Slitherine

Hi,
A unit size of regiment or small brigade is a good compromise in Napoleonics to fight many of the historical battles.
For a smooth flowing game you need to have enough units to give you tactical flexibility and enough gaming choices to keep you interested, whilst not having so many it bogs the game down.

Cheers,
John Shaw

Hi Guys

I have decided to start building a 25/28mm army (or two) and as I don't currently play I have the worry of how to base. I really want to keep my options open for a FoG nap game (it's still happening yes?)

I am planning on basing 4 figures of infantry on a 40mm x 40mm base and 2 cav figures on a 50x50mm base

is that a bad idea or an ok idea ?

I am planning on basing 4 figures of infantry on a 40mm x 40mm base and 2 cav figures on a 50x50mm base

is that a bad idea or an ok idea ?

There are 2 standard basing systems used in the rules, which will be able to be used together.
Most current basing systems can easily be adapted to fit one of these by combining your existing bases.
If using a system that you can't adapt, then you can still play as long as your opponent is using the same bases.

When starting a totally new army, you really need to find out who your opponent(s) will be and ensure that your basing matches theirs. It doesn't matter how good (or bad) a set of rules are if you can't find an opponent.

terrys wrote:

I am planning on basing 4 figures of infantry on a 40mm x 40mm base and 2 cav figures on a 50x50mm base

is that a bad idea or an ok idea ?

There are 2 standard basing systems used in the rules, which will be able to be used together.
Most current basing systems can easily be adapted to fit one of these by combining your existing bases.
If using a system that you can't adapt, then you can still play as long as your opponent is using the same bases.

When starting a totally new army, you really need to find out who your opponent(s) will be and ensure that your basing matches theirs. It doesn't matter how good (or bad) a set of rules are if you can't find an opponent.

Good advice there. Here in Australia most of the veteran gamers have units based to the WRG Horse and Musket set. Following that it would be Napoleons Battles and Empire.

terrys wrote:
There are 2 standard basing systems used in the rules, which will be able to be used together.

Can you give us any idea what these basing systems will be? It'd be nice to be able to base stuff up now rather than later. Why two? 15mm and 25mm, or something else?

Like a few others in my perfect world, the unit of manuver would be the battalion/squadron but its understandable that you would want to scale up to a more grand tactical level to allow players to represent higher level commands than one or two divisions or possibly a single corps. I assume that the big appeal and the thing that will set FOG/N from the other popular grand-tactical Napoleonic rules sets will be a usable points system (with accompaning support for tournaments) and the ability to play out a game in a few hours.

Dave

I assume that the big appeal and the thing that will set FOG/N from the other popular grand-tactical Napoleonic rules sets will be a usable points system (with accompaning support for tournaments) and the ability to play out a game in a few hours.

That's certainly the plan. We'll provide full details on what the criteria is for the 'units' used in the rules. So that anyone will be able to take a historical OOB and convert it to the units in the game.
Tournament support is a consideration, but we're more concerned with making the game available as a 'turn up and play' game, where you don't need to pre-arrange your games before going to your club - you just bring your army of a standard points size. This does of course risk 2 people bringing the same army, so some local agreement will have to be made to avoid this.

terrys wrote:

I assume that the big appeal and the thing that will set FOG/N from the other popular grand-tactical Napoleonic rules sets will be a usable points system (with accompaning support for tournaments) and the ability to play out a game in a few hours.

That's certainly the plan. We'll provide full details on what the criteria is for the 'units' used in the rules. So that anyone will be able to take a historical OOB and convert it to the units in the game.
Tournament support is a consideration, but we're more concerned with making the game available as a 'turn up and play' game, where you don't need to pre-arrange your games before going to your club - you just bring your army of a standard points size. This does of course risk 2 people bringing the same army, so some local agreement will have to be made to avoid this.

Yea, blue on blue. Tough to justify back then, no army field maneuvres.

I am new to the forum I have been reading the posts and I have some questions. Yes I am one of those who prefer a more tactical level game and have built my armies with the battalion as being the basic manuver element. Most of the Napoleonic tactics were based on the battalion/regemental level. Once you start going up the chain of command you start to lose some of the flavor of that era. My question is how do you maintain that aspect of the era at the Brigade or higher command. Also how are the different ranges of weapons going to be handled. One example is the rifle, most nations (the French being one exception) had rifle armed troops but there was no such thing as a "rifle" Brigade. Also how do you differentiate between "round shot" and "case" in regards to artillery. These are just examples of where the game scale as discussed may not be a true representation of that era. Thanks for listening.

Hi all
I feel most players want to have a set of rules that will enable them to refight historical battles of some size, such as Waterloo, and the Brigade/regiment is really the smallest size you want to go for, a corp commander which is the scale of these rules would not care if a battery was firing case or roundshot only whether they where damaging the enemy and leave it up to the unit commander to chose the best ammo. If you as a wargamer have the choice are you ever going to choose other than the most effective round for the range/target so the table only needs to have the best factor available assuming canister at close range and roundshot at long.

Cheers
Ron

Hi all
If you have armies based for WRG Principles of war Napoleons Battles or Age of Eagles you will not need to rebase your armies to beta test this game.

Cheers
Myron

We are considering a GAME system that works with 10 to 20 BGs.
We need to match the system to that level of engagment or find a way to increase the number of units.

Any chance we could have some info on basing and scale early on?.

I have been using 30m x 30mm for 15mm figure for infantry and cavalry. I found square bases very useful in providing formations of line and column.

eaglesixfive wrote:

terrys wrote:

I assume that the big appeal and the thing that will set FOG/N from the other popular grand-tactical Napoleonic rules sets will be a usable points system (with accompaning support for tournaments) and the ability to play out a game in a few hours.

That's certainly the plan. We'll provide full details on what the criteria is for the 'units' used in the rules. So that anyone will be able to take a historical OOB and convert it to the units in the game.
Tournament support is a consideration, but we're more concerned with making the game available as a 'turn up and play' game, where you don't need to pre-arrange your games before going to your club - you just bring your army of a standard points size. This does of course risk 2 people bringing the same army, so some local agreement will have to be made to avoid this.

Yea, blue on blue. Tough to justify back then, no army field maneuvres.

Not entirely impossible though: French v French, the most likely clash, could have happened in 1814 after Marmont defected or in 1815 when Napoleon marched on Paris. Prussian v Prussian might have happened if Frederick William had stood up to Yorck in 1813. Given earlier Romanoff politics, even Russian v Russian isn't entirely inconceivable. All except the first might tretch credibility a little though.

so one more time for those slow ones down the back.

if was to base 28mm figs for General de Brigade, i'd still be able to play this ruleset?

What's the basing for GdB?
If you base 4x2 infantry or 3x1 cavalry on a 60mm x 45 mm base you'll be about right.
We allow other basing as well for compatability, but if you're just starting out, then this would be the best way to go.

I'd suggest that in order to encourage as many people to transfer allegiance to the FOG Napoleonics then utilising the same base sizes and conventions as the most popular system (probably Principles of War) would be sensible.

Otherwise players would either have to re-base existing armies or buy a new army to play (neither particulalry attractive options given the numbers involved / required to play Napoleonic rules.

I've got a fairly large British army (6mm) with 4 figures to a 30mm x 15mm base for infantry, 1 cannon and crew to a 30mm x 40mm for artillery and 4 (or 3 for medium / lights) 30mm x 30mm for cavalry.

fvillaorlad wrote:I am new to the forum I have been reading the posts and I have some questions. Yes I am one of those who prefer a more tactical level game and have built my armies with the battalion as being the basic manuver element. Most of the Napoleonic tactics were based on the battalion/regemental level. Once you start going up the chain of command you start to lose some of the flavor of that era. My question is how do you maintain that aspect of the era at the Brigade or higher command. Also how are the different ranges of weapons going to be handled. One example is the rifle, most nations (the French being one exception) had rifle armed troops but there was no such thing as a "rifle" Brigade. Also how do you differentiate between "round shot" and "case" in regards to artillery. These are just examples of where the game scale as discussed may not be a true representation of that era. Thanks for listening.

The British used their Rifle Regiments primarily as skirmishers in front of the main lines (and often mixed them in with light companies) to engage Voltiguers (if present) or to whittle down the enemy's main lines / columns - primarily using the acuuracy of the rifle to specifically target sergeants / officers to break up unit cohesion.

Note that the accuracy and range of the rifle was countered by its slightly slower re-loading speed, however.

I'd guess that Rifles would be treated in FOG as having a longer range than muskets (as archers have a longer range than javelins in FOG) and so carry a slightly higher points value than a Light Company or similar. In addition, perhaps the chance of an officer fighting in the front rank would have a higher chance of dying when fighting troops armed with rifles - or that a -1 is applied to the cohesion test when facing rifles to reflect the targeting of officers and NCO's.

What would be the 'about right basing' for 15mm


I would like to start on my Russian hordette prior to the rules coming out.

terrys wrote:What's the basing for GdB?
If you base 4x2 infantry or 3x1 cavalry on a 60mm x 45 mm base you'll be about right.
We allow other basing as well for compatability, but if you're just starting out, then this would be the best way to go.

flamingpig0 wrote:What would be the 'about right basing' for 15mm


I would like to start on my Russian hordette prior to the rules coming out.

terrys wrote:What's the basing for GdB?
If you base 4x2 infantry or 3x1 cavalry on a 60mm x 45 mm base you'll be about right.
We allow other basing as well for compatability, but if you're just starting out, then this would be the best way to go.

The info is here:

viewtopic.php?t=16955