Napoleonics anyone?

[Primarch]

It would be neat to try a new range of proportions. What brand of models and rules are you guys using?

Ashmie and I are looking to use either Victrix or Perrys minis. As Ashmie is using Prussians, he bought models from Warlord. I will mainly be using Victrix due to the larger British range, with a few metal models added in for characters etc. The French have lots of choices for cavalry and infantry, but so far they have no plastic cannon, though the Perry Brothers have some available from their site in metal.

We'd be looking at about 5 units or so on the table to begin with, with each unit being between 24 and 36 models per infantry unit mounted on 40mmx40mm bases (the ogre sized bases from GW for example). 2 Victrix sets would get you 3 units with spares for skirmishers, officers and casualties for example.

[The Other Dave]

It would be neat to try a new range of proportions. What brand of models and rules are you guys using?

I couldn't tell who you were asking, heh. Mike and I are using the models and rules from Baccus. At the moment, we've got 1812-period armies (not that it matters too much besides questions of whether their hats are historically accurate or not, heh) - I have Brits and he has the French.

[Primarch]

It would be neat to try a new range of proportions. What brand of models and rules are you guys using?

I couldn't tell who you were asking, heh.

Yeah, I wasnt sure either.
We're also using different rule sets.
I'm not sure what rules ToD and MtP are using, but Ashmie and I are using Black Powder, which seems like a very relaxed set of rules (its written pretty tongue in cheek with comments from the writers about 'gentlemanly behaviour'). The game works on the basis of issuing orders to units. Each officer makes an Ld test to issue and order. Depending on how much the test is passed by will affect how well the unit performs. E.g. A unit of infantry is ordered to advance to the top of a hill. If they barely pass the test, they may advance towards the hill. If they pass by a small margin maybe they can get to the foot of the hill, if they pass by a large margin they can get to the top of the hill. If they fail the test the officer has blundered and the unit may do entirely the wrong thing altogether. Its all fairly lighthearted by the looks of it and the rules are simple enough to play quickly without getting bogged down in charts and tables.

[job]

Thanks. The question was originally aimed at ToD because he responded within minutes to my first post, but actually I had interest in what model was being used for the 28mm range.
They both look like good games. The 6mm attracts me both as a new adventure in scale and what looks like the scale of the game, but if ashmie and Prim are playing a skirmish level game, that could be a real sell because I'm currently not in the position to paint another army-sized game.

[Primarch]

Thanks. The question was originally aimed at ToD because he responded within minutes to my first post, but actually I had interest in what model was being used for the 28mm range.
They both look like good games. The 6mm attracts me both as a new adventure in scale and what looks like the scale of the game, but if ashmie and Prim are playing a skirmish level game, that could be a real sell because I'm currently not in the position to paint another army-sized game.

Whilst there are probably skirmish level games out there for Napoleonics, I haven't found any. (Sharp Practice by 2 Fat Lardies is the smallest I've seen and even that involves 40+ figures by the looks of it).
For Black Powder there will probably be something like 100+ figures on the table. For the 6mm game there will be several hundred if not 1000 on the table, but they'll all be tiny.

[Admiral-Badruck]

I just watched the Patriot and I have to say I would love to get an army from that epic. but what would I use it for...

[The Other Dave]

I just watched the Patriot and I have to say I would love to get an army from that epic. but what would I use it for...

People have been wargaming the American War of Independence almost as long as they've been wargaming! It's well behind Napoleonics and American Civil War in popularity, but there's still plenty of miniature lines (although not so much in 28mm) and rulesets out there.

Finding opponents in these parts might be tricky, but that's what collecting multiple armies is for.

[Primarch]

I just watched the Patriot and I have to say I would love to get an army from that epic. but what would I use it for...

Not really Napoleonics. Since the Patriot is set around the time of the American Revolution/War of Independance and they all wore different hats in those days. (AWI - 1775-1783, Napoleonic Wars 1803-1815). You could probably use an AWI army as an AWI army since they wouldnt fit 40k or Fantasy.

The Perrys do some metal models along those lines in 28mm scale. Beyond that look for AWI Miniatures or American War of Independance Miniatures on google. I haven't seen any plastics for that time period though.
The Black Powder ruleset by Jervis Johnson and Rick Priestly (not GW related though) covers that time period as well as others before and after.

[ashmie]

I've got the Black Powder rules and the Hail Caesar rules now. Both really nice sets of rules and not only that good reads with lots of detail and historical soundbites added. Reading the introduction to Hail Caesar has really inspired me to start constructing some armies for big epic battles of the ancient times. That said I think we should start with Black Powder and then move on to Hail Caesar after we have tried that as the rules for Hail Caesar are based on Black Powder.
Expect game events in Tsu for historical battles in the second half of this year or the beginning of next. Really inspired by these books. Must finish my orcs and ww2 British though, damn too many models for too many games.

[Seb]

Napoleonics are cool, as I could field Swedes even though that was the time marking the decline of the country losing whole Finland to Russia.