"Blucher, Grand Armee, GA Lite, Polemos??" Topic

Just finished my new 6mm armies. Now, which grand tactical rules to use. I have all of these but am unsure which I like best, each has features I like. What are the preferences among others?

Volley & Bayonet
Age of Eagles (which is Fire and Fury for Napoleonics)

I second Dave

I liked Grande Armee so much I bought the rights. I like the speed of play and that I really feel I'm an army commander. I love the uncertain turn sequence.

It may depend on how your armies are based. If they are one unit per base, then I would go with Grand Armee or Fast Play Grand Armee. You can fight big battles within an afternoon. They have a good balance between playability and historical credibility. There is a lot more elegance to the game mechanics than you might think on a first reading. There are also plenty of scenarios available. Of course, we have a few house rules of our own too.

I didn't like Blucher at all. Way too gamey for me. I haven't played the Polemos Napoleonic rules, but the versions for other periods that I have played were clunky. Yes, you can game with the rules, but why would you when there are better alternatives?

Good luck.

I've played V&B, Grand Armee and Blucher.
V&B has very nice mechanics, but suffers from having no command and control restrictions at all.
Grand Armee has a very nice command and control mechanism, but it isn't the fastest game to play.
Blucher strikes a nice balance – the speed of V&B with an elegant command and control system. The reserve movement rules and the mini-campaign system are also very good.

We shall shortly be introducing the first of our Polemos apps, starting with Napoleon's. These will manage your games including army generation, combat calculations, morale status, and automatic application of shaken results. It will even handle your dice rolls.

Using the test versions we reckon to have got the equivalent of three hour's play into two hours, so it really does speed games up considerably removing the 'clunkiness'.

Games can be played without a rulebook or even dice. All you need is a smartphone or tablet.

We are looking to get the first release for the General de Division rules out in the next couple of months.

For 6mm Napoleonics, our club has enjoyed both Grande Armee and it's newer incarnation, Blucher. I'd recommend trying both, as they each seem to give a pretty good game. Combat feels similar in both rules, but the command and control is different. I slightly prefer the old Grande Armee c-in-c mechanic. You can see our club's recent large 6mm Aspern-Essling Blucher game here:

link

@Baccus, sounds interesting – presumably, this is a digital version of the paper rules or has there been further development?

Also, will it allow you the option to input physical dice rolls rather than the system doing it for you? I've always thought that was the most fun part of playing wargames and a shame when a computer version takes that away from you!

Blucher! As Dexter Ward mentioned, the reserve movement, and especially the pre-battle campaign turn it from a good ruleset to an outstanding one!

Aussie Andy--you have house rules? Care to share?

Extra Crispy--I know you are a fan of GA, but I also thought you were part of the group working on the GA Lite which I think has some interesting aspects with command and control and commander personalities as well. Is that a project that has petered out now?

I was never a driving force behind Grande Armee Lite. I answered an email or two once upon a time but that's it….no idea what (if anything) is going on with it now.

Alphus99,

They app is entirely based on the printed set, but the gameplay experience is completely different.

You are not the only one to ask about inputting dice rolls and this will feature in the finished version. To be honest, the testers asked for this at first, but halfway through the first game gave up and used the app for all the processes.

Whoops, sorry Extra Crispy, I had the impression you were connected to the "fast play GA" project.

barcah2001
If you send me an email at avaningen at rk dot com dot au, I'll send you a copy of our amendments.
Regards

Blucher, Snappy Nappy or Piquet Field of Battle get my vote

I liked Grand Armee and I like Blucher. We have played 5 – 6 games and there have never been any difficulties. I think every situation that we were uncertain about was covered in the rules somewhere.

Age of Eagles for medium battles, Snappy Nappy for the big ones.