Wednesday, March 11, 2009

25mm Napoleon's Battles

I have been asked to post some more commentary on my views on using 25mm Napoleon's Battles.

Number of Figures per player
In my opinion regardless of the game system most commands look alike or are at least incredibly similar.

Using 1:30 as a scale a typical French command will contain 4 to 6 battalions of Infantry and one Artillery Battery.
Using 1:120 a typical French Command in Napoleon’s Battles will contain 4 Infantry Brigades, a couple of artillery batteries, and some Cavalry.

“Well sounds like you need more figures for Napoleon’s Battles.” Yes your typical starting command needs 7 to 8 stands of cavalry and a couple extra mounted commanders. The difference is that with brigade level game players are going to want to add flavor, our first discussion with potential players has already asked “Where’s my cavalry?” And after a few games we see people pushing two brigades (aka a division) in our brigade level games. Typically we have three brigades of infantry and one brigade of cavalry pushed by two players.

Using Napoleon’s Battle in 25mm in my opinion should see players use “less” figures and it is more inline with what people want to push.

Table Space
When you play a game in most Brigade Level games depth and width of the table is important. Depth of the table is important because of the Range of Musket and Cannon Fire. In General de’Brigade for example artillery range is 36” to 48” inches. Thus giving 18” inches setup the table depth needs to be about 7 feet.
In Napoleon’s Battle depth is less important as Artillery range is 24”, thus a table depth of 5 feet is needed.
When you look at the tables we have to play on in regular basis it would be easier to play Napoleon Battles than say General de Brigade.

Regardless of the rules choose table width will be an issue. Players will need four feet of linear table space each regardless of the rules.

Figure Showcase
So you want to show case your obscure little unit in miniature. Using Napoleon Battles you get to show case more units but few figures per unit. Six of one, half a dozen of other….

Let the flaming begin.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

No need to flame... the main differences you & I have with regard to the eternal 25mm Napoleonics discussion are more about aesthetics and levels of play, and those are mostly, if not totally subjective.

We could just as easily argue over whether Coke or Pepsi is better. There's no 'right' answer... just one each person prefers.