"Grid-based (Hex or Square) Napoleonic Rules" Topic

Is anyone aware of a rules set made specifically for grid-based Napoleonic games? Something a la TtS or FK&P.

Square grids preferred, but hex is also doable. I am familiar with those who have taken Command and Colours and turned it into a miniatures game, but having play the rules a few times the mechanics are not my cup of tea.

Thanks!
Dave

Bob Cordero's The Portable Napoleonic Wargame.

have a look at Bob Corderys blog.

link

and one of his books.

link

I am familiar with those who have taken Command and Colours and turned it into a miniatures game

Backwards. Miniatures rules first, boardgame second.

Thanks for the replies. I'll at Bob's book.

Also, I like the Volley and Bayonet mechanics; I saw a brief article somewhere about a conversion to a grid-based system. Has anyone done that?

Cheers,
Dave

I would suggest you look at Cold Steel & Cannister. Grid based and about as complex as To the Strongest. I played it once. The objective marker mechanic is very clever and works well.

Is cold steel and canister still available?

According to the Decker Games website, not currently, although they are trying to get a print-on-demand supplier.
deckergames.com/markdown and deckergames.net

Jim

Perry's "Travel Battle" is grid based. I don't know it the rules are available separately though.

Rmaker is right a miniatures game turned board. I played with Richard Borg in a one on one battle of Talavera back when Hurricon was at Tampa. So it was over two decades ago. We used 25mm castings then. I have seen 15mm games, 6mm games just last year.

In regards ro hex over square, it is only a matter of preference. In your movement mechanics, how are linear, grid side and area in the grid are conducted.

On the Sam Mustafa/Honour Facebook page they were talking about a conversion for Blucher that allowed it to be played on a grid.

There are mods for using Blucher (you need a copy of the rules) at:
link

Also there's these…
PDF link

CORRECTION – they're not hex rules but they were stored in my folder with hex rules for other periods – don't know why.

I do have a pdf of a set that NapoleoN (the now defunct 20mm manufacturer) posted for free (a basic version) – they're not on the web anymore but I'll email them if you give me your address.

Baccus used to publish Leipzig Lite for their demo 6mm Napoleonic games, grid based Armyevel rules. I've used them for Leipzig, Borodino and Waterloo. They were free so might be around on the interweb somewhere.

Another shout for Bob's Portable Napoleonic Wargame, and yes, it is very easy to convert V&B into a grid. One square equals 3".Job done.

At the more abstract end is Phil Sabins Kartenspiel, buried in the appendices of his book, Simulating War. A very decent sim of a Clausewitzian battle. I've run that with ten players.

Crusader Publishing has a set of hex Napoleonics. They produce Some good rule sets.

Back in the 1990's I used the old SPI Folio Games for figure gaming, each SP representing an element and I used a large hex grid, 4 cm hexes normally as the elements were 3-4 cm wide. With this size a typical map can convert into a 3' x 4' playing area, I normally use 90cm x 120 cm because I come from a metric country and I have made up playing areas on 3mm MDF boards of that size, carefully drawing in the hexes. It's a real pain, but it does work.

These day I am not so keen on seeing hexes on a playing area so use a version of the rules which replaces the actual hexes with rules which simulate hexes. I am uncertain if this idea will fly, but I remember playing the old SPI napoleons Last battles quad, which allowed you to place all four maps together so you can refight the whole campaign. The rules I possess only include the four original quad games, but I may try and convert last battles into this format to see if I could try a full campaign. I suspect this is a stupid idea as the playing area would need to be 6' x 8' and I have tried this size in the past with other rules and find it hard to reach into the centre of the playing area. But I bet it would look good.

This project started after I created a Video‌ on the subject, initially looking at hex based playing areas. If you do not like the "hex-less" version you can always try the original SPI games. There is a link in the description of the video which takes you to the SPI games in question. Before I created a proper playing area I used green cardboard and drew hexes on it, but if you have any of the GHQ hex system hexes, or similar, just put the hexes together and go for it.