Now in over 40 years of war gaming I have pretty much avoided the Napoleonic period. I had a brief flirtation back in the 1970's when Airfix figures for the period first came out and I tried again about 10 years ago with a free set called Republique. In part this was because I had enough in the way of other periods to keep me busy and also because I couldn't find a set of rules which really caught my interest. Blucher seems to cover the period at the right operational level and doesn't need thousands of figures. At the moment I'm playing using the free paper templates to get a feel for the rules and I'm finding them nice and straight forwards although that might be because I'm missing some of the rules as I haven't fully come to grips with them yet.
I'm working through the free introductory scenario on my new tables (more about that below) and finding that although the rules are straight forwards the application of them to achieve my tactical master plan is a touch more difficult! This is partly because I just don't know the period as well as I do the ECW or Ancients so my deployments are causing me some problems. This is compounded by Sam's activation mechanism. Its a variation on PIPS as found in DBA and its cousins. It means that on a poor activation roll a player cannot do all he needs to and attacks can end up going in piece meal. In my case the French have problems on both flanks as I'm concentrating on getting the centre into contact. The Austrians are doing a Wellington and letting the French come at them in the hopes of being able to use artillery to weaken enough French brigades to make the close in volley and melee easier. I'll let you know how it turns out.
Which brings me to my only criticism of the rules I can't decide if it is a good game with Napoleonic overtones or actually a good Napoleonic game. Do I enjoy playing it? Resoundingly yes, as it is a very good game overall but I really don't know the period well enough to decide if it does justice to the period or just the mechanisms. Still I'm enjoying it enough to start creating unit templates for Peninsula War forces using the free downloadable unit templates as a starting point. The Adler 6mm catalogue (I can't get a link to work to their site!) is currently open at my elbow and my wallet is making whimpering noises as I plan how many 6mm figures I will need for each 3.5 inch by 2.5 inch base. Sally 4th (Link to their site) may be the recipient of some of my cash too as they do some excellent looking MDF bases for Blucher. I made my own measuring sticks from a length of pine molding strip cut to length and marked in 3 inch increments. I made two one for artillery ranges and one for small arms ranges. I will probably make up a couple more for movement distances. All that cost me was £3.78 for the molding. Segments marked with a Sharpie I already had and some super glue to stick a short length of the molding on as a handle.
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| Home made measuring stick - the handle helps me pick them up! |
As for the tables I decided that the dining room table was no longer viable as my main gaming space. Also Mrs E wanted to eat at it from time to time! So I ordered two 180cm x 75cm folding tables from Folding tables UK on Amazon. At the time I bought them they were just over £20 each with postage of about £9 each which I was happy with. The service was excellent they arrived faster than was stated and are good solid robust bits of kit. The two of them together will be fine as a gaming space for most uses. If I want a bigger area my plans continue to build a modular table top to sit over the two tables.
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| New Year, new tables |
As you will see from the photo's the only problem is that I need a second cloth so next time I'm in East Yorkshire there will be a trip to Boyes' excellent fabric counter for more green felt and then to their equally worth while hobby section for spray paint.
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