"Opinions on Blucher rules?" Topic

I'm very tempted to get the Blucher ruleset at the moment, but when I've looked up reviews of the game they're all from the ruleset's release back in February. Now there's been a few months for the rules to settle and people to use them more, what's the consensus on them? Good set?

Just played my first game the other day and I am impressed. Quick and easy but with a realistic feel to them. Of course that's only after a single game. I too, would be interested in hearing what more experienced players think.

I ran a small game at a convention two weeks ago. The mechanism was easy for the gamers to pick up. The game went down to the last available melee on the last turn before the Prussians were able to break the French at Plancenoit.

We've also played it several times in our wargaming group's semi-monthly games.

I enjoy it and believe that this is one of Sam's better sets of rules.

Jim
link

I've played three times so far and they are for me, a logical evolution of the V&B and Grand Armee style rules. They are my current favorite for large scale Napoleonic gaming.

From what I know – appears to be a money making exercise.

looked at them, still prefer my old rules.

Scale? Scope? I've been tinkering with Altar of Freedom for Napoleonics, but maybe I should look at this instead?

I think Blucher is excellent--there are many mechanics similar to Grande Armee, with a new command-and-control system. We've played a few Blucher games at our club and so far everyone has had positive reviews. I especially like the way artillery is handled, where the guns decrease in effectiveness, forcing players to conserve their fire for the best opportunities. My only complaint, and it's a minor one, is the total lack of historical scenario support. We have been working on converting Age of Eagles scenarios into Blucher, but I'm very surprised more historical scenarios aren't already out there. A handful are on the Honour forum.

and it's a minor one, is the total lack of historical scenario support.

Totally spoiled here by your excellent and comprehensive scenarios for AoF, Greg. :D

Didn't like them at all and have already sold off my copy. Sam's earlier rules, like Grande Armee and Might and Reason, were special in the way that they combined playability with reasonable historical credibility, although we have always had some house rules. His more recent efforts, however, have just seemed too gimmicky and gamey. With Blucher, I struggled to understand the historical rationales behind a lot of stuff. Very disappointed.

6mmACW, Wondering why you would not be able to use old Grand Armee scenarios? Is it not the same scale?

Darth, units are brigades. We had a reasonable 'Waterloo' on an 8'*6' table in an evening, three players per side.

TJRaymond – can you justify your comment?

It's a very good army level set of rules with units as brigades.
I've also played Volley & Bayonet and Grand Armee. The latter is a terrific set but we found it impossible to complete a game in an evening. V&B is OK, but we found a lot of 'gamey' stuff happening.
Blucher plays fast, and you think like an army commander; it's all about keeping reserves and deciding when and where to commit them.

TJRAYMOND – are you suggesting that somebody who has come up with an idea, invested considerable time in developing that idea, spent money going to print without knowing if the product will sell and whether the investment will be recouped – is actually trying to make some money from this?

I am disgusted at the thought, how dare anybody make money from my hobby!

I have no problem with Sam Mustafa making some money from devising wargame rules that create interesting and enjoable games; I DO have issues with a certain fantasy wargame publisher which continues to bring out rather unnecessary new editions ot its rules, amended army lists &c. in a cynical attempt to force players to constantly invest in new books, figures &c.

Thanks, advocate.

VCR for the +1

Somehow I really cannot see Sam driving a Ferrari, based off his rules' income, and as he has yet to resort to holding a gun to my head to purchase them (or any other set)…

Capitalism hey…

No one is forcing any other to spend on something they don't want.
This is not the government.

We played Blucher when it first came out. I found the introductory scenario a bit bland as a number of advanced rules were understandably left out. although enough to intrigue me. When the rules came out, we played a full version of a battle, and it was quite good!

But, we then tried the pre-battle campaign game. That really made Blucher come alive. I immediately began rebasing all my 6mm French for Blucher. A great game, highly recommended.

As a matter of fact, we just played Quatre Bras this past Sunday. There were four of us and we had a great time.

For the record, I bought the rules, nothing else. I see no reason to buy the cards when I possess figures. Perhaps someone is thinking you must purchase the cards to play the game, and that each package of cards only cover one historical campaign?

That is categorically wrong. The rules are ALL you need. In that respect, Blucher is cheaper than his other games like Maurice or Longstreet.

Our Uni Groups was involved in play testing Blucher, so we are biased! But we have played several games since publication, and despite the long and tiring playtesting period have continued to enjoy our games!

We celebrated the 200th of Waterloo, which fell on the our club night, with a Waterloo game of the Eastern half of the battlefield from the arrival of the Prussians, finished in the evening and had a great time. Once I have ironed out a few scenario glitches that came to light in the first play of this scenario, I will post to the scenario bucket on the Honour forum.

Batrep here: link

As far as 'total lack of historical scenario support', may I suggest a quick visit to Sam's Honour forum….specifically to the scenarios bucket mentioned above….

Alternatively, you could always resort to, well, doing some research yourself? Since a unit in Blucher equates to a Brigade, for large battles at least, coming up with the a scenario's orbat need not require too much arithmetic!

The only aspect of converting a historical orbat into a Blucher scenario that requires any thought is the artillery. Remember that 3 historical batteries equates to one Blucher artillery unit, typically a corps 'reserve' or 'position' battery. Penny packet brigade type batteries are subsumed into 'attached' artillery.

i played them and thought they were ok. for a large campaign they make sense.

the only concern i have is that most regiments or brigades have a supply column for amunition/ supplies. I thought about if a unit is out of firing range and takes a turn doing nothing/ rallying they could recover 1 hit.

what do you think?

Really enjoying getting in to them. I had spent several years building up armies for a 1:20 ruleset but never used them because I never had an answer to my lack of space or how I could ever field more than a division a side.

My figures, and the rules, and now ACTUALLY BEING USED, and that's a huge step forward. They play well, have a decent "Napoleonic feel", are well supported by Sam's website, and I can hand the dining room back to my wife within 48 hours of starting a game.

I did need to use one "tweak" suggested on the forum for solo play, but that's it. I can use them "as is".

vicmagpa:
Hits don't represent ammunition being used up. They represent fatigue and casualties. So rallying should be the exception rather than the rule; if hits could be rallied easily, the game would go on forever, and fresh reserves would lose their value.

Thanks for the feedback guys, really helpful! How does the basing work for the game? My Napoleonics are all 15mm and based for black powder – 160mm of frontage on 4 bases 40mm wide. Would I need to do a lot of work to use these? Nit terribly fussed about unit accuracy for now if I can use my minis in the meantime.

Put your bases two in front, two behind, on a sabot or without, and you're off! We've played two or three games, with fairly demanding players, and they're back for more next month.

From what I know – appears to be a money making exercise

LOL…hilarious. You were joking, right?

I still havent understood, what really is new about Blucher compared with VnB, Grande Armee or AoE? Using the DBx Pip sytsme surely isnt.

vicmagpa:

The Blucher Advanced Rules have a Rally option which allows units to regain fatigue points (although not all the way back to Fresh).

Musketier, can I get away with just using two bases instead of all four? I can effectively double the size of my armies for gaming that way!

Blucher doesn't use the DBx PIP system.
It uses a rather more subtle mechanism where you don't know exactly how much you can do, because your opponent rolls the dice and conceals them from you.
It also has a very elegent concealed unit and reserve movement mechanism. Fresh reserves are vital in the game (in fact, they are really the key to getting decisive results at this level).
V&B of course has no command & control system at all, which has always been a weakness.
Blucher has a much slicker (and quicker) game engine than Grand Armee.
AoE is at a rather different level because it has multi-base briagdes, whereas Blucher (like V&B and GA) has 1 base = 1 brigade.

We use 2 x 40mm square bases (with 28mm figures on them) as 1 Blucher unit. These fit neatly on the cards with the elan track showing at the back. Works really well.

Mrkev, you could certainly do so. A brigade has a footprint of approximately 3"x2", so a frontage of 80 mm is fine. How many figures you want to represent it by is entirely up to you. Enjoy!

I think for a large scale and fast play set of Napoleonic rules, then these are the best so far.
Many iof the mechanisms seem abstract and odd, but they do produce a historical effect on the tabletop.
Having played a dozen games and as a gamer that enjoys the "big picture" for this period, then Blucher is superb.
Lance.