Chosenmen - 30 December 2008 02:47 PM

I’m quite new to wargames in the Napoleonic era, and i just wanted to know what is the best set of rules for 28mm models in Napoleonic battles?

Rules are like food—there is no best, just your favorite.  Your favorite will depend upon your tastes, so you’re going to have to provide more info to get good answers.  There is a large amount of discussion on TMP; browse through here.

My personal recommendation would be to figure out what is played in your area by possible opponents, and learn to like whatever they are playing.

My favorite is Piquet: Field of Battle.  Piquet can be quite a departure from traditional rules systems, though, so it may not be your cup of tea.  I personally really enjoy how it introduces a simple but effective “fog of war.”  You will never know for sure if your troops can be where they need to be when they need to be—it may be likely, it may be very likely, but it is never certain.

That all depends upon what scale you want to do. Before choosing a rules set you need to decide what the basic unit would be in the game you envision: man-to-man skirmish, company, regiment, brigade? Rules set vary widely according to the scale.

I found some very nice minatures that are 28mm, what can i do with them?

Chosenmen - 30 December 2008 03:12 PM

I found some very nice minatures that are 28mm, what can i do with them?

You can do about anything with them.  Have you wargamed before?  Are you asking how to begin wargaming?  If so, I would recommend skirmish wargaming.  Each figure is based singly and (usually) represents a single man.  A popular example at this scale would be to game scenarios from the Sharpe novels.

For rules, look for Napoleonic skirmish rules.  I really can’t say what is popular at this scale, but there are a lot of options.  Try out some
free rules (just search the page for the word skirmish; there are several options) while researching rule reviews for the commercial sets.

For mass battles, figures are based in ranks together on a larger base, and each figure may represent 20 or 60 or however many men.  It’s a little more advanced and may not be the best place to begin, because each set of rules typically uses different base sizes…

I quite experienced with Warhammer and Warhammer 40K but completely new to historical wargames :S

Paint them and play with them, of course.

With the guys I game with, we typically do a lot of planning before acquiring miniatures. We decide what battles we would like to refight, and at what scale. Then we decide on a rules set. That’s an important issues because different rules sets ask for different numbers of figure and different basing schemes. Basing is important. The figure typically are attached to a wider, but thin base to help them stand up on a gaming table. If you’re doing a man-to-man game, where each figure represents one guy, rules sets typically call for single figures to be based on a 1 inch, or 3/4 inch base. Games in larger scales, where the basic unit is a brigade, might call for 3-5 figures to be attached to a single 1 inch by 3 inch base and so on. Different rules sets also call for different numbers of figures per unit. For example, in one rules set, one figure might represent 33 actual men. In another, 1 figure might represent 150. That will make a huge difference in the number of figures you’ll need.

Once you’ve decided on battles and rules, you’ll know how many and what type of figures to buy.

Then, it’s typically on to the painting job. Most of us paint the figures ourselves, but increasing numbers are sending them to painting services in Sri Lanka and other third world countries to get the job done for us. In either case, making sure the figures are painted in an historically correct fashion will require a bit of research. Fortunately, in Napoleonics, all the work has been done for you. You just need to get a hold of a couple of Osprey uniform books.

LittleLeadHeroes—don’t go sending him off to my competition

There are huge numbers of free wargames rules listed in the main section of this site. Just go to the main page at http://www.miniaturewargaming.com and use the drop down box in the right column to find the various rules and free wargaming resources categories.

Here is a direct link to the Napoleonics section

http://www.miniaturewargaming.com/index.php/mwg/category/Rules Napoleonics/

Chosenmen - 30 December 2008 03:27 PM

I quite experienced with Warhammer and Warhammer 40K but completely new to historical wargames :S

Excellent.  My recommendation is to do Napoleonic skirmish, which would be like 40k.  That will get you playing the soonest, as you only need to paint up a few figures to get started.  Base your figures on smallish bases.  Most skirmish rules don’t really care about base sizes, and by going smaller, you can fit more on rooftops and such, plus after you have a lot painted up, you can temporarily mount them on larger bases to try out battalion and brigade sized games—formation style games, much like Warhammer Fantasy.

Bases just don’t matter like they do in GW games.  I usually do mine on the smallest fender washer that fits the figure.  I use fender washers because they can then stick to magnets, and they’re pretty cheap.  Plus, the hole is smaller on them than a regular washer.  Lots of people use coins, cardboard, styrene, wood—whatever, some round, some square.  Many times, historical players will rebase their figures.  Since you’re starting out, this might happen to you, so you might glue them in some way that will be easy to remove.  For example, PVA/white glue on thick cardboard.  You can flock it as normal, but when the day comes when you’ve decided you wish you had gone Whatever big battalian game base sizes, you can change easily.

good advice littlelead. That’s how I started with a good many of my periods. A 30 man to a side skirmish game that eventually scaled up to hundreds per side.

I found this game for skirmishes called chosen men what do u guys think of it? http://uk.geocities.com/oculus1999/cm.html

That is a tougher call.  Like I said earlier, choosing rules is a matter of taste.  Try a bunch out and figure out what you like.  Some people like extreme technical detail.  Others like command and control emphasis.  Others like heroic daring-do.  Still others just like the spectacle of the painted figs and terrain, and don’t care about the rules.  I will take a look at these and tell you what I think.

If you want a detailed simulation then Chosen Men is definitely not for you. If you want a fast paced fun game then give them a try!

Sounds good so far, given my own personal tastes and biases!

I like card based (or otherwise random) activation mechanics like they use.  It looks pretty straight forward, although my experience with such “one page” rules is that I’m always a little uncertain if I’m playing the way it is intended or not.  Look through the scenarios for more clues—they indicate the intention is for each player to have a “character” and a handful of additional troops, and for there to be a lot of players.

These look like quick and easy rules for a large number of people, usually a convention game.  This would probably be a lot of fun if you have a club or a group of guys you play with.  If you are looking at a game just between you and another opponent, I would probably want to see a little more detail.  Off hand, for two players, I think I would break the figures up into multiple groups per player, and then use a card to activate each group, not all the player’s figures.  It would then run closer to how it was intended.  Still, get some figures painted up and give them a whirl.  They seem to have been played a fair bit, and not something somebody just slapped together.
Contact the author and discuss the rules and his intentions with him, or other players.

Just a thought. If you’re familiar with Warhammer, there’s a set of rules for using Warhammer to play Napoleonics out there:

http://www.3vwargames.co.uk/whammer/nb01.htm

Dear Editor,
Thank-you! for sharing the rules from Lord Ashram’s site. The rules are decent and the illustrations really help. I have looked at probably 15 different sets of Napoleonic rules and his (Ashrams) rate up there with the best.
R.W. 

I downloaded the latest Elan PDF rules….they look good!
Once I try them I’ll let you know…R.W.

I had a chance to review the Elan Delux rules. These are not for beginners. However the research and time put into them is apparent from the outset. The rules are well written and historically accurate. The author has done his homework and has made the rules fit what a modeler could reasonably gather and build in probably 1 year to start a campaign, if you are not fussy….or 2 years if you are a perfectionist like myself. The army lists are accurate and the point system helps you figure out what you need to get going. From a solo war-gamers point of view these rules are perfect and the bonus of having the Etat-Major campaign attachment really makes these rules desirable. Hats off to Phillip Jones for making these available for free. Another nice thing about the rules is as long as your existing figs are mounted on rectangular bases you are basically good to go with a few minor modifications.

Well done Mr. Jones!
...R.W.