Hello all! Whelp, I've finally finished typing up version 1 of my grand scale rules for Napoleonic wargaming!
Here it is!
Brigades and Bearskins - Napoleonic Rules for Small Scale Miniatures!
Now, much like Muskets and Moustaches, the system is supposed to be rather simple. However, I feel like the orders mechanism, combined with the Steady! mechanism, makes the game VERY simple to play and yet quite effective at conveying a sense of scale appropriate for Napoleonic conflict! To be frank, I think they are the most fun rules I've come up with yet! Skirmishers that degrade enemy morale before the fight even begins, horse artillery that can gallop right up and begin firing, aggressive officers who push forward in spite of your best intentions and inept officers who simply cannot seem to get it right... that, plus the promise of NEVER removing a single miniature you worked hard to paint makes it all, I think, a winner!
I have to ask a HUGE favor of everyone, of course... I plan to use these rules at Fall In 2009. However, only I have reviewed them, so I desperately need some help giving them a look over!
So please... grab them, give them a read, and let me know if there are unclear parts or if there are weak parts or parts you like!
Thank you all SO much in advance... I appreciated all the feedback on Muskets and Moustaches, and I doubly appreciate help with a set of rules I plan to use with *gulp* other people!
9 comments:
Hi,
I like your ruleset as they add a good degree of uncertainty without pages and pages of rules. Might I offer the following claification of the rules to see if I understan
XXXdelete The more damage a battalion takes, and the more difficult the situation they find themselves in, the more chance the unit will find itself Shaken when they take their Steady! tests, and eventually they will rout. XXXX replace with (( Units accumulate “damage points” due to musketry fire and close combat. These “damage points” points themselves do not cause the unit to rout, but rather make it easier for them to become shaken or rout from the Shaken! T\ests and also make it harder for them to recover from a shaken status or rout status.)))
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XXXBothXXX
((Each)) should be represented by some sort of stand of officers… Division Commanders should be more regal, of course.
Officers cannot be killed or destroyed in any way.
Officers may move up to ten inches during the movement turn.
* Brigade Commanders must be moved either BEFORE ((any of)) the battalions in their brigade or (((AFTER any of the battalions in their brigade move.)) XXX; they may not be moved between them.XXX
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First, battalions nominate a target. All targets must be within range (6 inches for muskets, 40 inches for artillery) and XXXwithin a 90 degree fire radius to the front of the shooting unitXXX ((( within a plus or minus 45 degree arc that is perpendicular to the front facing of the end of the stand.)))
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For firing… first, the artillery battalion must nominate a target. All targets must be within range and within (((a plus or minus 45 degree arc))) from XXXfire radius toXXX the front of the shooting battalion.
thank you for sharing your rules!
Alex
Thanks so much, I'll work your edits into the next version!
I REALLY appreciate the help!
Hi,
I just read your rules and they seem very cool but have few questions :
- Balance between oponents : With the brigade random creation model, isn't there a risk to have uneven strength forces opposing ? Perhaps that once the "basic" brigades generated, a count of the number of "dices" with some modifiers (i.e. command quality modifier, special units such as heavy cavalry) would let estimate strength of each opponent forces. Then, the difference would let the weakest player could add some complement, either by choosing and placing some terrain (i.e. defense) or adding some extra troops to balance the strenghtes...
- Steady test and recovery : I find the principle of the steady test really cool, but my understanding of the recovery is not totally clear. If I have a routed unit that succeed a recovery test, does it means it become fully operational again, or simply that it's status goes from routed to shaken, so only a second recovery would let it go back to operational while having recovered 2 strength points. Wouldn't that be cool ? Also, I do not unerstand why a unit recovering in a hard cover do not have a bonus... It should help them knowing they are somewhat protected ...
I will probably have other questions, but in the meantime, are you interested by a French translation of your rules ? You deliver the sources, so that would be easy for me...
Let me know,
Cheers,
Bruno.
Hey!
Thanks so much for the help!
Okay...
About balance... yeah, there is definitely a need for working on that. Honestly when I play I pick the brigdes myself, and then roll for officers, depending on the "story" of the battle I want to play. Let me think of some way to balance it out... to be honest, I plan to add some more to the pre-game (including the arrival on the battlefield rules, and a very very simple scenario system) so I can do something with that there.
About Steady! rules I will clarify when I do version 2. Generally if a unit is already routing when it passes a Steady! test it just from routed to Shaken... at least it stops its flight, but it does not gain anything back. If it is able to take a Recovery test (i.e. not under fire) then the next turn it can attempt to recover damage points. I don't think this is 100 percent clear in the rules, so thank you for pointing it out! I'll think about your idea of somehow giving damage back to a player...
A French translation would be lovely!:D Let me iron the rules out and see if I can make them better, and then maybe take some REAL photos for it (I have a feeling Santa might be bringing a camera for miniature photography this Christmas...) and I'll let you know, okay?
Thanks again for the contributions, I really appreciate the help!!
Oh, and about Recovery tests getting a bonus for being in heavy cover, I agree that would be nice:)
Thank you very much for sharing your rules, first of all :)
I will be very interested in following up on the evolution of these. I have two related queries:
1) I'm a 6mm wargamer, and I didn't see any mention of base sizes. Will these be included in the rules or can I use my own?
2) Ranges, can I halve them for "my" scale?
Thanks very much :)
Sincerely,
Miguel
Hi again,
As ever said, I found your rule's core mechanism pretty cool,and am curious to see how far it can be extended. I would like to contribute more than just translation.
About French translation I will start it right now : what is done is not to be done any more, and improvements you will do on your ruleset will only be translation updates, so few issues there.
In case you would be interested by contribution, do you have any private way we could exchange emails ? i.e. forums from which we can send PMs for that purpose ? (I personnaly don't like to share my private email world wide....)
let me know,
Bruno.
Just a quickie comment re: balance.
I havent played the rules (yet) so can't speak specifically to any imbalance, but it seems like a pretty good system. Each side has an equal chance of getting X, Y, or Z, so it's 'fair'.... and battles in real life are often imbalanced; would we remember Alexander as much if Macedonia had been the size of the Persian Empire? ;) I wouldn't change that too much. I might change the artillery assignment, but that's just me (I like artillery!)
Good rules (very similar in concept to some I've been prodding along for years- particularly the casualty/morale interweave), cant wait to try em out
Hey, these rules look great, but I have one question. What would you rate russians as on the Steady! charts?
Thanks!
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