"Rules & Basing for 28mm Napoleonics?" Topic

Following up on the recent discussion of "big battles." For those who use figures from 25 to 32mm, (a) what are you using for rules? And (b) since we don't all know them all, what sort of basing are you using?

Me? 20mmx20mm infantry, 1"x2" cavalry, and (mostly) Charge! though if you're individually based there are lots of possibilities.

Interested to see the answers here – I'm still looking!

3" squares. Usually 12 foot or 4 cavalry on a base. I use Blucher for the rules.

Haven't started this project yet, will be my third scale, 6mm for big battles, 15mm for Spain and the Hundred Days, and then 28 for parts of battles. Probably looking at Placenoit for a start. For the 28s I am thinking Black Powder basing 4 inf on a 40mm square and 2 cav on a 50mm squaure.

We use the Black Powder basing as described by Strosstrupen

I used 2" squares for infantry (4 figs) and cavalry (2 figs) for ACW and played using Bloody Big Battles, so you could do that for Napoleonics.

Major Mike. You play one base = one brigade or make your brigade with many bases (that would be very big brigade on the table)?

Decebalus, It depends on the battle I'm playing. For the smaller battles or parts of larger battles I use 1 stand is 100 men and an artillery stand is 4-6 guns. Units are usually a regiment of 4-6 stands. For example in playing the Battle at Hatchie (Davis's) Bridge, Heberts Division 1st Brigade has four units, 15th AR/2nd MO with 5 stands, 1st MO Cavalry 3 stands (dismounted), 3rd MO 4 stands and 5th MO 4 stands.

My gaming buddy and I use the old "Napoleon's Battles" basing convention -- 1-1/2" wide x 2" deep bases with either 4 infantry, 2 cavalry, or a gun and 2 gunners. Mounted officers are on round bases, 1, 2, or 3 for regiment/brigade, division, and corps level.

Example: link

Jim

Thank you all very much. ColCampbell, what are you using for rules? Clearly not NB with multiple stands per battalion!

I base infantry with a 1/2" per figure frontage and cavalry with a 1" frontage. That puts them shoulder to shoulder (as they should be) and gives the battalions a nice dense feel (and allows more units to fit on a table). Our rules are an old homebrew set that has some similarities to Black Powder (although it pre-dates BP).

That's sort of two poll questions.

I play Black Powder at the 66% scale so the typical infantry battalion is 16 figures on 4 bases. Each base is 40 mm (tad over 1 1/2") square. Typical cavalry are 2 figures to a 50 mm (2") square base and I have been using 6 figure units. Artillery is 1 gun and 4 crew on a 50 mm (2") wide by 76-80 mm deep (3") base. I used the 66% scale hoping to be able to play a multi-brigade game on a 4' by 6' table, but discovered the units take up quite a bit of space once on the table top. As a result I have gone to using 15 mm figures at 50% scale and that works fine.

Volley and Bayonet. 8-12figures on a 3" square base.

"That's sort of two poll questions."

Feel free to set it up that way, oh Editor in Chief! But I needed to ask it this way to see whether the answers were related. Looks as though they are, but only to a degree.

40mm square with 4 infantry or 2 cavalry. Lasalle v2, Piquet FOB3, Shako, Blucher, Sharp Practice, Muskets & Tomahawks

The Silver Bayonet, individual 1" rounds.

If I ever expand the forces enough for Sharp Practice, then I'll add movement trays that hold 2–4 figures, or whatever frontage seems to work.