Not much to post about this week as I have finally been able to write up my “home-Brew” Napoleonic rules which are inspired by SPI's board game "Napoleon at Waterloo". In particular the combat rules and use of a combat results table. These rules are aimed at playing larger scale battles involving a number of corps, where each base generally represents a Brigade, but can represent a Division for a particularly large battle.
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| A tabletop view of a game in progress. |
I have been playing a number of games with these rules over the past few weeks and finally settled on a number of the rule mechanisms. So it was time to write up my notes up, which I have done and added them to the tabs at the top of the blog or just click here to find them.
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| A closer view of the tabletop actions. |
There are quite a few excellent Napoleonic scenarios on various blogs covering various historical battles which I now plan to play.
Great stuff Peter - I quite like the idea of 1 base = a unit for higher level games - it might enable me to fight a larger scale game on 3' x 3@ - although I would need to scale back movement and firing ranges perhaps.....I will have a think about it!
ReplyDeleteReducing the ranges by a third (or half) should work. I find most of the action occurs in a 4x4 foot area.
DeleteSingle element basing is my preferred scheme. Scratch figure removal as well.
DeleteAn excellent addition to the canon. Just read through and like the simplicity of them. The ZOC mechanic is a good move.
ReplyDeleteThe zone of control is very much taken from the original boardgame, it is certainty makes you think about committing units.
DeleteFor many games, ZOCs (or EZOCs) are essential in preventing some gamey tactics and unbelievable maneuvers. One of the Napoleonic rules I played a lot a few years ago for solo play allowed units to be committed to move into EZOCs for combat only up to the leader’s Command Rating.
DeleteIt also puts more of an emphasis on the need and use of reserves in games. The example of EZOC with command rating sounds interesting.
DeleteI was just having a discussion with some folks about homebrew rules. Some folks get turned off by them, but I was saying that all rules are essentially homebrew rules but hopefully get more playtesting. 😁
ReplyDeleteTrue, rules all start somewhere and whether you like messing around with rules, which I do mainly as a solo gamer. Purchased rules have many advantages, particularly if playing as a group or club.
DeleteThis is great but I ways get a bit confused by combat tables
ReplyDeleteI think I've got it now
Good to see my Guards get a bonus
Pete
The one thing I did not enjoy about the old SPI combat resolution tables was calculating the odds, which is why the column used is the difference in unit number with a handful of modifiers.
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