"Napoleonic rules for club nights" Topic

I have at long last got round to investigating a local wargames club. A night at the club is a completely different format from what I'm used to – which is typically a day played at somebody's home, with hours of prep time.

I'm happy to go along with other periods for now (WW2 skirmish seems popular). But I would like to be able to bring along my Napoleonic figures for the odd game. They are 15mm, sitting on 1in/25mm square bases.

These seem to be the requirements:
1. Game needs to be done in 3 hours, with minimum set up time.
2. Not too much lead on the table, and not too many units, as this slows down both set up and play.
3. Suitable for two players, but possibly extending to multiplayer.
4. Rules that aren't too complicated, and easy to pick up. That doesn't mean they have to old school though – new formats are fine if you get the hang of it after a game or two.
5. Something that's also quite absorbing, requiring a bit of tactical thought, rather than sending in the men for a slugging match.

My impression is that the club likes to do Napoleonics on longer Saturday sessions, with multiplayer format. They use General de Brigade and Black Powder.

Of the rules sets I have used Lasalle seems to fit the format best, though I'm not a big fan. Bloody Big Battles might work too, if I could think of a good way of generating scenarios quickly. Pictet could work in this setting too, perhaps.

I would be interested to know if anybody has any favourites in this sort of setting.

Volley and Bayonet plays fast and is easy to pick up. How many units are too many?

You already mentioned Black Powder--not a personal favorite of mine, but good for club settings since it is fairly popular. I think another good option for your club would be Age of Eagles (your 1" bases would work just fine), since it's based on the ever-popular Fire & Fury system. Fire & Fury has been around for so long that many people know it or are familiar with the mechanics. It's also a fairly "old school" set of rules in terms of style and play. We use it in our club.

Our club is also recently playing some Blucher, Sam Mustafa's new army-level set. It is fast playing and gets the games resolved in a single evening. You'd have to group or cluster a few of your 1" bases together on movement trays to create larger formations (a single base is essentially an entire brigade in Blucher). Good luck!

I use the Napoleonic Rules from Neil Thomas' Wargames an Introduction with a few additions from his Napoleonic Wargaming book – I think that it meets all your criteria.

Mounting my 1in bases in pairs (or quads) is no problem. They have magnetic bottoms and I have lots of steel paper sabots. That would rule in V+B as well as Blucher.

How many is too many? I always used to work on the basis of about 8 (ex artillery) – but I gess the real answer is that it depends.

Bloody Big Battles might work too, if I could think of a good way of generating scenarios quickly.

I find using Volley & Bayonet scenarios posted online are a good start. Each SP is 500 troops or 12 guns, turns are usually hourly. Makes it easy to transpose.
link

Or use the points system that one of the players posted on the BBB Yahoo group.

Black Powder would work just fine in your format provided you don't try and play too large a game.

Bluecher

Matthew,

Where was the new club, in London?

I'm a member of SL Warlords and I like Age of Eagles…….

I'd have said Lasalle for that format but Black Powder fits the role too. Blucher is also fairly painless and quick although for a club evening you're better off just using the cards IMO.

For the Saturday sessions I'd choose Le Feu Sacre over the other options.

That said as the club obviously already plays BP on Saturdays you're probably going to get more traction as the rules are familiar – maybe sell the small games as brigade level clashes leading to a corps level game on Saturday?

And yes which club – I'm in east London and there are options in this direction.

Iain SL warlords it is. Went down on Monday. Not too far to get to; much easier getting back!

Matthew

Volley and Bayonet is suitable, and, in addition, is very adaptable to different eras and scales of battles. It works with any size miniatures.

I was the chap running the CoC game, thought it might be you!

We'll have a chat next Monday if you are down about Napoleonics – was a bit too busy this week.

If you're using a hex grid, get my rules Hex Command Gunpowder. Email me for the free rules at imagineimage zat zomcast zot zet

you know what to replace.

DBN fits the club requirements, we (Yorkshire Coast wargamers) use it on a regular basis. Its quick, takes very little time to set up and great fun, thats if you want a game that is tactically challenging and fun ?.
check out the site at dbnwargaming.co.uk

There are really 2-3 separate issues with getting a quick evening game going: 1) scenario generation, i.e. what forces are engaged and how they can win, 2) terrain and troop placement, if not covered by the scenario, and 3) appropriate rules, that people can jump into fairly quickly and move along fairly well.

Not all of those elements have to come from the same rules. For instance, you could use the great scenario generation system in V&B (2nd edition), generate terrain with something old school like the Dux Brit system, tweaked for the Napoleonic theater you are playing, and then use rules like March Attack, which is a simple but elegant take on large scale Napoleonic warfare, but using battalions instead of brigades.

Or, if you want to play on the brigade level, you could use V&B for both scenario and rules, and generate terrain with a random system of maps/areas, or even use a ransom system of historical OB's to choose forces.

Streamlining the table/forces/scenario setup phase is critical – I recommend a checklist you can run through and get people used to, regardless of what rules you use afterwards.

Cheers,

Christopher

Lasalle is perfect for this sort of scenario.
It's designed to pickup games – army lists are easy to understand, and it plays to a finish in less than 3 hours.

Hi,
Rules I've tried in a club setting which can give a good result in about 2 and a half hours are Black Powder, Blucher and Age of Eagles.
I played my first game of Age of Eagles at my club on Tuesday. We played a corps of 1812 Russians vs a corps of French. The game went very smoothly with about a half hour's set up, two hours of play and a half hour of takedown time. It gave lots of points of decision and plenty of drama.
I've also played Blucher recently and it gave a good game too. If you are willing to use unit cards instead of figures it has a fairly quick set up and takedown time.
Black Powder is very adaptable and scalable and I've played in a major club game with about 5 players a side which we managed to do in under 3 hours.

All the best,
George.

Napoleon at war is perfect for club nights.

Volley and Bayonet

Many thanks for the contributions guys! TMP is so good for this.

Christopher. Interesting idea about borrowing ideas from different rules. Ga Pa (the Swedish early 18thC rules) has rather a good scenario creation system, and a terrain system. Could be worth looking into.

Iain. Look forward to catching up on Monday. I was very intrigued by CoC. You can help point me in the right direction!

Matthew

Black Powder meets all the criteria. Just remember to swap around the commanded movement and shooting phases and it'll work like a peach.

Blucher has a cool scenario generation system (called Scharnhorst) which creates a terrific back story to the battle, great for a longer evening. It also has rules for pickup games, which get troops on the table simply and quickly. The rules are about as streamlined as they come and easy to learn. Certainly a suitable game for club nights, which can be easily expanded to multiplayer battles. Disclaimer: Blucher creates the atmosphere of corps level Napoleonic battles admirably; however, it is not a tactical battalion level game (like Black Powder or Lasalle). If you like plenty of detail to your infantry formations and skirmisher management, this is not the rules set for you.

Another pickup game worth a look is Horse, Foot & Guns (by WRG) if it's published anytime soon, as rumoured.

Although I have not played many games with them I suggest Napoleon at War.

Our group uses Shako 2 for larger or small battles. Battalion/regiment/battery level, lots of fun that even a 6 or 8 division battle can be played in 3 hours.

I always find it interesting that we profess to enjoy gaming and yet some are always looking for ways to limit the time we are playing.

@Rallynow – you are looking at this completely backward. If you really enjoy gaming but only have a limited time to fit it in, then why not try your best to do so, instead of just giving up because you don't have an 8 hour time slot open anymore.

Rallynow. I've spent a lot of my life looking down somewhat on short games, and stuck to ones that take much longer to prepare and play. That means I have played very few games, and meet even fewer gamers.

The club night is a whole new world to me, which requires a very different approach. But it provides its own sort of fun, and allows me to meet many more gamers!

It's not about limiting the time we have to play.
It is about fitting games into the time we have available.
Many people only have 2-3 hours after work on a club night to play a game.

Hi all,

Shako 2 gets mentioned a lot here but I cannot seem to get my hands on it here in the UK.

Any ideas?

thanks

Caliver Books: link

Hi Matthew,

I am a big fan of Neil Thomas' "Napoleonic Wargaming" rules. These would also fulfill all your stated requirements.

Put Command & Colors Napoleonic on the tabletop and play with miniatures. Lots of scenarios, plays quick and is easy to learn.