"Change of rulesets" Topic

For a number of reasons I'm looking to turn away from Black Powder. Apart from General De Brigade what current rulesets would you suggest where the 24 figure battalion / 12 figure cab rgt is the standard unit.

My infantry are in 2 ranks and rebasing is not an option.

Napoleon at War. Base 1" x 1.25"

Le Feu Sacre v3 doesn't care how your troops are based, only that they're consistently based the same way.

Wait until General d'Armee is released in in the next couple of months before you decide.

Meets your initial requirements and has a different approach to Command you may find interesting.

There's a walk through on this board somewhere from a few weeks ago.

DBN

Not figure hungry, basing is rather standard. Fully self-contained set of rules.

Hmm. NAW has basing requirements, and I'm not rebasing.

LFS has fixed unit strengths that are incompatible with the basing I described and uses figure removal, not sure about that.

DBN is a BDA-based system which is completely incompatible with what I have.

Piquet? I do not play Napoleonics, but their use of 4-stand units can mirror the standard Balck Powder units in frontage.

In Lasale, distances are in BW (Base widths). Nothing wrong with that, but if I was using infantry and cavalry on different sized bases, which BW should I use ?

Carnage & glory- if you have a laptop, these rules are the best. Look into it. Ask those who use it. I promise you, you will not be dissapointed.

link

You will not have to rebase.

I would not let basing requirements be a constraint. There are so many rules that do not require specific basing and many that do can be worked around with a bit of thought. Find one with the mechanisms and detail you like then I think you will find the basing to be a minor problem if any at all.

re: Lasalle and different basewidths for your cav or infantry, If they are not wildly different, then choose either one (or average the two!) I would use the infantry myself since you probably have more of those. The abstraction of it is the ratio of a battalion's frontage to its range, so that is probably the most relevant "distance".
Lasalle is a great game IMO, though tends to be best as petite tactical.

Take a look at Field of Battle 2. As long as both sides have similar basing it should play fine.

I also recommend Piquet: Field of Battle 2….

General d'Armee walkthrough:

TMP link

Over the Hills seems base agnostic. Designers play with 6 stands per battalion but others use 4 stands, no big deal. No figure removal, game runs on fatigue level (combat effectiveness by another name).

Shako 2 is battalion/regiment level. We use 12 infantry and 6 cavalry per unit on 3 stands. 24 and 12 would be no problem, they would take up extra space.

Napoleon's Battles springs to mind as a possibility.

Good stuff guys. OTH and Lasalle are in the lead at the moment, but GdA is also a possibility. Any more ?

It is a well kept secret that, with one or two VERY rare exceptions, you can easily adapt ANY set of Napoleonic rules to accommodate ANY basing system. You just need a little creativity around handling any mechanics where you r figures differ from what the rules expect. For example:

For example:

• The rules assume 6 stands per unit, your units are 12 each. Easy: each 2 stands of figures count as 1 in the rules.
  
• The rules assume units of 12 stands, you have units of 6. Easy: a unit that loses 1 stand in the rules gets marked with a pipe cleaner. Upon taking a second loss, remove a stand (recently did this with Lion Rampant using multi-based figures).
  
• The rules use figure removal and your figures are based on a single "diorama" style base. Easy: use a roster – added bonus, now your opponent doesn't know exactly how strong or weak your units are.
  
• And so on….

Find a rule set you really like, adjusting to your basing will really not be that hard.

LaSalle or Field of Battle 2 are both excellent alternatives.

Christopher

Field of Battle 2 and Shako 2 would be my choices.

Shake one, it wasn't broke, why fix it, Btns of 16 works fine, cavalry of 8, it's all good….

Wait for General D'Armee.

:-)

I'm going to Cavalier tomorrow, and if I can find a copy of OTH I will get them. Lasalle is out of print, so I might get the PDF version.

From what I have seen, GdA will be might well be a useful set as well, but I want to start with a new set asap, so I'll watch for out it's release.

I agree with EC, find the rules you like. I like Age of Eagles

As others have mentioned, basing is not really an issue with various work-arounds possible.

For Mr Guthroth, if BP is not quite floating your boat, you might get a more specific rules suggestion if you say what aspects of BP you like /don't like.

For me the command section of any rules are the first make or break point. Other points that turn me off might be a strange sequence of play or a complicated tangle of morale rules.

Having said that, I'll put aside my preferences to actually join my mates in pushing lead and having fun.

Regards

David F Brown

Another vote for Shako 2. Shako is still going strong after 22 years.

Another vote for both Field of Battle 2nd edition, and "you can make most rules sets fit your basing with a little effort". Rebasing is the work of the Devil! :-)

I've been playing LFS for 4+ years and have never removed any infantry figures. I use either rosters or tiny dice to mark the number of casualties. And LFS is most certainly basing independent.

General d'Armee will be worth the wait.

Over the Hills is getting good reviews , details here link

Picked up a copy of OTH yesterday. Got a game planned for Friday.

Cheers, let me know how it goes :-)