[Archive] napoleonic wargames

gorgarrak:

anyone know any good 28mm napoleonic wargames sites

i was watching Sharpe last night and ended up on the internet ordering a british and french army from victrix and perry miniatures along with the Napoleon rule set from foundry, but theres not any good forums to discuss napoleonic wargaming(surely this was the first kind of wargame)

any help is apreciated

snowblizz:

TWF has a historicals section, but not very prolific.

There’s “TMP” darned if I remember what it meant, “the miniatures page” IIRC.

I think you could cast an eye on, or rather google up “Frothers UK”. But don’t go on there if you have a weak stomach, are easily offended or don’t like to run into the occasional pictures of boobs.

The field of historicals is pretty fragmented though, I can’t say I’ve run across any discussion forums as such. Most only older farts playing such games and they aren’t very talkative with these newfangled internets. :stuck_out_tongue:

I think the major problem is that the historical miniatures aren’t quite built the same way, not leading to any communities as such.
The only other similar community seems to be the players of Warhammer Historicals.

People playing historicals seem more group aligned and as such do not seem to need to talk to each other.
FoW is the only exception to this, but that works a lot like Warhammer does which would support my theory.

Good luck finding any though. There are a couple of new “consumer oriented” rules that have come out so maybe we’ll see something. Or you just have to start one yourself!

Swissdictator:

I really like Fire and Fury. It was originally for the American Civil War, but I believe they have released a rule set for the Napoleonic time frame.

I personally detest Napoleon’s Battles, and have heard horror stories about “Empire”.

I hope that helps!

slev:

If you stat everyone as human, then the Flintloque rules work very very well for historical napolionic skirmish.

However, yes, the historical side of the hobby is fragmented and insular. There is little done to make it accessible to the masses, and this is leading to its slow demise.

AGPO:

Yeah, its a shame I tried to break into it a few years ago, but got rebuffed as I was ‘a kid’ at the time. People have their groups they hang round with, there’s not really an internet pressence which is a shame. It would lend itself well to forums, especially tuts for how to convert different regiments

starscream:

little bit off topic but how nice are those Victorix minis? awesome value too. I bought the British Highlanders box from my local forbidden Planet to try them out and was very impressed.

Thorne:

Sligthly off topic I have been considering starting a Imperial guard army with the Victrix Napoleon’s Old Guard Grenadiers turning them into Imperial Guard Vostroyan models, They are some of the best quality models I have seen in a very long time, I do hope you enjoy painting them.

starscream:

I have converted some Highlanders into a vets unit for my Praetorians, someone on Warseer has had the same idea as you…http://www.warseer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=250303

GRNDL:

Can anyone describe why they like the Napoleonic era, or what they like about it? I’ve never found myself wanting to try it, but that’s probably because I don’t know much about the history. So, if anyone can point out what they like about it…

starscream:

watch some episodes of “Sharpe” mate, that’ll do the trick.

snowblizz:

Can anyone describe why they like the Napoleonic era, or what they like about it?  I've never found myself wanting to try it, but that's probably because I don't know much about the history. So, if anyone can point out what they like about it...

GRNDL
I read an article in WI who suggested the colourfulness of the uniforms. It's fun and interesting to paint.
It is a big deal historically. And as I tend to hang around anglo-saxon circles, I'm guessing the fact the the Britts sort of "won" is a big draw-in.
No machinegunning down natives usurping their lands and oppressing the people.
It's also fairly equal. Both sides were pretty equal in terms of units and equipment. Again not machineguns against spears.
Mainly tactics and manoeuvre that won the battles. I think that is probably a big draw. Match your wits against the best in history. Sort of.

Swissdictator:

Personally I’ve never been a fan of the Napoleonic era, be it gaming or when I was working on my history degree. Though I’ve been warming up to it lately. Snowblizz is correct in that, the forces were relatively equal in equipment and support. What was different was the quality of leadership or training. When I do get that urge for Napoleonics, I’d have to say Russians have a strong appeal for me.

I’m more interested in the American Civil War, which probably is partly due to my being American (and the ACW being what got me into history and gaming). Overall it has some of the similar appeal as Napoleonics (especially early ACW) in that the troops are relatively on equal footing in a single game, without one side having to outnumber the other significantly. WWII has some strong appeal, as does WWI air battles. Then there is ancients too…

Thorne:

Oh the american civil war ! That is a very colourfull period of war and many things that have come since then have been based on how warfare has been fougth ever since. So many colourfull characters and so many big personalities uniforms troop types, Brings me rigth back to my Historical living history and reenactment days as a Solider in the 1st Maryland  Cavalry during my time reenacting of the shenandoh valley campaign and also as a Louisiana Tigers and one of Wheats Tigers shame a accident got in the way of it like it did. Was a truely wonderfull time. Also taking part in the 2003 Battle of Gettysburg reenactment was a blast ! But to this day I must agree with Swiss, I find far less interest in Nepoleonics as I do the american civil war and I am in theory Brittish go figure :wink:

Thanks starscrean for the link ! much kudos ! thank you bud :smiley:

May you have slaves !

gorgarrak:

i think that the main draw to me with naps has got to be the sharpe and hornblower books, the rules by too fat lardies concentrates on the literary side of the game, you choose “big men” our heros, who are more akin to roleplay charactors with randomly determined traits with the rest of the army being grunts who need big men to inspire them to acts of bravery.

Swissdictator:

Hornblower is good, and I would probably be VERY interested in Napoleonic naval battles. As Napoleonic Era through the Franco-Prussian War probably was the most interesting time for naval battles in my mind. The only good naval ruleset I’ve played to date is for the American Civil War “Ironclads”. However, it would be very easy to adapt to use for the Napoleonic time frame I think. There has to be stats out there online for it.