"Napoleonic rules for newbie ?" Topic

I'm looking for rules for Napoleonic battles. 15mm or 28mm ( prefer 15mm)minis, table size max 6x4, time of play no more than 3 to 4 hours. Easy rules which cover Peninsular War and others fronts.

Depends on the scale of game you intend playing: skirmish, divisional, corps or army level.

Whatever, you will be deluged with suggestions, but welcome to the addiction that is Napoleonic gaming.

There's a Polish ruleset called Bogowie Wojny. Check bogowiewojny.wordpress.com out.I haven't played it, but it should be quite easy. The designers play with 1/72 plastics (20 mm), but I am sure all scales go.

I think Lasalle is still a fine set of rules to cut your teeth on. That said, you will want to move to something with more flavor rather quickly, but Lasalle presents the basics very well.

Black Powder?

There's a set of rules you might like called l'angle you can get a hard copy from Caliverbooks, I think you just might fond them and the scenario books available fitting your needs.

TMP link

I've played them often and have enjoyed them a lot but caution they are Favoured to the French and you need a lot of skill to win using Austrians, Spanish and the like, but who doesn't love the challenge.

Crusader Publishing has a good set of rules called March Attack that might fit the description you are looking for: link

What about Commands & Colors?
I use it and replace each block in the original game with a base of figures.
It gives a fun and fast play game.

Neil Thomas and then Lasalle if they want more detail and flavor.

Bluecher or Big battle DBN

Volley and Bayonet if you want to do whole battles.

Battalion level, Shako 2.

Lasalle.

I agree with Richard Bliss. If you are interested in fighting entire battles, fictional or refights Volley & Bayonet is an excellent choice.

The rules are not complicated, but they are very realistic placing the players in command of armies.

We play in a variety of figure scales. You will find a few game reports, including Napoleonic ones here:
volleyandbayonet.wordpress.com

Lots of good discussions on this question already on the Napoleonic boards.

By the way, there's a new board: "Getting Started with Napoleonics". Not sure how many people use it though.

I would recommend Black Powder Rules. Hope it helps.

Take care

Andy

I am surprised some people are recommending Black Powder for a newbie. Do you really stand by that for someone new to miniatures gaming? I would think a bit more hand holding and specifics in a rule set would be more appropriate for someone new to the hobby. (other than that, please don't be offended, I am not dissing your rules! : )

Volley and Bayonet if you want to do whole battles.

Volley and Bayonet is a fine rules set and an excellent choice.

Another vote for Volley &Bayonet for big battles. But use sabot bases instead of mounting directly onto the three inch square bases. That way, you can use your figures in some of the other rules mentioned here.

Drums and Shakos Large Battles for division level command. PDF is $8 USD from Ganesha Games. Best Napoleonics rules for 2-4 players. I found them more satisfying than Lasalle for this type of game.

link

Two posts on my blog about the simplest ruleset with historical accuracies I have found. VERY easy to learn and plays in a few hours. Crusader Publishing's Rank and File. link

Actually, Daler has a very useful point there, that I had not really focussed on.

What, exactly, makes a good set of rules for a beginner?

I don't think it is just around complexity/simplicity – after all, newcomers to the hobby may well have already played WH40k, or FoW, and neither of those are "simple".

But they are inspirational, or even aspirational. Colour pics and lots of examples.

So I would initially have said BP myself, as that is what I use with my Friday night group (who aren't Naps fans). But is there something better. And for my money, better than V&B

All depends on the scale really.

Blucher offers better flavor for the period than V&B for the big battles. Waterloo in an afternoon essentially.

LaSalle or ShakoII for corps sized battled – battalion scale.

Skirmish? Sharp Practice2 or Songs of Drums and Shakos

Another vote for Lasalle or Shako

As a good starter ruleset I would suggest All The King's Men, which is easily picked up, has period flavour, and best of all, it's free.

PDF link

The manoeuvre units are battalions, which are standardised at 14 figures each (2 command and 12 rank and file). These can be based individually or in pairs. Skirmisher and cavalry units are both 8 figures, and a gun battery is one gun plus 4 crew. They include different types of formation, morale, disorder, activation/initiative etc and so on in a nice simple way. You can absorb them in an afternoon.

ATKM is written for 54mm toy soldiers, and suggests 1" square bases per figure with units on movement trays, and 6" move distance per turn. With smaller figures, you can simply alter these to suit whatever space and figures you have. The rules will still play and work. Essentially ATKM specifies that a line is 6 figures wide and 2 deep, so at an inch per figure, it's 6" wide. This also happens to be the move distance, so you can alter 6" to anything you like.

This does raise what can become an important point though. Some rule sets can have the effect of locking you into to certain unit sizes and basing conventions. So while they may work well as a start, you could find you are embroiled in a lot of work when it comes to moving on to a more complex set.

The other point, touched on above, is the matter of what is often called "bathtubbing". This is the practice of refighting naval battles in the bathtub with two ships per side to represent a whole fleet.

Almost all Napoleonic battles entail some degree of bathtubbing. Your table will only hold so many figures. Say that's 300 per side. You either have an "army" of ten 30-figure battalions a side and you call the resulting divisional-size action a battle. Or, you go for a ruleset that says 4 figures are a battalion and 32 figures are a division, in which case the same total of 300-odd figures a side is a full blown multi-Corps army.

In both cases you are bathtubbing because what you have there on your table is 300 figures either way. If your taste is for manoeuvring troops in columns and squares and skirmish lines and whatnot, then you'll want rules that organise these into battalions. If you want to refight Leipzig, then you'll need a set where a battalion is one figure and all the formationy skirmishy type stuff is abstracted away.

One of the challenges of the era is that army size varied enormously across it. There were battles such as Maida which was indeed a divisional action with 6,000 men a side, but there were also epics like Wagram and Leipzig where you had north of 300,000. In between you had armies of 20 to 30,000 or so, which describes Napoleon's Italian campaigns, of 80,000 or so which describes Austerlitz, Waterloo, etc, and all points in between.

Personally I am drifting towards the view that it is not actually possible to use the same rules for the whole epoch, and that one is perhaps best off with a skirmish forces / small armies / middling armies / enormous armies separation and a separate set for each.

I would second ATKM as being great rules for a newbie. They are my go to rules when I want an old school game with my 20mm Nap plastics.