"“Horse, Foot and Guns” or “DBN”?" Topic

Hello everyone,

What do you prefer fot the napoleonic wars ? "Horse, Foot and Guns" or "DBN"? And why?

Yours aye

Paskal

Never heard of anyone playing the former but quite a few play the latter.

DBN, especially 2nd edition, really captures the flavour of the period nicely.

HFG is a mess, so Dbn.

I'm a fossil. I use Wessencraft's Corps Level Game from his Practical Wargaming. It fits on both sides of a sheet of paper, and gets plausible historical results. Of course I have to hide this from the really modern, up to date wargamers.

DBN.

And for DBN supplements is this also valid ?

Played a lot of the earlier versions of HFG, not so much the later ones. DBN just never appealed.

I preferred HFG as it was multi period, you could model real OOOBs and the combat outcomes seemed quite sensible. Not many rules will let you fight the paired battles of Waterloo and Wavre in an evening. DBx is all a bit more abstract.

Depends

If you only want to do Napoleonic, then maybe the above advice is accurate. However HF&G allows you to play the Great Northern War up to the the start of WWI. If you have any interest in any of the other periods, then you should at least look at HF&G.

I wouldn't say it was a mess. Complicated, yes. But it's a set of rules that allows for both submarines and balloons.

Cheers,
JohnG

I have the impression that people find "HFG" more complicated?

It does demonstrate the ability of Phil Barker that both sets are based on his thinking.
Well done Phil.

martin

The core mechanics of DBN and its supplements are Phil's great concepts. But as well as being specifically tailored to their periods, they are not written by Phil — which by itself is a great improvement.

Paskal I thought from your earlier post you had settled on HFG?

>I'm a fossil. I use Wessencraft's Corps Level Game from his Practical Wargaming.

I had a look at these rules from 1974 they look very good and still in print through the history of wargaming project. The trouble is persuading folks who have paid over £30.00 GBP on rules and supplements that these 7 pages of rules might give a better game.

Robert P can I ask if you made any modifications to the Wessencraft rules? The artillery ranges look a little short and I wonder about introducing a random element to say the long cavalry move distance to stop them crashing about too predictably.

I haven't made my choice yet because I'm waiting for DBN, for now I hope that I won't have to re-base my figurines.

Long day today. Maybe something on Wessencraft tomorrow? I don't remember serious changes--more like clarifications--but I DO remember that you had to read the whole book. Wessencraft will introduce a term or mechanism in Ancients, and then mention it in the Corps Level Game without repeating himself. Once I got everything in one place, it was two typed pages, but if you just read the one chapter, you'll have a lot of unanswered questions.

Thanks for getting Robert back and no rush here. I had spotted that there were subtle rules and ideas elsewhere in the book. The attack sequence in the corp rules is quite clear but I do wonder if a cavalry on cavalry attack should be different allowing a counter charge and so a simultaneous fight?

I am learning about the differences between HFG and DBN.

Not on Wessencraft's Corps Level Game from his Practical Wargaming…

I am interested in the comparative HFG/DBN chat, but I'd also enjoy hearing more about Wesencraft. Perhaps a new thread …? ;-)

Yes then go ahead, create a topic for Wesencraft !

Yes, please do create a thread on Wesencraft's rules.

Yes arthur1815 then go ahead, create a topic for Wesencraft !