| Captain Avatar | 11 Sep 2017 2:26 a.m. PST |
Not the "best" Napoleonic rules, mind you as there are as many rules sets as there are opinions. The question is what is the most popular grand tactical rules out there that you are seeing at conventions and at your local game club. I move around a lot and have been playing the original Napoleon' Battles off and on for years. I'd like to try Blucher, but want to see what others are playing. Grand tactical so army level with the smallest unit being a brigade. Also looking for something designed or at least plays well in 15mm. |
| robertg | 11 Sep 2017 2:41 a.m. PST |
Volley and Bayonet or Grande Armee. Probably the latter in overall popularity.
Both good rule sets in their own right, both taking the single big base per unit approach. |
| Allan F Mountford | 11 Sep 2017 3:58 a.m. PST |
Not sure about the popular vote, but I would recommend Age of Eagles by Bill Gray. |
| marshalGreg | 11 Sep 2017 6:07 a.m. PST |
Popular as to what clubs and what is being played at convention here in USA…
For the east coast to mid south this what I see.
Conventions:
AoE
ESR ( GT but pcs are Btns and not brigades like AoE,GA)
Shako II( even though btn is represented and traditionally Tactical rules-it is played like Empire in scale, where each player is playing corp COs, so I place it under GT here)
Home grown (modeled off FnF or GArmee)
Clubs:
Mostly Home grown stuff or modified FnF ( slight different to AoE)
AoE
Shako II
Empire
Napoleons battles MG |
 Stosstruppen  | 11 Sep 2017 6:50 a.m. PST |
Age of Eagles, I like Napoleon's Battle but they don't seem very popular. |
| CATenWolde | 11 Sep 2017 7:32 a.m. PST |
Interesting that AoE and Shako remain popular – solid, classic rules. I still like my house-ruled V&B for really big games, but I'm not sure how many people are still playing it? |
| nickinsomerset | 11 Sep 2017 8:14 a.m. PST |
Great fan of Napoleon's Battles, played games from Corunna to Leipzig and parts there of, easy system and great games, Tally Ho! |
| Dexter Ward | 11 Sep 2017 12:55 p.m. PST |
Blucher has replaced Grand Armee for us. Same scale, but plays much faster. |
 McLaddie | 11 Sep 2017 2:54 p.m. PST |
It is a question which can't be answered in any meaningful way unless you count something of who plays and who buys the rules. Saying "I saw three of the games played at X convention really doesn't mean much other than who likes the game enough to put it on at a convention.
You can go with the TMP polls or count how many are in each of the online group lists for each game. Members on the yahoo lists for AoE 3481
Blucher 1715 for all Honor Games [minus Grand Armee]
Grand Armee 1696
ESR 1555
Napoleon's Battles 1711
Shako 1512 And of course, that doesn't address how much activity each list sees. For instance, the Grand Armee list hasn't had a post since Dec. 2016. |
| The Wargaming Company | 11 Sep 2017 7:03 p.m. PST |
ESR (Et sans résultat! Second Edition) does pretty well. We're pretty happy with our growth rate, 'units shipped' this year is on track to come in at double last year. Being a lot younger than any of the other notable players in the market, we're pretty happy with how it seems to be taking off. -TWC
thewargamingcompany.com |
| Trajanus | 12 Sep 2017 3:15 a.m. PST |
Captain Avatr I like Blucher for this level of gaming but the thing you have to bear in mind is like some of the others already mentioned is its designed for single base = a Brigade. Obviously nothing stopping you moving existing units in a block style with out rebasing but its not like Naps Battles, or others, where you layout columns, Lines and Squares and pretend all (or the majority) of the units in the table space they occupy are doing the same thing. I mention this in case you like that appearance and to point out the rule a written with block basing in mind. |
| Madmac64 | 12 Sep 2017 5:00 a.m. PST |
I would second ESR……I played at Historicon and was really impressed with the grand tactical flow and historical results. |
| Mac1638 | 14 Sep 2017 5:03 a.m. PST |
WRG Corp d'Army out of print
A great set of rules for a Corp+ games
We use club amendments
As we have been awaiting a long tine second edition |
| Beresford | 24 Sep 2017 12:31 p.m. PST |
Art of Command gives you a fast play rule set from Army down to battalion/squadron/battery level multi-player big battles. We have fought over 40 big battles (including Leipzig, Wagram, Talavera, Waterloo etc) in our Napoleon 200 series, the last being Borodino where we fought 49 periods in 12 hours. The rules, which include strategic movement, fighting in built up areas etc, also work well with small corps and divisional battles. |
| Stoppage | 24 Sep 2017 2:10 p.m. PST |
@Beresford Bit of a tantaliser – where can your set be found? |
| True Grit | 25 Sep 2017 12:08 a.m. PST |
For me its DBN
Check out the battles on youtube, Waterloo, Borodino, Leipzig, all in 15mm |
