"Napoleonic Corps Level Rules" Topic

Looking for a Napoleonic rule set that will allow me to field a Corps. I've read that Napoleonic Principles of War and Fields of Glory handle this level of play.

Any recommendations?

So, you want to command at Corps level? And the units that you want to manouver on the table are what size? Brigades or Battalions? Its really the manouver unit level that dictates the rules. Its possible to play with battalions of infantry, regiments of cavalry and batteries of guns and yet still command a Corps.

The next 2 questions would be what table size do you have available? And you want to re-fight these actions in what amount of time? An evening or a weekend?

Polemos GDD will handle a corps per side easily. link

Have a look at TooFatLardies "Le Feu Sacré":

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Or, "General d'Armée", by dave Brown of "General de Brigade" fame, also available from TFL's Reisswitz Press":

link

Volley and Bayonet

Grande Armee uses one stand = one brigade, 1" = 100 yards. But there are no formations as, like Volley & Bayonet, it is assumed your officers are doing their job.

Of the stand-equals-a-brigade rules, I think Volley and Bayonet plays quicker than Grande Armee. You may have to play in half scale (1.5" bases) if you want to fit everything on a 6x4 table.

If you want each player to command a corps with units on the table being battalions, you may like Et Sans Resultat, also known as ESR. Although the title is French the author and publisher is American and they are in English. There is also a British retailer, Caliver.

Tom

several members of our group picked up ESR at Adepticon a couple of weeks ago and it sounds interesting but it may be a while until enough troops are painted to do a demo battle .

one nice thing about ESR is they are also producing 10mm figure packs using the Flames of War method , each pack is listed for mid war , late war , etc. and with Corps packs or brigade packs if you really want to customize your army . the figs are from Magister Militum so if there's anything missing from ESR's product line it's easy to order matching figs .

i think so far ESR just has packs for French , Austrian and Russian but they'll be expanding that soon .

the figure packs will make it very easy for people starting out in Napoleonics , they include bases , flags and even a painting guide .

In Snappy Nappy the basic unit is the brigade or DBN where really you could have each stand represent pretty much anything you wanted to.

Using Patton's thoughts, if one were a corps commander one would want to know what the units two levels down were doing, so the brigade being the basic element might be ideal.

Just played the "fast play" version of Grand Armee last weekend. Did Aspern-Essling,and I commanded the Austrian right with Hiller's VI Korps and the reserve element,which included Radetzky's brigade. Results-marginal Austrian win,both sides within 1 point of the army's breaking point,but the Kaiserlichs had reinforcements on the way , had it gone longer. Good ol' time,in any case.

I find Blucher to be better that either V&B or Grand Armee.
Very smooth mechanics and it plays much faster than Grand Armee.

+1 for Blucher. It is an evolution of GA and V&B.

Another vote for Blucher. I also vote for Horse, Foot, & Guns.

Bluecher. or Featherstone

My first choice would be by far Blucher. My second choice is General d'Armee.

Thanks chaps.

Age of Eagles works best with roughly a Corps per player

I have played " Over the Hills" with a couple of divisions per side. Manouvere unit is the battalion, so this size game needs two or three players a side. Definitely worth a look.
The other set I have played recently is "Napoleon's Battles". A corp per side is really the minimum for this set of rules; manouvere unit is the brigade, but command is at divisional, corps and army level. Much more abstract than OtH and good for recreating the bigger engagements of the period in a relatively small space. (recently played Klyastitzy on a 4 x 4 foot table in a three hour session and Lutzen on a 9 x 6, but that was a 6 hour session)

I have spent the last 2 hours reading reviews and researching the ESR ruleset. I have to say that I have never seen such a commitment from a company. I agree with their basic premise that Napoleonic gaming does need a company like Battlefront to move things along.

I game at the battalion tactical level and am quite happy with General d''armee.

If I was considering gaming at the brigade/divisional tactical level, I might consider this ruleset.

March Attack, Crusader publishing by Mark Sims.
Uses Battalions, batteries, and cavalry regiments/squadrons
For Multi Corps battles

link
link
TMP link
TMP link
TMP link
TMP link

Before I Was a Marshal – Larry Brom's Napoleonic rules
(he also was influential with 'To The Sound of the Guns')
uses 20 figure infantry units (6 bases of 3 figures and
a 2-figure command base), 12 figure cavalry bases (6 bases
of 2). A gun and 2 figures is a section, three of which
are a battery.

Four infantry units make up a Brigade, 8 infantry and
a battery = a division, so 16 infantry (320 figures)
and 2 batteries make up a Corps. Add 3 cavalry units,
4 brigade commanders, 2 division commanders and a
Corps commander.

The rules are designed for convention play and a game
between opposing Corps can be completed in 3-4 hours.

Available from Sergeants3 and in use for over 50 years.

So posts are older here. My 2 cents is based on what you want to maneuver as stated previously above.

Brigade level would be the highest level you would see formations and battalion level the next one down.

While I started with battalion level gaming, it really happens at the brigade level and up. But battalion formations make sense too but brigade level being the last command level, if this makes sense?

So I fluctuate between wanting battalions/brigade commands to brigades represented by single bases, either as 1 stand or multi-stand grouped together.

March Attack has the least amount of stands per battalion at 2 stands. Then we go up from there.

Other battalion unit games include Empire, ESR, Le Feu Sacre, General d'armee, etc.
That is based on you wanting to do a corps.

Brigade units can be as little as one small stand such as DBN to larger single stand units(Blucher, Grand Armee, V&B) to multi stand units like Age of Eagles, Shako, or Napoleon's Battles, etc.

If battalions, I would look strongly at the list I provided 2 paragraphs up.

If brigade, the choices are based on how many figures you want to model per brigade.

Blucher has the advantage of printed cards till you paint up troops. It's a card driven game, so you might prefer dice driven instead?

If others are playing in your area, I would follow them.

Personally I am looking at General d'armee and maybe ESR. For bigger army level games, at Blucher and DBN.

You didn't mention scale of figures. As we go up in battle size, generally you go down in figure size unless space isn't a constraint. Corps level for me means 15mm or smaller. Army level benefits from 6mm figures unless using less figures per unit. We do 10mm DBN on occasion which looks great in 10mm but would work in 15mm or 6mm too.

Large base dioramas look fantastic with 6mm as well. Modern 6mm is really 8mm btw. And many 10mm figures are 12mm in size. It matters because the larger sizes allow for better painting and visuals. 6mm has that mass look that is great.

Shako 2 – oldie but goody – Corps level avtions done in an evening once everyone is familar with the rules.