"Does ESR "look" Napoleonic?" Topic

Looks napoleonic-y to me!

A picture is worth a thousand words, and these pictures sure show it

The games look very Napoleonic. I have seen them at conventions and played them at home.

Tom

They look very good. I shall have to get around to trying them at some point.

I'm guessing then that "ESR' is a Napoleonic Game?
The letters don't give much of a clue.

Unfortunately I must say that I don not find it to look remotely Napoleonic. It has the worst element of unnapoleonic looking games namely "the column phalanx". It would be wonderfull if the infantry divisions looked like deployed batallions instead of huge phalanx blocks. To be fair it is one of the most common design flaws. Otherwise I think – from having just read the rules" that the set is one of the best most reflected of newer designs.

I'm afraid I'm with Sparta on this one. The figures are in dense masses with no recognisable formation. Nothing about it says Napoleonic, or even Horse and Musket to me.

It doesn't mean it's not a good game but if you want to know what it looks like then Napoeonic isn't the first thing that springs to mind.

I tend to look for lines, columns and skirmisher screens on a Napoleonic table, which my reading in the period tells me were frequently used tactically. I can't see any of those there.

It reminds me a bit of games I've seen at Salute, where you can't work out what era a demo game is in unless you're standing next to the table and can identify the uniforms worn by individual figures.

The absence of a battle line suggests it is a post-mediaeval game but unless I could see the uniforms I'd say it looks like any wargame between around 1550 and 1871.

I have Roll Up That Map and find it very stimulating, but I am not a fan of this much abstraction.

Clicking on the link it goes to Et Sans Resultant website. ESR.

In some pics they separare ( properly? I don't own the rules but tried to figure them out) the bns and it looks ok.
It depends on the ground scale I presume, the more meters to the cm the more massive it will look. He has his units in a perpetutal sort of columns, and it does not look bad that way, (a bit of the same as the long two ranks line of AOE which represents anything from columns to lines or mixed order.).
If one does it in 10 or 6mm with the same frontage (unless you have lots of space, any decent battle will need 8 km+ x 6-8 km ) it will look less massive.
It is the etermal problem of the tabletop fights that show anything beyong a few divisions on a comparatively small – means currently available / reasonable – table.
Compromise.
Pretty sure if your bns have say 6 figs and 3cm front and you use his 1cm for 40m, you can forcibly separate them by 1/2-1 cm sideways and should by 2-4 cm between suporting lines.
To my understanding it would not harm the system.
We have the same with cramped ww2 tables. If one is ready to sacrifice space by decreasing the m per cm and forbid, or better put shooting bonuses in case of crowding, then it looks ok.
Space space…

Grand tactical games using larger (15mm up) figures are a hard call to look right. You either get distinct battalions with pathetically few men, or you get masses like this.

Looking at contemporary battle prints, they are dominated by lines of troops (2/3 deep) with not much in the way of distinct battalion formations. I think this is the best look to go for – and these ESR games do seem to achieve that- though the reserve lines should be further apart.

I would prefer to see skirmisher figures – but though ESR has a very interesting skirmish system (the best I've seen at this level) it does not require skirmish bases. It shares this with most grand tactical rule systems these days. That is a pity. Skirmishers have different uniforms usually and different poses, and enrich the appearance. They also enhance the Napoleonic feel in my view (though those contemporary prints don't make of them either).

Lots of men on horseback dashing about, also fits those prints. But there should be a lot of smoke from the areas where units are engaged.

ESR look like an excellent set of rules. The only reason that I'm not using them is that they work less well for the two player games I like to play.