Has been playing the ever evolving Strategos N for about 45 years. Currently revamping the fire tables.

Not so. I have a 5x8 version of Frappe! and it's not at all like Napoleonette, except perhaps to return to a simpler time and mechanic. IMHO. I also have Tricolour and Napoleonique. Never played those two. And EmpIII and NB1, which haven't been played in 30 and 20 years respectively.

I've never found a set of Napoleonic rules that didn't draw divisive comments. I'm now convinced that the reason for Napoleonics not being played much in some clubs is that no one can agree on which rules to use.

I am surprised how little mention I hear of Napoleonic Command 2.

warartisan.com/rules

I agree, daler. I wouldn't classify it as unpopular, but although it does get mentioned here on TMP it is more obscure than it deserves to be. An elegant approach to larger scale Napoleonic warfare, where you maneuver by battalion but fight by brigade, measuring threat versus cohesion for formation level results.

That is a great succinct description of them,Catenwolde.

Our group plays Shako with some regularity and we enjoy its straight forward simplicity. I can conduct a large battle for 12-15 players without a problem.

I play Napoleon's Battles which seam to be very unpopular and appears to have twice as many detractors as it does fans :-)

Actually Fire and Steel is System 7 with miniatures.

The Gentlemen Wargamers regularly run games with "Napoleonic Command"

Don Featherstone's rules found in his "On Campaign with the Duke of Wellington". Modified, of course.

Back in 1980ish the first "Napoleonic" rules rules I used were a locally developed set using the WRG Ancients Rules (4th Ed?).

Then I found the Newbury Rules, which for a beginner, were heavy on book keeping so I moved to WRG 1685-1845. And these are the only Napoleonic rules I own, which doesn't matter much as I rarely play the period any more, and if I do it's mainly solo. My troops are based so a "Newbury" unit can spilt and form two "WRG" units.

Just starting on The Perfect Brigadier, after laying to rest Bruce Quarrie's Napoleonic Wargaming…

WRG's "Corp de Armee" it is out of print.

Awaiting the 2nd edition?

Ochoin is there a way I can PM you?