Hi, folks. I have Charles Grant's old classics The War Game and Napoleonic Wargaming, as well as Charge! by Peter Young and JP Lawford. Having discovered Peter Dennis' Paperboys and starting to build up armies for the period (finally got hold of the '45 book which has Irish Brigade and Ecossai as well as period long coats for the British) I've hit a bit of a snag.
The bases of eight figures are perfect for building lines and making even large regiments easier to move (while most are actually of three rows of four, I'm doing a little conversion to cut them down). And in most elements, this works fine – even the singular casualties that these rulesets use can be recorded in a variety of ways.
What I am most confused about playing through at this point is the close combat. Because they aren't line-to-line, they're figure-to-figure. And when a figure dies, an enemy moves into its spot, or the figure behind it moves up.
The earlier firing rules about six of each side exchanging volleys, and specific figures being killed off, is also an issue.
When a column charges, it sort of "mashes" into the target line, with rear ranks pressing forward and spreading out so that, say, you have lines of eight, six and four men as you go back.
How to handle?
The funny thing is that in the Napoleonics book, and in CS Grant's recent Wargaming History series, multibased figures ARE depicted. But I can't figure out how the combat is modified, IF it is at all. Has CS Grant gone into this in any of his books? Or have you any suggestions?
"goes large."
