"Best Napoleonic rules for a convention ?" Topic

Looking to get some ideas as to what folks think might be a good,fun set of rules to run games that take about 4-6 hours for convention purposes . My scale is 15mm and about one to three Corp per side . Any imput will be helpful .

I think "Napoleon's Battles" fits this bill nicely, especially if you keep troop types to a minimum and use fairly symmetrical style armies (Austria 1809, Russia 1812, or Germany 1813 are ideal). With each player commanding a corps, a battle of the sort you describe can easily be finished in four hours even when the players are unfamiliar with the rules.

Black Powder?

My Rules Directory project may be of some assistance as well:

link

I'd look at Age of Eagles, LaSalle and Rank & File…

I would opt for Black Powder .

I'd third Black Powder. Runs big games quickly. Gives a good flavour for most periods if you know the period and the rules well.

The new Sam Mustafa Blucher grand tactical rules work great for multiple corps games. I played them at COLD WARS: fast, easy to learn and fun.

I like Black Powder for a division level game, but you would need a ton of troops to run a corps level game.

Mark

GdB is widely regarded as the premier set of Napoleonic rules. It would work fine at this scale – in fact we will be using it for our Waterloo game at Salute in a couple of months.

Napoleon's Battles, Black Powder or Age of Eagles would be fine.

Volley and Bayonet will work nicely for this purpose.

Age of Eagles. By turn 3 they run the game themselves

Minimum 8 different recommendations in 10 posts – the joy of naps

i would go for Black Powder

I would suggest very easy home brew rules. I guess that's 9 choices in 11 posts. Huzzah!

Blucher.

Thanks for all the input . Looks like Black Powder won . However I just read thru GdB and there not bad . I'll read BP next . Thanks again , Mark

GdeB are a great set of rules, but perhaps better for regualr gamers who can really enjoy the added details. BP is perhaps easier access.

I have moved to BP for my regualr crowd as they are not Naps fans, and so I needed easier access.

We have been presenting large games at conventions for years using Shako II. Dave Waxtel and I helped develop the rules so are eager to present them, but that disclosure aside, they are a pleasure to present to players who want to push around battalions in familiar formations (line, column, square, skirmish) but using simple basic mechanics.

I would second the suggestion to use Shako II. Its just so much easier to use in a convention setting. You don't need a s many figures and it moves fast. You can actually get done in a reasonable amount of time. While GdB and Black Powder are good games, they just take too long to play with players unfamiliar with the rules. VnB is good also but is a larger scale, you are maneuvering Brigades not battalions. I think Shako II gives a better feel of "Napoleonics".

Where can one find a set of Shako II rules ?

I think OMM carry it.

Yes. OMM stock copies of the rules.

GdBde is my preferred set of rules when I play at home. However, if I was at a convention, I'd have to concur with Black Powder. Moves quickly and flexible to accomodate any unit or base sizes.

A third vote for Shako 2. It is an excellent choice for a game at the battalion level. I agree with Bandrsnatch, it features good Napoleonic interactions, is easily learned and it almost always gives a reasonably historical outcome.

Shako and GdB are the two sets I always return to. GdB is a really fine ruleset, but it has maybe a bit too much detail for introducing new players to the period at a convention.

Blucher is definitely worth a look and I'd be astonished if it doesn't eclipse the Old Guard of popular Napoleonic rules in the not-to-distant future, for good reason. It builds on the lessons of earlier rules sets, whilst introducing some fresh new ideas, such as a neat pre-battle manoeuvre phase which plays like a mini campaign, realistic attritional artillery effectiveness, and challenging unit command and activation. The core of the game is ruthlessly streamlined, yet retains plenty of period character, so it's dead easy to learn and ideal for corps to army level battles in several hours.

Another vote for Shako if you want battalion level, but I actually prefer Shako v1 to v2; the rules are more brutal but I think that's a good thing for a convention.
v1 also comes with an excellent 'large battle' version where each unit is a division, and a set of 7YW adaptations, both of which didn't make it into v2.

I'll vote for Snappy Nappy, but then again, I designed them for large battles and campaigns in a day. The latest one on April 26 was Waterloo with 20 players and 11 tables. I don't know how many 25mm figs, but it all played out in six hours.

See the write-ups (includes OOBs and Maps) at Peter's blog:

Here's the OOB and map…more write-ups as the days passed.

link

Well, my group, the White Rock Gamers, just put on Ligny and Waterloo at the US convention Enfilade. After a massive effort to paint thousands of 28mm figures and make 60 buildings and specialized terrain features, the games went off wonderfully using Shako II. About 20 players pushed around every unit historically involved in the battles. Both battles reversed history (which I suppose means there really shouldn't have been Waterloo, but hey….).

It was a great couple of days (each game was played over about 7 hours) and everyone was impressed, entertained and played in good spirits. I think that it was a real moment of community for both my group and the wider community of gamers in the Pacific Northwest. I would challenge my US friends to come up to Vancouver and share their passion for this wonderful hobby. I certainly applaud those that do -- good friends in a great hobby.

I have to add that a lot of the figures and enthusiasm were provided by the Northshore Gamers too. These things don't happen without you!

I played in a great game of Shako at HCON a few years back. Several thousand minis, hundreds of units and it played very fast. It captured the see-saw action around the fleches quite nicely as well.

A little late I know, but perhaps you are thinking of Historicon?

My first comment is that, IMHO, multi-corps battles are too large for a "standard" convention game length of max 4 hours, really more like 2 1/2 – 3 hours actual playing time.

Second, you probably already know that rule sets that work best at conventions are NOT the sets that are most realistic. Human nature being what it is, simultaneous-move systems (my favorite for games between friends) are generally not suitable for convention play. You'll also find – I believe – that systems that do not allow "optimum moves" at every point will result in pouty-faces among the typical gamer. Last but not least, rules that truly capture the nuances of Napoleonic warfare are never simple, but rules that will be fun at a convention have to be simple and easy-to-grasp.

One piece of advice that should be obvious but I have too often seen not followed – assuming that you plan to be the gamemaster (and all convention games need a non-playing gamemaster in order to run smoothly), make sure that you yourself are familiar with the rules and have at least several actual games under your belt.

I've played Shako at a convention and I concur that it results in a fast game and is reasonably fun. The gamemaster needs to keep on top of making sure that players follow their orders. For me, too much is left to simple dicing to be a serious Napoleonic rules set. I also find the 6-hits-and-you're-out to be unrealistic, far too simplistic and to result in gamesmanship at the cost of generalship. BTW, I'm not being holier-than-thou; if I am presented with a rules set, I'm going to play to win by the rules.