"Starting Napoleonics 28mm- any recommendations? " Topic

Hi guys, new member here, and I'd like to hear your recommendations about starting the hobby.

I already collect and play Warhammer, as well as Bolt Action, but while perusing the Warlord Games webstore I stumbled upon Black Powder, and I must say the game looks impressive!

So, I'd like to stay collecting and playing with Napoleonics.

1. Are there any online resources I could use for reading up on this era of warfare? I know there's Google and Wikipedia, but I was wondering if you guys have your own go-tos when it comes to the historical discussions.

2. What model lines out there are the best for the 28mm scale (since ask the terrain I've made have been for that scale)? I know it changes from model to model, but who makes the best-looking cavalry/artillery? If I wanted the most variety of sculpts, which brands should I be looking at?

Any help would be appreciated. I'm sure there are a lot more questions I haven't thought of, but I'm sure I'll think of more as I dive into the new hobby. :)

Hi
I don't know where you are based but if I were you my first port of call would be a club or other folk nearby who play Napoleonics – in particular Black Powder. Have a game and then jump in. As to your specific questions.

1. Any good history of the Napoleonic Wars. David Chandler's 'Campaigns of Napoleon' is a good place to start. Wiki is not too bad either to be honest if you want something fast.

2. There are so many great sculpts and everyone has an opinion on which are the best. Kind of like asking what is the best colour. The period is now well served with both plastic and metals. Perry, Victrix, Warlord Games, FRont Rank, Elite and Old Glory are just a few – there are literally dozens of manufacturers ranging from quite expensive but incredibly detailed masters (Oniria Miniatures for example) to fairly cheap but highly paintable Old Glory 25s.

Also try the name "Black Powder" in the index to TMP's Message Board.

Brian's advice to see what the locals are doing is good advice – Napoleonics in 28mm is tough to do on your own!

However you are coming into the hobby at a great time owing to the plethora of high quality hard plastic figures coming out, which cost a fraction of their metal brethren and often have more detail too.

Perry Miniatures have an extensive range of both plastic and metals. To my mind Perry do the best plastics, but as Brian says, of course this is highly subjective. Also check out Victrix for plastics, currently they are the only ones doing plastic Napoleonic artillery, currently just the Brit but with French coming out soon apparently. Metals, Front Rank Miniatures are very good, particularly their 'reinforcements' latest range, but don't do Prussians, as no-one bothers to compete with the stand out Calpe range of Prussians.

As for online resources, for uniform guides try 'les cent jours' which focuses on 1815. There is also a whole series of informative websites, ranging in authority – try the Napoleon Series as a start point. Dry and academic, but sound.

For some Black Powder inspiration, try looking at my blog – if nothing else you will see how many people you need to get together to do the thing properly – Sparker's Wargaming Blog.

And good luck and congratulations on chooseing God's Own scale and the very playable Black Powder rules!

perry-miniatures.com

victrixlimited.com

frontrank.com

calpeminiatures.co.uk

centjours.mont-saint-jean.com

sparkerswargames.blogspot.com.au

Enjoy this journey! My first wargames were Napoleonics back in 1982 playing Empire III. Since then have amassed a large collection in 15mm (2000 or so) and now starting on 28mm French Guard. First decision, metal or plastic. I am old school and prefer the metal…just like the weight, but that is me. Best of luck.

napoleon-series.org

link

napoleonicwarsforum.com is nicely organized but mostly empty of content.

TMP itself is a decent place to get info too.

I really enjoyed this blog that was created for the bicentennial of the 1812 Russian Campaign: napoleon1812.wordpress.com

We manufacture our own growing range of 28mm metal Napoleonics -

link

New codes are added every month.

Part of our range was previously owned by Victrix so our range was made to be compatible with Victrix and Perry miniatures.

I would go with 10mm for Napoleonics, they look great on the table and give you the grand feel of the period. 10mm is small enough that you can tell what they are unlike 6mm IMO and easier to paint than 15mm. To do it in 28mm is very expensive and time consuming and it is hard to get enough figures on the table to give the feel of a large battle.

Good luck in the endeavor.

Welcome to Napoleonics, a wonderful period to wargame.

15mm gamer myself so cant comment on the 28mm ranges but between plastics for masses of "line" infantry and cavalry and metals for specials 28mm does seem reasonably well catered for.

Black Powder is likely a great place to start coming from your wargaming heritage. Some people settle on it as a rules set and never change and others will try other sets that capture other aspects of the warfare of the period. Great place to start.

Good advice about finding a club. I'm a solo gamer myself, only partly by choice. I live in a large city that is nevertheless poorly served by wargaming clubs.

My key comment would be to start small and get playing quickly, at some level and size and with whatever troops you can put on the field. If that means a brigade vs a brigade action then go with that. I'd recommend NOT deciding to re-fight Waterloo, for example, and then waiting until you've assembled every figure from all 3 sides ready to go – the delay will kill your interest. Get playing quickly and start enjoying the crashing roll of volleys, the shouted orders, the thunder of the guns and the shock of a mounted charge as quickly as possible and it will spur and direct your interest in researching the period and assembling some forces.

Welcome, Nick

To answer question one, below is a good link.

napoleonistyka.atspace.com

I cannot speak of anything much outside of the Russian army, and really that is limited to 1812+

I believe the site is much like Scientific American with regards to science. Not as "popish" as Popular Science, or other magazines, nor is it nearly as scholarly as a published dissertation.

Then it is like anything else which is popular, sorting through facts and opinions, or better yet, distinguishing between the two.

ilodic

For miniatures, you want plastic or metal? If plastic, I recommend the Victrix and the Perry plastic figs.

One thing to be aware of is that "Napoleonic" is a very broad term. Loosely it can be used to refer to the whole period of warfare from 1792 to 1815. Or it can mean the era in which Napoleon was a major player, meaning 1796 and after. Strictly it can be argued to mean from 1800, when Napoleon progressed from being a general to being an overtly political figure, i.e. First Consul (of three; the other two were wet lettuces). Or from 1803, the resumption of hostilities after the Peace of Amiens . Or 1804, when he crowned himself Emperor and reinstituted the Marshalate. Just about the only thing everyone agrees on is that it ended in 1815.

So an early decision you'll need to make is which period within the era you want to game in. This matters inasmuch as most armies underwent significant organizational, compositional, doctrinal and uniform changes over the period. An army that is configured correctly for the early period is incorrect for the others (of course, you may healthily take the view that you don't give a shět about such farcical nitpicking).

To give you a flavor of this, consider the French. Until late 1805 they had infantry regiments mainly of two 8-company battalions. This became 9 companies in 1805 and stayed at 9 until 1808 when they went down to 6 companies but with three battalions per regiment. Exceptions abound, natch. After 1805 two of the companies were elite with different uniforms. So although in game terms these companies are often handled abstractly, i.e. they don't matter, Napoleon himself thought them worth keeping; so you may want to represent them, if only because they give a nice variation in the painting you have to do.

But wait, it gets better. Up to 1806 French infantry wore cutaway blue coats. From 1806 this changed to cutaway white coats, but in 1807 they thought better of the change, abandoned it half-way and went back to cutaway blue coats. In 1812 a new coat design, with lapels to the waist, was decreed, which came in from 1813 to 1815.

Then there are the hats. French infantry wore tricornes then crested hats then bicornes. In 1808 this changed to shakoes.

So you have three battalion structures, three coat designs, and four hat styles. Even if you don't care about this, there is composition to consider. Early French armies had little cavalry and it was mostly rubbish. Later French armies had cuirassiers and later ones still had lancers. Early Prussian armies fought mainly in line and lacked light infantry; later Prussian armies fought in columns and nearly 40% was light infantry. By default, when I started I found I had a Waterloo army, which with hindsight was not the one I wanted.

After reading up the history, the era I liked best was 1805-1807 (pinnacle of the Empire – Austerlitz, Jena, Eylau, Friedland), with a nod to 1809 (Aspern, Wagram), then 1812, then 1815, then 1813-14 (Leipzig and after), with the Peninsula, South America, North America, Egypt, etc all trailing in a long long way behind as secondary theatre sideshows of marginal interest.

Your view may differ. However, I was a bit ticked off at having accidentally acquired the "wrong" army for my top three.

There is something to be said for reading around the era a bit, and deciding what interests you tempered with what is played / collected at any local club. You might want to build on that or depart from that.

The other thing I would say is that rules and armies go through fads. Someone writes a three volume work about the 1809 campaign and suddenly Austrians are all the rage. 200 years after Waterloo and Waterloo armies are all the rage. Suggest – as I have done – that the Prussians couldn't win without superior numbers or an ally on the field and you will get flamed and stifled by people who bought into them back when Prussians were all the rage. I would read both new and older works to get a balanced view.

Also, consider collecting something a bit wacky. If your likely fellow players all have 1813-1815 French, Prussians and Russians, how about collecting Swedes? Yellow trousers and lovely cuirassiers – it's like stumbling into a David Bowie video in about 1980. Or Bavarians, or Saxons, or some other German state, several of which fought on both sides at one point or another.

Don't get discouraged by trying to match all the details of uniform changes. It might be that a particular battalion's uniform changed 15 times from the revolutionary wars until Waterloo. Does that mean that you have to have maybe 10 different sets for that regiment? Not really.

Hi SerPounce,

Agree with all that's said above but think the best advice is don't get too caught up in the complexities at first just start playing with other gamers. The rest will work itself out over time and some reading of course.

I can suggest a cheap and easy way to get into it quickly by buying your army or even just a few battalions from us (i.e. MMPS). We supply and paint most (but not all) plastics available with quality that is a very high wargames standard but very reasonable cost. We can also help recommend where to start depending on what theater you like. Please take a look at mmps.asia and see whats on offer.

Matt Shearer
MMPS