" Over the Hills a Napoleonic Wargame a review" Topic

Been getting some spikes in interest for the rules and though I would redo a review for my site, you can find it here link

Nice review and AAR on your Blog. I ordered these rules after hearing the M&M podcast and am eagerly waiting for them to arrive in Western Canada.

Your review suggests they can be played with any sort of basing though I seem to recall reading elsewhere that infantry units had 6 bases. Can you clarify how infantry and cavalry units are organized and what the recommended basing is for both?

Cheers
Kent

Can you clarify how infantry and cavalry units are organized and what the recommended basing is for both?

That would be nice information to have. My infantry battalions and cavalry regiments have four stands each so I'd need to know the number of stands required to decide whether to give the rules a shot.

Jim

The base organization is four stands for both infantry or cavalry. Artillery has 2 models per battery (there is probably a provision for Russian batteries).

The four-base unit, however, can be changed to fewer stands if the unit is smaller than the game norm, or larger for bigger units. The battalion norm is a unit of 600 men. Each increment of 100 men adds or subtracts stands. The rules give an example of a small unit of British rifles being 1 or two stands. Those huge Austrian battalions (at least on paper) of 1200 men would be represented by 4+ 6 stands, 10 in all.

As the size varies, so do the fatigue points.

I hope I'm clear.

I was clear, but not accurate. Indeed, the basic unit for infantry or cavalry is 6 bases. I use 4; thus each of my bases is 150 infantrymen or 75 cavalry.

A great and fast-moving set of rules. It is very well-written and flexible.

Minor question: if a zero is rolled on D10, is it a zero or a ten?

Nice set of rules, we have played it here at Lone Star Historical Miniatures (LSHM) club located in Texas. Both the San Antonio and Austin groups have given it a try and we like it.

Hi sorry for the late reply, I had a very busy weekend. Thanks to those of you who are playing the rules and enjoying them.

For number of bases per unit we play with six bases of four figures per battalion and six bases of two figures for cavalry. But it really does not matter as long as you and your gaming friends agree a similar size for your units. Over the Hills is very flexible and also accommodates different based units. So if you battalions are four bases in size there is no problem fitting into the rules. I hope this helps.

Any questions feel free to ask, we also have a facebook page for the rule set where like minded individuals share their hobby

ady

Meeples and Miniatures episode 200 Mike Hobbs, author of Sharpe Practice War of 1812, also gives Over the Hills a massive shout out as his go to Napoleonic Brigade/Divisional rules :-)

More feedback on Over the Hills the Napoleonic Wargame rated by Mike Hobbs of Meeples and Miniatures as his go to Napoleonic Brigade/Divisional game , another person who gave the rules a go said "I would just like to say before hand that we had an absolute blast with the rules and it's looking like this will be the go-to ruleset for our nap games.
The only other Nap games we've enjoyed have been Black Powder which was too generic and needlessly complicated and Blucher which felt too abstract – this sits in the exact sweet spot!"
Thanks for listening

We have had one go with the rules.
One thing we noticed was that (as we are using units of various strength) small units are influenced a lot more than bigger ones by fatigue eg a unit gets a fatigue marker for moving over 12 inch; for a small unit this is maybe one fourth of its strength while for big units its one tenth. We found that not correct; any comments?

Hmmm, thought very long and hard re this and I can only say that in most rules sets that have large and small units there is a disparity in how they perform. Now there are ways to mitigate the weakness of small units. In the example you give I would suggest that you do not push smaller units to hard or house rule that they do not take fatigue on movement
just a few thoughts

ady

I am hoping someone can answer a question about the rules.

What creates a 'broken unit?' The rules state that a unit of infantry or cavalry that breaks all enemy units it is fighting in close combat or forces all units, that it is fighting in close combat, to retreat, is classed as a winning unit. [page 50]

No where can I find a description of a unit that breaks or a broken unit. Certainly, there is no result among the various combat results. [page 48-49] or in the optional rule where a unit with a fatigue Score of 1 routs or is it any 'destroyed unit' with a FS of zero(0)? [Page 57]

Hi McLaddie

class a broken unit as one that is routed or destroyed

hope this helps

ady

Ady:

Thanks. That's what I needed to know.

Pleasure