[Charge The Guns]

Hi Doug – sounds like you’re making good progress through your figures.  I would recommend starting a few games as soon as you’ve enough for a couple of brigades for each side.  This will help you get used to the rules and the special Glory Hallelujah rules.  As you get more figures painted you can play bigger battles, which should be easier / more fun as you built up experience with the rules.  Three brigades a side is fine size for fun afternoon’s game for two people.

I have never reached the nirvana of finished for a collection – there is always room for more :0) .

[Charge The Guns]

Hi Richard, Until the Epic release comes out we can’t be sure how they will model the manipular system.  In the original HC army lists they give Republican legions small units and some special rules around swapping in and out of melee.  We tried this and it was “fiddly”.  We went back to regular sized units jyst the special rules for swapping the lines.

Ultimately I think it comes down to whether you want to try and replicate each single maniple in a game with multiple legions.  The author of the Epic supplement has said in an interview I heard that he wanted to show the checkerboard formation.  I suspect we will see an abstraction of the manipular system.

[Charge The Guns]

Hi Paolo, all great questions!  I will try my best to answer them.

1. When playing with 15s we halved ranges distances.  e.g. Infantry move 12”/2 = 6”.  Some people have also used centimetres rather than inches.  As long as both sides do the same it is fine.

2. A stand has no official meaning – it is just wargaming short hand for a base with a number of figures. Some older rules expected a particular number of figures on a particular sized base.  BP was trying to allow for people reusing collections originally based for older rules. A lot of people base 4 figures, 2 ranks of 2, on a sqaure base – perhaps 40mm sqaure.  6 such bases, or stands, would make a 24 figure unit.  When playing others you might agree for a game that a standard size unit is 6 stands for example.

3. I think in this case it is using divisions and brigades interchangeably.  Basically meaning a collection of individual regiments/units.  In the 19th century a division was typically a collection of brigades, and a brigade was a collection regiments. Unless you are doing a very big BP game you wouldn’t need to worry about formations above the brigade. Typically we just play with an army made up of brigades, and each brigade has a number of regiments.

Hope this helps?

[Charge The Guns]

That should work fine, Donald 👍.

 

[Charge The Guns]

Hi Hazed100, and welcome to Napoleonic gaming! 😀

As Nat has said, typically people source their own flags for units, because there are such a variety to choose from.  Warlord sometimes include them in some of their sets, but more often than not you need to source them.  Some people paint them themselves, but this can be quite tricky.

I really like GMB and Flags of War.

https://gmbdesigns.com/

https://www.flagsofwar.com/

Each British battalion (a unit in Black Powder) carried two flags, or “colours”.  One (called the Kings colour) with the red, white and blue union flag, and the second was mainly a single colour, normally matching the facing colour of the battalion (called the regimental colour) with the union flag in the top left corner.  There would be some design in the centre of both flags as well. Having the two flags makes British battalions look fabulous!

When you add the flag bearers to your unit remember to have the Kings colour on the right and the regimental on the left otherwise old grognards will wander up to you and tell you the flags are the wrong way around 😝.

[Note the British Guards had a slightly different approach but I wont try and confuse you right now with that!]

Have fun picking your battalion and come back and show us a picture with the flags! 👍

 

[Charge The Guns]

Hi Steven.  We try to stick with option 3 – based on what would seem reasonable for an order to group of battalions, for example.  2 just feels ‘gamey’ i.e. how would you give that order?  1 is at risk of players being a bit cheesey.  It is a bit imprecise I suppose, and the group needs to agree how they want to work it to avoid argument and keep the game moving along quickly.

[Charge The Guns]

We usually play that you can’t target enemy troops with shooting unless next to the hedge, but that you can declare charges without needing to be next to them.

[Charge The Guns]

Hi Mark. Yes, I believe the ‘Bad War’ rule was meant to be used. I think that in the Covenanter’s list the rule is referred to as Bad War there.

[Charge The Guns]

Well done for getting the whole Legion done 👍.

I suggest you make the 1st cohort a ‘large’ unit as that will increase its stat line and it will be a suitably tougher unit compared to the other units in the legion.

Good luck fighting those barbarians. 😀

[Charge The Guns]

Hi Tomasz,  I think for ECW or TYW dragoons the rules expect them to stay as skirmishers whether mounted or dismounted.  See the description on p 83 of the main rule book or p114 of the Epic P&S rule book.   The information on changing formation (main rule book p28) certainly suggests some units can move from battle line to skirmish and back again.  I don’t think there is any historical precedent to say the dragoons couldn’t fight in regular ranks and files, so I would allow personal interpretation in my games.

It is perhaps something to agree with you opponents before the game starts if you think it will be an issue?

[Charge The Guns]

Hi Dennis – I’m not aware that Warlord have made any comment about Croats/Cossacks, yet.  I suspect they would be in resin if they do them as I’m not sure they would go the plastic route for a troop type they might not sell very many of.  Maybe they are waiting to see how many 30YW versions of the Epic stuff they sell first?  You may need to look at other 15mm ranges for some suitable Croat types in the short term.

Finnish horse are easier. You can use the same figures as you do for the Swedish horse.  Although people love to highlight the Finnish horse, they weren’t equipped differently to the rest of the Swedish horse.

Hope this helps?

Good luck with your projects, and I hope that you and your mate will come and share your progress here.

[Charge The Guns]

I agree with Gary’s view  – all makes sense to me 🙂

[Charge The Guns]

I think that the different types of commanders were devised on the assumption that often commands were composed of primarily one troop type, and that some armies had less or more effective commanders for either foot or horse.  An example is the Ottomans where the infantry commander have a relatively poor 7 command, and the cavalry a better 8.  This should mean that the Ottomans have a more static role for their infantry in battle (as they often did) where as the cavalry were the main manoeuvre  part of the army.

I would suggest that you are guided by how your army was split up in to brigades / battalia historically, but accept that you can’t be too rigid.  For example, in the ECW, there are many occasions when the main central infantry command had a few cavalry units included.  Perhaps you could say that only the Army commander can do this in their command?

Hope this helps 🙂

• This reply was modified 1 year, 4 months ago by Charge The Guns.

[Charge The Guns]

Hi John,

Very sorry to hear you are having a struggle getting started.  I’ll take a pitch at trying to help with some suggestions.

I think part of the issue is that the rules aren’t very prescriptive about how you form units, brigades and armies as they wanted to be a flexible as possible.  This is great for people with existing forces but of course can be very confusing if you are just starting out.

I also suspect that what appears on one of the plastic frames was more about maximising the figures on a frame, and also trying to provide a range of unit types, rather than expecting to produce an ideal starting force.

It sounds like you have a gaming group that you are planning to play games with.  This is a massive help.  The key thing with BP is that you agree between you how big you expect units to be, and also what sort of forces you want to use in games. The “army lists” are really just trying to be some guidelines to help people put together what is a reasonable force to play a game, and it sounds like they are not helping which is a pity.

I expect you will find that people don’t actually use the lists much once they have started playing a few games, and hence the anomalies you point out aren’t discussed much. (The bit about the brigade make up for French cavalry has been pointed out on the forum before, and it certainly looks like a mistake in the wording.)

My suggestion is that you agree in your group how you want to form units and brigades to start with.  Perhaps just have three stands of infantry to a battalion to start with, and three stands of cavalry to regiment.  You can expand these as you get more painted.  I would leave the skirmishers off to start with – one less thing to worry about in the rules.

Then I would form three battalions of infantry in to a brigade, and perhaps aim to have two infantry brigades. To start with I would have two brigades of cavalry, each brigade with two regiments in.  I would not worry about which types of cavalry are in a brigade at this point.

Finally add a battery of artillery to one of the infantry brigades, and a commander to each brigade, with one overall commander.  Do the same for the British, and then have a couple of games.

As you start to get more familiar with the rules, and as you get more stuff painted,  you can then start to figure out how your group wants units to look and how to form brigades, and indeed whole forces, for games.

I think with all wargames rules, how ever experienced you are, it is much easier to learn them playing with someone else who knows the rules already.  Are you in the UK anywhere near Worcester?  The gaming group I belong to (The Friends of General Haig) play on Saturday afternoons near Worcester and we play a lot of BP Napoleonics.  You and your buddies would be very welcome to come and join in a game and I’m sure we could help iron out some wrinkles.

Hoping that this helps rather than making things more confusing 🙂

Cheers, Andy @ The Friends of General Haig.

[Charge The Guns]

You’re very welcome, Mark.

I’m glad you’ll be giving the rules another go – I definitely think they are worth it.  The overall system is straightforward, especially as you’re already up to speed with HC.  They are also very flexible and easy to tinker with.

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