"What got you into Napoleonics ?" Topic

From what I remember, it was curiosity. I knew nothing about the Napoleonic era. Back then, we were playing a good bit of Tractics and Squad Leader. At the hobby shop, I saw those fine Minifigs blisters hanging on the rack. I turned to my friends and asked if they wanted to start a new period. they all agreed and the arms race was on. I still have the French and English armies which we are going to game with again really soon. I probably learned more about this era through gaming and research than any other era I've gamed since. It helps that there is a depth of knowledge to be learned!

I'm a bit older than most here. I got hooked by listening to my father's stories about his time serving with the Isoum Hussars in 1806.

Or maybe it was CLS games in Anne Arbor?

When I was transferred to Ft Meade in 86, I ran into the college buddy who originally introduced me to modern miniature gaming. He invited me to a game he and some friends recreated Aspern-Essling on the 1st Army commanding general's conference table, using Empire II.

My Dad,,,,,,,,who gave me the priceless gift of military history. As a boy he would take me to see Alfred the great, Warlord (I was 5 or 6 and I remember it, the blue max blew my mind. Longest day, and in 1970, two years before he retired from the air force Waterloo. Holy cow, I was primed long before that tho. Then War and Peace was broadcasted on prime time in 1973? Oh and Neretva, the Vikings, Patton, Khartoum, his gifts to me. Appreciation.

I almost forgot, he took me to see Cromwell, I was 8 (I think) and spent an hour telling me about cavaliers and Roundheads over skyline chili and root beer. I was in cincinnati

The John Wayne Alamo movie. I fell in love with shakos then and there -- imagine my joy when I discovered I could have whole armies with that cool hat.
Regards
Russ Dunaway

Airfix models and this book
link

The bewildering variety of colorful uniforms and the myriad of nations that took part

The film Waterloo and Airfix. The BBC's production of War & Peace only increased the addiction.

Ahh that little book – thanks for the memories Brian!

Sharpe and Featherstone are to blame.

TIMPO 54mm soldiers; British, Prussian, and French Guard. There, that shows my age.

I had not met any Napoleonic gamers.

Visiting Waterloo with my parents as a kid. BTW, I live in Belgium.

And the availability of minifigs real 25mm figs in a shop near my parents house.

I had some battalions of those minifigs (British), but sold them long ago.
To restart the whole thing again with Perry mins, a few years ago…

My Father.

What got him into the period was reading A Near Run Thing during hospital convalescence.

Add the Haythornthwaite Uniforms of Waterloo and Airfix figures and I was away.

I had forgotten about the BBC's sumptuous (for the time) War and Peace and about the Mexicans in The Alamo … Yes they count too

Great memories of a simpler age …

Phil

The uniforms! I had a wall poster, as a boy, that had illustrations of military dress from the 1600's to WW2 and the Napoleonic soldiers had the best uniforms. Also, in June 1965 when I was about to turn 13, Life Magazine printed a special issue on the 150th anniversary of Waterloo and I was hooked. I began collecting painted flats from Germany when the DM was $.25 USD. They looked great as long as you never looked at them from the side!

First saw painted Minifigs in a display case at my local hobby shop… then found a coffee-table book with tons of pictures of military miniatures – over the various stages of history – called The Wargame (IIRC)in my elementary school… then read A Near Run Thing from the public library. I was hooked from there.

Seeing a programm on flats whilst visitng West Germany in the 70s, then when I got back to Australia Bruce Quarie's book, which I read like a novel. The rules seemed so reasoned, detailed, and faithful to the era, unlike other simpler rules. Pitty Quarie's rules needed so much record keeping and had units routing all over the place (could have been my tactical ineptitude too…)

A painting of a swedish hussar got me interested in the seven years war. When i found local wargames groups and tried to see who played what i realised they all played Napoleonics. I realised that Naps was full of Hussars so went to the local library and I borrowed Quarries Napoleon Campaigns in miniatures and the rest is history.

Reading "Napoleon's Marshals" when I was a teenager.

1. Bondarchuk's movie
2. Airfix figures
3. This book:

I saw the John Wayne movie "The Alamo" and was facinated with Mexican Army's colorful uniforms and the marching to drums and bugles – hooked.

1981 in the USAF we played D&D but a Saturday night trip to Norfolk Va. Campaign Strategist there was a massive Napoleonic game with maybe a dozen guys and a few thousand figures, it was a impressive sight.

My 7-year older brother fell in with some 30mm gamers in the late 1960s. They gave him some figures to paint and I was off down the path to madness before I was out of grade school.

David Howarth's "A Near Run Thing".

Here in the States it's called "Waterloo, Day of Battle," but any chance I had of recovering from the Napoleonics bug was lost when I read my brother's copy one weekend after getting a very bad sunburn.

Chandler, Quarie, Wargames Illustrated, the Waterloo movie, and Essex Miniatures.

Avalon Hill's "War & Peace" (when it originally came out in 1980). I thought the Austrian counters looked cool, and I've been an Austrophile ever since.

Esci kits. Featherstone Rules. Waterloo movie. Waterloo book from Library, then more books. Even Sharpe.

Why Napoleonics over other wargames? Something about the dense formations of marching infantry, sweeping cavalry, and booming artillery, all in stunning looking uniforms. Just so damn epic…

Airfix figures, the Quarrie Airfix Guide, the Howarth book and the Funcken uniform books. My parents got the latter for me for a birthday or Christmas when I was about 12 or 13. They must have had to order them in especially and I am guessing that they weren't cheap. I've still got them.

Chandler's The Campaigns of Napoleon

Morschauser's How to play Watgames in Minaiture

Pre-painted KILA flats from Kiel, Germany (yes, the DM was 25 cents to the dollar then, and a box of either 20 painted infantry, 10 cavalry, or 2 guns with crew was DM 10,20 – just over $2.50 USD!

F et L. Funken's books (French original versions)

Pretty much in that order, starting circa 1967. Still love it almost 50 years and 6,000+ painted Napoleonic figures later!

Painting up some 28mm OG jannisaries. After that I could never go back to painting various shades of medieval brown. And the ruleset was actually Piquet, due to the big explanation/essay that Oman had online circa 2004-05.

A copy of the Airfix guide to Napoleonic Wargaming by Bruce Quarrie that I found in my local library in 1978.

Napoleonic Wargames Society visit to my area, school holidays 76 or 77 (too long ago to remember exactly).

I was given command of a French Brigade, of mostly légère, and marched it, in l'ordre mixte with a heavy skirmish screen, straight into a mass of Prussian Infantry in line. After fierce fire and a brief melee, they ran like dogs. My glory was cut short though, as I was massacred by Uhlans before being able to reform.

Minifigs 15mms (the old blob kind) absolutely packed on a battlefield two table tennis tables long, with flatpack chipboard hills, Christmas tree leaves for trees and green cloth. 7 or 8 commanders per side.

After that, 100% Dan 055……….. In fact 3/4 of what I have read on this thread from the, ah, "older guys", ;) is SO familiar!!!

40 years later I am currently painting my 7th and 8th 15mm (now 18mm) Napoleonic armies and have not long finished 100 or so 28mm modern Afghanistan figures and have an unpainted "lead mountain" in the cupboard of equal value to the deficit of a small third world nation. (covering everything from Ancients to Pirates to WW2 to "The Troubles" and everything in between…but Napoleonics is my first and true love)

Thanks guys very interesting reading. It appears a good few of you got into the period via Airfix and others via the film Waterloo.

In the 70s I did have the Airfix set but it never floated my boat unlike the other "WW2" sets that they produced at the time . So that was my first dabble with the period but an unsuccessful one. My next dabble with the period was the late 00s when Victrix released their first boxed plastics. That lasted for around a little over a year until GW released their 20mm WW2 ruleset Kampfegruppe Normandy and then of course Battlegroup with their excellent offerings.

I am currently taking a break from WW2 and have got stuck in with this Austrian Army of which I am happy with the progress made. What is different this time is that I have researched the project and bought many books which has kept the interest going . With my gaming group also committed to Naps this helps also.

So who knows I could be in it for the long haul and only time will tell. One thing I can admit despite my fondness for WW2 is that well painted Naps armies on a wargames table with decent scenery beats most other eras in this regard.

This:

I am a recent addition and it was a)someone else painting the figures and b) Grand Armee.

Given the guy at the club who has the figures has them in 6mm there's a big ol chunk of figures and big ol chunk of armies on the table. It plays well, and the results seem to be ones you can look at and say 'I could have read that in a campaign journal'. WHen I think of Napoleonics I want big scale engagements so Grand Armee worked for me.

Oh and many may consider this not proper but Sharpe and Flintloque together also piqued my interest at the skirmish level….even given their fictional nature.

Airfix were a big part of it. The rub-down books – great nostalgia there

This did it, this is the culprit!

Napoleonettes did it for me. My dad taking me to the local hobby shop to buy a new pack once a month. Painted my first unit (French line lancers in helmet) with crayons. I miss those figures.

Well now after so many people have said War & Peace … I just downloaded it from Audible !!

I think I was Brain Washed as a small child .. Being my father controled the TV ( early 70's ) we only had one … so watching John W movies ect all day one weekends. And one day he showed me the coolest plastic army men from when he was a child … they even had removable guns. I wish I know who or where the came from?

I played a lot as a kid with the Airfix WW2 figures in 1/32. One day my dad brought home some Napoleonic British and French, no doubt to see what I'd do.

It worked. From there on to 1/72 Airfix figures and massive rubber band fights; then Wargamer's Digest, boardgames, and on from there.

I shift around to different eras, but I always come back to this one. Oh, my first reenactment being Waterloo 1985 really finished things off!

When i wason holiday in mid80s i saw in a shop window regiment of French line of mini figs in those days stil in th0se days just a few positions mine were marching smal money greetings serge joe

I suppose being one of George Jeffreys inner circle back in 1972 sort of impaled me upon Napoleonic wargaming.

Those of you who knew George would understand.

I guess it just looked cool…..

Thanks guys fascinating reading. What is interesting is the number of you that refer to the Airfix Waterloo set as a starting point

Slightly sending the thread slightly off topic , it does beg the question why doesn't somebody produce a starter set like this to get more people involved with this rich period?

I know Warlord have gone about half way but still some way short of the numbers of figures that was in the Airfix set.

I agree, Mysteron, it was the ready availability of Airfix (and later Ecsi and Revell) in the shops of our youth that got us started.

Now its all shows and internet. Which is great for selling to people who are already aiming to buy.

I guess HaT Industrie in some ways inherited the Airfix mantle, but HaT don't really bother about stocking shops, which is a wasted opportunity because there was never the quality and variety in former days that could now be used to tempt a new, youthful audience.

With Airfix seemingly incapable of producing new 1/72 figure sets and Zvezda abandoning the format in favour of its own Art of Selling Small Boxes Containing Just 3 Minis, I cannot see that kids will be draw in the same way we were.

I fear you are being harsh to HaT – it is not up to them to stock shops – they sell to regional wholesalers who sell on to shops (Hannants in the UK I understand). Shops are responsible for buying what they want, and toy shops are becoming a thing of the past. And my kids don't get any buzz out of Naps – my eldest (21 now at Uni) loved the film, but never really fell for 1:20 – he prefers the 1:1 of Games Workshop. But I am working on him…

See Battlegames this month – good article about what "the kids" want these days

Yup….Airfix.

Sharpe.

I know. Sad eh?

Watching over my older brother David's shoulder as a kid as he painted 15mm minifigs then based them on cardboard beer mats. French old guard I remember mostly.

Marc – I do beg to differ. I am a huge fan of HaT. Some of the early Napoleonics are a bit ropey and should be re-tooled, but generally the breadth and quality of their range is transformative.

If I, as a manufacturer, conclude that in order to build a customer base, particularly among the young, it is wise for my products to have a retail profile in shops, then it is up to me to ensure they get there.

HaT do not appear to be doing this. Perhaps it is beyond them logistically or perhaps they do not see the need. That is up to them.

I did not feel it "harsh", however, to make the point that this is something that a figure manufacturer like HaT might consider. I know my 10-year old's buying habits are dictated by what he sees, attractively packaged, on shelves.

So, he sees Airfix tanks and Revell WW2 figures. He decides he wants some. He doesn't see any Napoleonics and he doesn't see any HaT.

Long term I believe it is in the interest of a manufacturer to reach out to the children via the High Street. I realise that we all got into the hobby in this way in pre-internet days, but shops exist despite the internet and shops are still better at some things, and, I suspect, this is one of them.